Gents, with winter on its way and the other car being a Mercedes I am having to bite the bullet and let the wife drive the Subaru to her work while I wrestle the Merecedes. It's all about damage limitation. The Subaru is far, far better in snow etc than the Mercedes so it reduces the chances of her putting the car in a hedge. I currently have 19's on the Subaru at the moment however, intend getting some winter tyres for the original 17's that came with the car. Anyone able to recommend some (cheap) tyres? I'm not bothered with having high performance, high speed tyres just ones that grip like buggery. Many thanks

 

any budget winter tyre will do then mate imo they are all pretty samey , anything branded you will be looking at pretty big money , i think nokians were the tyre of choice last year

 

I run 18's in the better weather, and then in the event of ice and snow, have budget winters on my OEM 17's and switch them over.
They're rubbish for cornering, hard braking etc, BUT in snow and ice they STOP and that's why I bought them.
I don't use the car hard over winter, just isn't worth it IMHO.

In fact, I try not to venture out at all when it snows due to all the other people who ignore the weather advice and try and drive to work in their conventional RWD. And get stuck, or worse, crash into people like me, forcing those of us who are responsible enough to prepare our vehicles for the winter to sit in traffic queues for hours.

Sorry, sounds grumpy I know, but a few years ago I nearly experienced the repercussions first hand as I nearly got crashed into by some fat arsehole in a Jag who tried to overtake someone on snow, went sideways towards me leaving me with nowhere to go, and missed me by what must have been centimetres

 

letting the wife drive the car your brave i let mine drive my 05 sti in the snow last year see took it upon her self to blend it in with the snow on a roundabout it came back with no exhaust bend wish bones no front bumper and a hedgehog in the prop shaft lol

 

LOL - well at least you got a free hedgehog out of it
Slid on some sheet ice and spanked my old one into a kerb at 8mph a few years ago and bent the front shock, broke a wishbone, and bent the hub.
My neighbour who's a tyre wholesaler recommended I get some winter tyres. Hindsight is a wonderful thing

 

I just bought a set of Avon Ice Touring for the wifes F Galaxy; £61 each and had better eu traction ratings for wet braking and snow than just about anything else i saw.

bought from one of the Delticom group resellers, cant remember which one.