Ok it's still summer but I thought I would check these out rather than leave it until the last minute.

In the hideous snow last year, I showed no signs of getting into difficulty with the Goodyear Wrangler All Weather tyres but curiosity got the better of me.

I rang a few tyre places today and the cheapest quote for a set of 4 Vredestein Wintrac 4 Extreme was £600 including fitting and VAT

Fair enough there may be cheaper out there but they do seem a bit expensive. So I put it to the vote, what do you guys think of winter tyres? LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

grow a set!! unless you live in somewhere that requires them! what a faff changing your tyres and storing the spare set too

The winter of 2009/10 i had conti cross contact UHP tyres on they were marked M&S and they were poo in the snow. So i brought a set of Kumho Izen RV KC15 winter tyres, What a difference they made to the FL2 Far better breaking and cornering than any M&S tyre. I will now only fit Proper winter tyres from now on oh and they cost £430 for the 4 of them

Aside of the obvious safety benefit, I will cover around 25k a year, tyres will be changed pretty often.

Will using Winter tyres mean changing tyres less often, or will the winter rubber wear out more quickly simply leaving me with a bigger bill over 4 years?

Paul

No your summer tyres will last longer as they are only on the car for around half the time, Same with the winter ones they should last you around 3 to 4 winters

I'll stick with my M+S tyres, never had any problems with them either on the FL2 or either of the Disco's, got me everywhere I wanted to go  ______________________
2011 Full Fat RR 4.4 TDV8
2012 FL2 SD4 Auto HSE
2013 Kawasaki Versys 650

Standard Wranglers got me through the worst winter for years - OK I did have a couple of interesting outings but all considered they did very well - not keen on sheet ice.
I do have the option of Goodyear MT, which were fitted for several months - after the worst of the snow!
These cope very well with flooded roads and loose snow, but are too noisey/exteme for most peoples taste.

Our Scandanavian friends can justify the outlay, and those with 2WD, but the standard tyres work well enough in conjunction with 4WD for the conditions in the UK.

When it comes to swapping the wheels, lugging 5 heavy wheels from the back yard, swapping them over and lugging the ones you have just taken off back into the back yard will take you a lot longer than 10 minutes. At this point you start to feel sorry for tyre fitters. Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

I see it like this:

- your summers will last longer so combined thy do not cost all that much more if you user then 1 set while you have the car. Beying able to work 1 day more due to having them saves the extra cost as I'm selfemployed.
- the winters do make it safer to drive so saving you 1 accident could save you the excess of many a set.


My brother too fitted his first set ever last year and was impressed with the difference. He's a convert to now.
I'm not sure yet but they seem to not wear as fast as summer tyres too...

PS "winter tyres" do not only work on snow, also in excess rainfall they give you more grip.

Andy131 wrote:

Our Scandanavian friends can justify the outlay, and those with 2WD, but the standard tyres work well enough in conjunction with 4WD for the conditions in the UK.

The Doctor wrote:

I rang a few tyre places today and the cheapest quote for a set of 4 Vredestein Wintrac 4 Extreme was £600 including fitting and VAT

Fair enough there may be cheaper out there but they do seem a bit expensive.