I appreciate this is off topic to a point, but may relate to anyone who has winter tyres on their FL2. I haven't as of yet, as the Wranglers are doing very well. However, my brother has just about managed to get hold of a set of Bridgestone Blizzaks for his Mondeo 3.0 V6 Titanium X. Prior to fitting them, he was unable to move on the snow, but they have completely transformed his car.

Have many FL2 owners in the UK managed to get hold of any winter tyres this year, as every tyre place I have tried state they can only get hold of 16" all seasons Thats a fat lot of good to anyone. If the winter forecast is anything to go by, I think we're gonna need all the traction we can get.

I appreciate there's been loads of posts on winter tyres, but I'm amazed at the lack of availability in the UK - any ideas would be appreciated  Gone - TD4 XS Auto, Sumatra Black, Mud flaps and side strips, clear indicators, private plate, privacy glass

i got the wife a set of tyres and she says the same thing that its a completely different car in the snow

I have looked at getting a set for my spare set of 17" wheels, but since my car is doing everything i need it too on m+S tyres i'm not bothering again this year either, if it does slip and slide then i won't drive it and play it safe.

I nearly did buy a set off the well know auction site for £200  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

I recently enquired about some winter tyres at my local independant tyre dealer and was told UK wholesalers have sold out and he'd have to have them inported from (somewhere or other) Europe and they'd take 2 weeks to arrive, so bought a set of composite chains instead

I'm of the same opinion with the M+S tyres. They seem to do their job on the whole, but I had an interesting slide on a 1:10 gradient the other day. It only happened as a Nissan Navara was stuck in front of me, causing me to stop in mid ascent My underwear nearly changed colour when the car decided it wanted to go to the bottom of the hill again Not a nice experience. I'm thinking if I'd had winter boots, I may have never been in that zone of thinking my car was gonna be a right off

It's amazing what you can do with no DSC or GGS mode. The car managed to find her footing again, at the disgust of our Navara rival

Never mind - we're stuck with our 'all season boots' whether we like it or not  Gone - TD4 XS Auto, Sumatra Black, Mud flaps and side strips, clear indicators, private plate, privacy glass

the best time of year to buy winter tyres is in the middle of summer,,,,

ad15 wrote:

the best time of year to buy winter tyres is in the middle of summer,,,,

ad15 wrote:

the best time of year to buy winter tyres is in the middle of summer,,,,

Yeah, my problem is the buying a second set of wheels. I dont have anyhere to store them. Kwik Fit do a storeage setup, where they swap your summer tyres for winter and keep hold of your summer tyres until you need them & vice versa. Trouble is they don't have any winter tyres!  Gone - TD4 XS Auto, Sumatra Black, Mud flaps and side strips, clear indicators, private plate, privacy glass

I brought a full set of Kumho KC15 235/60 R18 107H XL in September because my Contis were crap last winter. I have to say that the Kumho's have been spot on, no slipping or sliding at all. Brought them from My tyres ( link at the bottom) and payed £107 each. From now on any vehicle i have will be fitted with winter tyres from around October.

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco...;s_p=Tyres

Just bought four Avon Ice Touring for Mrs P's GTI... in 18's!!

Thought about getting 16's on steelies, but thanks to the perverse way insurance companies think, they would be classed as a performance modification because she could stop quicker (regret mentioning that safety aspect!) and the fact they were smaller and steel didn't matter a jot. Bah!

Went with a local mobile guy in the end, etyres, mytyres, blackcircles et al couldn't match the price (and size in some cases) that he got.

As for Freddie, his M+S tyres are still going strong from last year  In case of emergency, break dance.

I have got the usual Wranglers on the FL2 and have not had any issues in the snow here this week, driving through 2ft of powder snow on the roads here last week, and about a ft of compacted this week,no issues. However our other car is a Clio 182 that I always fit a 2nd set of alloys to in November, these have Pirelli sottozero winter tyres and they are stunning, last winter we had lots of snow here too (funnily enough!), the only vehicles moving in our street were a couple of 4x4's and the Clio. the only thing that prevented it moving here this past week is ground clearance.Had Pirelli Snowpsorts prior to the Sotto's also excellent.Have to admit though I buy the tyres in the summer from mytyres, they are cheaper and more inportantly, in stock! FL2 HSE Tonga Green and Clio Sport 182 (Hers!)Milltek exhaust ,Speedline Turinis.

Hi,
I have 17" alloys with vredestein tyres 4 extreme on and it has been a pleasure to drive around in .
I live up a very remote valley in Cumbria Eskdale and we have thick ice and snow.....the tyres have been ACE .
I would recommend folk to get them on,took my 19" off,with contis on, washed and polished and put in the loft .
Any one fancy a drive out in the snow and a walk,come and see us the kettle is always on .
Regards Eskdale.

I dont have money to burn on a second set of tyres...my 19" needed more rubber so i took the leap with a set of 17" rims and then went shopping for 4 extremes,took some finding, Click on tyres on the web £100.00 each plus £9.00 to send all four.

The wife was not very happy on buying a second set....i kind of won when the snow started to fall and is still here!.

having some new vredestein wintrac 4 extreme arrive tomorrow from clickontyres in 235/60/18 he had a delivery in yesterday. The missus - SD4 HSE - Black - 2012
Me - BMW 330d Saloon - Black - 2011

Sam wrote:

ad15 wrote:

the best time of year to buy winter tyres is in the middle of summer,,,,

'cos that's when you really need them in England!

no you twonk,, because THAT'S when there might actually be some stock,, and not over priced to boot,,

Winter tyres as opposed to M&S do a far better job of reducing the time & distance it takes for you to stop on snow and ice, and, are far superior in ensuring that you go in the direction you want to on snow and ice. That's not my opinion, it is the result of both independent motoring organization tests and the tyre industry's own research.

If you wish you can log onto my of the European motoring websites (far too many to mention here - but here's one ADAC) and graphically you can see their results so language is not a huge barrier for you to understand them.

However very few offer comments re road noise. Beware, different manufacturers' tyres can be very loud in use compared to normal M&S tyres.

Having had many winters on Winter tyres I personally accept louder tyres and opt for the best safety results - what I'd really like is a winter tyre that's no louder than a normal road tyre but has the highest safety performance. Anyone who knows of such a beautiful tyre please let me know.

Re the problem of UK supply of winter tyres: why not all you folks come together and approach a UK tyre chain/distributor for a group buy/discount?