Winter tyres

Joined
7 Feb 2008
Messages
25,082
Reaction score
5,284
Location
Northumberland
Country
United Kingdom
If anyone has any doubt concerning the effectiveness of winter tyres, then don't be.....the difference is truly remarkable. Your average FWD car will have the traction of the average 4x4 (car) which is fitted with conventional summer rubber.
Surely, looking at the current climate, tyre manufacturers need to do more to make their tyres actually function in the winter?
I'm going to go for a set of Michelin Cross Climate next on my 4x4 Yeti, and would be interested to hear if anyone on here has used them.
Be safe, everyone.
John :)
 
Sponsored Links
My wife has Michelin cross climates fitted.

I cant give any snow / ice road holding ability, but the tyres are quiet, good ride, very good in the wet.

We got them supplied and fitted by mobile fitting service; event tyres.
 
Cheers for the reply mate - I'm especially interested in the road noise and wet handling characteristics.
If you could give us an update on how they are wearing, that would be good too!
John :)
 
My brother had some Cross Climates fitted to his Octavia Scout. He does a lot of mileage and so far has nothing but good things to say about them.
 
Sponsored Links
Cheers for the reply mate - I'm especially interested in the road noise and wet handling characteristics.
If you could give us an update on how they are wearing, that would be good too!
John :)

My wife only does about 5k a year so I cant give much of an assessment on wear. Theyve been on the car for 16 months and not much wear yet!
 
My daughters boyfriend has semi slicks on his Megane, totally useless this week.

I did wonder how a Golf R 4x4 would be in the snow with some decent winter tyres on?
 
I have a perf car with fat near-smooth tyres.

Another driver asked on the owners website which gears are best on ice and snow.

They told him "P" and "N"
 
My daughters boyfriend has semi slicks on his Megane, totally useless this week.

I did wonder how a Golf R 4x4 would be in the snow with some decent winter tyres on?

Probably better than you'd imagine......isn't the 'R' quattro drive? Narrow rims would help!
John :)
 
It's not the pulling away that bothers me , it's the stopping and I don't see how 4x4 helps there. When we all drove around on 165x13 tyres, Goodyear G800 or similar we didn't have these problems so badly!
 
I did wonder how a Golf R 4x4 would be in the snow with some decent winter tyres on?

Very well I would imagine! Apart from the obvious ground clearance issues if it was really deep.

It's not the pulling away that bothers me , it's the stopping and I don't see how 4x4 helps there.
It doesn't help one bit, and that can create it's own problems.

I can get just about anywhere in my S4, even on regular tyres, but there's a danger of that leading to over confidence. Turning and stopping is just as hard with 4x4 as any other car, so it would be easy to get yourself into trouble. Proper winter tyres help immensely on any car though, and a combination of 4x4 and appropriate rubber would be ideal.

Whether it's worth going that far for the few days of snow we have each year is another matter though.
 
Managed to get out today, the first time in five days. Seven foot drifts in my drive.
Once more I was greatly impressed by the Yeti ( transverse engine, Haldex clutch for the 4x4).
6" of heavily compressed snow and ice on the roads after a plough had been through and even with the standard Michelin Pilot Primacy tyres it behaved very well, meaning that I and 'er indoors had enough traction to get home again.
I've yet to try the hill descent system though.
I reckon with a set of Cross Climates fitted I just can't go wrong.....if the fronts last around 25k that'll do me.
John :)
 
I have continental cross contact on the evoque, totally crap, the much better tyre for this particular car is the pirelli scorpion verde all season, they come out the factory with one or the other on but mainly the other which is the worse of the two, only land rover could be so stupid
 
How many Evoques are only the 2WD version? A "fairweather car" !
 
Shouldn't be rude about Evoques but Victoria Beckham was involved with the design apparently!
 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top