Should we be using winter tyres in the UK?

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Originally Posted by Daniel

I would suggest in most areas that there is little or no stock. Apparently the number of people regularly swapping wheels over is 2% so even if only 3% of people are now fitting them this is a 50% increase in demand.

Personally if I had the money to be splashing out on a nice newish A6 (assuming from the size of the wheels :p ) then rather than risking it in the snow and paying silly prices for those I'd just buy myself a used Panda 4x4. At the moment you're looking at something silly like £800 for a full set of winter tyres then there's a set of wheels and fitting as well! I reckon you could buy the Panda, insure, tax, maintain and run it and still be better off!

I quite fancy a 4x4 Panda and I'm going to do my best to convince Caroline that we need one :p

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Why not? Swap it with the 500........ ;)

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Originally Posted by AndyRAC

Why not? Swap it with the 500........ ;)

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Nah :) 500 is silly cheap to run and if it was to replace anything it would be the Subaru which would become a weekend car ;)

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Originally Posted by driveace

Well a friend rang me today,his mate wants some 225x50x17 winter tyres(for his Audi A6)but nobody round here has any.Mytyres on the net has ,them advertised,but by phone admit,they are struggling,and lots of the advertised tyres are not available.Drivers seem to be in panic to buy winter tyres,and in some areas there is a shortage of available tyres to be had

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225x50x17 ?? Why on earth ???

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Originally Posted by A.F.F.

225x50x17 ?? Why on earth ???

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You aint gonna pick up no ho's running 195/65 r15's AFF :p

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Originally Posted by Daniel

You aint gonna pick up no ho's running 195/65 r15's AFF :p

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It's not the wheels you pick ho's up with, it's the pling pling. :p :

After my drive home from work tonight- YES

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Originally Posted by Brown, Jon Brow

After my drive home from work tonight- YES

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Muwhahahaha. One down, only a few more million to go :D

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Originally Posted by henners88

Well Daniel you'll be pleased to know I drove my boss's Audi A8 yesterday which he had fitted with winter tyres the night before. I must say I was impressed with how much grip it had in the snow compared to my car without. If we were guaranteed the same level of snow we've had over the last couple of days every winter, then I'd agree that winter tyres are the way forward. It would be abit of a pain fitting them and then in typical British style the snow/ice would go and I'd be jacking the car up again.

Woke up this morning to over a foot of snow and in places its up to my knee's. Us Brits aren't used to this, and theres no way I get get the car out to travel to Tesco and buy 20 loaves of bread, and generally wonder around buying every supply in a panic stricken state.. What am I going to do?

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But as Donkey Jote (who works for a large and very reputable European tyre firm who make the tyres fitted to a good proportion of European cars when purchase) says, winter tyres are not just for the snow :) They're for low temperatures. During autumn when it starts to get cooler and is generally a bit damp I can feel a marked decrease in performance from my summer tyres (Bridgestone Potenza RE050A's which I feel offer very very good performance in the summer) and my little 1.2 Fiat 500 starts getting wheelspin which I personally don't feel is something such an underpowered car with 69bhp should do and it also starts to feel a bit vague through the corners and squirrely under hard braking. I'm not talking about driving in snow and ice here, I'm talking about a chilly day or a chilly day with damp roads.

For me this is enough to warrant having different tyres, the performance in the snow and ice is just a very very welcome bonus. We're going out for a drive through Snowdonia today which was apparently badly hit by the weather yesterday and I simply wouldn't dream of doing that on the summer tyres even if the roads were ploughed which I'm sure they will be.

I'm making an assumption but if you've got an A5 then I'm assuming money is not majorly tight ;) I think getting wheels for an A5 will be a bit costly unless you get some cheep off ebay, but the tyres won't be that expensive and at the end of the day 2 sets of tyres just means you delay your next summer tyre purchase by a bit so it ends up not costing you much extra. That's the one major thing that people struggle to comprehend for some reason :crazy: As Donks also says, summer tyres wear more in the winter so your summer tyres will last more miles than they did before. So far my summer tyres have done 16.5k miles and are about 30-40% worn so I would expect them to last another 2 or 3 summers on top of the 1.5 they've already had.

I think a case can definitely be made for them on the basis of them saving you money or at the very least actually costing very little in the long term whilst offering safety and convenience benefits.

If possible, try your bosses car on a damp and cold day above freezing and see what you think about the tyres :) Glad you got the opportunity to give them a try :)

A couple of pictures from today.

I would img tag them but people run around screaming like you've sexually assaulted their goat when you upload anything bigger then a 10x10 pixel jpeg around these parts :p

Clicky! :)
http://oi51.tinypic.com/30hpjxs.jpg
http://oi53.tinypic.com/2i03tpx.jpg

Car was absolutely fine in those conditions :up:

Would have gone the whole way up the Llanberis Pass and over the Denbigh Moors but health and safety (Caroline) said no :p

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Originally Posted by henners88

Wow not that I'm trying to compete with you but I think South Wales has had slightly more snow than the north and that is rare. Been stuck in the house for most of today watching Part two of The Godfather. Went for a drive and a little walk through the woods earlier, well I say little I got abit disorientated and it took me an hour to get back to somewhere I recognised lol. Everything looks the same when its white.. :p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPLcVEoLYEU

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Watched your vid. I would say there was almost as much snow as that in Llanberis in parts but nowhere near up to your knees as you said earlier today on another thread :)

Your video had this one of the suggested videos :D
[youtube]PApZm9-rwFc&NR=1[/youtube]

Do you not have a mapping app on your Android phone to help you find your way around? :)