General  Winter Tyres (Again)

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General  Winter Tyres (Again)

Mate at work has been driving all summer in his 530D on Nokian winter tyres. Hardly noticeable difference in anything except hot and wet conditions. Even that combination isn't a significant change over summer tyres.

The difference he has seen is these have done over a year's driving and still have over 6mm remaining and cost him £90 a corner. The equivalent run-flat summer tyres were £225. He can drive on snow like he would in summer in the wet. Not bad for a car that couldn't get out the flat carpark the summer before.

nokian are all season tyres?
 
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:ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:

Where are these test results? (not sure if I've missed them:confused:)

Simple fact is that be is dry, wet or icy / snow, below 7c regular summer tyres start to harden up significantly, so explain how they can be better even in the dry because I very confused!

Have a read of the latest EVO and Autoexpress, explains all. Nothing to be confused by really. Also need to remember that summer tyres won't stay cold, although I've never seen any stats on how long it takes to get temperature into them. The EVO test team said that the summer tyres were definitely improving as they used them and their advantage would have increased.

So unless you're going to encounter snow / ice conditions on a regular basis, you need to weigh up whether winter tyres are essential and whether this outweighs the disadvantage in the dry. It's not a black / white situation, and varies significantly depending on where you live.
 
I don't have access to though mags unfortunately and up on AE years ago die to a lot of inaccuracies in their articles. Just hope it's a better mag now.

So unless you're going to encounter snow / ice conditions on a regular basis, you need to weigh up whether winter tyres are essential

Well with it being the only contact with the road I'd have said its important.

Getting the heat into the tyres is the issue, if it makes any difference, as when those sorts of conditions are here people drive stupidly slow so your not going to get any temp into them, similar if your an Eco warrior and not driving in a way that'll wear your tyres out.
 
Have a read of the latest EVO and Autoexpress, explains all. Nothing to be confused by really. Also need to remember that summer tyres won't stay cold, although I've never seen any stats on how long it takes to get temperature into them. The EVO test team said that the summer tyres were definitely improving as they used them and their advantage would have increased.

So unless you're going to encounter snow / ice conditions on a regular basis, you need to weigh up whether winter tyres are essential and whether this outweighs the disadvantage in the dry. It's not a black / white situation, and varies significantly depending on where you live.

The nature of winter in the UK is such that you can't say that people living in one area won't have snow and ice and others will.

The thing you don't seem to quite grasp is that the difference between winters and summers in the dry is less than the difference between a good summer tyre and an el cheapo summer tyre. So yes on a dry day you might be marginally worse off, but in the wet you'll be better off and in the snow or ice there is no contest. Now you might argue that there's only snow and ice for a few days of the year, but that's not the point! When there is snow and ice your car will be more or less useless unless it's only very light. With a winter tyre you've got a tyre that can deal with all that winter can throw at you.

P.S RobW, why don't you click dislike on more of my posts while you're at it :ROFLMAO: That is seriously some of the most childish behaviour I've seen on this forum.
 
P.S RobW, why don't you click dislike on more of my posts while you're at it :ROFLMAO: That is seriously some of the most childish behaviour I've seen on this forum.

if you post something negative (which you do a lot, upsetting people) or give poor/conflicting advice I dislike your post, that's what the dislike button is for (y)

the above an an example of a negative, personal post, hence the dislike (n)
 
if you post something negative (which you do a lot, upsetting people) or give poor/conflicting advice I dislike your post, that's what the dislike button is for (y)

the above an an example of a negative, personal post, hence the dislike (n)
Rob, as usual you are just being childish because someone doesn't agree with you. You've always had the attitude that you know everything and even when someone says something that's backed up by a well respected manufacturer than you still proclaim that you are Rob, knower of all facts regarding Fiat's!

You also have this habit of not realising that other people have different requirements to you. The guy with the Bravo in the other thread doesn't need ultimate grip everywhere, he just wants the thing to not be sliding about all over the road and he wants to keep his wife safe. 195's are fine for him, he doesn't need 215's or 225's as you've chosen to put on your car. He'll be better off in the ice, snow and rain than you anyway......
 
Well is 3.5C outside as I speak, and was 5 on the way to and from work today, so most of winter I'd say (y)
Well there you are then (I was playing devils advocate btw). Currently 8 degrees here which Im surprised by (I have never really monitored temperatures tbh) as it doesnt feel cold. As someone said its quite possible for some in the UK to have glorious sunshine and others to be enduring a downpour (or worse) at the same time!
 
Well there you are then (I was playing devils advocate btw). Currently 8 degrees here which Im surprised by (I have never really monitored temperatures tbh) as it doesnt feel cold. As someone said its quite possible for some in the UK to have glorious sunshine and others to be enduring a downpour (or worse) at the same time!

That's air temp also mind, core road temp will normally be lower in winter months than daytime air temp.
 
That's air temp also mind, core road temp will normally be lower in winter months than daytime air temp.

And on a road that faces the sun, on a clear day it will be a bit higher due to the sun.

The thing is you will almost never have the perfect tyres 100% of the time and I think people who point out that it's sometimes dry, that we only get a few days of snow every year and so on are missing the point :)
 
Rob, as usual you are just being childish because someone doesn't agree with you. You've always had the attitude that you know everything and even when someone says something that's backed up by a well respected manufacturer than you still proclaim that you are Rob, knower of all facts regarding Fiat's!

You also have this habit of not realising that other people have different requirements to you. The guy with the Bravo in the other thread doesn't need ultimate grip everywhere, he just wants the thing to not be sliding about all over the road and he wants to keep his wife safe. 195's are fine for him, he doesn't need 215's or 225's as you've chosen to put on your car. He'll be better off in the ice, snow and rain than you anyway......

Daniel you often see your own faults in others, self proclaimed winter tyre anorak! :D

I was having a reasoned debate with Grande Guy and questioning his choice/expressing my opinion about his tyres selection, you are the one getting stressed about it :peace:
 
Daniel you often see your own faults in others, self proclaimed winter tyre anorak! :D

I was having a reasoned debate with Grande Guy and questioning his choice/expressing my opinion about his tyres selection, you are the one getting stressed about it :peace:

Rob, it comes back to this. A well respected tyre company feel that winter tyres are safe enough in the summer. I understand why they're not going to be as good as summer tyres in the summer for obvious reasons, but for some reason you wish to disagree and make it out that winter tyres are going to be deadly in the summer which is simply not the case

Winter tyres above 15 degC quickly turn to a greasy nightmare to drive on, and perform significantly worse than summer tyres. You really don't want to go there, especially if you have over 100 bhp

This is simply not the case (I've driven in temps like that) and especially not the case when the sipes which are what causes the tyres to have so much tread deflection are gone. You're not going to have the heat buildup you would if you were going to use brand new winters on a warm day in summer. I wouldn't choose to drive in the summer on a set of winters which still have load of tread, but throwing away some tyres which still have a good couple of millimetres of tread which will be fine on my commute seems a bit daft.
 
Rob, it comes back to this. A well respected tyre company feel that winter tyres are safe enough in the summer. I understand why they're not going to be as good as summer tyres in the summer for obvious reasons, but for some reason you wish to disagree and make it out that winter tyres are going to be deadly in the summer which is simply not the case



This is simply not the case (I've driven in temps like that) and especially not the case when the sipes which are what causes the tyres to have so much tread deflection are gone. You're not going to have the heat buildup you would if you were going to use brand new winters on a warm day in summer. I wouldn't choose to drive in the summer on a set of winters which still have load of tread, but throwing away some tyres which still have a good couple of millimetres of tread which will be fine on my commute seems a bit daft.


again just sharing my thoughts and my experience driving on aged winters in a 150 bhp Alfa Sportwagon and Bravo

Bimbling around with a low powered car you probably won't notice how compromised your tyres are...

Grande Guy has a 165 bhp heavy engined diesel Bravo, a very different animal to your 69 bhp petrol engined 500

Anyway it's obvious you wont hear my point of view :bang:
Perhaps others will
 
again just sharing my thoughts and my experience driving on aged winters in a 150 bhp Alfa Sportwagon and Bravo

Bimbling around with a low powered car you probably won't notice how compromised your tyres are...

Grande Guy has a 165 bhp heavy engined diesel Bravo, a very different animal to your 69 bhp petrol engined 500

Anyway it's obvious you wont hear my point of view :bang:
Perhaps others will

That's the thing. You're imposing YOUR view of things on other people. You obviously like to drive your car enthusiastically. That's your choice and I've no issue with that.

I like to push my car sometimes, but as I'm fully aware of how the tyres will perform I'm not going to push them. I don't tailgate, I don't drive quickly around blind corners where I'll suddenly need to brake if someone is on the road. I drive according to what I have under me. When I was driving a work van it was always easy does it. When I'm in my 500 on the moors with summer tyres in the dry on a warm day then I'll happily chuck it into corners as fast as I dare.

Tyres are never compromised as such, they're only compromised when the nut behind the wheel asks too much of them. Hence why people can have crashes on winter tyres in the winter whilst others on summer tyres can get home safely. My Fiat 131 (my first car) had something rather skinny like 135's or 155's on it so I think I can safely drive on 175's on a 500 with ABS and far better tyre technology with 10 years more driving experience.

You might think that 195's are not enough for something heavy like a Bravo 165 multijet, but consider this..... our Subaru weighs 17kg's more and has 35bhp more than the Bravo an its winter tyre option is 185/65 R15. Is it not conceivable that people could happily drive within the limits of the tyres fitted to their cars? Is it inconceivable that GrandyGuy's missus never breaks 70 on the road and likes to slow down for corners? If you want to raise the bar further then fine, that's fantastic for you, but rather than questioning others as to why they've bought what they've bought, try to understand that people simply have different requirements to yourself and they buy according to those requirements.

We're not all RobW's and we're not all 306maxi's either, thank god for that on both counts.

Also.... Continental's opions on tyres > RobW's opinions on tyres......
 
That's the thing. You're imposing YOUR view of things on other people. You obviously like to drive your car enthusiastically. That's your choice and I've no issue with that.

I like to push my car sometimes, but as I'm fully aware of how the tyres will perform I'm not going to push them. I don't tailgate, I don't drive quickly around blind corners where I'll suddenly need to brake if someone is on the road. I drive according to what I have under me. When I was driving a work van it was always easy does it. When I'm in my 500 on the moors with summer tyres in the dry on a warm day then I'll happily chuck it into corners as fast as I dare.

Tyres are never compromised as such, they're only compromised when the nut behind the wheel asks too much of them. Hence why people can have crashes on winter tyres in the winter whilst others on summer tyres can get home safely. My Fiat 131 (my first car) had something rather skinny like 135's or 155's on it so I think I can safely drive on 175's on a 500 with ABS and far better tyre technology with 10 years more driving experience.

You might think that 195's are not enough for something heavy like a Bravo 165 multijet, but consider this..... our Subaru weighs 17kg's more and has 35bhp more than the Bravo an its winter tyre option is 185/65 R15. Is it not conceivable that people could happily drive within the limits of the tyres fitted to their cars? Is it inconceivable that GrandyGuy's missus never breaks 70 on the road and likes to slow down for corners? If you want to raise the bar further then fine, that's fantastic for you, but rather than questioning others as to why they've bought what they've bought, try to understand that people simply have different requirements to yourself and they buy according to those requirements.

We're not all RobW's and we're not all 306maxi's either, thank god for that on both counts.

Also.... Continental's opions on tyres > RobW's opinions on tyres......

you really dont understand about performance envelopes yet are a self styled 'tyre expert'

the same Grande Guy that cooks his brakes, yep he definitely likes to slow for corners! :D

just LOOOL!!!
 
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Again I make the point, how many days during the British summer would count as summer elsewhere? A look at the average temperature in England, Scotland and Wales http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/weather/average.htm indicates that between December and March temperatures are in the winter tyre "range". With the highest average monthly temperature being 17 centigrade I ask myself is that REALLY summer weather (considering you can double that temperature in parts of spain for example)?
 
I've had my ContiWinterContacts on a bit late in the season (start May) due to not having the time to change over. Temperature was over 20C and I didn't fall off the road, nor did it feel unsafe. Admittedly I don't light up the road though... I wouldn't be averaging 60mpg if I did.
 
Again I make the point, how many days during the British summer would count as summer elsewhere? A look at the average temperature in England, Scotland and Wales http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/weather/average.htm indicates that between December and March temperatures are in the winter tyre "range". With the highest average monthly temperature being 17 centigrade I ask myself is that REALLY summer weather (considering you can double that temperature in parts of spain for example)?

Exactly! The thing is that you will NEVER always be on the best tyres for the situation. It's not like anyone changes their tyres every day as the temperature change. Yesterday my winter tyres were the right ones to be on, today the summer tyres would probably be better.

I'm a big boy though and I can drive accordingly as long as I don't have tyres which are going to get me stuck :)
 
I'm still running my summer tyres at the moment but will be switching to the winters again as soon as the daytime temperatures are consistently down in single figures.

That said I might be selling the 100HP and getting an RB5 soon so of course the car is running brilliantly right now :)
 
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