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Hey
I'm looking at going down the winter tyre route following on from another post and the recommended benefits, so any recommendations on the below list, any stand out favs or winner?
The car is a Civic Tourer with 225/45/R17 91 W/Y, the winter tyres will be going onto stand alone 16" alloys 205/55/R16 91V .
The list below are all are all 205/55/R16 91 H
Vredestein Snowtrac 5 (Winter Tyre) Fuel C Wet Grip C 69 DB £83.88
Michelin Alpin 5 (Winter Tyre) Fuel E Wet Grip B 68 DB £88.14
Goodyear UltraGrip 9 (Winter Tyre) Fuel C Wet Grip C 69 DB £78..50
Bridgestone Blizzak LM 001 Evo (Winter Tyre) Fuel C Wet Grip B 72 DB £82.00
Continental Winter Contact TS 860 (Winter Tyre) Fuel C Wet Grip B 72 DB £95.30
Thanks
They are all good brands, not budget. In winter conditions they will all perform amazingly so choose whichever is the cheapest.
I usually keep a spare wheel, winter or summer, in the wheel-well along with a jack and wheelbrace kit I bought off Eblag and I store the useless latex and pump kit in the attic. That means I've only got to store 3 wheels in my garage too.
I've used the Goodyear (8 and 9) and Bridgestone across 3 cars and can't fault any of them in winter conditions (< 7deg).
Goodyears would be my choice from that list but only as they are cheapest, as above they will all be head and shoulders better than a summer tyre in winter.
Goodyear (currently fitted to my winter wheels) and Continental were both good but the Bridgestone were noisy at low speeds. I thought I had a knackered wheel bearing at first but turned out to be the tyres.
Before you go for winter tyres, have you considered all season tyres?
Thanks for the replies will have a read over the links
Goodyear look a good option.
Regarding all seasons this was brought up and discussed in my last post. In summary I’ve put 3 new summers on the car few months back, I wish now I had just changed them all to a set of cross climates but I didn’t so have to move on.
The car was extremely bad last winter and I’m not sure a cross climate would be the answer for the tourer, a dedicated winter might be best.
Its a gamble if I put cross climates on at prob about a cost of £450-500, and then find out it’s not suitable add that to the recent new tyres £240 and I might as well just go with Honda alloys I’ve sourced and refurbished and winter tyres for £730 and I still get use of my summers.
As an aside ry33 I take it that your TPMS system (assuming your car is new enough to have one) works from wheel rotation rather than sensors in the valve.? Thought I'd mention as you've said you've sourced some other rims. TPMS Not working in a car that has it fitted is, I think I'm right in saying, an MOT failure.
I've no idea what the car has. I asked the honda supplier who is supplying the alloys about any issues and they didnt raise any, the majority of recommendations from my last post was to get a set of 16s alloys or steels and fit those for winter, again nothing raised from this, other that check with the insurance company.
The car is a 2016 so not had an MOT, the MOT would fall in March so I guess the 17s originals would go back on by MOT time.
Thanks for the info and it's something I'll have a look into. I havnt paid for the alloys yet so still time to change mind. I did look at using the existing alloys but £60-80 a time to change the tyres.
We just bought a set of four steels and fitted the winter tyres at a cost of £10 each for fitting and balancing. We have had Avon Ice Touring on two cars and they were superb, as well as being slightly smoother-riding in dry weather probably thanks to a softer compound.
Nokian wrd4 if you can get them. I think they are one of the few winter tyres with the a rating for wet grip, which means they are pretty good even when it gets a little warmer than recommended
The last two sets we've had have been Kumho, and I can't complain. Previously I've had Nankang as well, and again they were perfectly capable.
Yes can get the Nokian's
Nokian WRD4 (Winter Tyre) Fuel C Wet Grip A 69DB £85.00
As for fitting £10 is great, These prices above inc the fitiing and balance.
The £60-80 was if I was using the existing 17s and swaping back and forth Oct and Mar that was the price a time.
Had Bridgestone Blizzak on a BMW 123M Sport on a set of steelies from BMW, Superb tyres. Went from not being able to reverse out of my parking space to going up big hills with lots of snow on them. Insurance company charged me for the privilege tho
Just spoke to my insurance company and there is no extra changes to take the 17s off and 16s on with winters, I just need to notify them in Nov and again in March, but no extra costs
@paton thanks for the links the Nokian's seem to get good reviews, as mentioned before they will all be suitable so just down to cost and ratings I guess.
Nokian is not a brand I have had before or known hence why I never added it to the original list but they look a good option
It's the Nokian WRD4's I have on steel rims sat in the garage for my Mazda 3 - I've been happy but haven't had any others to compare to as I had the D3's on the Mini Cooper, my previous car - that should've had TPMS valves fitted but didn't... the Mazda uses wheel revolutions for its TPMS.
I paid £294.80 for all four from tyreleader.com early last October, 205/60 R16 96H XL - thought I'd go for the reinforced ones as we live kinda rurally and some of the roads are very potholed...
I’ve got Bridgestone LM 35s on mine, they have been faultless for the last 7 winters. I would definitely recommend.
From what has been said i’ve Prob narrowed the list down too
Bridgestones
Goodyears
Nokians
I thought the Vredestians might be a good option but not hearing much on them.
The continentals are a bit pricey when you can get the others cheaper and the Michelin’s have the worst fuel rating out the rest by a fair bit.
Just having a look at the alloys again for the same price as the Honda 16s new but defected (peeling lacquer) £200 and can be refurbished total price all in £420 (original 16s that come on the lowers spec tourers). I can get a set of wolfrace Milano for £400.
The good thing is that I’ve checked a couple of the awd estates that would probably be my next move in a couple years and it’s the same alloy fit therefore might get more use out of them.
might also be easier to sell if it comes to that rather than Honda specifics.
I have wintercontacts, haven't used them long enough to say how they last but they've been all round decent. They lack the outright mad grip that my ridiculously big snowproxes have but they're probably better all the rest of the time. I'd buy them again.
I have had Vredstein Snowtrac 3s in the past. They were amazing on a diesel Berlingo. My current winters are Nexens and my wife has some budget winters. They have all been good. The difference between them and "summer" tyres is more than the difference between night and day.
I have run Fuldas and Tigars on our Transit motor home. They have been great too.
https://www.apa.ca/wintertire_reviews.asp
From a very cold and snowy land.
Bridgestone Blizzak is a very common choice in Canada for good reason. Reasonably cheap and well regarded.
I live in the north of Canada and use Nokian in the winter. The snow and ice are here all winter so wet grip isn't an issue for us, but in the snow and ice they are superb. I had Pirelli winter tyres in the past (don't recall the model) and they weren't a patch on the Nokian. Blizzaks are also well regarded.
Love my old Nokian WRG2. They were the perfect UK tyre. <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Cold wet performance is much more important than all out deep snow performance.</span>
Looking at your tyre prices makes me cry. Just been quoted £400 for 2 rea<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">rs fitted :(</span>
😯
I'm all for forward planning ..but we are still in the best spring / summer we have had for years ..!
Winter tyres in July ...
we have the nokian wrd4s on the berlingo
they are winter tires they work. We are quite a bit further north than you and rural.
240 quid for 4 from black circles - fitted
dont forget - tpms. do you know how yours works ? mines has sensors in the valves. i just turned it off with peugeot planet - since i dont have run flats and the law is run flats then TPMS must be fitted. Wondering if MR MOT man will notice(i know he should - but will he notice ;)) That will add another couple of hundred quid if you want that to work.
"
I’m all for forward planning ..but we are still in the best spring / summer we have had for years ..!
Winter tyres in July …"
well we all know the very british thing to do would be to wait till the car is stuck then order winter tires from anywhere that has any left at over inflated prices while keeping the money in the bank earning 0.5%
Thanks for the comments and experiences.
TPMS hmmm this is something I'll need to look into further then.
I presume that this needs reset or something every time the wheels are changed or would it be ok as long as by the time the MOT comes along the original wheels are back on the car?
I know when I've had new tyres put on I need to re calibrate the system which is easy enough manually.
Regarding the below, I am not putting winter tyres on now, I was looking into various options and this was recommended as the best, I would rather have a look now and have a idea of what I am looking at before it gets to the time when stocks are low and prices are higher, I don't plan to buy anything just yet, its just looking into options. All in all a pretty pointless comment
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I’m all for forward planning ..but we are still in the best spring / summer we have had for years ..!
Winter tyres in July …”
"I presume that this needs reset or something every time the wheels are changed or would it be ok as long as by the time the MOT comes along the original wheels are back on the car?"
depends on the car and the system used , some use the ABS rings to count rotation speed , others (mine) use a sensor in the valve.
even then some have an option buried in the menus to resync and others are dealer only.
worth researching.
Again on the previous Civic but the tyre pressure setup was basically a case of inflate tyres to correct pressure, go into the menu and store the pressures. It basically keeps an eye on rotation speed. Or at least the 2011 version did.
The Honda wheels are pretty standard fitment over the past ten years so plenty of options. I've used mrwinterwheels in the past and also bought/sold alloys on ebay with success
The Civinfo forum is quite active and again has a buy/sell section
I've re calibrated before when I had a tyre change the tyre warning light was on, so I can re calibrate via the menu systems and I have to drive for something like 30 miles of motorway sppeds driving until it registers, cant remember the official writing but its something along those lines .
I presume then this would be the same for a wheel change/tyre change?
This was quite a good watch regarding the cross climates running on an A3 FWD 225/45/R17
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/What-changed-with-the-new-Michelin-CrossClimate-Plus.htm