Winter tyres vol 2

Author
Discussion

jon-

16,497 posts

215 months

Thursday 30th October 2014
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Monkeylegend

26,226 posts

230 months

Thursday 30th October 2014
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The BBC weather forecast or November is for unseasonably mild weather.

So I think on this basis I will fit 2 winters on the nearside front and back and leave 2 summers on the offside.

FiF

43,964 posts

250 months

Thursday 30th October 2014
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smn159 said:
Pffft - haven't even put the patio furniture away yet!
Load of bratwurst on the weber later. Use the last of this year's charcoal up. Pfft.

DoubleSix

11,691 posts

175 months

Thursday 30th October 2014
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Monkeylegend said:
The BBC weather forecast or November is for unseasonably mild weather.

So I think on this basis I will fit 2 winters on the nearside front and back and leave 2 summers on the offside.
Sounds like a plan.

willld

238 posts

259 months

Thursday 30th October 2014
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jon- said:
Sigh, the Express, what a crock of $h1t, they had the same story last year and the year before....

RizzoTheRat

25,085 posts

191 months

Friday 31st October 2014
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jon- said:
They're a nordic winter, not really suitable for the UK.
Explains why I've not heard of them before then. Chuffing good tyre on an icy road, the Mrs nearly fell over yesterday getting out of the car in a layby the car had no trouble with biggrin

Davie

4,733 posts

214 months

Saturday 1st November 2014
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4 x Nankang SV2's en route for my old dear's Mazda... £160.00 delivered for 195/45/16's which was about £60 cheaper then anywhere else. Granted, three pillow cases and an old copy of the Daily Sport might arrive but what the hell.

As for temperatures, oddly mild up here just now but had frost last week... anyways it'll give them a month or so to scrub in a bit which going by her annual mileage, will equate to about 23 miles.

I'm working on the basis they'll be a damn sight better than the 3mm summer Toyos the car currently wears.


Fox-

13,228 posts

245 months

Saturday 1st November 2014
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Davie said:
4 x Nankang SV2's en route for my old dear's Mazda... £160.00 delivered for 195/45/16's which was about £60 cheaper then anywhere else. Granted, three pillow cases and an old copy of the Daily Sport might arrive but what the hell.

As for temperatures, oddly mild up here just now but had frost last week... anyways it'll give them a month or so to scrub in a bit which going by her annual mileage, will equate to about 23 miles.

I'm working on the basis they'll be a damn sight better than the 3mm summer Toyos the car currently wears.
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2013-Winter-Tyre-Overview-Braking.htm

Here they at 29th place with 0.1 snow performance. They look totally dire and you'd have been better off with quality summer tyres even than these.

Or this choice quote:

AutoBild said:
6th: Nankang SV2
Total: 30 / Dry: 6 / Wet: 3 / Snow: 4 / Rolling Resistance: 6 / Comfort: 3 / Noise: 8
Positive: Stable handling in dry conditions, quiet pass-by noise
Negative: Poor understeering handling on wet and snow-covered track, dangerously extended braking distances on wet roads, poor comfort
Overall: Not recommended
In short, totally dire, massive waste of money.

SEAN 46

102 posts

174 months

Saturday 1st November 2014
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Davie said:
4 x Nankang SV2's en route for my old dear's Mazda... £160.00 delivered for 195/45/16's which was about £60 cheaper then anywhere else. Granted, three pillow cases and an old copy of the Daily Sport might arrive but what the hell.

As for temperatures, oddly mild up here just now but had frost last week... anyways it'll give them a month or so to scrub in a bit which going by her annual mileage, will equate to about 23 miles.

I'm working on the basis they'll be a damn sight better than the 3mm summer Toyos the car currently wears.
SWMBO uses those Nankang SV's on her VW Beetle and I can tell you they're
excellent! We've ran them all year for the last 4 years but looking to replace the fronts in a few weeks due to wear on the shoulders due to hard cornering on the way to the shops.
Found they work just as well as premium winter tyres that I use.

SEAN 46

102 posts

174 months

Saturday 1st November 2014
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Fox- said:
In short, totally dire, massive waste of money.
Absolute bks i'm afraid. You've obliviously never used them. I've ran these tyres on snow and ice and they work just fine. Hill starts on steep snow packed roads with nothing more than a bit wheel scrabble.
Last February I passed a load of cars stranded on the top of the Kirkstone pass. It was comical as they couldn't even move an inch. In fact it was so funny I turned around and went past them again but SWMBO said no to a third pass as that would be taking the piss.
As for the comment you'd be better off with summer tyres..... lol you've no idea what your talking about.

jon-

16,497 posts

215 months

Saturday 1st November 2014
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SEAN 46 said:
Fox- said:
In short, totally dire, massive waste of money.
Absolute bks i'm afraid. You've obliviously never used them. I've ran these tyres on snow and ice and they work just fine. Hill starts on steep snow packed roads with nothing more than a bit wheel scrabble.
Last February I passed a load of cars stranded on the top of the Kirkstone pass. It was comical as they couldn't even move an inch. In fact it was so funny I turned around and went past them again but SWMBO said no to a third pass as that would be taking the piss.
As for the comment you'd be better off with summer tyres..... lol you've no idea what your talking about.
How many tyres are you objectively testing them against? If you've never driven a Ferrari you might think a Skoda is a fast car, same for winter tyres.

Compared to high end winter tyres, the Nankangs have objectively tested (in measured group tests) to have poor wet performance, which is important for the UK.

Fox was just highlighting there are better options on the market if you want the best winter tyres possible, which is what we all really want.

Fox-

13,228 posts

245 months

Saturday 1st November 2014
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jon- said:
Fox was just highlighting there are better options on the market if you want the best winter tyres possible, which is what we all really want.
Exactly - the very fact you are even considering winter tyres when you'd probably be just fine without them means you care about tyre performance and you are more interested in the right level of performance than the average joe. So to reach that point and then buy totally crap ones doesn't make any sense. If you are that uninterested in how they perform you might as well have just stuck with summer tyres - they'd perform better in likely any situation you find yourself in this winter.

If you are doing winter tyres, do it properly. In most sizes the proper stuff doesn't break the bank. I paid 50 quid each for Goodyear Ultra Grip 8's!

SEAN 46

102 posts

174 months

Saturday 1st November 2014
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The point I'm making is the Nankangs are a perfectly decent winter tyre for most people. I know I've used them in bad weather .
I've also used Goodyear ultra grip 8's on the same car and if I'm honest couldn't detect any difference in performance to the 40% cheaper Nankangs. The Nankangs also wear better.
Swmbo's driving style and 100bhp Beetle are perfectly happy on the Nankangs.
I know you should always buy the best tyres for safety and I totally agree but I can honestly say I was supprised by how well these tyres work. Bought them based on reviews by real people not auto publications.
I think those German testers like auto bild don't like those Asian tyre manufactures eating into there premium tyre business.
Let's hope we get the chance to give our winter tyres a good work out in the coming months! 😃

tenohfive

6,276 posts

181 months

Saturday 1st November 2014
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jon- said:
Fox was just highlighting there are better options on the market if you want the best winter tyres possible, which is what we all really want.
He was and he wasn't - he said that he'd be better off with summer tyres, which is a step beyond pointing someone towards the best winter tyre. And basically said that budget winters are pointless, as summers do it better. I'm sure some would beg to differ with that opinion.

FiF

43,964 posts

250 months

Saturday 1st November 2014
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tenohfive said:
jon- said:
Fox was just highlighting there are better options on the market if you want the best winter tyres possible, which is what we all really want.
He was and he wasn't - he said that he'd be better off with summer tyres, which is a step beyond pointing someone towards the best winter tyre. And basically said that budget winters are pointless, as summers do it better. I'm sure some would beg to differ with that opinion.
I think the point was, albeit unstated, that for the majority of a UK winter with conditions of above freezing but wet then a decent summer tyre would be as good or possibly even better than the budget winters.

It's relatively easy to get a winter that performs in snow and ice, much harder to get one that also performs well in cold and wet, even harder still to include warm/mild and wet. That's the issue from my perspective.

Fox-

13,228 posts

245 months

Saturday 1st November 2014
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tenohfive said:
He was and he wasn't - he said that he'd be better off with summer tyres, which is a step beyond pointing someone towards the best winter tyre. And basically said that budget winters are pointless, as summers do it better. I'm sure some would beg to differ with that opinion.
I'm sure they would and they are entitled to that view but that remains my point. In a British winter, you are better off on good summer tyres than budget winter tyres. With budget winter tyres you are impairing your performance in all weather conditions just in case it maybe snows a bit. With premium winter tyres you are not - whilst I doubt a premium winter tyre is much if at all better in normal UK winter conditions than a premium summer tyre crucially it's not really much worse either, so you are not compromising on 99% of your performance.

Do it properly or stick with summers, IMHO.

You are enormously more likely to be driving down the Motorway in the rain when it's 6c this winter than you will be to be driving on fresh snow, therefore don't buy a tyre that is crap on the Motorway in the rain when it's 6c just so that it can be slightly less than crap on fresh snow.

Though looking at some of those tests it seems the Nankang isn't even any good when it snows, so what's the point?

tenohfive

6,276 posts

181 months

Saturday 1st November 2014
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FiF said:
I think the point was, albeit unstated, that for the majority of a UK winter with conditions of above freezing but wet then a decent summer tyre would be as good or possibly even better than the budget winters.

It's relatively easy to get a winter that performs in snow and ice, much harder to get one that also performs well in cold and wet, even harder still to include warm/mild and wet. That's the issue from my perspective.
The obvious counter argument to that is that the performance gap between summers and budget winters in snow is much bigger than the same gap in dry or wet conditions. Whilst for the overwhelming majority of the time a summer would be better, for those occasions where there is snow and ice on the ground a summer simply can't come close. I can see why some people would decide that based on their own circumstances, possibly those driving low miles, conservatively and who wouldn't dream of pressing on but who need to be mobile irrespective of the weather would decide that budget winters make sense for them.

Don't get me wrong - every set of winters on my own car have been premium winters. They suit my needs best and I can justify the cost to myself. But I recognise that for some people budget winters will do exactly what's needed. And judging by comments on this thread and vol 1 I don't think that's an insignificant number of people either, so Fox's comments to someone who has spent a few quid on budgets seemed rather a) questionable and b) tactless.

Davie

4,733 posts

214 months

Saturday 1st November 2014
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This is the problem with threads like this... everybody bangs on about reviews this and reviews that. One test says something is good, the next says it's rubbish. Same applies to mountain bike parts, microwaves, dating sites, sex toys stores in Amsterdam, hotels, holiday destinations etc etc etc.

Nankangs... you'll be killed to death. Yes, but when hitting standing water at 5 degrees at 70mph, I suspect they're be better than the current Toyos it currently wears which have about 3mm left, if that. Will it snow up here this year? Christ knows? Will it be sub zero every night? Christ knows. It was 19deg according to the outside temperature display last night at 8pm.

tenohfive said:
I can see why some people would decide that based on their own circumstances, possibly those driving low miles, conservatively and who wouldn't dream of pressing on but who need to be mobile irrespective of the weather would decide that budget winters make sense for them.
Pretty much summed up the situation - she does a handful of miles a year, it's probably seen 60mph+ about four times this year and it's driven will all the aggression of a church vicar receiving a massage from Cameron Diaz. It does however need to get 2.3 miles to school in the morning and 2.3 miles home a night to allow her to teach children the basics in life.

The tyres were bought as a) they're not £100 a corner b) the car does sub 5,000 miles a year and c) it needed tyres regardless... and well for £160.00 it's worth a shot. Can't be any worse then the current garbage that's on it and nor can they be any worse than say a Toyo Proxes T1R which her Clio had last year and it was appalling, as it utterly utterly terrible.

I'll report back in spring... then again I'm running Eagle F1's on a 300bhp Volvo.

It was nice knowing you all!



Edited by Davie on Saturday 1st November 16:33

HertsBiker

6,300 posts

270 months

Saturday 1st November 2014
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Davie, I think you'll be happy with them. I was considering them, but went quadraxer instead. About £40 a corner more, but I do 12000 miles a year and had the cash to spare. Also I'm sure your wife will appreciate being about to get home when it snows, unlike all the summer tyres cars.

JonnyxM

185 posts

132 months

Monday 3rd November 2014
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Picking up some BF Goodrich Gforce Winters for my GTi tonight, got some alloys to go with them too.. so, whilst looking like it's on bicycle wheels at least it's not quite pov spec!

Anyone got any reviews of the BF Goodrichs? Hopefully I'm going to get the alloys resprayed (dark colour, less cleaning needed) and fit them when/if the weather turns consistently cold.