Winter tyres - stupid question alert

[Landlord]

I reservedly ask this for fear of revealing my true idiocy, but, like, do winter tyres get more expensive the closer to winter you get? You know, like BBQs are cheaper in winter because of seasonality.

Also, why don't people have winter tyres all year round? Cost? Do they wear out quicker? etc.

I'll await the tongue-in-labiomental crease-joey-noises with baited breath.

Yep, I Googled "labiomental crease"

[dtmpower]

Landlord said:

Also, why don't people have winter tyres all year round?

They are noisy and offer less refinement and grip when the temperature is about 10 degrees. They will wear more quickly also.

[BlueMR2]

They get more expensive, the lower the amount of stock the higher they go.

[Dr Interceptor]

Think of it like Formula one... if you ran wets in 40 degree dry conditions, they're wear out in a couple of laps. Same with running Winters in Summer - wrong compound for the conditions you see.

Yes, they get more expensive the closer we get to Winter. Get a bit of snow forecast and they'll skyrocket.

[PhilboSE]

dtmpower said:

They are noisy and offer less refinement and grip when the temperature is about 10 degrees. They will wear more quickly also.

Apart from the grip, all your observations above contradict my experience over the last 3 winters.

My winters are quieter than my summers, give better mpg and are showing little wear after 3 seasons.

[Billyray911]

Retailers have increased their prices over the past few years as winter tyres have become more popular.
When I was shopping around for some,a couple of years ago,the prices were increasing on a weekly basis.
It is worthwhile buying them as soon as stock is released-usually August/September time-as stock is limited.
I only put mine on when the temperature drops below about 5 degrees as winters come into their own at these temperatures.
All season tyres are available,but these are seen by most as a compromise.
They are a worthwhile investment in my opinion.

[vrsmxtb]

I think this winter tyres all year round being a big no-no is overrated. In Europe, huge amounts of people seem to run their winters all year round, I presume to only need one set of tyres and stay legal.

I'm sure they would wear a little quicker, be noisier and offer less grip than similar quality summers, but I don't think they'll fall apart on a sunny day.

If it's really an issue, what about high quality all-seasons?

[Hugo a Gogo]

PhilboSE said:

dtmpower said:

They are noisy and offer less refinement and grip when the temperature is about 10 degrees. They will wear more quickly also.

Apart from the grip, all your observations above contradict my experience over the last 3 winters.

My winters are quieter than my summers, give better mpg and are showing little wear after 3 seasons.

sounds like your summers are crap, or maybe just super grippy track tyres or something

[Captain Muppet]

For MOT reasons I put my winters on in the summer, and they've been so devoid of major problems that I've not bothered sorting out a set of proper tyres for it since. Tyre wear hasn't been noticable over the last 2,000 miles (despite the diff being welded solid, which is normally a tyre killer).

Steering response is a bit more vague, but it had feedback to spare (MX5 with no PAS).

Obviously proper tyres on it would be better.

[Landlord]

Thanks everyone. I was asking basically because I live in a pretty rural area where the majority of the roads don't get gritted so winter tyres would be a good option for me. Also, my tracking is off and therefore my fronts need replacing. I was thinking that it'd be worth my while to get winter tyres whilst I'm getting them replaced and getting my tracking sorted.

I think I'll do that anyway - I only do circa 6k miles p.a. so let's call that 3k over winter so they should last me a while.

[vrsmxtb]

Landlord said:

Thanks everyone. I was asking basically because I live in a pretty rural area where the majority of the roads don't get gritted so winter tyres would be a good option for me. Also, my tracking is off and therefore my fronts need replacing. I was thinking that it'd be worth my while to get winter tyres whilst I'm getting them replaced and getting my tracking sorted.

I think I'll do that anyway - I only do circa 6k miles p.a. so let's call that 3k over winter so they should last me a while.

In a rural area at only 6k miles a year I think you could safely run decent winters all year round, or as mentioned before highly rated all-seasons would be a good compromise. Vredesteins seem to be the most acclaimed in that area.

[Hugo a Gogo]

you could always go for some good 'all season' tyres

I've used Vredestein quatrac 3s (and 2s before that) for ages, through some pretty heavy snow

[PhilboSE]

Hugo a Gogo said:

sounds like your summers are crap, or maybe just super grippy track tyres or something

Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3 assymmetricos. About £250 per corner, I do hope they're not crap.

[Hugo a Gogo]

PhilboSE said:

Hugo a Gogo said:

sounds like your summers are crap, or maybe just super grippy track tyres or something

Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3 assymmetricos. About £250 per corner, I do hope they're not crap.

ok, so biased towards grip - not noise and low rolling resistance

[Billyray911]

Vredestein Wintrac Extremes have been a good purchase for me.

[kambites]

PhilboSE said:

Hugo a Gogo said:

sounds like your summers are crap, or maybe just super grippy track tyres or something

Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3 assymmetricos. About £250 per corner, I do hope they're not crap.

I'm guessing the winters are on smaller wheels then?

I thought F1s were meant to be pretty good, refinement-wise, though?

Cold weather wear shouldn't be a problem for winter tyres, but use them in really hot weather and they wear very fast because the compound is so soft and the tread blocks move around so much, in my experience. I drove a car from the UK to Bulgaria on winter tyres last summer and lost nearly 2mm of tread on that trip alone (this was a 1.4 Astra, so not exactly demanding on its tyres).

Personally, I'd rather run summer tyres in the winter than vice versa, but I can quite see any people would prefer it the other way around or refuse to do either.

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 9th October 09:52

[Bluebarge]

dtmpower said:

They are noisy and offer less refinement and grip when the temperature is about 10 degrees. They will wear more quickly also.

Not really. Noise and refinement is about the same between winters and summers; summers have a little more grip when the road surface is warm (but you will notice only if pressing on and only when the temperatures are more like 18-20c) and take a little longer to stop under extreme braking in warm conditions (but there will only be a couple of metres in it). Wear rates are about the same, I have found.
I kept my winters on all of this year and they performed well in temperatures of 38-40c in Spain and Southern France this summer, including a couple of high-speed "anchors aweigh" on the French autoroute when the traffic went from 140kph to 10 kph in the space of less than 100m. If you have a performance car, live in a hot country or drive at 9/10s all the time, it will be worth swapping back to summers, but otherwise you could easily run them all year round.

[Landlord]

Also, I should probably mention that we're talking a 10 year old 1.6 Ford Focus, so things like power/handling/refinement aren't really as issue!

So - next question... where's cheapest to get tyres - with advice? BlackCircles?

Thanks,

[kambites]

Black Circles are certainly competitive.

[Billyray911]

Mytyres were very good for the winters.Competetive with quick delivery.
I've also used Camskill a lot.