Hi all,

After last winter and the fact I am keeping my Octy for a minimum of 4 years I thought I would invest in some winter tyres. Even with ESP I wanted a bit more safety & grip when the ice appears.

I initially looked for the 16" Spider but had no luck, so I picked up these 16" VW style wheels off ebay (they are 7J instead of 6.5J).

After a DIY referb, I then spent 4 months waiting for winter tyres to drop, although it seems that tyres now are just going up in price. So I decided to take the plunge and get some. I went for Kleber Quadraxer's in the end as although they are 'All Season' they have the 'Snow Peak' symbol so I hope they meet some standard for snow driving. They certainly have lots of snipes cut into the tread. Also a little tricky getting the correct speed rating. There are more 'H' rated tyres out there. Silly really, as I am not even going to hit 130MPH let alone 146MPH in the snow. (Winter 'ring trip maybe )

Are you going to run them during the summer (now?) too, or just put them on when the weather gets cold?

What made you settle of those tyres? I have a set of alloys ready and waiting, so if you have done some research I would be more than happy to take your advice

I was going to put them on when it gets cold and run them in then. Yes you don't want to be putting them on fresh the first day it snows!

I say that, though most people just fit tyres and drive. On my motorbike I was told to take it easy to start with so the release agent wore off first. But a car can't fall over

Reasons for selecting:

As I said they are 'All Season' but they have the 'peaks' symbol, so I guess have passed a standard for snow/ice. They have lots of sipes (or whatever they are called!).

Kleber are owned by Michelin. I expect you will find the tread pattern is an older Michelin one.

Price is good £73.73 inc eveything from Event Tyres (mobile fitting). General tyre prices are just going up and up.

Ebay has some Kumho KH 25 M+S for £200, but I could hardly find any info about them. Plus the tread pattern seems more summer biased than winter, less sipes. Also they are not the speed rating specified as standard for vRS.

Nankang's are about on mytyres but they seems to be the lower end of the market.

I know it is safety, but I can't justify paying £150 per tyre on some of the other makes. Having a winter tyre is better than a normal summer tyre anyway.

Good idea about wearing them in. Event Tyres won't come and fit for me - I am in an a non-service area at both home and work. Maybe I'll see if they will fit at my parents :-)

My winters are on the original Elegance 16's.

Wearing them in a good idea, but only for a hundred miles at most, to wear off the release agent. As soon as the temperature went over 7 degrees in January, I noticed more bounce and less grip and swapped them off in February. At 20 degress + they would wear very quickly.

I paid £394 for a set of 205/55/16 Conti Winter Contact TS830 in November 2010 at Kwik Fit. These are generally regarded to be one of the best winter tyres, so a good deal should be available now, asssuming you can find some.

Remember that Winters are no good below 4mm and illegal (where it's law) at 3mm. Most secondhand imports are around this depth due to the UK not imposing winter tyres by law. Driving in the Czech Republic most winters, I became a winter tyres convert.

Yeah I have seen that there is a big business in secondhand imports, but like you say, they are all worn too much really for winter tyres.

Only way is to buy new.

All the main tyre retailers don't have winter tyres on their websites now. You might be able to go into a depot and ask the manager if they will do a deal. I was hoping for the price to plumet after winter, but they didn't. Early on in the year mytyres has some 17" winters for less than £40, but I did not have a spare set of 17" and I think it was a price error that they might have not honoured.

Interesting you said that you took yours off in January, I thought it said below 7 quite a while after this. Although I am judging this on my temp sensor when I drive the 10miles into work. So I was thinking that in the morning it would be useful, yes driving home in the evening it is probably nearer 12 degrees. I only did about 8K miles last year.

A couple of weeks after all the snow we went on an early drive, and where the hedges had blocked the sun there was loads of ice. I actually pulled over thinking I had a flat as the car felt so strange to drive. That day we say 3 crashed cars, which is my main reason for getting the winters.