I understand why Confide has strong feelings about the subject of winter tyres,

but he lives in sweden, i live in East Sussex(the sunniest county in England)

and over the last 10yrs we have had an average of less than 3 days snow per year(acccording to MET office)

so to fork out serious amounts of money for winter tyres and steelies just doesn't come into it.

ice is ice, winter or summer tyre either way your going to skid if you try to stop quickly.

my dad and i bought a 4.6HSE range rover with Scorpion off road tyres already on it for £850 3yrs ago, we keep it off the road, it has passsed 2 mots now with no expense and we haven't even bothered to service it. it's for one thing alone, when it snows i use it to drive to work which was 4 times last year.

and 2 days the year before. it's £21 to temporary insure for 14days with my dads insurer. JOB DONE.

Not everyone has the space to keep a spare car off road all year but we do.

Edited 17 September, 201114 yr by Sonner

got a set of Pirelli Sotto Zero 205/40 R17 im due to fit end of this month, hear very good things about them

ice is ice, winter or summer tyre either way your going to skid if you try to stop quickly.

erm not quite. Even on ice with winter tyres you will take a lot lot longer to stop with cold hardened rubber of a summer tyres than you will will winter tyres. Winter tyres are NOT just snow tyres. Cornering and braking all much improved when the temperature is below 7 degrees.

There are some good test videos on you tube demonstrating this filmed on an ice rink, not a drop of snow in sight.

i live in East Sussex(the sunniest county in England)and over the last 10yrs we have had an average of less than 3 days snow per year(acccording to MET office)

I live in east Berkshire. I found some weather data on the BBC website that showed the average maximum in London for December, January and February is 7C or lower. I figure that where I live it'll be a bit cooler, and that since I'm mostly driving in the cooler parts of the day I'll be even more likely to encounter lower temperatures.

so to fork out serious amounts of money for winter tyres and steelies just doesn't come into it.

I have a second set of steel wheels with winter tyres for one of our cars. The other car has all season tyres that are also marked with the snowflake on a triple peak symbol, indicating that it can be used as a winter tyre in jurisdications that have a legal requirement for winter tyres during part of the year.

ice is ice, winter or summer tyre either way your going to skid if you try to stop quickly.

My direct experience of driving our cars when they were fitted either winter or all season tyres is that there is an enormous difference between how they perform on ice. For the car with winter tyres there is something like a 20-30 mph advantage over summer tyres on snow and ice, (that car normally has Goodyear Optigrip fitted). There is less of an advantage for the car with all season tyres, say 15-25 mph, compared with the Continental Premium Contact 2 tyres that were previously fitted.

Obviously one can come unstuck if driving without paying heed to the conditions, but there is an amazing difference when braking firmly on ice or polished compacted snow. For the most part it is possible to drive fairly close to normally, and it is even possible to go over frozen rutted slush to overtake drivers who have less grip and traction available to them.

One way to look at it is that better tyres can give an improved safety margin. People often talk about now wanting to fit ditch finders, yet when it comes to slippery winter conditions there are many who suddenly seem to have a different point of view.

ice is ice, winter or summer tyre either way your going to skid if you try to stop quickly.

The most misleading and dangerous thing I've heard for a long time. I hope nobody takes comments like these seriously, apart from any arguments, it may be accidents that are in question in this one.

There is a huge diferrence in the car's behaviour with winter tyres, even in not the severest winter conditions. Winter tyres are the most important measure of safety when temperature falls below 5C, and when there is consistent snow or ice. Evrryboy who would be driving for even a small period of the year, under such conditions should undoubtedly invest even at a low range winter tyre. It is not luxury, and I know it's not easy to spend some 300-400E just for maybe 20 days of the year. But it is a safety issue above all and it does mean a lot of a difference.

I find it funny that people pay... what is it, 150-200£ for the ridiculos boxes below the seats!

But 300-400 (maybe even 500 if you want some fancy rims) is too much for saving lives.

I'm sorry, but I really don't understand your logic there, Sonner .

And what is stated in the thread is true : below 7 degrees Celsius the winter-tyres starts to outperform summer-tyres...

And our mornings here in southern Sweden is already hitting the +-0 mark =( =( =(!

Without question several tests prove winter tyres are worth getting in cold conditions but if it snows my car will be staying at home or leaving it where it is. It's not because I'm not confident in the conditions or because I won't buy winter tyres because I would if I was doing mega mileage and really needed the car for work, it's all the other clowns on the road you can't trust.

What size tyres are people buying? Can't find anything that are the same as the standard vRS rubbers (205 40 17) but I guess low-profile winter tyres aren't in too much demand

What size tyres are people buying? Can't find anything that are the same as the standard vRS rubbers (205 40 17) but I guess low-profile winter tyres aren't in too much demand

195/55 R15 gives the same wheel height, but with a higher profile, which is also good for snow anyway.

195/55 R15 gives the same wheel height, but with a higher profile, which is also good for snow anyway.

Any advice on fitting 195/50/15 , its 3.4 % smaller but seems less expensive as its probably a more common size. Is this an acceptable difference ?

Well i've no intention of getting rid of the range rover yet so i won't be driving a vrs in the snow anytime soon so i guess the conversation is a bit irrevelant to me.

I think though having driven mid engined and rwd cars in the snow that if i was ever down to just one car and it was a performance/sports car with a rwd drivetrain then i would consider winter tyres for those twisty country lanes that i go down on the way to work just in case there's the odd frozen patch.

i did get up a hill last year in the snow in my little Felicia(i had to reverse up) that a bmw X5 was sideways and sliding down on!! the poor woman looked absolutely pertrified!!!(not because she was sliding but because of the little S reg skoda that was reversing up the hill she was stuck on)

Well good luck with your winter tyre choices everyone. x x x

Yes that difference is fine, unless you travel really fast it's not gonna ruin your speedo readings alot.

Well i've no intention of getting rid of the range rover yet so i won't be driving a vrs in the snow anytime soon so i guess the conversation is a bit irrevelant to me.

Well then, and pardon me If I sound harsh, you don't have to reply to every single thread If you don't want to add something meaningfull, especially if its - as you say - "irrelevant" to you... And even if you just want to let us know that you don't care about this conversation since you got a range rover (!), It would be better not to give bad and potentially dangerous advice...

195/55 R15 gives the same wheel height, but with a higher profile, which is also good for snow anyway.

That size tyre would mean buying new wheels too wouldn't it? I can't be paying out for that too. I'll stick with normal tyres and hope for the best.

That size tyre would mean buying new wheels too wouldn't it? I can't be paying out for that too. I'll stick with normal tyres and hope for the best.

Obviously, as they're 15". Thing is that a medium 15" tyre + wheel, can potentially come around the same price as a 17" tyre alone so then it's up to you.

Plus, going 15" means you will have a higher profile which can be important when in severe snowfall and saves you from removing the tyres from the rims every 6 months. You just have your two sets ready to fit yourself.

A minus for me is the quite ugly look, comparable to the nice 17" rims of the vRS and the even nicer low profile tyres. But I think I will be going down that road myself this year (15"s).

Edited 19 September, 201114 yr by newbie69

Obviously, as they're 15". Thing is that a medium 15" tyre + wheel, can potentially come around the same price as a 17" tyre alone so then it's up to you.

Plus, going 15" means you will have a higher profile which can be important when in severe snowfall and saves you from removing the tyres from the rims every 6 months. You just have your two sets ready to fit yourself.

A minus for me is the quite ugly look, comparable to the nice 17" rims of the vRS and the even nicer low profile tyres. But I think I will be going down that road myself this year (15"s).

My winter tyres are 195/60/15, they are a bit bigger but I am happy to have the slight misread speedo and gain from the slightly taller gearing in the snow.

Also the tall profile lets the tyre move about and stops the tread from getting pushed sideways causing slip. The higher profile also cuts through snow better and you dont get as much build up on the rims.

i guess the calipers go over the 15" brakes then, how knows the diameter of the vRS front brakes compared to say the 105 tdi

with 15' wheels its a close fit on the vRS.

What size tyres are people buying? Can't find anything that are the same as the standard vRS rubbers (205 40 17) but I guess low-profile winter tyres aren't in too much demand

check out camskill.co.uk or mytyres.co.uk

It's close, but no problems with 15" rims at all.

I'm gonna run with 17" Gigaro rims this winter cause my "new" 330mm 8-pot brakes crave abit more space x).

I thought I would take some photos of my winter tyres that I have.

I have a set of Kuhmo I’ZEN KW23 215/50/17's which were fitted to my 3.2v6 Vectra last year on the standard rims, they were miles better than the normal summer tyres but not a patch on my Vredestien Snowtrac3's running on 15" rims on my Stilo.

These are the Kuhmo's... for sale if anyone is interested!

The snowtrac's on my fiat steelies soon to be swapped to VAG steel rims!

The tread is still at about 7mm after 4000miles of use over the last 2 winters from November till March.