I have just checked my winter wheels and found two that aren't holding pressure. As they are a few seasons old I am happy to replace them. Now, I can get a different brand tyre for a lot lot cheaper (Dunlop instead of the Continentals) that are well reviewed, but wanted to check whether having two different paired tyres would be a problem?

Best tyres (new ones) would go on the rear, and the fronts still have a good 5mm on them.

Any comments?

Cheers guys

Your manual (IIRC) will tell you that different sizes of tyres will affect your traction control/ESP. As such this is not recommended. I would suggest, this will be worse with winter tyres since they will be used when conditions might call on these systems. By the way, this is VERY important for anyone with Four wheel drive.

My personal experience (10 years driving in Iceland) is that winter tyres should be changed as a set, 4mm is the absolute lower limit, and (this is just my opinion) I would want the best tyres on the driving wheels when driving in snow.

As above, they loose their effectiveness (as in the sipes disappear) at 4mm, so if it was me I would eBay them now and replace all 4, from personal experience I will only be buying Nokian winter tyres from now on.

I can't see it being a problem with different pairs of winters on.

As you said, modern advice is to put the newer tyres on the rear to prevent oversteer.

Me, I like oversteer so would put the new ones on the front and use the handbrake if it got a bit out of line

Gizmo68 - have you tried the Continental TS830 - mine have been excellent but this will probably be the last winter I get out of them (3rd season) so would be interested in a comparison with Nokians

As above, they loose their effectiveness (as in the sipes disappear) at 4mm, so if it was me I would eBay them now and replace all 4, from personal experience I will only be buying Nokian winter tyres from now on.

How long do you get out of your winter tyres with the high speed mileage you do motorways etc? Mine are brand new on that set of Audi alloys I got just at end of last winter might have to leave them on for 6 months this year due to moving.

Gizmo68 - have you tried the Continental TS830 - mine have been excellent but this will probably be the last winter I get out of them (3rd season) so would be interested in a comparison with Nokians

Not tried the Continentals TBH, but the Nokian's are much better than my current Bridgestone's

How long do you get out of your winter tyres with the high speed mileage you do motorways etc? Mine are brand new on that set of Audi alloys I got just at end of last winter might have to leave them on for 6 months this year due to moving.

I did over 6K miles on the Nokian WR G2's on the Superb and last year they did about another 3 - 4K miles on SWMBO's Golf, they only wore about 1.5 - 2mm over that 9+K miles, so still good for a good few years when I sold them.

Plus I also got 2 - 3 more miles per gallon than the OE summer 225/40/18's