Here is a link to an article which explains why to use narrower, higher profile tyres in the Winter.

 

http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=126

OMG!!!!

You use highly caustic Oven Cleaner on your wheels?

Are you totally barking???

wating for payday next thurs to buy my tyres/steelies. Just checked mytyres and the prices seem to have just gone up by about 10%.

 

ballsacks!

Me and my friend did a test. We drive the same car only diff is his is red mine black. We booked a weekend skiing up the lecht i had winters on all 4 he thought being the amazing driver he is he would manage up the hill with summer tyres on. Well he failed. Where I got to the top back down and back up again with him and our other friends in the back.

Winters make all the difference. They keep you moving keep you safer and personally I feel more comfortable with them on.

It depends where you live as what your hobbies are if you can justify buying them or not. Living in the north east of Scotland and skiing as a hobby a few quid well invested for me.

Experience plays a big part in how to drive in snow also. But let's just reduce the risk by using winter rubber

wating for payday next thurs to buy my tyres/steelies. Just checked mytyres and the prices seem to have just gone up by about 10%.

 

ballsacks!

Yeah I just went on Openeo to see what the 16" tyres I bought 3 weeks ago are priced at now, up from £58 to £73 !

Prices are defiantly on the climb.

About the discussion of Winter tires, I live in Luxembourg and in central Europe winter tires are compulsory by law, there is no escaping (the fine is much higher than the price of new tires). I lived in Scotland and Ireland for quite some time and always imagined that winter tires were just a gimmick to get money out of motorists. 

 

When I had to fit winters on my last car the difference was amazing. You do feel the difference (maybe not from the +7 degrees down as tire makers state) but in cold weather, heavy rain (aquaplaning is greatly reduced) and in snow there is no type of comparison possible. I have not changed the tire size, but then again I do not own a vRS, I have a standard 1.6 TDI on 16' 205 section tires. 

 

My last car was a Clio 1.5 DCI and with winters was just perfect - but it had very skinny tires (185's on 15'). 

 

I am now converted to it, my winters have been fitted since a month ago and now that temperatures are plummeting the advantages are very considerable. One thing to take into consideration is fuel consumption and tire noise are going to be affected. But if we look at it correctly running the wrong tires will make that also to your car by having to accelerate harder to make progress (skidding and so on), the effect of standing water (when you hit a puddle the car has a much more noticeable jolt than with winters), and the knowledge that you can stop & accelerate safely in an emergency. Specially if you have kids in the back. 

 

As for some of the comments going around, liking your car does not mean having to have it like a teenage girl going out, all tarted up. I quite like my car and cars in general, but right now my car has a job to do, which is getting me and my family in safety (1st) to wherever we want to go using the least amount of fuel possible (not a "green thing to save the planet", just a "normal" thing to save my wallet) (2nd). And the Octavia is doing a great job of it. Apart from the higher insurance cost over the Clio (and tire cost) it matches or betters it in economy and in comfort not to mention load capacity (it is a combi). 

hi Mike,

 

I was actually not comparing mine to one, but the way some people tart them up like teenagers going for a night out.... MIne is there to do a job, reason why I bought a 1.6 TDI Combi. 

 

I can see a small increase in l/km (normally in city driving am getting 4.7 when I used to get 4.6; out of town from 3.9 now and 3.6 before and on motorways was normally 4.2/4.1 and now 4.4/4.5

 

what I meant about the "teenage" thing is that, people can like their cars just the way they are - without needing to change their looks or thinking that fitting smaller wheels all of the sudden makes the car "ugly". But then again taste is not really debatable. My car is completely standard and I like it like that. It does exactly what is was bought to do with room to spare in terms of capabilities.

 

The difference of price when I bought mine to a vRS was not that big, what really made the deal for me was the fact that I wouldn't need to compromise the car on a day-to-day basis to have something that would be "very fast" on very sporadic occasions (on this please take into consideration I actually live 30 kms from Germany where some of the Autobahns have no indicated top speed limits, but also do not think you can actually max your cars there, congestion takes care of reigning in any exuberance on the driving - lorries just cut you off and block the lanes leading to very sudden stops, I know as it was happening to me quite often).

 

With all the police and speed cameras around a nice and relaxed car does it for me.

 

as for the lower fuel consumption it may be actually down to the tire size being smaller, less contact surface with the road leads to less resistance and the engine loads are smaller too(like for like driving) even if it may end up affecting the stopping distance(maybe not considerably).

 

The winter tires on mine are the same size of the intermediate tires I use the rest of the year (yes, here is rains constantly so it makes more sense than having summer tires on). 205/55/16. It runs perfect on snow, tried it last weekend in Switzerland and no issues, but am waiting for some real snow here in Lux to find out how they fare at 6am when I am sleepy and in heavy traffic going into town.

 

Rui 

Just ordered a set of 16 inch steelies and 4 falken hs 449 tyres from mytyres, works out at £425 including delivery after quidco used.

Just ordered a set of 16 inch steelies and 4 falken hs 449 tyres from mytyres, works out at £425 including delivery after quidco used.

I've run 16" HS439s for the last two winters and they have been pretty good.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

I've run 16" HS439s for the last two winters and they have been pretty good.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

 

Great news, i was getting avon ice tourings but the price inexplicably jumped up in the last week. nice to hear they will be ok.