Steel Wheels. 16 inch. I'm thinking of getting rid of mine.

[oldstan]

I'm in a dilemma.  I bought new 16 inch VW/Skoda steel wheels and new Dunlop winter tyres when I bought the Yeti in 2011. They've been swapped over annually as one does with these things.

 

Neither the summer Dunlops that came with the car nor the winter Dunlops that are on the steelies are worn down beyond about 4 or 5 mm (my total mileage is only 45.000 miles) but obviouisly they are old and probably ought to be replaced.

 

I'm no longer too bothered about continuing with the annual swap and will buy 4 Goodyear All Seasons or Michelin Cross Climates.

 

I'm uncertain whether to put the All Seasons on the (absolutely unmarked) original OEM  alloys that came with the car - OR - put them on the steelies.

 

If I put them on the alloys that means I can get shot of the steelies (along with the aging  winter Dunlops that are on them) and free up the space in my garage.

 

But sods law says if I do put new tyres on the alloys and run with them I'll catch a kerb or hit a pot hole and it'll cost me a fortune to replace.

 

I'm quite happy with the look of steel wheels and plastic wheel trims. 

 

Any thoughts what steel wheels sell for?  I believe you'd pay £250 for a new set but I coukld be wrong.  I still have the invoice from the VW / Skoda dealer and it says they are V3C0 601 027 M0 3C and I believe they're   7J   16H2   ET 45.  They are the ones the main dealer recommeded as being for the (1.2 petrol) Yeti at the time.

 

Thoughts welcome.

 

Ta.

[nta16]

Thoughts.

 

Nothing wrong with steels wheels, if the steel wheels and tyres are smaller than the alloy with tyres the steel combo might even weight about the same or less than the alloy combo.

 

Value tends to be about cosmetics and often fashion, the absolutely unmarked original OEM alloys would probably sell for more than the steels.

 

Steel you can paint and hit with a hammer alloys are more about nail brush application and caressing.  😁

[oldstan]

All received, ta.

I've thought a bit more and almost decided to keep the alloys (and their respective OEM Dunlops) and wait until the winter tyres on the steelies have worn down a bit more then get All Seasons of one sort or another. 

Camskill sell Nexen All Seasons for about £77 which is  half the cost of Goodyears or Michelins. I'm not entirely sure they're twice as good and as my mileage is so low the Nexens will probably see me out 🤔 But I'm thinking I'll delay the matter for a while.

I've fitted new plastic wheel trims, secured them with cable ties and cleaned the steel wheels. That'll do for now .

Edited 22 November, 2023 by oldstan

[nta16]

Low or very low mileage might not be good for your tyres particularly if your car permanently lives outside.  Perhaps it was just circumstances but tyres bought 3 and 4 years ago have cracked with low-ish mileage on my wife's Fabia and garden ornament mileage on my neighbours car so plenty of tread depth left on the tyres, both cars are permanently outside and the crack in the tyres of my wife's car were on the inside side of the tyres so out of sight normally.

 

Very low mileage causes the car generally problems that might not be present with more mileage and reasonable distance journey use, you'd not want a 2019 or newer car for very low mileage so look after your 2011.

 

[oldstan]

Understood. Ta.

It spends most of its resting periods in the garage - but, yes, I'll continue to look after it.

And, yes, the other, little used, car in the household which IS left mainly on the driveway did develop cracks in the Goodyear Vectors after about  5 years.

And, I'm sure you're right that low  mileage might not ultimately benefit cars but they're inanimate objects to be utilized for our use and gets as much or as little use as is required. 👍

[nta16]

If it's very little use it could be less expensive and less hassle to not have the car and use taxis, hire cars, public transport, kids, kids of kids, other family, bikes, eclectic bikes, mobility scooters and so on.

 

My neighbour has just had 4 new tyres on his car this week, he does two or four fifths of a mile going round the block about once a month or less, I now do a 15 mile journey about every three or four weeks in it mainly to stop a brake piston cylinder rusting up again.  The car done just over 700 miles in the four years since the last set of two new tyres (cheap Chinese concrete tyres that got cracks at the bottom of the tread within a couple of years) almost all of that mileage was from his daughter-in-law borrowing the car for a few days and his son taking the car to a friendly garage for brake work and MoTs.  But this year even they had to put an advisory on the tyres, all four, though other two tyres weren't too bad for cracking or perishing.  That was on top of the £540 insurance that hopefully was kept down a bit by adding me as a named driver. then of course there's the 'road tax'.  Thankfully it's not a modern VW product so everything works on it despite it being a 'cheaper' marque than even VW's Skoda and the brakes before being sorted and having the cheap concrete Chinese tyres on would shame a VW and the tiny cheap Halfords battery is easy to keep going passed it normal life as the car doesn't have the modern 'clever' over complex VW computer programs my wife's 2015 Fabia has.

 

Yes keep your 2011 Yeti as long as you can or want and unless you win the pools don't be tempted by 2019 or newer.  😄  

[oldstan]

Just to conclude :-

 

I won't be living without our two cars anytime soon, no matter what the mileage.  I use one or other of them pretty much daily and don't like public transport. I live in a small Devon town where public transport isn't an option if you value the ability to go anywhere at a time of your choosing.

 

I don't need two cars but I can afford two cars.  I don't need a new car as I'm happy with what I have ... but if I fancied a new car I'd go out and get one.

 

I think we've gone as far as we can on this one .... ta muchly.