Has anybody gone to the trouble of fitting winter tyres on a Fabia vRS?

Is it worth the effort and expense?

Has anybody gone to the trouble of fitting winter tyres on a Fabia vRS?

Is it worth the effort and expense?

I won't bother, but with previous cars I did as some of the tyres I used were classified as "summer compounds" and behaved dangerously in snowy or icy conditions. Or maybe it was the driver .

e.g Goodyear F1 Eagle GS-D3's came with a manufacturer's health warning about winter use and I nearly paid a high price when I ignored it.

I'd say depending on what rubber is fitted and what winter conditions are like where you live, it is worth considering.

There's been a relatively large thread on this issue on Scoobynet recently.

I've driven the Fabia on snow ONCE. That was enough, on the standard tyres. Not a very convincing experience at all! On this basis, yes, get them.

On the negative side, sprited driving will a) be crap and wear the tyres out very quickly. From what I can gather, these tyres have a reinforced centre portion of the tread to grip in snow/slush/ice. However, they also have relatively "floppy" sidewalls and a tyre compound that doesn't like getting too hot.

J.

I won't bother, but with previous cars I did as some of the tyres I used were classified as "summer compounds" and behaved dangerously in snowy or icy conditions. Or maybe it was the driver .

e.g Goodyear F1 Eagle GS-D3's came with a manufacturer's health warning about winter use and I nearly paid a high price when I ignored it.

I'd say depending on what rubber is fitted and what winter conditions are like where you live, it is worth considering.

lol... this is SO true, I used F1's once, and they were fantastic tyres . as long as the temperature remained above freezing... below freezing, and they simply stopped working! all "summer tyres" will work less well below 5 celcius than "winter" tyres, so If you think you're going to get contant temps below 5 celcius, I guess winter tyres are a good option, I know a friend of mine has a spare set of wheels for his merc a-class, and always puts winter rubber on during these months, he swears by them......

I would consider it, if I could afford another set of wheels and tyres.....

Only problem that I can see - and I've looked at doing this, is that if you have a "top end" model you probably can not drop a wheel size to use the advised size of winter tyre due to getting fouling problems with your brake calipers.

This would not be a problem if you have a "lower end" model and normally run with "+1" or "+2" wheels as you would just revert to the standard fit tyre/wheel sizes.

In my case I use 205/55 16 so would need to come down to 195/65 15 - but my car's brakes would not tolerate 15" wheels.

if we lived in a country where winter was always sub zero temps then i would consider it, but we dont so i just drive a bit more careful.

if we lived in a country where winter was always sub zero temps then i would consider it, but we dont so i just drive a bit more careful.

Speak for yourself. -2 here atm.

Speak for yourself. -2 here atm.

Humm, gritter passed me at 16:00 and temperature was still +3.5C, it must be winter!

Only problem that I can see - and I've looked at doing this, is that if you have a "top end" model you probably can not drop a wheel size to use the advised size of winter tyre due to getting fouling problems with your brake calipers.

This would not be a problem if you have a "lower end" model and normally run with "+1" or "+2" wheels as you would just revert to the standard fit tyre/wheel sizes.

In my case I use 205/55 16 so would need to come down to 195/65 15 - but my car's brakes would not tolerate 15" wheels.

I have Pirelli Snowsport 195/45/16s on my winter 16" wheels and they are just fine.

I used them last year on my Golf GTI, as I needed 16" wheels to cover the 312mm front brakes...and I could drive wherever I wanted where the 215/40/16 toyo T1-Rs wouldn't get me out of the driveway before.

I'll be popping them onto the vRS any day now...

This proves you can get a sensibly sized 16" snow type for a vRS...and the tyre wear isn't an issue really, as you'll take them off around Easter when the temperature is rising.

if we lived in a country where winter was always sub zero temps then i would consider it, but we dont so i just drive a bit more careful.

This is the reason why I never bother (and just work at home! ). One other thing to bear in mind is that winter tyres don't like running when it isn't cold so here in the glorious south where the weather changes daily, they'd be wearing very quickly and possibly running quite warm.

Believe TaviaRS used to run them on his Octavia in the winter months and I'm sure there was a thread he wrote about recommended tyres

Chris

You can fit the best tyres money can buy, it is still how you drive that counts. The best tyres wont do jack if you drive like a kn0b.

Had F1's on my last vRS and had 2 offs last winter and scared the **** out of myself on a number of ocassions. got a second set of standard alloys this year and put on Toyo Snowprox. So far noticed the difference on slush and the wet roads during torrential downpours. Lot more understeer in the dry and at higher temperatures is the draw back.