Further to a previous post I am still convinced to buy some of these for my BMW 5 series.
Trying to track some down has been interesting to say the least. Steel wheels with them fitted won't fit a 5 Series (or are just not available). BMW sell a set of 16" alloys and tyres (to replace my 17" with 'summer' tyres), but at £1500. Riefen in Germany offer their own 16" alloys fitted with Winter Tyres at 1,250Euros plus shipping.
I have then found Event Tyres offering runflat economy winter tyres the same size as my current 17" tyres at £130 a corner making it about £500 fitted with just the cost of swapping the tyres as we go into spring and again at autumn. This is clearly the cheaper option.
Do winter tyres have any downsides? Are they as good in the rain? Are they as grippy on dry tarmac?
Will 'Economy' winter tyres be any good? I have always chosen premium rubber as it seems the best to keep me stuck to the road, so need I be worried about dropping to Economy? Premium Winter Tyres I just cannot find.
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Will 'Economy' winter tyres be any good?
You want maximum grip in the wet white stuff why compromise?
M & S if memory is correct is mud and snow so you should have good v good grip in all wet conditions plus dry so all rounder.
Another set of wheels is better option but if you can't get any to fit then swap over in late nov to replace by mach ish.
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>> Do winter tyres have any downsides? Are they as good in the rain? Are they
>> as grippy on dry tarmac?
I found them to have less grip in "normal" conditions, and to be rather noisier. They wore out before the Winter, and were replaced with ordinary Summer ones.
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Do winter tyres have any downsides? Are they as good in the rain? Are they as grippy on dry tarmac?
The simple answer is that winter tyres are not as good in summer as summer tyres.
There have been a few tests that have compared winter and summer tyres, on wet and dry roads as well as on snow. But they don't tend to tell you the temperature they test at, and they never seem to test on wet and dry roads in both low and high temperatures.
The results, in other words, don't tell me everything I want to know.
AutoExpress, who did a test recently, concluded that summer tyres were better for dry handling than winter tyres - but that there wasn't much difference. When it came to dry braking, summer tyres were better, and there was more difference.
The AutoExpress test showed that for wet braking and handling, it didn't make much difference, and that the best winter tyres were as good as good summer tyres.
So it partly depends on which winter tyres you get.
Will 'Economy' winter tyres be any good? I have always chosen premium rubber as it seems the best to keep me stuck to the road, so need I be worried about dropping to Economy? Premium Winter Tyres I just cannot find.
I suspect it depends on which economy winter tyres you get. Some of them are probably about as good as premium tyres, others will probably be pretty poor.
(I might add that I have run a car over the summer with winter tyres, and I didn't notice them being significantly different to summer tyres.)
Last edited by: tyro on Tue 11 Jan 11 at 12:56
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>> (I might add that I have run a car over the summer with winter tyres,
>> and I didn't notice them being significantly different to summer tyres.)
>>
Our VW Transporter came from the factory with Goodyear Vector winter tyres, and there is no way I would contemplate fitting normal tyres. Whereas if it had come with normal tyres, I would have fitted winter tyres.
Does that help answer the question.
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>> I found them to have less grip in "normal" conditions, and to be rather noisier.
>> They wore out before the Winter, and were replaced with ordinary Summer ones.
>>
Strange. I experienced the opposite. I found them quieter than normal tyres (although my winter tyres are slightly different size than the normal tyres). I have found them to be long wearing - they are now in their 5th winter (they are on Jan-March, so have had approx. 12,000 miles of use) and still have plenty of grip. FT what were you doing to your to wear them out so quickly?
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>> >> I found them to have less grip in "normal" conditions, and to be rather
>> >> noisier.
>> I experienced the opposite.
Most testers and reports say they're less grippy in normal conditions, which I (on the basis of one set) agree with.
>> FT what were you doing to your to wear them out so quickly?
Driving!
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>> Strange. I experienced the opposite. I found them quieter than normal tyres (although my winter
>> tyres are slightly different size than the normal tyres). I have found them to be
>> long wearing
Same here, and once again my winter tyres are 205/55s in a 16" whereas the summers are 225/45s in a 17". The Michelin Alpin PA3s were much quieter than the summers, and I managed over 20,000 miles on the front of my Saab Aero estate (265bhp/420Nm of torque which is Quite A Lot!).
The Continental TS830s that I currently have fitted are no noisier. No idea on the wear rate as they only went on a couple of months ago.
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Thought of getting All Season Tyres? Kleber Quadraxers and Vredestein Quatrac 3s have been recommended on here.
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I don't know if our decision on the issue is of interest. Wanted a set of 4 winter tyres for Mrs F's Citroen and decided on these...
www.event-tyres.co.uk/news/new-kleber-quadraxer-all-season-tyre-1111.php
They are an all-season tyre so the balance is a little less all out winter tyre but importantly they have the snowflake marking to indicate they pass standards required in Europe where winter tyres are law.
I was staggered by their ability on the last lot of snow and ice... more important they are behaving little different to the summer tyres we took off. They're not noisy, the ride is the same, they grip well in the rain and on dry roads.
Best of all for us it saves having a second set of wheels to store.
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I doubt very many people in Poland splash out on premium rubber. I've always gone for the cheapest available (£311 for the Lexus) and have always found them nothing short of amazing.
I'd go for the cheapest option if I were you, the improvement will still be spectacular.
The winter tyres on my last car lasted nearly 6 years and for two of those years I didn't bother putting summers back on. I've never noticed a noise problem with winter tyres in fact the ones on the Lexus are much quieter than the rubbish that was on it when I bought it (which went straight in the bin).
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I thought that if I wanted full winter benefit I should go for full winter tyres.
As it happens they don't do the Quadraxers in my tyre size, but thanks for the suggestion.
The winter Run Flat tyres are £130 each as opposed to the £200 I normally pay for the Goodyear Run Flats. Hence why in my mind I am querying the 'budget / economy' label.
I will perhaps call them to see if they can give me a brand name they use.
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I would be wary of being supplied an unnamed budget tyre without being able to research opinion on them. My worry with budget winter tyres was that budget summer tyres are often very poor in the wet... if this character is present in their winter tyres I wouldn't want them on.
Even Event tyres on their website make this comment...
Budget tyres will certanly do the job they are intended for but we advise drivers who do a lot of motorway driving, drivers of high performance cars and those who like to push their cars that little bit harder to consider our selection of mid-range tyres or even our premium branded tyres where the difference in cost can often be very little - theres often a special offer available too.
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The price of those klebers don't look bad although I would guess they may get cheaper in the summer.
Definitely one to consider at next tyre change.
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I'd want to know what brand too, judging by how grim budget summer tyres can be i'm not sure as i'd want to trust an unknown winter.
It's been my experience that such is the quiet confident constant grip of a quality winter set in all cold weathers, that i have a dickens of a job persuading SWM that's it's time to change back to the summer set in the spring.
I haven't found one drawback or weakness compared to normal tyres, if anything they seem far better in all respects, i don't do track days and couldn't care less if some aspects were not as good in summer as i wouldn't be using them in the wrong season.
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Right, I have spoken to Event who have advised that the winter economy tyres are Minerva Eco Winter Run Flat tyres.
Made in Europe apparently.
Has anyone heard of them? A quick search of Google just brought up lots of people selling Minerva tyres, but not much in terms of a review, at least not for winnter ones.
He did suggest I could also look at 'All Seasons' tyres and lose the RunFlat option in the winter. Dunlops are in stock in my size in that format and I would need to have a can of tyreweld handy just in case. These are quite a bit more expensive and they are less sticky than winter tyres.
He thought for winter use the Minerva's would be fine for me. They can only be grippier than my summer Goodyears in cold conditions.
Can anyone tell me I am about to do the wrong thing? (preferably with some reasons!!!) :)
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>>>Can anyone tell me I am about to do the wrong thing? (preferably with some reasons!!!) :)
You could be buying a bottom of the range budget tyre with a shocking dry road/wet road braking/handling ability in between the snow periods which will be most of the time. There is no real information & no reviews on this make... and they don't have a major name behind them.
You have a larger car with performance ability so perhaps this isn't wise??
NB: I think they're actually made in China for a European company.
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I cant find anything about that manufacturer. There's a facebook group for minerva that mentions being from the netherlands but currently in India - that matches another tyre makers primary locations, Vredestein so i wondered if it was Vredestein's budget offshoot now that Vr have stepped up a peg and are generally seen as being a fairly decent tyre brand.
There's an address in Belgium for a Minerva Tyres, but no further details, and from what i can see, there was a car manufacturer in Belgium called Minerva that made Land Rovers on licence for the Belgian army - so it could be them that the address is for, although they seem to have gone out of business 40 years ago.
Guess you're the guinea pig on this one :-)
Last edited by: Skoda on Wed 12 Jan 11 at 18:15
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Minerva are from the Antwerp based tyre company Deldo who also produce (obviously actually made in Asia as with the Minerva)... Wanli, Fortuna, Roadstone, Rockstone and Sailun!!
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Wow. You guys do your research! Thanks.
Thinking about it, the worst of the winter weather is over (he says glibly and with fingers crossed!). By the time I get them ordered and fitted we will be at the end of the month with only Feb and March to go before changing back to Summer tyres.
Next year I expect more people will be stocking the tyres and I expect pricing will have settled down a bit. Therefore I am going to hang-fire for the time being. I have my autosocks should we get a big flurry again this winter and I will look again at the end of next summer.
Thanks for all contributions, and if anyone tries the Minerva's it would be good to have feedback!
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I think that's a good decision. We bought ours for Mrs F's Citroen right at the end of the time there was even a small choice. Just a couple of weeks later when I looked for my C5 it was either no stock or the unheard of brands so I decided to leave it to my snowmotion traction control.
The C5 should wear all its tyres down to 3mm or so by late summer so I'll look again then... and probably go for the all-season choice.... it's a private lease car (I pay for the tyres though) so a second wheel set is out of the question.
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Was 11.6 degrees in Glasgow today, time to put the summer tyres back on??
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It's 13 degrees in the Fen and the fish have been fed!
Pat
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Winter Tyres - I know the pros, what are the cons? - Bigtee
