Winter tyre reviews- factual reviews only, please, not general discussion :)

[Audax]

mytyres have the ice touring for £52 each but they appear to have a load index of only 91, there are some nokians with a load index of 95 for £62 each. I found when buying tyres from mytyres it was worth checking the price every few days to spot movements on them and purchased at the best possible moment.

[Max Headroom]

I have not read anything positive about the Avons - just all negative feedback, the only good word I have heard in their favour is Norfolk Jims account which is interesting.
But on the other hand the Toyos seem to be a pretty good all-round winter tyre.
Much of my own research was done in other make forums before I bought my own Goodyear winter tyres - which I can't really comment on because I simply haven't had chance to try them out being in the Gulf... and probably wont next year either 

[Norfolk Jim]

I must admit Footroom before I bought the wheels i had read a complete mixture of reports about the Avon's but the good ones were only relating to larger cars with ones like golfs and A4's bad. I actually wasn't worried because I got a superb set of alloys anyway.

The guy I bought them off had them on his 9-5 dame edna and they wouldn't then fit his new TTiD due to brake size. When we spoke he said he'd been amazed by them and sure enough I was as well not just in snow but the wet. Perhaps loading does affect them the same as some summer tyres are poor on 9-5's but good on others?

Winters a little way off yet and s**s law says we'll have an Indian summer so they won't get used much!

[Audax]

I've read that the Avon Ice touring are good too, I'd suggest that they are in that price bracket very slightly below the significantly more expensive premium brands but they are still very good tyres (i.e. they don't spend as much on marketing as Michelin, Pirelli and Continental!) but the only downside I've found with that part of the market is that some tyres might wear out quickly or be noisy when getting worn which is the usual problem of the slightly cheaper but still very good tyres and that many people slate them all because they aren't "premium" enough.

Of course there's always a tyre that is "better" which is why racing teams have a choice of tyres for different weather conditions on a single bit of road! I've seen reviews of tyres where they all tested to be within very similar characteristics but the cheaper tyres were the marginally worse performers, of course the reviewers were probably being given freebies from the premium brands and so gave the branded tyres 10/10 and the cheaper but almost as good tyres 6/10 and 7/10. I've also seen someone on a forum in the past someone telling another forum member that he shouldn't even consider Yokohama as he reasoned along the lines of "cheap Chinese no-name brand tyres are very dangerous" and then when he was corrected saying that as he'd never heard of Yokohama so they couldn't be very good!

Even then, it's worth remembering that winter tyres are for when it's under 9C which is most of our winter, what I'd really like to know is how a really cheap Chinese winter tyre performs in winter conditions when compared to an expensive performance summer tyre in the same winter conditions.

[Mark B]

Now that the snow is round about, deep and crisp, if not even, I thought it a good time to say that I am mightily impressed with the Continental 830P tyres that I bought for last winter.

[Petemate]

Kumho. Inherited these in 2010 from my lad who had them on his Evo for a couple of thousand miles. Got a set of genuine Saab wheels off the bay for £195. Fitted the Kumhos in Nov 2010. Ran them until start May 2011. Guess I must have put about 11k miles on them. Fitted the winters on again Nov 2011 again for around 11k miles. Have just fitted them on the latest car on Dec 5 when I bought it. They still have 5mm on the fronts and 4.6mm on the backs. I reckon I will get this season from them now that I am not working and will only do a few k miles before May. They are terrific on all surfaces once the temp drops below 6-7 degrees. On dry roads when warmer they can be induced to break traction but only just. Top marks Kumho - many thanks for our safety.

[phoenix]

Need to be a bit more specific than just Kumho, Pete

For instance I have KW27s on mine and they perform poorly compared to Vredestein Wintrac Extremes in all aspects. That includes dry grip.

[Petemate]

Ooops - sorry Phoenix. They are I'ZEN XW 17. Didn't know there were different listings. Doh.

[jmblack]

Interesting comparison today coming up the hill in snow to home.  Two 95 estates my wife in front ins petrol auto with faulty abs sensor (getting repaired Friday...) so no traction control. Me in diesel manual. She had 16" nokian winter tyres. I have 17" hankook all weathers.

She went up the hill with relative ease. I followed with a little more effort and mas flashing traction control. So both made it and both able to reverse uphill into drive. Other cars had to give up half way up hill (except the guy with the 5-series who lost all grip before he really started. From his past experience, his attempt was the triumph of hope over that experience!

Anyway, had chance to look at tyre tracks in identical conditions. The nokians cut straight through, but hankook a flattened it much more.

Guess no surprises -nokians full winter tyres and excellent. Hankook a compromise but much better than standard tyres.

[mikeloadsasaabs]

I've been running a complete set of new Michelin PA4s this winter, having had good experiences with its predecessor the PA3, particularly in terms of wear rate. Obviously they've had a harder time than most of the board members, as I live in Austria and spend 6 months a year driving on winter tyres. I'm more than happy with them, and they seem to drive well in all conditions. The only comment I would make is that they are a little noisier than the PA3s and the Conti TS830s that I had before. I went away from Conti this time as the wear rate was ludicrous, but from the tyre tests I read they have solved this issue with the TS850 and it allegedly wears better than the Michelin. In terms of grip, I didn't think the Contis were special. No-one with any sense drives 10/10ths in the winter anyway, so IMHO any reputable make would be more than adequate.

As an aside I run 205/55 16s in 94H on my Aero estate auto. No point in going for Vs as I don't drive over 130mph in the winter 

[mikeloadsasaabs]

Just a further thought on the PA4s - after 6,000 miles I have no sign of the dreaded droning from the rear tyres which has plagued me with every make of tyre I've fitted. I suspect that this is down to the lower wear rate.

Come April, I will need a pair of new tyres so I'm planning on a couple of Michelin Primacy 3s. These will go on the rear so that I can wear out the very noisy Contis that were on the rear during the summer. With a bit of luck, the Primacys still won't be noisy then, so come April 2014 I'll move those to the front and put another set of Primacys on the rear. Hopefully by doing this I'll be able to travel in blissful silence. Simples!

[mikeloadsasaabs]

Just a quick note to say that, after 9000 miles, the PA4s on the rear still did not exhibit any signs of droning. The fronts have worn down to around 6mm, possibly not quite so much, and the rears around 7mm. So if I swop them front to rear, I might get 3 years for the set which I don't think is bad! Other options are available.......

[Audax]

Took my winters off today, they're Nokian WR G2 215/55 R16 97H XL, They've now been on my 9-5 for a total of around 20,000 miles. One set are at 6mm of tread left and the others are at 5mm of tread left so they should see me through at least one more winter. I have rotated them since I got them to try and keep the wear even and used them over 1 summer when I couldn't be bothered to get summer tyres (when they performed perfectly well too) as I wasn't doing a huge mileage.

I'll certainly be looking at getting Nokian again in the future, I suspect that using a higher load rating and getting some with XL ratings too has helped them (what I'd consider!) last a long time so far. I've had no issues with their performance in winter where they are absolutely excellent on the white stuff and ice.

[jmblack]

I've used G2's all year round in the past and they perform and wear well in summer too. Only bother to switch because we always travel high speed to south if France fully laden on hot motorways, where my GY assymetric2's are great.

[mikeloadsasaabs]

An update on the PA4s. I noticed the other day that the fronts were just about down to the legal limit at 4mm. Not impressed, as I see from a previous post in April that I covered 9,000 miles on them last winter. I then fitted them early this year, due to an embarrassing incident with a summer tyre  so since mid-September I have been running on the PA4s again, and IIRC have covered around 4,000 miles since then. That makes a total of 13,000 with perhaps a little to go when I get round to examining them closely. Rather than replace them now, I think I might swop the front and rears, as the rears have worn very little. The downside is that I will then need to buy 4 next year at c.€500. As an aside, and probably reported elsewhere, I bought a brand new set of genuine Saab 16" wheels for the winter, and the car runs really smoooooooooooothly now  and, even better, virtually no rear-wheel drone with 13,000 under their belt.