Help Please All season tyres

[Rt3]

I’m located in the Scottish Borders. Where weather is predictably changeable. Scotland after all.
The tyres on my b8.5 are due for renewal in the next 4-6 weeks. 19” rotors.
Wondering if anyone had experience of all seasons on their car.
Thanks

 

[rum4mo]

I'm not convinced with a medium sized car that all seasons tyres are the way to go for someone living that far North in UK.

My B8 S4 came with 19" 8.5 ET alloys and I keep them for summer use only, the change date for me is end of October ie half the year to cover the wet Autumn and wet post Winter periods, and for that purpose I bought second hand 18" 8.0 ET Audi alloys as mentioned in an earlier posting.

My logic is, I am keeping my car long enough to use up both sets of tyres and so my summer wheels never get contacted by road salt/grit.

I would think if you said that your car had 18" alloys, my case for suggesting the above would have been weakened a bit!

It really depends on what you are trying to achieve, if you are preparing for being mobile as often as possible, barring road closures, then I'd certainly think seriously about getting a used set of 18" alloys and fitting them with winter tyres also, don't be concerned about keeping them on in North UK until the end of April as they can handle any surprise "high" temperatures that you might experience.

I tend to use Michelin Alpin or in the case of my S4 Pilot Alpin and I've never, so far, felt that they were unfit for that task, though, being someone that has made the choice to fit and use winter tyres in colder weather, I probably do let the conditions dictate when/where and how I drive.

 

[Adamantium]

Look for cross climate rather than all season.

I have zero idea what could possibly be the difference but cross climates seem to be 90% as good as summer and winter tyres versus all seasons which seem to be 60%.

Makes no sense but there are YouTube tests to confirm. Think they are Michelins.

 

[DieselJake]

I guess the thing about all season tyres is they aren't the best in the summer and aren't the best in the winter so if people want to run tyres without compromise they will have summer tyres and winter tyres. Most car's come with summer tyres as standard and most people run them year round just driving more carefully when nesecerry, I understand the point about unpredictable weather but would still argue it makes sense for winter and summer use to have a second set of alloys with winter tyres and if you change your mind about the car they can be sold seperately.

 

[Rt3]

Many thanks for this. It’s all appreciated.

I’m now thinking 2nd set of wheels with winters on.

Cheers

Rb

 

[rum4mo]

Look for cross climate rather than all season.

I have zero idea what could possibly be the difference but cross climates seem to be 90% as good as summer and winter tyres versus all seasons which seem to be 60%.

Makes no sense but there are YouTube tests to confirm. Think they are Michelins.

I think that there are possibly still some all season tyres that do not get the "mountain tops and snow flake" certification, so they will be more summer than winter use tyres - while being slightly better than premium summer tyres in ice and snow with low temperatures thrown in.

I started using winter tyres in winter time on my wife's 2002 Polo when I suddenly became aware that Michelin summer offerings were to be quite blunt, not the tyres to find yourself using in winter - even my Costco tyre guy said that unprompted after I had made the change - it was Exaltos version of summer use only Michelin that I was fitting to that car. Then after a very nasty sort of winter, discovered that my Passat 4Motion was not enjoying its cold weather running on Michelin Primacy HPs, so I changed it to winter tyres in winter time. Point being that if you fit winter tyres, you will probably be able to brake better and continue to use the steering when others have had to give up and hope things work out okay, the 4WD Passat, getting moving was never an issue, just eventually the braking and steering was starting to cause issues.

 

[spartacus 68]

My daily commute is a Skoda Fabia diesel and I've ran it with Khumo winter tyres for the last 5 years. We've had temperatures as low as -18 in Aberdeenshire a few years back and drifting snow. The road salt takes its toll on wheels, so definitely the way to go. I was passing 4x4s on the Cairn O' Mount during the worst of it!

My Allroad had Pirelli P Zero tyres. Great during the summer, but shocking in the winter. Changed earlier this year to a Michelin cross climates. Very quiet, but yet to experience what they can do. Difficult to justify a full set of winter tyres as I'd need wheels too. If you can afford it, and it's your main car, then a full set of winter tyres and wheels would be the way to go.