Which winter tyres??

[jimbob2010]

Evening people

Please can someone help me before I tear my hair out!!!

I own a 56 plate ford fiesta zetec 1.4 which seems to struggle a lot in the recent snow/ice, it doesnt help that I live on a hill. As my wife uses the car for work I have been thinking about fitting it with winter tyres. Currently the car has bridgestone er300's on front and er30's on back which from some research i understand are great summer tyres!! Current size is 195/50r15 v

I have scoured the internet and I can't find any info about which tyres will fit my car, no wonder winter tyres are only used by 3% of UK.

Can anyone offer any advice?? It's driving me nuts!!!

Looking forward to reading the responses.

Jim

[aguycalledmal]

Evening people

Please can someone help me before I tear my hair out!!!

I own a 56 plate ford fiesta zetec 1.4 which seems to struggle a lot in the recent snow/ice, it doesnt help that I live on a hill. As my wife uses the car for work I have been thinking about fitting it with winter tyres. Currently the car has bridgestone er300's on front and er30's on back which from some research i understand are great summer tyres!! Current size is 195/50r15 v

I have scoured the internet and I can't find any info about which tyres will fit my car, no wonder winter tyres are only used by 3% of UK.

Can anyone offer any advice?? It's driving me nuts!!!

Looking forward to reading the responses.

Jim

http://www.vredestein.co.uk/Onlineadvies_Advies_result.asp?AutomerkID=57&AutomodelID=39&AutotypeID=2164&AutouitvoeringID=56296&SearchtypeID=1&UserSessionID=80188715

[KeithC]

Personally, I wouldn't waste my money. There's no guarantee that you would still be able to use your cars in snow like we have had even with winter tyres and don't forget that this was the worst snowfall we have had for decades, again, I doubt that it'll be like this every year.

Plus,it's abit late no, I would imagine we have had the worst of it.

[jimbob2010]

cheers for the info so far,

Meant to mention that I was also looking into the tires due to a couple of planned trips to Scotland in the next few weeks and I know it get's really cold up there!!!

[flyor64]

cheers for the info so far,

Meant to mention that I was also looking into the tires due to a couple of planned trips to Scotland in the next few weeks and I know it get's really cold up there!!!

These are some of the best in the business:

Nokian Haakapeliitta 7

and

Continental ContiWinterContact

Not sure if you can get the Nokians in the UK, but it looks like the Conti's are available.

Would recommend either set. My wife runs the Contis and I have the Nokians on my car...

Autosocks are a good alternative for good winter traction when you really need it.

Good Luck

[jimbob2010]

Just got off the phone with National.co.uk, they can do Pirelle Snowsport 210's or Avon CR85's, anyone ever used these??

Cheers

[Jonny87]

Are you wanting to get these fitted onto your alloys? or are you going to buy a set of Steel wheels to keep them on?

[jimbob2010]

I figured it was just a matter of swapping them over , i.e fitting them on the existing alloys and storing the old one's in the shed.

Am I wrong??

[Jonny87]

you're not wrong you can do it that way. It just means you have to get all your tyres changed and re-balanced twice a year. Where as if you got them fitted onto some steel wheels you can change them over yourself, for free, and no rebalancing required.

anyway here is a site that does this

http://www.mytyres.co.uk/Steel_wheels.html

[jimbob2010]

thanks for all the information

I appreciate it loads.

Jim

[Tyrefryer]

Pirelle Snowsport 210's , anyone ever used these??

Cheers

I have those in 195/45 R16, they are great tires :)

And I live in Austria (that´s where the Alps are; not the Kangaroos ;) )

[Jonny87]

cool. Do you have a second set of alloys with them on?

[Tyrefryer]

cool. Do you have a second set of alloys with them on?

Those are the original alloys which came with the car.

I changed the summer tires to my new Brock alloys, be seen in my avatar (also in 16"),

so now I have the same dimension for summer & winter.

Unfortunately 16" winter tires for the Fiesta have a rather special dimension,

so there is not really a big choice, which makes them rather ***** expensive

[harweyko]

I`ve also Pirelli Snowsport 210's in 195/45 R16 directly from Ford dealer and have to say they`re great. Have also set of alloys for them so I`m changing them at home when needed. I`ve checked also few sites and in this dimension I`ve found only Pirelli and Michelin, for summer there are more marks available.

Regarding brand to choose, I think even the worse winter tire is 100x better than the best summer tire when driving on snow, but when the road is only wet the summer tire should be enough, but tbh I`ll never buy some chinese s..t like Nankang, Sunny etc.

[jimbob2010]

Right...

....Going to ring national in the morning, hopefully they still have some snowsports available.

Not going for spare rims , can't afford it at moment. Will just try and store old ones's as best I can.

I'm really hoping that they rae going to make a difference as the fiesta doesn't seem to like a bit of snow at minute.

This might be an expensive experiment.........

;)

[flyor64]

Right...

....Going to ring national in the morning, hopefully they still have some snowsports available.

Not going for spare rims , can't afford it at moment. Will just try and store old ones's as best I can.

I'm really hoping that they rae going to make a difference as the fiesta doesn't seem to like a bit of snow at minute.

This might be an expensive experiment.........

;)

Good luck...as someone said earlier though, you'll want to get some spare rims when you can. Swapping the tyres twice a year on the same set of rims is a right pain in the !Removed! :D

Check eBay for some used steel rims (or even some OEM alloys) that someone has replaced...good chance you'll find some eventually for very little cost...

[DONFRAMAC]

I know a long-distance commuter, who travels from the west of Highland Region to Edinburgh regularly on contract I.T. work, as well as trips to the skiing at Aviemore/ALPS, so, as he is on his second Mondeo 2.0 TD estate, current model, he uses narrow steel wheels fitted with winter tyres, for the winter months. The narrowness is a major factor here, as it helps the tread push thro' the snow and make good contact below. My wife's Toyota Aygo, with its narrow 155/65X14 wheels is great on snow, but my Fiesta with 195/50x15's are a right pig.

I would scour the scrap-yards for a set of suitable narrow-rimmed steel wheels, after consulting your local car dealership to see what they advise as a donor vehicle, as the brakes and hubs have compatibility issues.

P.S., that Mondeo has a heavy cast-iron engine-block, so that puts more nose-weight on the driven wheels than the petrol Fiesta's aluminium engine.

[oweri02]

Check SnowSocks out on http://www.roofbox.co.uk/car-snow-socks/ the video is quite impressive, he puts them on a front-wheel drive car, and then locks the handbrake and drives uphill...

£65 I think, bargain, and always available in the boot, so never caught short ;-)

oweri02

[flyor64]

Check SnowSocks out on http://www.roofbox.co.uk/car-snow-socks/ the video is quite impressive, he puts them on a front-wheel drive car, and then locks the handbrake and drives uphill...

£65 I think, bargain, and always available in the boot, so never caught short ;-)

oweri02

I have them and have used them...and they "work as advertised"...with one exception. IMHO they are not as easy to put on as the adverts suggest....especially with the limited wheelwell space of fez. But agree with the above posters...great for piece of mind ;)