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Favourite tyre brand?

All depends on the car and how you use it. IME,

Toyota Land Cruiser - General Grabber AT2 were outstanding year round. 100K miles a set, never put a foot wrong.
Subarus - have found Yokohamas excellent (swapped the standard issue to GO15 / AT for all year ability).
Porsche - Pilot Sports, brilliant
Mercedes - Continental seemed to suit, did a slightly softer compound for Merc IIRC
BMW’s - Continental / Pirelli worked well
Audi - continental again
VW California’s - Goodyear / Dunlop were spot on

In conclusion, it’s horses for courses. Just stick to a premium brand, avoid cheap ditch finders whatever you do and you won’t go far wrong.
 
The winter tyre will outperform the more expensive 4 season, but only when there is snow on the ground, and how often is that in the UK? A good 4 season tyre is much more suited to a UK winter imo. What you need is better grip at low temps and in the wet (or both) which a good 4 season will give you. I used Crossclimates on my last three cars and they were excellent, I had no complaints. Their snow performance was very good too- I grew up in Braemar in the Cairngorms and visit my parents regularly, so they had plenty use on snow and ice.

I have a house in the Cairngorms and last winter I only drove my car (which has Cross Climate's) on snow a couple of times (and they were a vast improvement on the summer tyres I had on that car before), and then only briefly. So I'd agree that for most of us all-season tyres are the practical option, especially as they seem very good in the wet.
 
I have a house in the Cairngorms and last winter I only drove my car (which has Cross Climate's) on snow a couple of times (and they were a vast improvement on the summer tyres I had on that car before), and then only briefly. So I'd agree that for most of us all-season tyres are the practical option, especially as they seem very good in the wet.

This is why I've gone for all seasons this time around rather than specific winters; the last few journeys up to my folks place in Dunkeld and then beyond that (up to Cairngorms, Newtonmore, Braemar etc) have been generally cold & wet and only snowy a handful of times...

So the choice for the Goodyear all-season tyres this time around made more sense to me

I would never venture up there at that time of year on my summer alloys & tyres!
 
All depends on the car and how you use it. IME,

Just stick to a premium brand, avoid cheap ditch finders whatever you do and you won’t go far wrong.

Or drive for 51 years and never have any issues, no matter which tyres you cheap out on... :D
 
The winter tyre will outperform the more expensive 4 season, but only when there is snow on the ground, and how often is that in the UK? A good 4 season tyre is much more suited to a UK winter imo. What you need is better grip at low temps and in the wet (or both) which a good 4 season will give you. I used Crossclimates on my last three cars and they were excellent, I had no complaints. Their snow performance was very good too- I grew up in Braemar in the Cairngorms and visit my parents regularly, so they had plenty use on snow and ice.

Agree; as per my previous reply to the above post...

Went to Braemar in Feb this year to lift the Inver Stone; it was 0ºC but no snow at all; hardly any at Glenshee, so the winter tyres I had worked absolutely fine in the dry & cold.

I'm looking forward to testing the Goodyear 4Season Gen 3 all season tyres this time around; sods law it'll be thick with snow in Dec & Feb haha :D
 
No. Winter tyres outperform all seasons when the road temperature is below (iirc) 5 deg C. No snow needed.

Once again, choose your compromise.
And all seasons outperform winter tyres above 7 deg C, so your compromise might depend on what sort of temperatures you expect over the winter.

All season tyres on the other hand, are hybrid tyres which can adapt to temperatures as low as -10°C and as high as +30°C. Their secret? They combine the features of summer and winter tyres to create a tyre which can drive safely at any time of year, no matter the conditions. In temperatures above 7ºC, all season tyres outperform winter tyres both on dry and soggy terrain, as well as being much quieter.

MICHELIN UK’s guide to winter and all season tyres - what’s right for

It's always going to be a compromise, unless you're running a GP team or a rally team. But for most of the common conditions in the UK, I'd say all seasons are a better bet than winters. If you travel in mountainous areas, or where there is regular lying snow, then your compromise is likely to be different to mine for a usually damp and mild (snow-free) Manchester.
 
And all seasons outperform winter tyres above 7 deg C, so your compromise might depend on what sort of temperatures you expect over the winter.
Then there’s the probability. Drive responsibly on snow free roads and the theoretical lower safety of your all-seasons will hardly result in an accident. Try the same thing on a steep downhill road full of snow, good luck.
 
No. Winter tyres outperform all seasons when the road temperature is below (iirc) 5 deg C. No snow needed.

Once again, choose your compromise.
The posit was a cheap winter tyre against a good all season. I’d take the all season any day of the week.
 
The new GTI will come with summer tires? They usually come with either Continental or Pirelli, or at least they do in the US, I dunno if it's different for Canada.

If you're looking at the CC as a second set of winter tires, then sure go for it. But they would hold the car back during the seasons where they're not needed.

The base 2023 GTI will come with 17 inches four season so they are a compromise for both summer and winter so I tought CCs would be better and solve the problem of having to deal with two sets of tires.
As for tires holding back the car, I would think that at my age the chances of testing this car at the limit are merely improbable ;-)
 
No. Winter tyres outperform all seasons when the road temperature is below (iirc) 5 deg C. No snow needed.

Once again, choose your compromise.
No I don’t think that is correct. They outperform standard tyres below 7 degrees and are good into minus figures.

As I said previously, I’ve used Crossclimates many times on snow and they have been very good. If conditions were so severe that winters would be essential to progress over all seasons then it would be silly to be out at all.
 
The base 2023 GTI will come with 17 inches four season so they are a compromise for both summer and winter so I tought CCs would be better and solve the problem of having to deal with two sets of tires.
As for tires holding back the car, I would think that at my age the chances of testing this car at the limit are merely improbable ;-)

That's different than down here then, where the base GTI comes with 18" wheels, and they step up to 19" for the top trim level.

I suppose the CC must be a better tire than the 17" Conti ProContact touring tires that came on my 2010 GTI.
 
You said midprice versus premium. The point I made is still valid, and I know which I would choose.
 
You said midprice versus premium.
Correct. Not "cheap".

The point I made is still valid,
Unless you can back this up, it's just your opinion. Mine is as I say, a mid price winter tyre will outperform an all seasons *on cold roads below 7C* because they use a different rubber compound. This much is supported by tests. This same rubber isn't great in summer. Compromises again, and nobody gets anything for nothing.

and I know which I would choose.
Like I said, same as the rest of us.
 
Mine is as I say, a mid price winter tyre will outperform an all seasons *on cold roads below 7C* because they use a different rubber compound. This much is supported by tests.

Not all the tests I've seen support that. The tests I've seen show pretty much all the all-season tyres being considerably better than the reference winter tyre at 4C. The same test had a wet handling test done at 3C and again all the all-seasons out performed their reference winter tyre. All the all-seasons also out-performed the winter tyres in the aquaplaning test as well. Interesting the Cross Climates (and a couple of other all-seasons) also out-performed their reference winter tyres in some of their snow condition tests as well. Their overall winner was the Cross Climate 2 (and was one of the reasons I went for that tyre). This is what they said about the Cross Climates "Clear leader in the dry, good wet handling, shortest wet braking at warmer temperatures, best aquaplaning resistance in both tests, one of the best tyres overall in the snow, low levels of noise, low rolling resistance". The downsides were "Average wet braking at cooler temperatures, expensive." and the overall conclusion "The new Michelin CrossClimate 2 had a near flawless test, with the only weakness coming in the wet at cooler temperatures where it couldn't quite match the best. It was the most summer-like tyre in the dry, led both deep water tests, was one of the best in the snow, and had low noise and low rolling resistance. A really impressive performance from the new tyre, and a worthy upgrade to the CrossClimate+".

https://www.tyrereviews.com/Article/2021-Tyre-Reviews-All-Season-Tyre-Test.htm

That test also had their best budget tyre as part of the group, and it was pretty much always the worst and by a considerable margin in most cases.

My use case is a little different to most as I have a cottage in the highest village in the Highlands, near the top of the infamous "Cockbridge to Tomintoul" road which usually seems to be the first to be closed when there is snow. I pretty much drive up there from Edinburgh every week so wanted a tyre that coped well with the mix of conditions I was expecting. Since getting the Cross Climates there hasn't been a lot of heavy snow, but there has been a bit, however in general winter conditions (including icy conditions over some steep bits of road that see a lot of other cars getting stuck) the Cross Climates have been excellent. The only downside was that the fitment isn't available for my wife's car! They are maybe a tiny bit noiser than the previous summer tyres (Hankook, which I think is the OEM Mercedes fitment for my car) that were on the car, but if anything the dry weather/summer handling is better than it was with those.
 


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