Winter tyres all year round or not?

[Campbell Westland]

Evening everyone,

I bought my C7 allroad 3 months ago and it has winter tyres all round. Is it best to change them for summer ones or all weather after winter?

Cheers

[spartacus 68]

If budget allows, then I’d opt for another set of Audi alloys with summer tyres for spring. It’s all down to your budget and space for storage. Dedicated winter tyres are fantastic, and transform car’s handling, irrespective of whether you have four wheel drive. They perform best in lower temperatures, except ice. On winter tyres you can usually drop a wheel size. Check with your insurance on what they will accept. Audi main dealer may have offers on, but are usually ridiculously expensive.

Similarly, summer tyres will have better grip and potentially water dispersal properties. Something like Michelin CrossClimate+ is a good compromise. Low road noise, hard wearing, but ultimately three quarters as good if compared to dedicated winter tyres. I’ve had them them before on an A4 Allroad and rated them.

Used to run Khumo WinterCraft WP51 tyres on my daily driver front wheel drive hatchback, and they were pretty unstoppable. It depends where you live, what your winters are like and your dependency on the car. In parts of Europe they are compulsory, but in the UK, it’s still a bit of a hit and miss. Right now I’ve got 3-4” of snow with more to come this week. Allroad has Nexen summer tyres and pretty useless even with four wheel drive. Cash flow is stopping me just now, plus I’m looking for particular alloys.

Personally I’d avoid steel wheels with winter tyres. They rust within 2 years. In addition, diamond cut alloys will have lacquer peel if used with winter tyres and white worm corrosion. Powder coated alloys treated with carnuba wax or ceramic coated are about as resilient as you can realistically expect.

[cliffcoggin]

I rather doubt that winter tyres are worthwhile in Wiltshire at any time of year, unlike spartacus 68's part of the world.

[Campbell Westland]

Cliff totally agree, I'm originally from the north of Scotland we used them there but no point here lol

[ThomasG]

I had winter tyres all year on a volvo once. The howl in the summer...