Winter Wheels & Tyres

[Yamavira]

Hi

Along with many others am experiencing major problems in using my IS250 auto in the current weather (snow/ice).

Thinking of a pair of rear steel wheels fitted with real Winter Tyres.

Has anyone been down this route ?. Is it cost effective or is the car still useless in the snow ice.

If it is cost effective where is the best place to buy a pair of steel wheels and the Winter Tyres to go on them.

Would welcome your advice / comments.

Cheers & Thanks for any input.

Yamavira.

[dave1]

Hi

Along with many others am experiencing major problems in using my IS250 auto in the current weather (snow/ice).

Thinking of a pair of rear steel wheels fitted with real Winter Tyres.

Has anyone been down this route ?. Is it cost effective or is the car still useless in the snow ice.

If it is cost effective where is the best place to buy a pair of steel wheels and the Winter Tyres to go on them.

Would welcome your advice / comments.

Cheers & Thanks for any input.

Yamavira.

If you go down the winter tyre route then fit them to the front as well as the rear.

[Rob]

u need to have winter tyres front and back, if you dont ........then dont bother at all.

go for 16" steel rims, if u cant get those get the 16" alloys from the base IS model - they are on eBay all the time.

i drive around all winter and into the mountains and dont have any issues. make sure to get a good rand, dunlop,michellin nokian etc. dont bother with cheap winter tyres as most are complete shi.....

[Yamavira]

Hi

Soon be dark "early" & raining most of the time & then it will be snow & slush yet again.

So what are the most effective things to do to keep the IS250 auto gripping on what ever is under the tyres. Last winter it was hopeless. All of the electronic wizardry was useless. May as well have put the car in the garage along with the bike.

Tyre socks. Are these used just to get you out of a rut or can you run a few miles on them.

Tyres. Any recommendations regarding winter tyres instead of the current Dunlop SP Sport Maxx tyres which are hopeless on anything but a decent black top road.

Looking forward with trepidation to the period of bad road conditions.

Yamavira.

[lexynik]

i saw a front wheel drive renault drive up a hill which was iced up last year - only 4x4s were getting up it - lots of "failures" parked in a heap at the bottom - so can say tyre socks work well on ice with fwd,, not sure how effective theyd be on rwd but not expensive so worth carrying for emergencys

[Tango]

Just fit a good set of winter tyres and you'll have no problems. It's no secret, the Scandanavians, Canadians and North Americans have been doing it for years.

[lexynik]

you are correct tango of course but the op started this thread in january so hes already been thru one lot of snow armed with this answer and either didnt take the advice or wishes to improve on it - not sure which tbh

[Tango]

Yes, I agree, but laying the blame on the car is nonsense. Some cars do behave better than others in the ice and snow with summer tyres especially those with the engine weight over the drive wheels, but if you only think front wheel drive then you'd be wrong. The old VW Beetle was superb on snow and ice and that had rear wheel drive with the engine over the drive wheels, and a useful trick in a Mini on snow or ice covered hills was to replicate the Beetle and go up in reverse :D.

When I lived in Norway I never had a problem in the snow and ice because it was the law to fit winter tyres. The problem in the UK is that it's left to the individual whether to fit winter tyres or not, so even if you happen to fit them you'll still be at risk from others than do not, so accidents and traffic jams will still occur .

Before anyone says we do not get enough snow and ice to warrant fitting winter tyres, they need to understand that they also provide much better traction in colder temperatures so carry less risk than summer tyres when braking and changing direction.