Winter / All-Season Tyres

[cmcdonnell]

Hi, sorry if this subject has been done to death but I couldn't find much information. Car has the standard Continental Eco Contact 5''s on which have been nice so far. Initially it has a Nexen on NS front and a Riken on OS front and Continental Eco Contact 5''s on the rear and handled terribly as well as returning poor MPG. Even my local garage gave me a strange look when I asked about Winter / All-Season Tyres for my Aygo X-Cite running 165/60 R15 but as I use the car for a rural comute I think it is essential. It is probably overkill but I had a crash last year in the winter on crap summer tyres and ended up breaking my spine in 7 places amongst other injury's. I see that the Continental Winter Contact TS860 is available and I'm sure is good but I was wondering if an All-Season tyre may be better for the southern UK (Norfolk) where the winter/spring roads consist of basically cold wet greasy roads covered in animal faeces and mud! The Continental All Season COntact seems the obvious choice but is not available in the 165/60 R15. Thanks All

[Heidfirst]

Hi Chris, welcome to TOC 🙂

It's a bit early for the 2019 tests so have a look at http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2018-27-All-Season-Tyre-Shootout.htm & make up your own thoughts with your own priorities (where snow is less likely to feature as much?).

[FROSTYBALLS]

Black Circles have the Vredstein Quadrac 5 all weather tyres for £68.03 or the BF Goodrich All Season 2 for £70.81 each (fitted prices) in 165/60/R15.

[cmcdonnell]

Hi thank's for the replies. Do any of you have any experience of any of the options? If they did the Michelin Cross Climates in the or the Continental All Season Contact 165/60 R15 i'd happily choose them as i've used them on my other car (Volvo V40) and found them to be great all year. Limited options on the Aygo.

[fordulike]

Just to add my two pennies. I've been using Goodyear Vector 4Seasons G2 on my 2013 model Aygo for a couple of years. They really do shine when it comes to wet and flooded surfaces, and although I haven't had a chance to use in snow yet, the tread pattern suggests that they will be fine in snowy conditions. They're reassuring in dry conditions too. I believe with the UK's variable weather conditions, that all season tyres are the way to go!

Double check they do them in your size though, as I think my Aygo might have a different tyre size to the later models.

[cmcdonnell]

Hi fordulike, the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons G2 looks perfect but is only available in 165/60 R15 81T and according to the Goodyear website and Black Circles i need 165/60 R15 77H. Not sure why this is not suitable as I thought going to a higher speed rating was OK?

[fordulike]

4 minutes ago, cmcdonnell said:

Hi fordulike, the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons G2 looks perfect but is only available in 165/60 R15 81T and according to the Goodyear website and Black Circles i need 165/60 R15 77H. Not sure why this is not suitable as I thought going to a higher speed rating was OK?

I was under the assumption, that as long as the tyre speed rating was higher than the max speed of the vehicle, then that was fine.

[FROSTYBALLS]

29 minutes ago, cmcdonnell said:

Hi fordulike, the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons G2 looks perfect but is only available in 165/60 R15 81T and according to the Goodyear website and Black Circles i need 165/60 R15 77H. Not sure why this is not suitable as I thought going to a higher speed rating was OK?

The standard fit is 165/60R15H, and this is what the Goodyear and Black Circles websites will show. One can go up a speed rating, but not down.

[yossarian247]

It is always fine to go higher than standard for speed rating and/or load index. It is only when going lower than standard that insurance issues might arise.

Having covered a lot of miles on Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons and Michelin Crossclimate tyres in various cars I would personally favour the Goodyears, but both are good tyres.

 

[cmcdonnell]

Good to know about the load rating. I knew you could go up in terms of speed rating but worried that a higher load rating much affect the handling. The Goodyear looks a good option. Toyota are only offering winter tyres (Conti WinterContact and Falken EuroWinter) directly so undecided as my EcoContact5's are in good condition.

[Gonkster]

On 9/13/2019 at 12:12 PM, cmcdonnell said:

Hi fordulike, the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons G2 looks perfect but is only available in 165/60 R15 81T and according to the Goodyear website and Black Circles i need 165/60 R15 77H. Not sure why this is not suitable as I thought going to a higher speed rating was OK?

Hi,

Only recently joined as I'm still waiting on delivery of my new Aygo but had to jump in here...

81 is the load rating not the speed rating.

The speed rating is T which is 118mph and that's plenty for the Aygo.

 

The 81 load rating is also well above the usual stated rating which is 77 (412kg), 88 is 560kg which can only be a good thing.

 

So the vector 4 seasons 165/60 R15 81T is fine.

165/60x15 is the primary thing to look for, then a load rating of 77 or above and a speed rating of S or above which pretty much all tyres are in that range with the exception of remoulds perhaps.

As your Aygo only does 99mph flat out (illegally in the UK at that) you're well within specs.

IMHO the best tyres I have used thus far have been the Nexen N-Blue 4-Season tyres but not in the 165/60x15 size on the Aygo as Nexen only supply the standard N-Blue tyres in that size. I actually found them marginally better than Michelin Crossclimates which cost me the earth.

Generally speaking top brands have usually been the best but not always, it's hard to get decent reviews covering all sizes and conditions of use of course...

Some cars, especially powerful long wheelbase rear wheel drive ones can be downright terrible at cornering in the wet, anyone ever driven a Vauxhall Omega can testify :)

There do seem to be Toyo Proxes available in the right size for the Aygo and they usually get good reviews, not heard of anyone with an Aygo using them as yet though.

 

[stevecrvn]

I have goodyea rVector 4 seasons on the back of the Auris and Michelin cross climates on the front , This is because I needed 2 back tyres in June so had the Goodyears as they were on offer but when in September I needed 2 on the front the Goodyears were out of stock everywhere . 195/65/15 .When I had the goodyears fitted I found there is a slight drone at sprrd but it was not really a problem . This Michelins do not seem to do this. They tyres seem fine in the wet . I have not had a chance to try them yet in the cold weather. Fot the price I will br fitting the Michelins all round next time.

 

Steve

[Wiz201]

This was my mk2 Aygo last time we had some serious snow. I run Pirelli All weather tyres for two and half years now, never had a problem in snow. Only compacted ice is an issue.

 

[frankys111]

I do not know if this topic is still relevant. But you can also check these reveiws of RAV4 tires https://serioustruck.com/best-all-season-tires-for-toyota-rav4/. I think you can find some good options here. In general, The original tires on RAV4 2018 were not as good as expected and I changed them to Michelin after two-months drive.