Unbiased opinions welcomed....winter tyres.....

After seeing the weather forecast predicting another possible record breaking winter starting as early as October....I am going to get winter/snow tyres this year......

The question is.....on what car.

The Golf estate is a heavy FWD car. It already wheelspins/skids at the sign of slight moistness (probably due to the cheapo tyres on it). But was wondering if it would be a better car for snow days (dont care if I crash it etc) or would the MGF with proper winter/snow tyres be better (RWD). (ina non-biased way)


Also ....would I be better with snow tyres or just cold weather tyres....??

I have a spare set of wheels for the F so can swap snow tyres over easily when snow goes if they are not good for "normal" driving

Any comments?

ONce again, apologies for not being around much.....I didn't even manage to get on FB or twitter or anything last week due to having no energy

Glad to see you were able to make it this far. Hope you get well soon, ready for the winter drudgery. My vote is for the fwd golf with winter tyres on. I'll be using the wifes peogeot 206 for work. I don't mind if I crash that either .

Cheers. Suppose I coudl get away with just getting fronts.

Plus if I get snowed in , the estate would make a lovely bed for the night......as opposed to the F

I;ve got a set of 15" wheels with winter tyres on. They transform the F in snowy/ freezing conditions. We live 2 miles from the nearest gritted road, and none of the distance is flat! :nonod:

On standard tyres i couldn't even get the car out of the drive, winter before last, when the snow arrived. Fitted the Winter 15s and 'woohoo'- np problemo! :thumbsup:

Edit, don't just get 2 - get all 4. Or the difference in traction/ grip will make handling 'interesting'

Cheers David. Out of interest, which make did you get?

In the snow last year we had more problems with my wife's X-Type than the TF. We can almost see the A30, which was salted and clear, from our house but to get there involves a fairly steep hill. The combination of 18" alloys and wide low profile tyres on a FWD estate made it interesting, including sliding backwards down the hill at one point! The TF seemed to cope much better. If I could find 16" snow tyres for the TF I'd be tempted but as it is we've bought a bargain set of Jaguar 16" wheels for the X-Type and we're getting a set of winter tyres fitted. That way at least the family wagon should be OK in the snow and if the TF is stuck I can take the other car to work.

Thanks :broon:

My view is get the winter tyres on the Golf, cannot comment on the MGF handling on winter tyres as i haven't driven through the winter yet where i live (Down South) they look at you funny if you mention them and say there not available ( previous BMW). I have driven Front wheel drive cars in Poland in the winter on winter tyres and they run those from November until March. Handling is transformed and very predictable when they let go, even driving in cold crappy rain the grip is far better than all weather tyres.

Plus is you wash out the front on the Golf you will only ding a wheel on a kerb rather than the splitter and alloys of the MG .

broon wrote: Cheers David. Out of interest, which make did you get?

Originally we started on 4 Toyo snow Proxes on 14" steel(spare wheels). Then sold them and got 15" alloys with 2 uniroyalls and 2 Dunlops. Handling was better with the 15s, but grip was better with the 14s( The 14s were a bit saggy/bouncy being 65 profile)

Thanks again. One thing that is making me lean towards the golf is the whole accident thing, not on my part but on other asshats who haven't gone for winter tyres

broon wrote: Thanks again. One thing that is making me lean towards the golf is the whole accident thing, not on my part but on other asshats who haven't gone for winter tyres

Good point. My other car is a Nissan 200sx turbo with 17" wheels, but I also have 15" alloys for that with 2 winter contis, 2 winter Semperits fitted.

It is priceless to be able to drive past 4x4s in the ditch in the MG though.:rofl:

As I haven't had any luck selling my old TR7FHC yet I will use that for work in the snow (If we get any this year).
The first year I had it I was running hard old summer Pirellis and it was deadly in the snow. The next year I put on a pair of winter tires on the back and the change was remarkable. Now I have come up with a pair of ice radials for the front so that should be another increment of improvement. And the MGF will stay nice and cozy in the carport!
BTW, We don't even bother with snows on my wife's FWD PT Cruiser. It hauls itself through the white stuff just fine (Bearing in mind that we live on a river delta and the land is dead flat!)