General Winter tires - worth it?

[vladof]

This morning when I started up the car the dash showed -22.5 ) Still the car started 1st key no issues whatsoever.

It's so cold that the best windscreen washer liquid I could find (-30 degrees guaranteed) actually turns to ice when poured on the windshield. ) You can imagine that in spite of the best efforts of the local authorities, all the roads are full of ice.

It's really quite fun to drive it on snow, if the road is clear and you can play around a bit.

weeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

I'm only going to use them in Really bad conditions, as I'm unsure how they make the already body-roll-tastic panda behave,
Charlie

define really bad conditions. Conditions already warrant them and it's silly having them not on the car at the mo if you've got them IMO. What do you think it's going to do to the Pandas handling other than improve it

 

[Andy Monty]

imo its not just the tyres that will help its more training behind the wheel. if you know how to control a skid then you are less likely to get into one.

winter tyres offer you more grip a its harder to get it to slide and b the slide will be much easier to correct as you will have more grip

 

[Stealth123]

Well the main roads are pretty much clean there is just iceon them so I can't put chains on... not to mention that I can't But as youhave shroudly observed no plow has passed any near my house and it is quite astruggle to get the fiat out or in my parking place I bet it's pretty snowynear Kitzbühel I never go unprepared to the Austrian Alps now I have learned my lesson At least you are so better organized in the winter... our ski resorts are more or less blocked.

We have seen very little snow in Austria this year, of course in the Alps it has snowed, but it did come very late. As the ski resorts bring a huge amounts of income to the economy, the snow plows should always be out giving access to cars and buses to the resorts. Of course the trains have it a bit easier.
Kitzbühel is always busy but it is the place to be seen in the season, expensive and trendy as it goes. Hundreds of other places that are cheaper!
Of course once you get to a resort in your car, you should not need the car again during your stay, so if the photo of your Stilo stuck in the snow was in Austria, I am surprised! Either you lost your way and ended up on a side road or you were just very unlucky.

As for me being prepared for the winter, not really, got my snow shovel, my Stilo JTD 115 still starts fine at -12°C as well as the wife's Punto 1.2, roads are always gritted in winter. I can take -5 outside with an open jacket, just run to the car and start it up, but yes -19 again, my hands freeze to hell.

I could only with my Stilo had a heated steering wheel, heated seats are great but ****e the steering wheel is cold

 

[neonglow]

Haha, -19°C is rather cold. I had the Stilo MOT'ed recently and got the finger pointed at me as the coolant had a freeze temp at "only" -25°C. "That is not enough on the inlands"

Good point, I don't know what's the freezing point of mine and today it was.... -26

We have seen very little snow in Austria this year, of course in the Alps it has snowed, but it did come very late. As the ski resorts bring a huge amounts of income to the economy, the snow plows should always be out giving access to cars and buses to the resorts. Of course the trains have it a bit easier.

When I was there back in 2008 I rememver people complaining that there is so little snow and it's too warm to start the snow cannons on the ski tracks. But later on it started snowing and I have never seen so much snow in my life

I've lived in the West Midlands(UK) all my life(45 years) and I've never seen the temperature that low.
My freezer is set to -19 ...
neonglow I also drive a Silver Stilo Multiwagon every day, but in that snow at -19, no thanks.

neonglow

.

I haven't seen such cold weather in my entire life either. We're a quite southern country. Have a look at this:

This morning when I started up the car the dash showed -22.5

) Still the car started 1st key no issues whatsoever.

You're so lucky Mine also started first time but the battery seems to be getting tired of all these early morning extremely cold starts and I got Brake lamp fail, ABS failure and low oil pressure warnings this morning. Although ABS and brakelights were working.. it's very easy to test the ABS After the temp had reached the middle mark I restarted and it was all gone

 

[Shadeyman]

 

[jimboy]

Getting back to the OP. In an ideal world you would have four winter wheels with the winter tyres at your disposal, at this time of year if need be. Even where I live I've never had winter tyres on a car in my life. Believe it or not the conditions really don't get that bad. The roads are not long in clearing.

I used to work in an oil yard & used to share cars. One year back in the mid 80's there's a place called the valley where some villages all line up in a dip. I parked up.
It was -19 at 3am when I got back to my car, an old Triumph Acclaim. This was purely a banger for work. The roads were like glass I could hardly stand. I had been sleeping on the way back in my work mates car. The whole car was like a frozen lump of metal. I eventually entered the car by releiving myself over the drivers door lock The night was still I'll never forget, & although the temperature was way down, It never felt cold. Stood there in silence in the dark, still half asleep.

Managed to get home. Four miles................... Great fun.

 

[Morty Mort]

Good point, I don't know what's the freezing point of mine and today it was.... -26 I haven't seen such cold weather in my entire life either. We're a quite southern country. Have a look at this:

That's the lowest I've seen on a Stilo dash. Quite a record there... I guess it took at least 10 mintues before the LCD was working 100%. I remember mine was suffocating at -15°C. ) My now rather fancy and colorful Abarth dash doesn't have the LCD, so it works perfectly at all temperatures.

I will try have a look at the weather conditions and drive into the cold areas someday to match -24°C, but it is rare.

 

[neonglow]

That's the lowest I've seen on a Stilo dash. Quite a record there... I guess it took at least 10 mintues before the LCD was working 100%. I remember mine was suffocating at -15°C. ) My now rather fancy and colorful Abarth dash doesn't have the LCD, so it works perfectly at all temperatures.

I will try have a look at the weather conditions and drive into the cold areas someday to match -24°C, but it is rare.

That's the coldest I've ever seen too. Came as quite a shock this morning and it actually dropped to -26°C but I couldn't stop in the middle of the road to take a photo. My oil pressure light stays for exactly 5 seconds after the engine has started turning.. and it's the 0W40 I imagine what it would be with a 10W40 or similar oil grade

 

[rattystilo]

coldest i have ever seen was in Slovakia, -29c. Spent 2 weeks driving through the heaviest snow i have seen in a Laguna. The snow chains didn't come out of the boot. There was only one time we thought we might need them.
Only near miss was when my mate forget where he was and drove on the left of the road.

 

[Morty Mort]

That's the coldest I've ever seen too. Came as quite a shock this morning and it actually dropped to -26°C but I couldn't stop in the middle of the road to take a photo. My oil pressure light stays for exactly 5 seconds after the engine has started turning.. and it's the 0W40 I imagine what it would be with a 10W40 or similar oil grade

The oil is coooold and it's hard to get the pressure up. Man, -26°C is extreme, but hopefully the climate is dry, so it doesn't bite that hard. I changed to 0w40 aswell now, and the oil pressure warning disappeared immediately.

 

[neonglow]

The oil is coooold and it's hard to get the pressure up. Man, -26°C is extreme, but hopefully the climate is dry, so it doesn't bite that hard. I changed to 0w40 aswell now, and the oil pressure warning disappeared immediately.

Well it was a foggy this morning so it felt really cold, I had the feeling my jeans are made out of cardboard I hope it gets a bit warmer the next couple of days because I have the feeling my battery is going to die pretty soon and I have to drive my wife to work everyday because of the weather. This climate is getting really weird it's +40 in the summer and -26 in the winter....

 

[vladof]

You're so lucky Mine also started first time but the battery seems to be getting tired of all these early morning extremely cold starts and I got Brake lamp fail, ABS failure and low oil pressure warnings this morning. Although ABS and brakelights were working.. it's very easy to test the ABS After the temp had reached the middle mark I restarted and it was all gone

My battery is almost dead. It's really really struggling to turn on the engine but coincidentally, I don't get ASR and ESP failure in extreme cold. It seems I get it only between 1 degree and -5. Although it struggles to turn the engine on, it starts on first key and don't get any errors. The LCD works very well I don't really see any issues with it.

I was planning on changing the battery but just as expected, I spent more than I should on holidays so no budget for that now.

 

[Shadeyman]

-7 this morning here in Wolverhampton.
Forecast says snow Saturday afternoon and rain for Sunday.
I guess the kids won't get to use their sledge after all.

 

[TangerineTractor]

I guess the kids won't get to use their sledge after all.

You're spoiling your kids. What's wrong with a bin-bag?

 

[rattystilo]

You're spoiling your kids. What's wrong with a bin-bag?

shadey's using it as a cloak

 

[Shadeyman]

Was out with my daughter last night when the snow started to fall.

We both drove home, me and the missus in our Stilo with full set of Goodyear F1 Eagle(GSD3) on it. My daughter and her husband in her new shape Beetle with a full set of Goodyear Eagle Vector(EV-2) on it.
http://www.viking.co.uk/goodyear.asp

Our Stilo had very little grip at 10mph. When we got into Walsall town center everyone had grip problems and the roads came to a complete stand still.

However, my daughters Beetle with the Eagle Vectors fitted had plenty of grip so I parked up the Stilo, me and the missus jumped in my daughters car and she easliy drove around everyone that was stuck.

Goodyear Eagle Vector(EV-2) get a big from me.

 

[Stealth123]

Hitting between -10 to -15°C in the past few days and my cars trip and time is always restting itself, everytime I restart it, anybody get this? Probably my battery but hell it is 2 years old and the Power Bull costs €150 a pop. Not cheap but dont want to invest until I know for sure. Also get on display when start up "service coupon expired" According to dealer my car is only due in 12K KM for a service.
I am just happy I have good winter tyres on, would not even attempt yesterdays sludge with summer tyres!
I guess some things you need to prioritize, seems like thousands of people on the M25 yesterday did not bother to have winter tyres or were stupid enough to get on the busiest highway in UK when thousands of drivers do not have winter tyres.
I think that just that story should be convincing enough to have winter tyres compulsory for everyone

 

[rattystilo]

i saw a classic example today of how not to drive in the snow. Young driver trying to get up a slight hill, 1st gear max revs. He got about half way up then just sat there spinning wheels polishing the snow to ice. Rolled down the hill, got out and walked away saying it was impossible to get up. The look on his face as i reversed up the hill 1st time was priceless. No i don't have winter tyres.

Also had to laugh at the guy in the audi who put snow chains on, drove 20 metres, stopped and took them off as the road then cleared of snow.

 

[MintSauce]

Drove across wales on Friday and there was no snow but it was around -6C and the winter tyres 'felt' better (it has been far to warm for them so far this winter!). Much more planted and secure than previous trips. On Saturday in the west country I drove ungritted hills covered in fresh snow and the tyres suddenly made sense (at last I could easily drive around everyone else as they pirouetted all over the place.

Drove back across Wales late sat night/early sun morning. Temps were hovering around 0C and there was quite a lot of snow in places. You wouldn't have got stuck on summer tyres I don't think, but on the winters the car felt very secure. I had a play (well there was no other b*gger on the roads) and would say that they still slide when provoked of course, but it all seems a bit slow motion and predictable, plus there is *lots* more grip for braking and you can still swerve when the ABS is shrieking in fear

Car: Fiat Panda, tyres: Sava Eskimo S2 - which are too old a design to have the mountain symbol I believe, but are marked M+S. I would say that they are OK in the dry - they slide much earlier than the summer tyres but you get plenty of warning. They're pretty good in the wet (never feel like they will aquaplane), and ace in the snow. (as long as you're not being a prat!). Oh, they're quiet on the M-way too.

Cheers.