Some help and advice please, winter tyres/alloys

[Nelix 19]

Struggling to get my head round winter tyres and what may be best for me.

 

Live in central Scotland and 90% at least of my driving is an 82 mile round trip for work from Paisley to Grangemouth. 1 mile A road, 3 miles dual carriageway, 35 miles motorway, 2 miles A road each way. 12 hour shifts, 4 on 4 off.

 

After the weather of the last few days I am strongly contemplating a set of winter alloys with winter tyres, which would probably be around a £1000. Car is an aero, so not sure what size I could get away with without it looking silly. I suspect 17 to be the lowest? 18 inch OZ ultraleggas on at the moment.

 

 

I see various options, would appreciate feedback/advice.

 

1. Do nothing. Hope the worst has passed and if a particularly spell occurs don't go into work. (Not sure how well that would go down.)

 

2.Buy winter alloys and tyres, sizes?

 

3. Put cross climates on, from what I believe these would be a good all year round option?

 

4. Buy a cheap economical car, circa a grand. Pros to this that I can see is that it would keep the mileage down on the 86, would not care if it got a bump and would save money on petrol.

Cons, 2 road tax/insurance costs, would need to use it most of the time for work to make the savings in petrol.

 

Please give any advice/feedback, constructive or humorous would be appreciated.

 

If buying winter alloys, was thinking of these.

 

[br0wny 27]

what about winter tyres on the OZ? only cost you £400 plus £20 or so every 6 months to swap over? 

[nikndel 509]

11 minutes ago, Nelix said:

Struggling to get my head round winter tyres and what may be best for me.

 

Live in central Scotland and 90% at least of my driving is an 82 mile round trip for work from Paisley to Grangemouth. 1 mile A road, 3 miles dual carriageway, 35 miles motorway, 2 miles A road each way. 12 hour shifts, 4 on 4 off.

 

After the weather of the last few days I am strongly contemplating a set of winter alloys with winter tyres, which would probably be around a £1000. Car is an aero, so not sure what size I could get away with without it looking silly. I suspect 17 to be the lowest? 18 inch OZ ultraleggas on at the moment.

 

 

I see various options, would appreciate feedback/advice.

 

1. Do nothing. Hope the worst has passed and if a particularly spell occurs don't go into work. (Not sure how well that would go down.)

 

2.Buy winter alloys and tyres, sizes?

 

3. Put cross climates on, from what I believe these would be a good all year round option?

 

4. Buy a cheap economical car, circa a grand. Pros to this that I can see is that it would keep the mileage down on the 86, would not care if it got a bump and would save money on petrol.

Cons, 2 road tax/insurance costs, would need to use it most of the time for work to make the savings in petrol.

 

Please give any advice/feedback, constructive or humorous would be appreciated.

 

If buying winter alloys, was thinking of these.

 

Easy to clean bit pricey for just bad weather situation?

[Nelix 19]

There is not much cheaper in alloy tbh, don't want to put steels on.

[alucardo 55]

Standard GT86 17 alloys with winter tyres would be a good option. They look ok and you see the odd set 2nd hand set for £200ish + winter tyres and your done.
 

 

[Mya X Ferron 41]

Luckily we've got our winters on some powder coated oem wheels. Work well and relatively inexpensive (baring in mind we actually plan to use them every year to drive down to Austria & they were great this winter). 

Don't see the point in dropping huge amounts on winter wheels because they'll look ugly caked in salt 99% of the time anyway. 

Also; as for tyres, the Nokian WR A3 have been great on freezing and snowed roads - both normal and spirited driving. I believe they've been replaced with WR A4, though they ought to be quite similar. 

[Neal 111]

If your toyota dealer is as good as red macc. They will have a storage and switching service.  Just buy some winter tyres toyota fit them to your existing rims and store your summer tyres.  Come spring change them over and store the winter tyres.

[nikndel 509]

Naturally we don't get the snow down this way if we did I would take my other car too many idiots on roads 

[Deacon 1357]

The downside of switching tyres is that it's not the best for the tyres being pulled on and off a set of rims all the time.

If you want to minimise costs I'd look for a set of oem wheels for sale or sometimes people who are moving on from an 86 sell sets of wheels with winters on. 

For tyres unless you have hardcore winter conditions regularly I'd avoid hardcore winter tyres and look for something more like the Nokian WRA series which in parts of Europe are sold as an all season tyre and so seem much more suited to UK winters than a lot of other brands. 

I've used both the WRA3 and the new WRA4's. If you can get hold of them I'd probably go for the WRA3's as they seem a bit better than the 4's to me having tried both and being the older model will probably be cheaper too. 

[Nelix 19]

Could I get away with the nokians all year round?

[Mya X Ferron 41]

3 minutes ago, Nelix said:

Could I get away with the nokians all year round?

Not where I live (Midlands).  They're already terribly squirrelly in 10 degree weather with too much wheel spin for my liking (the addition of rain makes it even worse), at least that has been my experience. If it's cold all year then yes but you'll want something else in summer otherwise. 

[Deacon 1357]

13 minutes ago, Nelix said:

Could I get away with the nokians all year round?

I did the CAT driver training course on the Nokian WRA3's in 28°c heat including the high speed bowl (over 120mph), high speed lane changes, the handling circuit, breaking from 90mph, alpine handling circuit, etc. They only gave up on the gymkhana at the end when after the first run they overheated and the car became a slide monster. Based on that pretty extreme abuse Imho there would be no problem using them all year round but obviously they wouldn't be as good as a summer tyre is in the summer. 

[DAN@ADRIAN FLUX 12]

Hi,

I'm sure you won;t have any issues nowadays however if you do have any problems with insurance for winter tyres then please feel free to drop me a line.

Regards,

Dan.

[Nelix 19]

Why would I have a problem with insurance?

[will300 812]

If I was in your situation I'd personally leave it now, however I'd also be on the lookout on the forum/ebay for a used set of wheels. Then if need I'd buy a brand new set of Nokian WR A3 tyres. 

If you wanted some cheap new wheels instead get these:

Tyres: https://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-details/nokian-wr-a3-225-45-r17-94-h-xl#172966344

 

 

[Nelix 19]

Thought of those will, but by the time I pay someone to put the tyres on the borlas would work out cheaper.

[Church 209]

2 hours ago, Nelix said:

Live in central Scotland and 90% at least of my driving is an 82 mile round trip for work from Paisley to Grangemouth. 1 mile A road, 3 miles dual carriageway, 35 miles motorway, 2 miles A road each way. 12 hour shifts, 4 on 4 off.

After the weather of the last few days I am strongly contemplating a set of winter alloys with winter tyres, which would probably be around a £1000. Car is an aero, so not sure what size I could get away with without it looking silly. I suspect 17 to be the lowest? 18 inch OZ ultraleggas on at the moment.

I see various options, would appreciate feedback/advice.

1. Do nothing. Hope the worst has passed and if a particularly spell occurs don't go into work. (Not sure how well that would go down.)

2.Buy winter alloys and tyres, sizes?

3. Put cross climates on, from what I believe these would be a good all year round option?

4. Buy a cheap economical car, circa a grand. Pros to this that I can see is that it would keep the mileage down on the 86, would not care if it got a bump and would save money on petrol.

Cons, 2 road tax/insurance costs, would need to use it most of the time for work to make the savings in petrol.

It would be better, if you would also describe average winter weather there (eg. avg. winter day & night temps, amount of snow/ice you see), so that ones not living in central Scotland can share their experiences/give advises.

If average winter day temps are 10C, and there is little snow or ice seen, i'd get good allseasons and use of stock size & on stock wheels. For example - michelin pilot A/S 3. Stock width, not "modding" wide as possible ones, for reasons below mentioned for winter tires. On stock wheels - as you already have them, and those will protect from abuse your OZ wheels. Also very probably your ultraleggeras are wider then stock, so sensible width winter tires on your OZ wheels might be overstretched unlike on 7" wide stockers.

If average winter day temps are 5C or below, or often driving in night when temps drop, or sometimes go to friends/relatives that live in more winter-ish places, or have as one of hobbies skiing, i'd probably get proper winter tires. Eg. nokian hakkapeliita R2 / blizzak WS80 / michelin xice3. Don't know what average winter weather is there in Scotland (but nearby UK IIRC had rather warm-ish climate?), don't know if studded are legal there, so didn't suggest studded ones.

For wheel choice - aero has still stock brakes, so fitment/clearance should be similar. I'd get used bug-eyed impreza 16x7 +53 wheels. Used they are very cheap (should cost on par with steelies), plentiful, clear our brakes, strong enough for winter bad road abuse. Only drawback - they look tucked in. But imho practical reasons should take priority over looks in winter. I suggest ignoring "not look silly" bit. Getting stuck in snow/ice, overpaying for tires, or having uber aftermarket blingy rims damaged in winter seems more silly to me, then valuing function over form.

As to why 16"? - higher sidewall offers more comfort and rim protection on bad roads, tires are cheaper (R17 set of nokian hakkapelitas 8 costed here 150eur more then same for R16).

Tire size - narrower (for less aqua/snowslush-planing. Also our cars are RWD & relatively light, so even more so would benefit from narrower tires imho) and of stock diameter or a bit more (lower acceleration in winter due gearing change matters less, but slight extra clearance won't hurt to not scrape underside or not dig in deep snow, even more so if you have aero kit (which IIRC reduced ground clearance)). So for example 205/55R16.

Apart from more fit for winter tires i usually also put at end of autumn my "winter set" in car, consisting of snow brush, small shovel, towing rope and jumpstart wires. Never needed those, but better to have them if needed (even if to help someone else).

[Nelix 19]

I do 2 days, 2 nights. Scotland is on the same latitude as Moscow iirc, it gets cold. Recent temps have been from -2 to 4.

I drive at 5am or 6pm depending on shift.

Are you saying 16 inch wheels, with skinnier tyres would be best, without looking ridiculous on the car?

I get the form over function part, but I don't want the car looking silly.

[Deacon 1357]

I'd probably stick with 17's if looks are a consideration 

[Nelix 19]

Can get crossclimates + for the aero for £460 delivered/fitted.

 

[Church 209]

Latitude is just part of picture. Rather how far is sea / gulf stream from you i guess. There are such things as seaside & continental (hotter summers and colder winters) climates after all, as sea acts like some heat reservoir, evening out temps. As to what temps and ice/snow you see in winter, you yourself know best. I just noted some relation to temps and frequency of seeing snow/ice as things affecting choice between allseasons and winter tires.

Looks is purely subjective thing. There are some that will swear by 9-10" wide wheels that MUST be FLUSH(!), and some that say that this is one of few cars that look good or better with smaller wheels like 15 or 16". But as winter often comes in hand with much worsened grip, road state often gets worse, i would count those 3 winter months as ones where imho worth to ease up some bling beliefs for sake of more safety & less spendings.

[kaisersalsek 47]

I’ve got the Nokian wra4s on jeff’s advice in a bunch of other places - really pleased with them. But as mya said, I find them a bit crap above 12ish - they spin up really easily and the grip doesn’t seem quite there. Winters get later each year imo, I’m planning on switching mine back in late March (weather dependant). Wouldn’t want to be on them all year.

[Nelix 19]

Church, I appreciate the responses. It is not "bling belief" I simply do not want anything on the car for months at a time that look, frankly, stupid. Scotland's climate can be very harsh indeed, also we can pretty much see all four seasons in a day at times.

 

[Church 209]

How suggested wheels by me look, you can check that thread i linked to in my first post. There should be pics in that thread too. If non-flush looks matter a lot, then higher offset wheels can be used with spacers, like eg. here. I wouldn't bother though about flushness.

[Andrew Smith 156]

Curve Ball...Get yourself an old Landrover. No tax, no mot, classic insurance and wont lose any money. You can go green laneing too