Thinking of putting winter tyres on - before I buy any comments, negative or positive would be most welcome Thanks
Hello
Welcome to the MX5OC forum.
Good idea to post whether a Mk. 1,2,3. and your location for help. When you say fitting winter tyres, I assume you will be fitting them to a second set of rims, usually steel rather than alloy. Is it worth it? Depends on your mileage and the necessity to drive in bad weather. More information needed really.
Regards Geoff Peace.
Hi and welcome, just make sure you fit 4 and not just 2 (you need to stop and steer as well as go) don`t bother with cheapo Chinese brands - they tend to be made very hard compound and therefore garbage, regardless of tread pattern, stick to reputable makes like Avon, Uniroyal, Continental Hankook, Bridgestone, Goodyear, Vredestein and Michelin ect.
Camskill have a good selection, just have them mail-order sent and fitted cheaply locally.
Thanks for the replies
Have a Kendo 2011, out of my 15 miles to work 7 of them are on country roads and these do suffer from wet and ice, annual mileage is about 9k, looking at a 2nd set (steels) and from the Worcestershire area. Hope this helps.
Thanks
Definitely recommend - the difference in grip is huge when the temperatures are low.
Taff’s comment makes sense with cheap brands you haven’t heard of, but winter tyres from a cheap brand that you’ve heard of will be better than the summer tyres from a top brand at this time of year. It’s usually 7 degrees Celsius that’s quoted as the crossover point.
Put mine on each winter. I personally feel more secure with them, especially when the temp gets really cold. Certainly good in the snow, had to push it quite hard to get the back end out 
After the snow of last winter there has been a marked increase in interest in winter tyres in the UK. However, as most drivers don’t have a great deal of experience there is an amount of information going round which is misleading.
The most obvious one to me is the 7 degree “rule” It has become a very common thing on forums and there are a number of posts on a variety of sites in which the author is basically saying they can’t wait for the temperature to drop because then their winter tyres are going to be brilliant and their normal tyres lethal. To me this is a triumph of marketing, much like Nitrogen inflation. The information is that summer tyres lose their performance from 7 degrees and below while winter tyres will suddenly give you Vetel like performance. This is not true. While no doubt laboratory tests can show that “normal” road tyre rubber ultimate performance starts to decrease at 7 degrees C it does not fall off a cliff and I certainly have not noticed any significant changes to my own tyres performance levels even when temperatures have been close to freezing. Equally tyres will have different rubber characteristics, depending on their use even within the same manufactures range, a Bridgestone Turanza ER300 will have different rubber characteristics to a Potenza RE50 or 40 and again to a SO2, however they are all “summer” tyres. Again, tyres generate heat internally in the rubber through the friction of the rubber bending. This is why you should increase their pressure when carrying load or speed so that they flex less and so not over heat. Tread design also influences this, thin treads move more than fat treads and it all generates heat within the tyre. Even on cold, wet days, if you have been driving, the tread of your tyres dries pretty quickly once you stop. On top of which, 7 degrees is not a particularly cold temperature for the UK. Certainly night time temperatures can drop to that and below in just about any month of the year and between October to April it would be pretty common. It will also be pretty common that we may start the day at -2 at 6am and by 11am be 15 degrees.
Winter tyres, those with the mountain and snow flake symbol on them are principally designed for snow and ice conditions. The great benefit on the modern studless tyre is that, unlike snow chains, you don’t need to keep messing about with them as the conditions change. Do bear in mind however, that that is their purpose. At some point someone said, “I am fed up with having to put snow chains on and off, design a tyre where that does not need to happen”
Winter tyres are typically made with a higher natural rubber content which keeps the rubber softer at lower temperatures. They also contain thousands of tiny sips or cuts into the tread blocks which serve to reduce the stiffness of the block allowing it to deform more easily. They also perform a second function in that in slow and ice they momentarily trap ice and provide grip as ice on ice with pressure is actually not that slippy. The ability for the tread to deform is very good for allowing the tread to get around the stones and ice in the road and provide traction and grip much like sliding a Lego brick over the top of another one, however, for winter tyres to work effectively there must be plenty of tread and you should typically change them when tread is half worn which would be 4mm. So while the tread can deform around the road, it is by it’s design a tall wobbly tread designed to provide grip and traction in snow and ice. What they do not become is an equal for your normal tyres once the temperature drops below 7 degrees.
Most tyres will provide more enough grip for safe road driving when the roads are dry even if the temperature is below freezing. Once the roads get wet, things change. Exactly like the winter tyre, the tread needs to deform around the road to provide grip. Certain tyres like P6000, Marangoni Verso, Barum Barvius and a host of other budget tyres that get fitted when you go to the tyre depot can be “shocking” in the wet as well as worn tyres from any brand. This has a lot to do with where the 7 degree limit has evolved from.
In most instances the right “normal” tyres will still provide totally sufficient grip for cold and wet driving. 5 years ago people were not talking about 7 degree limits.
So winter tyres have a purpose. If you need to get about then they are indeed a very good option to have on your car, however they do not immediately become the best tyre to have once 7 degrees is reached and the whole point of this post is that in “normal” conditions may well offer less grip , traction and control than your normal tyres if those tyres were well suited to the car.
I don’t use my MX5 in bad weather but leave it in the garage. However my “daily driver” is a CX5 and having experienced winter tyres on my previous car, which was RWD just like the MX5, I am now a convert and have equipped my CX5 with winter tyres since I live in the countryside.
There is much good stuff in the post above from, it would appear, somebody who works in the business but I would just add three comments.
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temperatures may be below zero in the morning and rise to perhaps 10C during the day but they also drop again at night so if you are doing a 9-5 type job then most of your commute will be during the colder part of the day when winter tyres have been shown to have their advantages, there is much in the press if you google for it.
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it is suggested that summer tyres don’t fall off a cliff at temperatures below 7C, I would counter by suggesting that winter tyres don’t fall of a cliff at temperatures above 7C though if left on over the summer it is suggested they will wear more rapidly. Consequently I will always change back to summers in April
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economics…some will say it is an additional cost but is it? While your winter tyres are on the car the summer tyres are off and not wearing so you extend their life and vice versa. So all you are doing is running two sets of tyres concurrently rather than consecutively. The additional cost is in changing them over each Autumn/Spring but since this cost is less than the excess on my insurance policy it is a cost I will happily swallow if I can stay out of the ditches around here…I saw plenty of cars in them last winter
I haven’t spoken to anybody who has experienced winter tyres fitted to their car who subsequently said they wish they hadn’t bothered.
At the end of the day you pays your money and you makes your choice as they say. Having seen my previous RWD car with winter tyres easily out handle my wife’s FWD Audi on summer tyres in the snow last year I am a convert even if we don’t have much snow.
As Taff Eunos says, stick to known brands. Good idea for country roads in winter. One thing for sure, if you fit winter tyres the winter will be very mild and no snow!
Regards Geoff Peace.
We put winter tyres 245/40 R18 Continental Conti Winter Contact TS830P on our Mazda 6 Sport 2.5L this season and are yet to see a singe snowflake but that is not the main reason they were fitted - they provide a huge grip increase over the quality summer tyres we had on in cold conditions, the traction control light is hardly ever seen flashing, there is much better road contact with all the standing water and surprise puddles about. Braking in these conditions (even with ABS) is also improved immensely. Our motorways have been pretty dangerous lately too.
They were a fairly big investment but that is exactly what they are, it is not unusual for folks to have a £500 excess on their insurance policy, hopefully they may even prevent a claim and keep us that bit safer.
Ideally you really want a spare set of wheels (if you have room to store them) we may well get a second set of rims to put the summer tyres on in the spring.