Winter tyres on front/summers on back

st4

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Is the combo I've seen one local VW Jetta owner have on their car.

How unsafe really is doing this. Will their car still not stop steer and brake, albeit not as well as VW intended it?
 

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Very little difference, the speed ratings are not the same but a pair on any axle is OK
 

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Is the combo I've seen one local VW Jetta owner have on their car.

How unsafe really is doing this. Will their car still not stop steer and brake, albeit not as well as VW intended it?

Not sure about the insurance aspect of this arrangement, though!


Ernie
 

NW_Merc

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Is the combo I've seen one local VW Jetta owner have on their car.

How unsafe really is doing this. Will their car still not stop steer and brake, albeit not as well as VW intended it?

I thought the winter tyres were a softer compound and hence might wear quicker on a front wheel drive car
 

brandwooddixon

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I don't think that there are any issues with insurance as long as the tyres are the correct size and speed rating.

As far as wear goes, it may not make much of a difference to be honest, as many winter tyres have improved quite markedly.

They may become a little wayward when it gets really hot, but lets be honest how likely is that in the UK?

I run my wife's Micra on All Season Vredstein Quatrac 3s and haven't noticed any difference in behaviour over the summer tyres, but then they're not low profile, so maybe that is why.
 

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They may become a little wayward when it gets really hot, but lets be honest how likely is that in the UK?

I think it would be more of an issue in cold weather. The car would tend to oversteer, with the back sliding out. In braking, the back would be trying to overtake the front. Whether modern day ABS/ESP etc could deal with this, I have no idea - it might be foxed by very different grip levels.
 

brandwooddixon

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Certainly I'd agree with you on that as well.
Contrary to popular opinion expert advice is to fit tyres with the most grip on the back axle, even with front wheel drive cars.
This is because a lack of grip at the front causes the average driver to slow down where they can handle most situations whereas few drivers can handle a loss of grip at the back of a car very well.
 
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It's the affinity to over/under steer I'm most curious about, pootling around I'm sure is fine but emergency braking, handling with such different grip levels will be curious?
 

turbopete

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i had winter tyres on the front of my old focus. in summer it was absolutely GLUED to the road at the front, and the rear duly followed. in snow though, it was considerably more tail happy than most people could cope with as the rears locked up more readily than the fronts. the wear rate was horrendous though. i knocked 4mm off the winter tyres in 10k miles, using them all year round. (and driving exceptionally hard at times!) but to be honest, unless you were in snowy or muddy conditions, it really wasnt an issue at all!
 

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the wear rate was horrendous though. i knocked 4mm off the winter tyres in 10k miles, using them all year round. (and driving exceptionally hard at times!)

I would describe 4mm in 10K miles including some exceptionally hard driving as pretty good rather than horrendous! Even on summer tyres, never mind winter's.
 

brandwooddixon

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Considering that winter tyres invariably come with 10mm tread instead of 8mm for summers, that's pretty good going I think.

On my last front wheel drive car I had some Dunlop Sports that went from new to dead in 8,000 miles!

Although they do suggest that winter tyres are replaced when they get down to 4mm tread depth, for best grip. As I tend to replace my summer tyres when they get down to 2-3mm it's not much different.
 

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On my last front wheel drive car I had some Dunlop Sports that went from new to dead in 8,000 miles!

I did some Uniroyal tyres in 7K miles on a Cavalier, and I was offered a test drive in a Peugeot 406 that I noticed on the walk-around had bald fronts. It had done 4K!
 

turbopete

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I would describe 4mm in 10K miles including some exceptionally hard driving as pretty good rather than horrendous! Even on summer tyres, never mind winter's.

i had been getting 5-7k from summer tyres with 3mm and taking them down to the wear bars!

on the first 202 I had, the tyres lasted around 40k miles per set. same size tyres on my 203 have been lasting 10k if left on the rear (when dad had the car and im a rather harder driver than he is, most of the time))
 

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Should this be in the tyre section?
 

turbopete

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i think the original point was about how the combination AFFECTS steering etc, and questions whether it matters and if its a safe combination as regards steering and brakes
 

Ricardo_e220

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I have run a fwd car with only winters on the fronts, I was a student ( car was new though) it was ok apart from the 1 time when the rear went to overtake the rear coming down a snowy alpine road....not fun I can tell you.

Now I always run winters all round. Wear wise I have done 18k miles on a set of hankooks and they are still 2-3mm over the recommended winter 4mm change level
 


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