Tyres! Specifically winter ones...

[MrJollygood]

So after two months of glorious sunshine in South America I've arrived home to freezing conditions and lots of snow / rain predicted. Short of quitting work and moving to somewhere sunnier, I've decided that I might take the hit and get some winter tyres for the golf (2013 Mk7 Gti PP)

I rang my local tyre place who I've used for a while now and all they could offer in winter tyres were Zeta Antartica 5's at £77 a corner fitted (never heard of them, reviews aren't great or Falken HS01's at £114 each (again, not great reviews)

They did offer a whole heap of 'all weather' tyres - I'd always thought these were a worst of both worlds solution but maybe my thinking is outdated? The Gti is an all-round, all-weather, all-situations type of car - do I bin my current summer tyres and invest in some all weather ones? Let's face it the UK is mostly rainy and cold...

I've had  search around on the forums but can't find many recommendations - anyone have any thoughts on good winter tyres / all rounders?

Thanks!

Greig

[Watts]

There's 4 pages of discussion around this if you look further down the list of topics titled "Michelin Crossclimate".

[Ryan90GTI]

Personally I'd go for winter tyres. I've had Nokian on previous cars which have good reviews. I actually won't be running winter tyres on the Golf this year as I plan on using my little run around in the bad weather.

[MrJollygood]

Thanks guys - I've been reading around but still a bit confused. I see that as I have the PP 16" steelies are out of the question...

My thinking is that as we get little snow here in the south then full-on winter tyres are a bit overkill and perhaps an all-weather tyre is a good choice...or am I wrong?

Greig

[Watts]

17s will just about work with the PP brakes. As to what type of tyres, I'm not even a novice let alone an expert but I'd go for proper winter tyres as if it did snow hard I'd be pretty pi$$ed off if the all weather tyres couldn't cope. And just because it hasn't snowed down south much for a few years doesn't mean it won't....

[MrJollygood]

We got snow twice this year, I had an old Mk5 diesel then adn was pretty much housebound due to the budget tyres...so perhaps you have a point. That said, I did get to avoid going to the office and work from home on those days so not all bad 

I guess what I'm most interested in is a tyre that's built to cope with the low temperatures that we are already experiencing as well as the rain and ice that are inevitable during a British winter...

Greig

[MrJollygood]

I plan to keep the standard 18" Austin wheels rather than buying a second set of aftermarket wheels (which seem to be either costly or ugly) so this seems to be limiting my choice of tyres slightly (the Austins are 225/40/18)

Just a thought though - would 17" Monza alloys from a Mk5 gti fit onto the Mk7? They seem available at a reasonable price and would allow a wider choice of winter rubber...?

Greig

[hobbes22]

I'm currently looking at winter tyres also. I currently have 18" Austins, but have ordered a 7.5 GTI P with 19" Brescias. I was thinking about buying a set of 18" alloys and fitting winter tyres so i can swap them over as i see fit. Not sure whether 2nd hand OEM alloys or reps from someone like CM and getting the tyres fitted...

[MrJollygood]

I'm liking the idea of a set of 18" Monza alloys from a Mk5 Gti to put winter tyres on - can anyone confirm these will fit?

Greig

[hobbes22]

I'm liking the idea of a set of 18" Monza alloys from a Mk5 Gti to put winter tyres on - can anyone confirm these will fit?

Greig

Yes, i have definitely seen somewhere that these fit.