Winter Wheel / Tyre Combination - Thoughts?

[golfDB]

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Thanks Dave. Will watch them but your use sounds a bit like mine. How is cabin noise on the Cross Climates? Any noticeable difference?
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Hi AGB,

There is no noticeable difference in road noise at all.  Once the temperature drops down to around 7 C or less they really do come into their own and do appear to be all season.  I would happily run them all year.  The first video in the link will dispel  any doubts, rain or shine, or up a snow packed steepish track.  The second video is simply awesome and shows what a full winter tyre can do.  The video borders on what some may consider reckless in parts, but it shows just how important the tyre choice is.   I have come to the conclusion that the crossclimate is right for bad weather i generally see where i live.

 What i never seem to understand is why traffic police fly around in their RWD BMW 330d cars on summer tyres in winter with all the risk that carries.  You would not see me driving a high powered RWD car in winter on summer boots.

Regards,

[willni]

Thanks Will. I don't plan on attacking corners in winter or getting intimate with the hedgerows. 

The Pirellis and Cup Sport 2s on the cars are fine but I'm not going round corners in the way I would in summer but I thought the PS4s were supposed to much better in those conditions. I saw a Chris Harris interview on YouTube (think this is where I am getting the quote) and he was talking about the death of the hot hatch and the new Honda Civic. Think they mentioned the transformative effect of PS4s. I may be misquoting as I was doing dishes at the time and had it on the TV in the kitchen. I'm sure there'll be a Collecting Cars tyre along in a minute too!

I'm not bothered about aesthetics with the smaller tyres, this is more practically driven. Although being able to easily get a wheel woolie in the wheel arch could be a new novelty!

I feel all season is the choice to go for but it's the brand. I think the Cup Sport 2s are rated from 8 degrees if I recall which is lower than I expected.

I'm not attacking them either but it started to kick at the rear going 25 on a roundabout, which is fun in a BMW but not in a front wheel drive Golf 

What i never seem to understand is why traffic police fly around in their RWD BMW 330d cars on summer tyres in winter with all the risk that carries.  You would not see me driving a high powered RWD car in winter on summer boots.
Regards,

330d's are mostly XDrives now

[golfDB]

Hi Willni,

Interesting that the 330d are now mostly xdrive.  I am reminded of accident about 5 years ago involving a South Yorkshire Roads Policing officer who was tragically killed (as well as a member of the public) when driving a RWD 330d.   The incident was investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and left no stone unturned.     I remember reading the report into the incident on the IOPC website.   About a week before the accident 3 SYP traffic officers (all driving 330d) had been involved in a pursuit.  All of them had emailed their boss about the handling of these cars (one was actually an xdrive) complaining about the back end kicking out on wet roads with some snow.
The IOPC discovered that issues had been raised about the handling of the 330d xdrive estates back to 2014.  BMW were summoned to MIRA to oversee extensive tests involving different cars on different tyres.
It was been handled by very senior officers at SYP. Numerous near miss reports had been filed by traffic officers and all were the xdrive cars, not the RWD ones.  Around 2015 SYP reverted to purchasing only RWD 330d cars to reduce the risk from xdrives.  I don’t know if that is still the case.  There was some mention of summer and winter tyres, saying that under 7c winter tyres were better.

Incidentally they also tested an Audi A4 quattro and found it did not generate the same levels of oversteer as the BMW in the wet.

I think I will stick to my FWD GTD on cross climates for winter driving, at least I can feel what the front tyres are doing through my hands.

Regards,

[davo245]

I run Brescia and PS4'S s in summer and 18" Serrons with cross climate 2's in winter both best tyres you can get for the seasons tbh.

Have ran Nokians and other winters in the past but Michelin much better.

Black circles have 15%off cross climates Atm

May be selling the Brescia's soon as swapping MK7.5 GTI to a mk8 not decided what to do with them yet.
May post them on here for sale if I do.

[rwleigh]

I run crossclimates in the winter on my 18's and PS4S's in the summer on the 19's.

I agree with davo, best combination.

Here's my winter set up doing its job...

[canalmike]

A bit off topic, but why are most available tyres XL? If you rarely carry any load, why would you want XL tyres?

[willni]

Don't quote me but I'd imagine it's to do with tyre pressures and speed rating i.e for a better safety margin to prevent blow outs at greater speeds & to provide extra support for running higher tyre pressures. As pre-facelift Mk7's have lower tyre pressure guides and the facelifts are quite high by contrast.

[Rudedog]

I think XL tyres have stiffer sidewalls which means less flex when under load in the corners, unfortunately the payoff can be a harsher ride especially combined with a sport suspension setup.

[SRGTD]

Don't quote me but I'd imagine it's to do with tyre pressures and speed rating i.e for a better safety margin to prevent blow outs at greater speeds & to provide extra support for running higher tyre pressures. As pre-facelift Mk7's have lower tyre pressure guides and the facelifts are quite high by contrast.

Also, higher tyre pressures will mean lower rolling resistance which will mean lower CO2 emissions.

It wouldn’t surprise me if VW’s recommended tyre pressures increased when WLTP was introduced back in 2018.

[symonh2000]

My 2016 PP has 19" wheels and the pressures are 40psi all round, which is crazy high.

I have also noticed the centre of the tread wearing unevenly.

I am currently at about 38psi which gives a better ride and sharper turn-in. The tyres grip better rather than skating over the road surface.

My theory on the XL tyres is that it is to save the manufacturer having to offer two different tyres in the same size and pattern, so it saves them development costs.