matt-c

They told me to!

If I had the option to take my van out, I wouldn't even own my Lexus! The only reason I have to have a car is because my company don't allow use of the work van for private use. Back when I was at another company, I didn't have a car for about 5 years! I miss the free motoring days; no tax, no mot cost, all problems fixed and paid for by the company; tyres, brakes, and most of all, free fuel. Ahh, those were the days!

Fill the tank up. That weighs about 8 and a half stone!

"Yes you do" what? Know everything? My IS isn't undriveable. Went out in it Friday, and yesterday. Coped perfectly fine, almost as if there isn't any snow at all

I did read your post, and did see you wrote about depending on location. But then you contradicted yourself by coming across with your usual "I know everything and everyone else is wrong" attitude about your car on your tyres being able to drive in snow no problem. Tell me, if it's dependant on where one lives, making the difference between being able to drive a certain car in snow or not, why the last comment about telling my neighbour to change his C-Class for an IS300 and only use the snow setting, and "he won't go wrong". Surely, if it's dependant to where I live, that won't help him? But of course, you know best, right?

Thats me on my way to town this morning about 2 hours ago and its still snowing here as I type... -1 outside I dont have a measuring tape but my guess will be an inch of snow snow mode activated as usual no salt or grit as the council cant be bothered as usual same here summer Pirelli Rosso's and away we go :D ... like I said high grippy tires + snow mode works a treat matt..tell that C Class driver to get him a Lexus IS300 and wont go wrong with the Snow mode setting. winters will do a better job than the Rosso's for sure but like i said depending on where one lives one can get by with high performance grippy summer's with good wet handling grip just fine! and I am also stopping and moving away from a stop just fine..!! You've missed the point entirely. Again (this is becoming more than a regular occurrence). Nowhere in my post did I say you were lying. Nowhere did I say you haven't been able to drive in the snow on your coveted Pirelli Rosso's. So I'm unsure why you felt the need to post photo's to prove anything? But if you want to post pics, here's mine in -5 a few evenings ago; Not sure how that proves anything though? Anyway, as said, you've missed the point entirely (again). The point is what works for you doesn't always work for others. But you are so ***** sure of yourself that you think if you can do it, then everyone else can. I'll pay your petrol cost for you to drive down from Bedford to my house, providing you can get park your car at the bottom of my little hill, and drive it out again with no fuss or wheelspin. Because nearly all the other RWD cars where I live can't, and even a couple of the 4x4's can't. Most of the FWD's can, although there's always a few that simply do not grasp the concept of changing your driving style to suit the conditions who get stuck. But nearly all the RWD Merc's, Beemer's, Jag's and even another Lexus, cannot get out onto the main road at all.

Eat more pies? :D

I'll PM you the phone number of my next door neighbour that has 4 brand new (well, three months old) Continental SportContact tyres on his C-Class Merc (tyres that are equiv or better than your Pirelli's, and also newer, and a car that is more or less equal in terms of weight, drive format, etc) and you can explain to him how yours is so good and capable, and ask him to explain why his won't move more than a foot or so, ok? I mean, you've got it all figured out, and you know all about it, right?

I take it you mean me? Yes, prior to buying winter tyres, I did think about the possibility of keeping my small FWD Rover (which of course, was already paid for). I even mentioned it prior to this. I also mentioned how winter tyres make much more sense for me, and that it'd be stupid to have a car just for winter, and how it will cost me less to buy the "not worth the high cost" winter tyres (which as I explained, will probably end up costing me the equivalent of about £35 a year to run) You see, when you actually have the mentality to process information, options, and logically work things out, you can come up with the better, more suited, choice. Rather than just jumping to conclusions and making a tit of yourself. Of course, you don't understand that ;)

I'd rather be able to stop and not run over a child, and have someone hit me up the arse, than not be able to stop and kill a child. But that's just me....

Mine were ~8mm, however I ran them all through Dec (probably 300 miles?) in temps as high 13/14 deg (in Dec!!!!) and mostly in the dry. I'm sure I haven't worn them down much if any, but I've never had them before, so I don't have any experience of the wear rates...

A note on part worns. Every year there is a flood of part worn winter tyres on the likes of eBay, usually from Germany, most of which are around the ~4mm mark. Seeing as winter tyres are a legal requirement in parts of Germany, and that the Germans are sensible, logical people, that like things at their best, what does that tell you about part worn winter tyres with about 4mm tread? It tells me, that at 4mm tread depth, winter tyres aren't at their best, and that the Germans change their tyres at this level for new ones... So when I was buying part worn, I wouldn't go for anything less than 8mm tread

No, it's not a totally bad idea, and indeed something I contemplated when thinking about winter tyres. I almost bought my little Rover back from my neighbour, who I sold it too when I bought the Lex, to use in the winter. Then I did the sums, and it speaks for itself really. Granted, if you sell the car on, you can recoup most of the cost, but you're nearly always gonna be out of pocket one way or another. Likewise, you're still gonna have an "expenditure" with the winter tyres (a divisional yearly cost), but I'd expect it to be much lower, and to me, more beneficial. Luckily, I'm in a position to have space to keep a spare set of wheels/tyres, so that's another plus too. Granted it's no garage, but the bin cupboard is just the right size for a set of 4 wheels and tyres, along with the other car bits and tools I like to keep at the front side of the house! (plus, why would you care enough about the bin to give it a home? Sorry bin, but it's true)

This

Especially when it's cheaper, easier, and probably better in many cases, to just buy a TomTom, Garmin, NavMan, etc

Haha, don't think I even got that, more like 9 or 10k! As for summer/rain/winter tyres all in one - tosh! They were great in the summer; sticky a hell! But not so good in the rain and rubbish in the snow (and you could definitely feel that they weren't at 100% in the low, single digit, winter temps, and in the minus temps, gave no confidence at all! Awesome on hot dry roads though!)

Friend at work has a 5 series Beemer (older one) with 235 section rear tyres - that doesn't move in snow, just pathetic. He's bought a £400 106 with skinny 185 (might even be 175) section tyres that loves the snow. I agree that you can pick up a cheapy run about for the same money as buying winter tyres - no doubt about it. But then you've got 1) to have space to keep two cars (I don't, as I already have two vehicles) 2) gotta either incur the extra expenditure of insuring two cars, or swapping insurance over and back when needed*, and 3) the added cost of tax (even if you rebate when it's no longer needed, it's still gonna cost a minimum of a month) and MoT should you intend to keep the car for the next winter, all alongside the running costs of the Lex. *(and I bet I can go outside, and change over 4 wheels quicker than you can ring the insurance company, and swap the insurance over ;) ) Plus, I bought my IS because I want to drive my IS; and with winter tyres I still get to cruise about in comfort, with all my leccy toys, fast warm up, awesome heater, heated seats, etc. Lastly, my winter tyres, and wheels, are paid for. So as long as I don't prematurely wear them out, they'll do fine for another couple seasons, so even if they only last say 4 seasons, that's £87.50 per year. And if I sell the Lex, as I said before, I can sell them as a package deal, sell them as tyres only (and sell the wheels too) or if the car buyer wants, they can buy them along with the car. So let's say I run them for 3 years, then sell the car and sell the wheels and tyres as a combo deal, that's £350 over three years (£116 per year) and sell for (for arguments sake) £300, that actually works out at £16 a year. That's probably cheaper than 1 months tax, per year, on another car ;) Those roads don't look far off what I was driving my IS on this eve, btw

I've got some TT software, but haven't got it to work on the nav unit yet. Mainly because I don't have a micro-card to use as storage (not enough room on the GPS with the software already on it, and I don't want to remove any of that till I've sussed TT out and got it working) and also because I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to WinCE, emulators, etc etc. I'm a Mac man, and don't even have a Windoze machine to try anything with, apart from a VM version of XP Pro I have on my MacBook for those rare Windoze-only software apps

Absolutely. I ran a set of Uniroyal RainSports on one of my Escorts many years ago, and the grip in the wet from those were phenomenal! They are a "summer" tyre (I say summer with inverted comma's, because they are not a winter tyre, but rather than an out-and-out summer tyre, they are marketed as a wet weather tyre). The grip in the dry was perfectly fine; not as sticky as the Yoko A520's they replaced, but still more than capable, but the wet grip was just next level - totally awesome! And the Uniroyal +66 winter tyres I'm running now have the same wet grip I remember from the RainSport's, the eat standing water for breakfast and just say "what's aquaplaning?" ;)

Out from my jaunt in the snow this eve - lots of slush and snow on the ground, most of it not deep, but still very slippery. Didn't bother with the snow button, other than for parking (which I often do anyway), and only a couple of TRC moments (which were down to me putting my foot down to see how it gripped!). One mini-tank slapper though, coming off a roundabout - gave it a little right pedal to see how it reacted on an ungritted and uncleared road, and had a bit of a left right left; only a few degree's either way, nothing sideways, and all I did was take my feet of the pedals (still in gear) and correct the steering and it sorted itself out. That's mainly down to my inexperience with RWD, and my over-zealousness with the loud pedal - thankfully, tyres did their job and it all ended happily, without so much as breathing on a kerb. The big test, well two actually, was 1) getting out the carpark of the pub, which was no hassle, and 2) parking at mine. I come down a slope, block paving with fresh snow over compacted ice (never gets gritted as it's a private estate), then pull as far to the right as I can, sitting on a diagonal across the road, before reversing back up the slope, left-hand-down to park at 90 deg angle to the road. Absolutely no fuss at all. Half the FWD in the estate, let alone the RWD cars, can't even get up that slope, let alone park! My van failed pathetically earlier on this eve; ABS going nuts while trying to brake, veering off and kissing a kerb before rubbing noses with a bush while trying to three-point it, then ESP going mental while trying to drive back up the slope to the main road. IS with it's winter boots managed it fine - with just a teeny slide when pulling out and right to go up the slope to the main road. Of course, diligence, common sense and gentle driving is still key - these tyres are not the be all and end off of combatting winter. But with a sensible approach, I was still able to out accelerate, out brake, and out steer more or less everything else I came across on the road, and, like I said, with virtually no TRC moments and not a single ABS moment either. And I tested the brakes on a couple of quiet sections of road when possible (I really wanna take it to a carpark and give the brakes a good test, just so I know how far it will let me go, or how hard rather, I can press the brakes before getting a slide or ABS out of it.

My standard 17's had been refurbed by the previous owner and the Hankook summer tyres (also excellent I might add) were more or less new, so I bought a set of tatty standard 17's to shoe the winter tyres on (£250 for all four, plus £80 for the wheels), so the much better condition rims can sit in the shed over winter, and avoid all the salt and grit. Yes it's expensive having a second set of wheels and tyres, and some see it as extravagant or pointless, but I look at it two ways; one, it's safer, and two, while I'm running one set of tyres, the others aren't wearing, thus prolonging their life. Also, provided I don't wear the winter tyres down too much, if I sell the Lex they can either go with it, or I can sell them separately

Exactly the same here. The Lex is my first RWD car, and I've never used, or really needed, winter tyres before (always had FWD). But after much reading, and watching of videos, and seeing how even 4WD/AWD vehicles struggle to get out of where I live when it snows and gets icy (which has been every year for the last 5 winters I've been here) I decided to get a set. Part worn (7-8mm) Uniroyals, and have had them on since Dec 1st. Only had one snowy day so far - until now - to test them on, but they coped great with that, and they are also fantastic in the wet. My only fear is whether I've put any premature wear on them over Dec, when the temp has been in double figures for a fair bit of the time (since winter tyres prefer cold temps. Went out on Tuesday night, and it was -5, and gotta say, even without snow, they were great. Crisp, sharp turn in, no scrub, very composed.

Alongside the added grip in snowy, icy, and wet conditions (gotta say it, the Uniroyal winter tyres I put on mine are absolutely fantastic in the wet! Just like the Uniroyal RainSport's I ran years ago on one of my Escorts), one of the most reassuring things about winter tyres, is the confidence they give. Confidence not only that you can get moving from on a snowy, icy hill, but also that you can turn in, and most importantly, stop again. Then there's the added confidence of standing water. So often you get lots of rain and on fast A roads and motorways you get build ups of standing water, that can often "snag" a front wheel as you drive through, and at worse cause aquaplaning; not with these Uniroyals. Powering through standing water at 70mph while everything else has to slow to 50 or 60, and still feeling totally confident in their grip. Not a snag, tug, and pull anywhere. Very impressed! Will find out how good they are with ice later, since the way out of my estate is uphill, and has compacted, as usual, into ice, which has been frozen for about 12hrs now. The van failed to negotiate it, and nearly took out some trees at the side. Let's see how the Lex fairs later on!

Well fingers crossed it's a cure, and not just a band-aid. Time will tell...

Just came home, not a lot of the horrible white stuff; less than an inch in most places. My van was thoroughly, thoroughly useless in it outside my house though. It's block paving from the main road all through the estate, and on a hill down from the main road, and everytime it snows it compacts into ice. Van just slid down it, and took me a good 2 mins of gentle but consistent throttle to get it to go back up again. Gave up trying to reverse park it 90 degrees outside my house as all it would do is slide, so parked it on the main road. Will go out in the Lexus in a couple hours, and hopefully the winter tyres will give it all the grip it needs to get out