Why is sooo hard to find winter tyres

Kilty_2

Bargin_bunny wrote: »

Kwikfit currently doing 25% of 4 fitted tyres (including winter tyres) I checked everywhere and this was the cheapist deal for my car.

worth a look http://www.kwik-fit.com/

KF were ~£50 more than Farmer Autocare (don't know how nationwide they are, but there's a fair few in Scotland. Thought it was ironic given Tom Farmer founded KF

jjonesy

Winter tyres have been a nightmare to get - but I got some for the wife via Blackcircles. They did not have any in stock - but happily took my e-mail address and contacted me when they tyres came back in - took about 5 days for them to get back in touch

I was going to buy from Mytyres as they had plenty, but they were coming from Germany and seemed a bit pricey and didn't want to organise my own fitting.

For your 185/55 R15 - Blackcircles have Goodyear Ultragrp on the site right now at £89.65 fully fitted (with a 5 day lead time).
Mytytres cheapest is Nokian @ £94.60 mail order.

Father in law also looked at the socks for his van, but the guys selling them said that they do not work well if there is any black in the roads, and that the max speed recomended is 30mph. Not sure if that is 100% true, but thats what I was told.

AdrianHi

jjonesy wrote: »

Father in law also looked at the socks for his van, but the guys selling them said that they do not work well if there is any black in the roads, and that the max speed recomended is 30mph. Not sure if that is 100% true, but thats what I was told.

Autosocks and similar are not substitutes for winter tyres but really an alternative to snow chains. If conditions are bad enough you would really want winter tyres and socks for when you get stuck.
The socks are very effective but should not be used on bare tarmac for long otherwise they will wear out, 25-30mph is my understanding of maximum speed on them. Similarily there is a low speed limit when chains are fitted.