2014 Qashqai Affordable Winter Tyres

Ultrasonic

Herzlos wrote: »

Indeed; most insurers are fine with winter tyres, they don't feel the same way about alternative wheels for those tyres (trying to go from 18" standards to 15/16" manufacturer alloys almost tripled my insurance premiums).

Definitely check re insurance but changing wheel size from 16" to 15" for winter made no difference to my insurance, and they didn't want notifying of when I swap back. The critical point though is that both wheel sizes are specified by the manufacturer for my car.

Ultrasonic

Alias_Omega wrote: »

I have a simple maths formula..

"IF wintertyres (equal too or greater than) car insurance excess, then don't buy winter tyres".

"IF wintertyres (less than) car insurance excess, purchase winter tyres".

If you are ever involved in a bad crash in winter, or get stranded in snow, you will wish you'd used a rather less simple formula...

n_s_simpson

Years ago I nearly messed myself going down a hill very slowly (5mph maybe) in snow and finding that the road was totally untreated and my car simply wouldn't stop. ABS was going mental and I slid about 100 metres before coming to a stop just before the junction. Luckily it was a quiet evening with no other cars to get in my way.
There were however cars stranded, people trying to push them and I just never realised that my tyres were completely unsuitable for those sorts of conditions.

n_s_simpson

Hintza wrote: »

The won't be looking so good when you have cracked the alloys and Nissan want £600 to replace one. Wheels of this size are just bling on a car such as this and design over substance.

Although including maintenance for an extra £35 a month would cover them. Urm.

neilmcl

n_s_simpson wrote: »

So I need a set of winter / off road tyres? Can someone advise on actual sizes so I can price them up?

As I mentioned early on in the thread, speak to the dealership's service centre, they'll be able to advise which wheel options are suitable for your model/spec of car you're interested in. Also try putting the car details into some of the tyre manufacturer website searches, they usually come back with all the relevant wheel sizes.

neilmcl

n_s_simpson wrote: »

Years ago I nearly messed myself going down a hill very slowly (5mph maybe) in snow and finding that the road was totally untreated and my car simply wouldn't stop. ABS was going mental and I slid about 100 metres before coming to a stop just before the junction. Luckily it was a quiet evening with no other cars to get in my way.
There were however cars stranded, people trying to push them and I just never realised that my tyres were completely unsuitable for those sorts of conditions.

Maybe you shouldn't have tried braking so hard, or in fact braking at all and use the correct procedure of using a low gear and allow the engine to do the work.

I had a lady driver of a Citroen C-Crosser crash into my parked car a few years back, she couldn't understand how her "4X4" could do that given that she was braking all the way down the hill.

n_s_simpson

neilmcl wrote: »

Maybe you shouldn't have tried braking so hard, or in fact braking at all and use the correct procedure of using a low gear and allow the engine to do the work.

I had a lady driver of a Citroen C-Crosser crash into my parked car a few years back, she couldn't understand how her "4X4" could do that given that she was braking all the way down the hill.

To be fair I did have my automatic gearbox in a low gear to ensure a low descent down the hill. Also correct me if I'm wrong but from my understanding with ABS cars you simply press down on the brakes and let the system pump and do all the work to stop the car. The problem wasn't me, it was the road surface, which was just like a sheet of ice.

Well the problem was me because I should have been using Winter Tyres.