Switching to all weather tyres - sooner or later?

fiish

My 2012 Honda Civic is on its original Continental Premium Contact2 tyres, except for the NS front one which was replaced with a Conti SportContact 2 last year by the previous owner. I am considering changing to all season tyres to have better grip and therefore better safety in the winter weather. Advice I've read on age-based tyre replacements vary between 4 to 6 years, so this gives me a dilemma.

The options I see are:
1. Just change the tyres this year, and enjoy having 4 matched tyres plus whatever handling improvements the CrossClimates bring for this winter, but face the possibility of needing replacements during my planned 4 year ownership period. Of course if I end up keeping the car longer than that it will probably need tyre replacements anyway.

2. Hold out with the current tyres until next year, when at 5 years old there is a clear-cut case for replacing them due to age, and then put all weather tyres on in time for next winter.

What would you do?

forgotmyname

Will an all season tyre actually make much difference? Reviews can be misleading.

Private buyers may only travel to the shops and back at 30mph on a flat wide road thats gritted at the first sign of winter where the cheapest nogrip brand will be fine. The sort of person thats shocked to find a call from the garage saying did you know all your tyres were flat. They wont have noticed.

If you want better grip then switch to proper winter tyres.

But tyres will always be a compromise. Ive seen 2WD cars pull out of carparks where 4x4's have got stuck.

AdrianC

I'd say that five years was a bit worst-case for age-based replacement. I'd lean towards nearer ten.

Biggles

It depends more on miles and wear than age. My all-season tyres were fitted just five years ago, have done 46k miles and weren't even mentioned at the service/MoT this year. They're good for at least another two years.

AdrianC

Biggles wrote: »

It depends more on miles and wear than age.

Both.

Tyres certainly DO go off by age - not only cracking, but hardening and losing grip.

Iceweasel

Four year old tyres should not yet be showing any signs of 'age deterioration'.

Rather than replace them I would be sourcing a 2nd hand set of wheels and put real Winter tyres on them, so keeping your current Summer tyres for use again next Spring.

That will mean that you have the best type of tyre for both Summer & Winter and not a compromise all-weather tyre.

You should also be able to claw back a fair bit of the cost of the extra tyres and wheels when do do eventually change car.

It depends to some extent on where in the UK you live and the expected typical Winter weather, as also on your annual mileage of course.

Gloomendoom

On my wife's car I kept the factory fit tyres and got a second set of winters. When the factory tyres wore out I fitted all seasons.

However, the main reason for change was that the standard fit tyres had virtually no grip on wet grass which is an issue for us.

I also run all-seasons on a big rear wheel drive saloon. It's had them from the factory. If there is a compromise, I haven't discovered it yet.

fiish

Thanks for the advice.

I live in East Anglia so the winters aren't likely to get that snowy, even though it does get quite cold on some nights. I mainly use main roads or motorway which are usually gritted. Although I don't drive all that much (less than 10k/year) I'm the sort of person who pops the bonnet for a look around and takes a depth and pressure gauge to the tyres every few weeks :P

I like the idea of getting a set of wheels to keep winter tyres on, but having two sets of wheels won't work for me as I don't have anywhere to store the spare set - I live in a flat with an allocated parking space in a basement garage. I understand all weathers are likely to be a compromise compared to out and out summer or winter tyres, just that they seem more practical than the 'ideal' solution.

thescouselander

I'm not convinced there's any point in changing to all weather tyres. And improvement in performance in winter conditions will be negated by a reduction in summer conditions vs the summer tyres.

Usually I just change the tyres when they get to 3mm tread. How much wear is on your tyres?

fiish

Rear tyres have 5mm. Front tyres are odd as the previous owner replaced one tyre about a year ago (I'm guessing puncture), so one has 6-7mm and the other 4mm.

So I realistically have maybe a year or two left on the front, a bit longer on the back.

Biggles

fiish wrote: »

I understand all weathers are likely to be a compromise compared to out and out summer or winter tyres, just that they seem more practical than the 'ideal' solution.

Far more practical. Most winters - esp in E Anglia, where I also live - nine days out of ten the standard tyres are more suitable for the conditions. If I went for winter tyres, I'd have to check the weather forecast, then decide whether to put the winter tyres on, probably having to take them off the next day. In colder climates than the UK, winter tyres for four or five months might make sense but our climate's too mild and too variable.