XC90 & Winter Tyres

[OJ...]

Morning! Living in Scotland, the weather has turned (was it ever Summer?) and I'm thinking of getting the Aga fitted with a set of winter shoes for the next four months. Use them all the time in Switzerland and they are brilliant the moment the temperatures drop below about 7 degrees so know the merits of using them so question is:

Anyone here fit winter tyres on their XC90 and if so, do you have a recommendation for what should be fitted (currently run 255/50 R19 Scorpions). Second, are there any good deals floating around that you know of??? I see Volvo UK are keen to profit from the possibility of another harsh winter. Grateful for your thoughts.

All the best

Oli

[Chris_]

I have been considering it as it seems to be the most talked about topic at the moment. I have always used Scorpions and to be honest, did not have any problems last winter even with a fair amount of snow. I can clearly see the case for putting winter tyres on most cars, but not sure that it is a big enough difference on a 4x4 that already has "all-season" tyres as standard.

[anonymous-user]

Are the Scorpions on your vehicle M+S rated? The ones I put on my V70 XC this weekend are...

How about like for nearly like with the Scorpion Ice and Snow?

for instance http://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk/article.asp?id=504&a...

[Chris_]

The ones that I use are the Scorpion Zero which are M+S marked but are shown as "Summer" tyres. As I said, they worked very well in the snow last year even though they were reasonably worn. My issue is that all four tyres need replacing anyway, so buying a set of winter tyres now is going mean buying another full set come March. That said, I need to make sure that the Volvo keeps going having sold my R32 for the 997 since last winter!

[Kingdom]

I put some Nokian WR G2s on a couple of weeks ago. I have to say I am absolutely delighted with them. I too live in Scotland (Fife) and with the winter tyres on it hasn't put a foot wrong. We live down a farm track and the combination has bashed through 18" of new snow without any issues. I selected the Nokian's based on some research I did on the net as the (summer) tyres I'd had previously had only lasted for 12k miles. These came up as recommended by a number of people, not only for their winter performance, but also for their longevity.

I am thoroughly convinced of the benefits of a M+S winter tyre. I will never ever go into winter without winter tyres again.

[Kingdom]

Oh, and I got them through Pneus online for £143 a corner and paid my local tyre fitter £10 a corner for fitting, balancing and 4-wheel alignment.

[Chris_]

I went with General Grabbers in the end having seem some very favourable reviews. The are "All Season" and have been better than the Scorpions I had last year. The bonus is that they are around £200 a set cheaper.