 Poster: A snowHead
|
Does anyone have any experience of ordering winter tyres from a French (or German) tyre shop and having them fitted en route to the mountains?
The good news is that my summer tyres are needing replacement soon, so I’m wondering if it might be cheaper / more expedient to have an F1 style pitstop this winter!
Any thoughts welcome 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
Put on all season tyres and be done with it
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
I think organising (well, at least in France) would be painful and I suspect no cheaper.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
The last time I had to have a tyre changed (due to a puncture) in France it was a lot more expensive than it would have been at home.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
Difficult to see what you gain. Just get some good all season tyres fitted locally rather than complicate a long journey.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
@Sasha320320,
Do you mean "all season" tyres or "snow tyres" they are different.
If you need to replace your summer tyres anyway will you be replacing them with "all season" tyres in which case do it now.
"Summer tyres" use a hard compound which last longer but don't grip as well in winter conditions. "All season" tyres use a medium compound which don't wear as long as summer tyres. "Snow tyres" use a soft compound which don't last as long as the other two types.
Generally you wouldn't use snow tyres all the year around because they wouldn't last very long.
Personally I now use "all season" tyres on the driven wheels on my car to give better grip in winter conditions. I don't fit winter snow tyres because I won't be driving in snow for any length of time.
Are you simply driving out to a ski resort, in that case you should simply take snow chains with you.
Last edited by You'll need to Register first of course. on Tue 7-11-23 8:55; edited 1 time in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Very risky IMO - what if there is a problem and then you can't get them fitted?
I would just get them fitted in the UK - there are offers around.
As @holidayloverxx mentions might be easier to put on all-seasons which will perform very closely to winters and save all the hassle of needing to be switched.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thank you for all feedback.
By winter tyres I mean M+S / mountain symbol tyres that would serve me abroad and in the UK until March / April (after which I would hotel them for new summers).
In any case it sounds like it might be a nice idea but maybe difficult to co-ordinate.
My inspiration was that one year I drove to and stayed in Verbier and pre-booked the car in for a main dealer service in Martigny - which was done super efficiently and well. I even got a lift to and from Le Chable so as to not lose a day’s skiing!
Maybe a main dealer en route would improve my chances of decent tyre swap? But equally improve my chances of bankruptcy!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
|
Why not have them shipped to you at home for local fitting before your trip? I bought a set of winter tyres from Germany earlier this year (German company trading as mytyres.co.uk IIRC). Was the cheapest way I could find of buying the tyres I wanted, and I don’t have to worry about the time it will take in the middle of a long drive, or the possibility that something might go wrong and seriously screw up my journey time.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Sasha320320 wrote: |
By winter tyres I mean M+S / mountain symbol tyres that would serve me abroad and in the UK until March / April (after which I would hotel them for new summers).
|
Virtually every all season tyre sold in the UK has the 3PMSF mountain symbol that indicates that they are classed as winter tyres by those alpine countries that mandate winter tyres, so just replace your old summer tyres with all seasons and you can keep them on in summer too. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
Absolutely right what @Alastair Pink, and a few others have said. Done and dusted then. I replaced the tyres on my new, to me, Mini a few weeks ago, they had only done 8000 miles but I now have all season ones. The bonus was finding that the chains we have for the Mitsubishi fit the Mini. Luckily OH had a trial run in the drive and found that a very necessary nut was not the right size for the Mini, but that was sorted very quickly by the always efficient Roofbox Company.
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
| Quote: |
the always efficient Roofbox Company
|
I love the Roofbox Company. One of their guys talked me through a job on my extending ski bars as I crawled round the living room floor with the phone on speaker.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We had a puncture 5 mins from our overnight stop in St Quentin last year. Slept, put the spare on and drove to Feu Vert Reims the next morning and had a new one fitted. Couldn’t have been easier and similar price to back home. Mind you it was one of the most popular sizes (206/55R16). Prices currently between €50-130 in that size https://www.feuvert.fr/pneu/hiver_205-55r16-91v_r2711.html
If you have a couple of hours spare I reckon you would manage OK
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
Get a set of all season tyres put on in UK. Keep an eye out for Black Friday deals!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
Kwik Fit Dover en-route to France?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
What do you do with the ones you take off? Carry them with you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
| Sasha320320 wrote: |
By winter tyres I mean M+S / mountain symbol tyres that would serve me abroad and in the UK until March / April (after which I would hotel them for new summers).
In any case it sounds like it might be a nice idea but maybe difficult to co-ordinate. |
Not difficult at all and winter tyres in particular are much cheaper in France, with far more choice. Michelin look good value versus the UK (hardly surprising as they will want to dominate their home market).
Buying them is no different to booking online with Halfords or KwikFit in the UK. You can use https://www.pneus.fr/ as a comparison site (stay on the French site when it tries to redirect you) and then a site with online fitting appointments (RDV) such as https://www.allopneus.com/ to arrange the exact place for fitting.
Here's a quick comparison for my car which runs 255/35 R19 versus Halfords, KwikFit don't offer a single winter tyre in my size!:
Continental TS 860S UK £1,060 France €928 = £806
Michelin Pilot Alpin 5 UK £1,180 France €984 = £855
All season tyre prices look fairly similar to an "offer" price for a full set in the UK for Michelin and Goodyear but Hankook (Kinergy 4S H750) is much cheaper in France.
Tyre insurance is also much cheaper. KwikFit want a ludicrous £29.99 per tyre, allopneus want €3.49 per tyre. Bit of a difference!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
| Nadenoodlee wrote: |
| What do you do with the ones you take off? Carry them with you? |
The OP's already said they're worn out so they dispose of them in France.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
As other have said go with a set of 4 season tyre and a set of chains or socks. You are then fine for any poor weather you may get here as well.
I still run with full winters but only as I have a spare set of nice rims so easy to swap. Over the time we plan to keep the car the cost is not great. Also I have somewhere to store them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
To all the people recommending all season tyres, don't you think you should actually check what the vehicle is before making blanket recommendations?
I run all seasons myself and have done for years but my cars are always full time AWD so I know they will be fine. If the OP's car is 2WD and especially if it is RWD and/or high performance, they would unquestionably be better off on full winters in the winter and summers in the summer.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Is this is a solution looking for a problem.
If Winters were hard to come by in the UK and/or if they were much more expensive it might make sense. But really not sure that is the case.
We have Winters for similar reason @Garfield, has but yeah all season makes sense for many I would have thought.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you get the right all-season tyres their performance lacks very little compared to "full on winters". I did that research before buying my Michelin Cross Climate tyres. I have only ever had a FWD car, and ALWAYS had chains in the Alps in winter. And had no problem using them when necessary, as it sometimes was.
Caveat emptor - the OP will no doubt do their own research rather than just follow advice on social media. And in any case, advice on anything to do with winter tyres and chains on SHs will be contradictory.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
And any one who is (or likes to think they are  ) a "high performance" driver in a "high performance" car will have clear ideas of what's what.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
| Sasha320320 wrote: |
Does anyone have any experience of ordering winter tyres from a French (or German) tyre shop and having them fitted en route to the mountains?
The good news is that my summer tyres are needing replacement soon, so I’m wondering if it might be cheaper / more expedient to have an F1 style pitstop this winter!
Any thoughts welcome |
Unless you have a high performance car - you should consider fitting Michelin Cross Climate 2 all seasons which are brilliant and also very good in UK winter when temps drop below 5 degrees. I switched four years ago and will never to back to having 2 sets.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Quote: |
Michelin Cross Climate 2
|
That's what I have.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
I wouldn't want to have to stop for a few hours on the way to my holiday with a full car to have the tyres changed at an unknown garage.
We changed car earlier this year so I'm about to order new winter tyres from black circles (probably) and get them fitted at a local garage. I will then drive to Polar Snow chains in Tonbridge to check whether the expensive snow chains we bought for our last car are going to fit or whether we need new ones.
if you already have snow chains which fit your car in theory you could sort the tyres on the way but I can't see any benefit in doing so.
Unlike others on this thread we buy winter tyres rather than cross climate and put the summer ones back in March. Quite often we drive to Spain and Portugal in the summer so I think summer tyres are better for that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
| snowymum wrote: |
Unlike others on this thread we buy winter tyres rather than cross climate and put the summer ones back in March. Quite often we drive to Spain and Portugal in the summer so I think summer tyres are better for that. |
Well yeah and it also very much depends on the vehicle and usage. I wouldn't dream of leaving winters on my wife's Audi TT roadster, (Quattro) or even using all-seasons on it. It would kinda defeat the object a bit. OTOH my Landy wears its all terrain winter tyres all year round - even on the motorway they're waaay better than the truck tyres that preceded them.
Last edited by And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports. on Tue 7-11-23 13:21; edited 1 time in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Why would you do this to yourself, OP?
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
| Je suis un Skieur wrote: |
To all the people recommending all season tyres, don't you think you should actually check what the vehicle is before making blanket recommendations?
I run all seasons myself and have done for years but my cars are always full time AWD so I know they will be fine. If the OP's car is 2WD and especially if it is RWD and/or high performance, they would unquestionably be better off on full winters in the winter and summers in the summer. |
I have a high performance RWD car, and I run all season tyres on it (cross climates). They are excellent; I've used them in some pretty heavy snow at 2000m in the 3V.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
@Sasha320320, I ordered my current winter tyres from the French Delticom website and got them fitted by the garage in Tignes 1800, it worked fine. But the tyres I was replacing had also been ordered through Delticom in the UK and getting those fitted by a local garage worked well too. From memory, the only reason I got the current set done in France was that I was travelling at quite short notice.
Why not try ordering online to be fitted in the UK first?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
@Sasha320320, I'd get a mytyres quote and ask your local garage if they will do a pricematch, they often will. For both our cars we run 2 sets of alloys and tyres, one set of winter M&S, and summers on the others. Quite an outlay at the time we bought the cars but works in the long run if you keep the car for say 4 years, we live on high ground in the country in North Yorkshire and rarely see a gritter/ plough (friendly farmers are the best) so use the winters for 4 months and summers when we swap back around Easter, but as soon as it's springlike - it works. I personally wouldn't mess about getting it done on route, too risky imv.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
I used to have a winter and summer set. Easy enough to store and switch over twice a year but I got fed up of the changeover cost so invested in Michelin Cross Climates.
I remember about 10 years ago one summer seeing a good deal on tyres at a local garage in France so did it. However I'd never do it on a one week ski trip....but I do have to go in school hols so maybe the OP has more time?
The way I always judge it is by how easy any issues are to sort. Bit harder if your garage is in another country.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
| snowdave wrote: |
| I have a high performance RWD car, and I run all season tyres on it (cross climates). They are excellent; I've used them in some pretty heavy snow at 2000m in the 3V. |
But are you pulling power slides round roundabouts in July? 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
| kettonskimum wrote: |
| The way I always judge it is by how easy any issues are to sort. Bit harder if your garage is in another country. |
You can run that argument the other way too. Buy your winters in France from a French national chain and you can go to any branch for warranty. Buy them in the UK and have a problem in France, you'll be getticg your wallet out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
Yeah, but I'd still not buy just before or during a trip.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I have Cross Climate 2's on my 250BHP FWD Volvo. No problems at all. Fantastic at shifting standing water too!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
It just happens that Michelin were the first to market a mainstream, all-season tyre. The first generation wasn't that great but did the job, then their merits caught on and other manufacturers have been playing catch-up. SUV owners in particular realised that the slick summer tyres fitted ex-factory were often useless in slush, snow and mud. But Michelin have done a good job of exploiting their early development, to the extent that the CrossClimates are pretty much what most people think of first, if they consider all-seasons at all. And often the first that a retailer will suggest if someone asks about all-seasons. All-seasons are now what a lot of BEV owners are switching to as well, as their ex-factory tyres are often over-biased towards quiet running and longer life, at the expense of wet-weather performance. Many are happy to trade a bit of additional dB and shorter life for a more confident drive in the heavy rain, damp and cold. Three mainstream all-seasons that also happen to be certified for EVs as well are
Michelin CrossClimate™ 2
Pirelli Cinturato AllSeason™ SF2
Continental AllSeasonContact™ 2 [Edit: This is self-certification. There isn’t any sort of industry standard for designating a particular tyre as suitable for fitting to an EV.]
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Tue 7-11-23 20:24; edited 3 times in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@Layne, Yes 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
