Posts by HandyAndy
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6,105 Posts
Here in UK (I'm the south = warmer, but do travel to the midlands) we get occasional snow, and when we do, it can dump 6" (150mm) very suddenly & bring chaos to the roads. This lasts a day or two, then it'll melt away. But we also get fairly lengthy periods of very cold & wet weather with temperatures just above freezing, and in these conditions I found the Michelin Eco-whatevers on my Ampera were really nasty to drive on. So I bought a set of Nokian WR4s in December 2915, and found them to be really excellent. Quiet, a slight drop in range, but the grip was wonderful; in the wet they were grippy, even on snow the grip was amazingly good, just like driving the Eco summer tyres on a wet road. Various tyre reviews are slightly critical about these Nokians, saying the wet grip isn't great, and they wear out rather fast. All I can say is I have no complaints about the wet grip. Maybe Continental WinterContact have better wet grip, but they're also more expensive, noisier, and you lose more electric range, if I've understood the reports. I want the best range as I do long trips, I'm glad to get wet grip that's far, far better than summer Eco tyres provide in winter conditions, and I don't mind the slightly faster wear as I've yet to wear out my Nokians over 5 years and 65000 miles done in total. Probably my winter mileage (Nov to March inclusive) will have been around 25 to 30,000 miles. Plenty of tread on them still.
I asked my VW dealer about getting a set of rims to fit winters onto. Seems they're not available to order from UK stock, so will need to come from Germany, and the delivery time is completely unknown. The actual 7.5J x 18" PCD 5x112 ET50 rims appear to be a brand new size for VW. I can't find any other previous VW that uses this size, so no rims instantly available is the message I get. VW part number is 1EA60102703C and the UK price is £131.18 with VAT at 20% already included in that.
My usual supplier of winters, mytyres.co.uk, doesn't offer a steel-rims + Winters package for the ID.3, but it does offer Alloys + Winters (which I have on Ampera).
Extra cost going with the cheapest (& I think nicest looking!) alloys I can find, is about £40 per tyre more than getting VW steel rims & buying the tyres loose. I'd have to pay for fitting + valve, probably also a set of shorter bolts to attach to hubs, and as the delay from VW for steel rims could be huge, and there's time & hassle organising fitting, I've decided to buy Alloys + Winters which are available ex-stock, already fitted & pumped up. Here's what I'm ordering.
Alutec Freeze Black 7.5 x 18 (LK 5/112, OS 45) with Nokian WR SUV 4 215/55 R18 95H
Qty 4
Price £299.10 (each)
Total VAT included: £1196.40
Incidentally you'll notice the Offset on these is 45mm, while the VW Steels are 50mm. A website I saw reckons plus or minus 5mm is fine, so I'm happy to go with what this supplier is already selling. See here for more info on this:
Wheel Offset (ET) explained:
I'm pretty sure that these wheels will not have the self-sealing technology in them. Didn't see any mention of this, and as I've seen a user's report in here saying this tech hasn't worked for them, I'm happy to do what I always do & carry a full-sized spare around with me in the boot. It will be one of the summers I take, ok for an emergency & a damn sight better than those horrible space-saver things.
AFAIK VW's own Winters do have this self-sealing tech in. Would be interesting to know what price VW quote for a set of winters for ID.3 !
The supplier's website mentions that these come without TPMS. I spoke to the VW parts man yesterday who thinks ID.3 doesn't have TPMS, but instead uses the ABS speed-sensor + clever software to detect unexpected rotation speed on a tyre and works out for you that something's wrong. Anyone know for sure if TPMS is used or not?
I asked my VW dealer about getting a set of rims to fit winters onto. Seems they're not available to order from UK stock, so will need to come from Germany, and the delivery time is completely unknown. The actual 7.5J x 18" PCD 5x112 ET50 rims appear to be a brand new size for VW. I can't find any other previous VW that uses this size, so no rims instantly available is the message I get. VW part number is 1EA60102703C and the UK price is £131.18 with VAT at 20% already included in that.
My usual supplier of winters, mytyres.co.uk, doesn't offer a steel-rims + Winters package for the ID.3, but it does offer Alloys + Winters (which I have on Ampera).
Extra cost going with the cheapest (& I think nicest looking!) alloys I can find, is about £40 per tyre more than getting VW steel rims & buying the tyres loose. I'd have to pay for fitting + valve, probably also a set of shorter bolts to attach to hubs, and as the delay from VW for steel rims could be huge, and there's time & hassle organising fitting, I've decided to buy Alloys + Winters which are available ex-stock, already fitted & pumped up. Here's what I'm ordering.
Alutec Freeze Black 7.5 x 18 (LK 5/112, OS 45) with Nokian WR SUV 4 215/55 R18 95H
Qty 4
Price £299.10 (each)
Total VAT included: £1196.40
Incidentally you'll notice the Offset on these is 45mm, while the VW Steels are 50mm. A website I saw reckons plus or minus 5mm is fine, so I'm happy to go with what this supplier is already selling. See here for more info on this:
Wheel Offset (ET) explained:
I'm pretty sure that these wheels will not have the self-sealing technology in them. Didn't see any mention of this, and as I've seen a user's report in here saying this tech hasn't worked for them, I'm happy to do what I always do & carry a full-sized spare around with me in the boot. It will be one of the summers I take, ok for an emergency & a damn sight better than those horrible space-saver things.
AFAIK VW's own Winters do have this self-sealing tech in. Would be interesting to know what price VW quote for a set of winters for ID.3 !
The supplier's website mentions that these come without TPMS. I spoke to the VW parts man yesterday who thinks ID.3 doesn't have TPMS, but instead uses the ABS speed-sensor + clever software to detect unexpected rotation speed on a tyre and works out for you that something's wrong. Anyone know for sure if TPMS is used or not?
Joined
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6,105 Posts
Fine if you can avoid the bad conditions in the first place! 
It's not really the snow that worries me, it's the appallingly bad grip that super-efficient low rolling resistance tyres have in v cold & wet conditions. When we did have a massive snow-fall ?2? winters ago, and the M1 was down to 2 lanes 'coz all the vehicles were in the inner 2 lanes and there was 4" of pristine snow in the 3rd lane, I simply cruised down that about 5 mph faster than the nose-to-tail stuff in inner 2 lanes, in perfect control & plenty of space. I don't think I would have dared to do that on summers, and I don't think I'd have been safe. And I certainly didn't like the way the traffic was bunched up in just 2 lanes. Ampera was absolutely rock-solid & secure on my Nokians, and I was really glad to have them on. The total cost of ownership over a few years isn't as bad as it sounds, as you replace the summers less often. It's a safety decision; much rather have Winters than Rear-crossing-detect/Lane-guidance stuff; I can use my eyes to fix those problems. Nothing much I can do about slippery roads though.
It's not really the snow that worries me, it's the appallingly bad grip that super-efficient low rolling resistance tyres have in v cold & wet conditions. When we did have a massive snow-fall ?2? winters ago, and the M1 was down to 2 lanes 'coz all the vehicles were in the inner 2 lanes and there was 4" of pristine snow in the 3rd lane, I simply cruised down that about 5 mph faster than the nose-to-tail stuff in inner 2 lanes, in perfect control & plenty of space. I don't think I would have dared to do that on summers, and I don't think I'd have been safe. And I certainly didn't like the way the traffic was bunched up in just 2 lanes. Ampera was absolutely rock-solid & secure on my Nokians, and I was really glad to have them on. The total cost of ownership over a few years isn't as bad as it sounds, as you replace the summers less often. It's a safety decision; much rather have Winters than Rear-crossing-detect/Lane-guidance stuff; I can use my eyes to fix those problems. Nothing much I can do about slippery roads though.
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