Michelin Crossclimate

bluevortex

I live in the Highlands and every winter face the the snow tyre dilemma...  Extra expense, hassle of changing them, storage of tyres etc. but know they are always worth it once winter properly arrives.

So just taken delivery of my new Volvo V40 and once again starting to think about new winter tyres. These michelin Crossclimates look like they could be a perfect solution getting good reviews in both summer and winter.

They are rated as follows

Fuel efficiency: C
Wet: A
Db's: 68

Not to bad for an 'all season' style tyre. In fact, when compared to the Bridgestone Turanza summer tyre on my car currently they appear to out perform it.

Is anybody else considering these tyres? Could be the ideal solution for safe driving year round in UK without the need for a dedicated snow tyre?

Blue

Looking for new tyres?

djcla

Maybe get a second 4x4 car for the winter to save the tyre change hassle?

bluevortex

that's an expensive option for me, two lots of insurance, tax etc plus obvious cost of buying a 4x4. we commute 70miles day up the A9 so it would need to be reliable which generally means more expensive. I recently sold a freelander as cost to keep it on the road didn't stack up.

Good set of winter tyres will do me fine. Gonna try out these Crossclimates. Also as I now have diamond cut alloys, less work changing over tyres will hopefully prolong their life!

Blue

Sloppy Bob

They're too new to have much feedback on them. The only thing I would say is like all things that are a compromise is they'll probably be neither as good as a decent summer tyre in the dry and not as good as a winter tyre in the cold, wet and snow however if you believe the advertising bumph they are a very close compromise.

The only other suggestion I would have is rather than changing tyres is to change wheels. Rather than swapping your tyres on the same rims get a 2nd set of wheels, either steel ones or 2nd hand ones possibly an inch smaller, and put winter tyres on them.

gg13533

Yes my preference is to keep another set of wheels in the garage with the winter tyres on, only takes an hour to swap them over.  Haven't tried the all season type, being in rural Aberdeenshire much prefer to stick to proper winters

FZR400RRSP

Proper winter and summer tyres for me (two cars, Aberdeen).
No spare wheels, just use the standard wheels and change tyres around October & April.
Only costs £25 a time and means I don't have to either suffer horrible looking wheels, or buy a another set of good looking wheels.

chrisgeary

I've just bought a set of 4 crossclimates for my BMW F11 525d. Early impressions are that the steering has lost a little feel but the dry and wet grip seems no worse than the Goodyear RFTs I had before. The crossclimates feel... softer, if that makes any sense, not tyre pressure low softer but how they feel through the steering wheel. I presume because of the special compound needed to support the colder weather.

Road noise is no worse than the RFTs. They're as quiet as the best of them. Sidewalls are sturdy enough, the car doesn't lurch or feel unstable. I'm plenty happy enough with day-to-day dry/wet performance. At £120 a corner fitted, I felt it was worth a punt at £20 more per corner than Uniroyal Rainsport 3s.

Will be very interesting to see how it is in the winter time. No idea about longevity at this time.

bluevortex

My gut feeling is these are worth a gamble. So I've ordered 4 to be fitted Monday.

Going by the Tyre Info Label on BC's website they are an improvement in terms of road noise & wet performance when compared to the Bridgestones currently on my car. I could likely sell the BS's on for around £50 each and recoup some of the outlay on the Michelin's.

I expect the cross-climate will fully meet my needs and does away with dedicated winter wheels or switching tyres every 6 months/storage hassle and expense etc.

Thanks chrisgery for your comments. When fitted, I too will try and leave some comments on this thread for anybody that might be interested.

Blue

djcla

Yeah I wasn't serious

FZR400RRSP

The wife's car is due fronts soon, I may consider these in preference to changing from summer to winter and back twice a year.
I'd be gutted if they weren't that great in snow and I still had to change onto the Pirelli Sottozeros we have in the garage though.
The Pirellis aren't just good in snow, they're amazing (had them on BMW320 and the Captur).