Winter tyres

mouseybrown

trying to get meself a set of winter tyres just rang autodepot and they quoted me 55- 60 euro each for 2pirrelli/2dunlop as thats all they have? he said they were part worn winter tyres . how do i no real winter tyres and im not just been ripped off with cheapo tyres?? need them asap as rwd hasnt moved in 2 weeks thanks!!!

SV

I have got to say..
Eiretyres may just be the worst website I've ever had the displeasure of using.

kennyb3

SV wrote: »

I have got to say..
Eiretyres may just be the worst website I've ever had the displeasure of using.

If you think thats good you're in for a real treat with their customer service. 6 days since i ordered my tyres, plenty of e mails, call back requests and voice mails and nada. Spoke to one girl who assured me id get an invoice yesterday - surprise surprise im still waiting. Busy or not its pretty shocking.

brownian

kennyb3 wrote: »

If you think thats good you're in for a real treat with their customer service. 6 days since i ordered my tyres, plenty of e mails, call back requests and voice mails and nada. Spoke to one girl who assured me id get an invoice yesterday - surprise surprise im still waiting. Busy or not its pretty shocking.

I asked them for an estimated delivery date. I DID get an answer (signed by an individual) within about a day. Sadly it said "dunno - we'll mail you when we do, so you can be home to receive them". For a company with "a million tyres in stock", I think that's pretty poor. At least Camskill says "out of stock" so you know... Lord only knows when I'll get my winters; probly May.:pac:

kennyb3

brownian wrote: »

I asked them for an estimated delivery date. I DID get an answer (signed by an individual) within about a day. Sadly it said "dunno - we'll mail you when we do, so you can be home to receive them". For a company with "a million tyres in stock", I think that's pretty poor. At least Camskill says "out of stock" so you know... Lord only knows when I'll get my winters; probly May.:pac:

yep, all i want to know is when, or even if i ll get them. at this stage i'd nearly cancel and take myself out to autodepot or somewhere else that has part worn tyres. Pretty annoyed at this stage to be honest. And if ever anybody asks about them again i ll tell them not to go near them.

SV

Oh no, what's bad is this..

I told you all my visa card would not work, I tried it three times and it didn't work.
They sent out emails to confirm this.
So I decided to email them back to each one saying apologies for the inconvenience etc and that I wouldn't be going ahead with the order.

They've now decided the visa card is fine and are sending me out 12 winter tyres.

That's nothing to do with being busy, that's to do with being a shítty fúcking company.
*sigh*
Gonna be having myself a grand fire here when they arrive.

kennyb3

SV wrote: »

Oh no, what's bad is this..

I told you all my visa card would not work, I tried it three times and it didn't work.
They sent out emails to confirm this.
So I decided to email them back to each one saying apologies for the inconvenience etc and that I wouldn't be going ahead with the order.

They've now decided the visa card is fine and are sending me out 12 winter tyres.

That's nothing to do with being busy, that's to do with being a shítty fúcking company.
*sigh*
Gonna be having myself a grand fire here when they arrive.

s'hit that is really bad, dont suppose they are 205/55/16 winter tyres:pac:

Although you ll prob get them May too

Anan1

SV wrote: »

Oh no, what's bad is this..

I told you all my visa card would not work, I tried it three times and it didn't work.
They sent out emails to confirm this.
So I decided to email them back to each one saying apologies for the inconvenience etc and that I wouldn't be going ahead with the order.

They've now decided the visa card is fine and are sending me out 12 winter tyres.

That's nothing to do with being busy, that's to do with being a shítty fúcking company.
*sigh*
Gonna be having myself a grand fire here when they arrive.

Just accept what you want and refuse what you don't when the truck arrives - let them sort out the rest.

brownian

Anan1 wrote: »

Just accept what you want and refuse what you don't when the truck arrives - let them sort out the rest.

Much and all as I love a rant-fest , I have to give some indication of credit where it might be due

- following my email (this morning) where they told me that they'd no idea when the tyres would arrive, I mailed them back asking them could a company as big as they are not have *some* idea about delivery
- I've (coincidentally?) got an email off them saying "here's your invoice" (for the correct amount) and info that the tyres are shipping today for an ETA of this day week or sooner.

I'll believe it when I see it, but so far so good (fingers Xed).

Anan1

brownian wrote: »

Much and all as I love a rant-fest , I have to give some indication of credit where it might be due

- following my email (this morning) where they told me that they'd no idea when the tyres would arrive, I mailed them back asking them could a company as big as they are not have *some* idea about delivery
- I've (coincidentally?) got an email off them saying "here's your invoice" (for the correct amount) and info that the tyres are shipping today for an ETA of this day week or sooner.

I'll believe it when I see it, but so far so good (fingers Xed).

I've actually found them pretty good myself. When I once tried to cancel an order too late they told me to simply refuse the delivery and they'd credit me back the money, which they did. I wasn't suggesting it just to be a bollox.;)

SV

1476 gone from the account.
I wouldn't mind but they told me in a later email they didn't have the tyres in stock.


Just going to refuse them alright and see what happens.

kennyb3

I sent them a 7th e mail now with the title **formal complaint** - just wrote a business like complaint. see what happens.

Biglad

SV wrote: »

I have got to say..
Eiretyres may just be the worst website I've ever had the displeasure of using.

Hi SV and others, there is a seperate thread on here especially dedicated to the service and delivery performance of this company, probably because som many of us are dealing with them. Maybe these last posts which are all about just that could be moved to the relevant thread and keep this one track.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056112156

--Kaiser--

Matt Simis wrote: »

Well then clearly you are dealing with better conditions (less snow, less ice, better treated etc) on the road than the rest of us!

I think that's the crux of this thread. You may be experiencing terrible ice roads and snow, I've seen very little.

I was driving around country roads last night in - 6 degrees temperature and didn't lose traction once. At the moment I see no need to change my All-seasons.

Cuddlesworth

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

I think that's the crux of this thread. You may be experiencing terrible ice roads and snow, I've seen very little.

I was driving around country roads last night in - 6 degrees temperature and didn't lose traction once. At the moment I see no need to change my All-seasons.

So your going to wait to loose traction and crash before you decide to change?

--Kaiser--

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

So your going to wait to loose traction and crash before you decide to change?

I was driving around with them last winter and they did me fine.
Thanks for your concern though

Cuddlesworth

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

I was driving around with them last winter and they did me fine.
Thanks for your concern though

Not having crashed isn't a indicator of not going to crash.

Wicklowrider

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

So your going to wait to loose traction and crash before you decide to change?

Do you know his tyres limits?
Do you know his routes and conditions?
Are you suggesting that drivers aren't able to decide for themselves what level of traction they have? That they would lose control before knowing their car's limits? Thats whats wrong with the winter tyre evangelist thing here - its all based on hypothesis and subjective personal experience.When figures are mentioned they are picked from thin air. Does anyone have hard facts for cars losing control on all seasons? No? doesn't that strike any reasonable person as strange? According to the winter tyre people here we should all be hitting walls and pedestrians at every bend if we aren't using winter tyres. This clearly isn't the case and if it was you could bet your house the insurance companies would have a lot to say about it.
Use your own judgement to decide what YOU need and quit the preaching.If on the other hand anyone lacks the experience and needs advise then they should weigh up the opinions offered here and decide for themselves.

Cuddlesworth

Wicklowrider wrote: »

Do you know his tyres limits?
Do you know his routes and conditions?
Are you suggesting that drivers aren't able to decide for themselves what level of traction they have? That they would lose control before knowing their car's limits? Thats whats wrong with the winter tyre evangelist thing here - its all based on hypothesis and subjective personal experience.When figures are mentioned they are picked from thin air. Does anyone have hard facts for cars losing control on all seasons? No? doesn't that strike any reasonable person as strange? According to the winter tyre people here we should all be hitting walls and pedestrians at every bend if we aren't using winter tyres. This clearly isn't the case and if it was you could bet your house the insurance companies would have a lot to say about it.
Use your own judgement to decide what YOU need and quit the preaching.If on the other hand anyone lacks the experience and needs advise then they should weigh up the opinions offered here and decide for themselves.

I don't know any of the above.

But I do know that I live on the N81, a dual carriageway and main artery into and out of the city and adjacent to some of the richest and well cared for areas in Dublin. The N81 was a skating rink at times, unusable at others and still has patches of black ice on it which other drivers seem to be completely unaware of. Every side road was pure ice. Summer and All-Season tires are not designed for this weather as Stated by the manufacturers.

As for letting people trust their own judgement. I don't, never have and never will. There are far too many complete and total morons who cannot be allowed to do so for the good of others. The NCT was brought in for this. The driving test was brought in for this. The traffic laws were brought in for this. And if this type of winter weather becomes the normal, compulsory winter tires will be brought in for this. Get used to it, you don't live in a "Free" society.

Matt Simis

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

I think that's the crux of this thread. You may be experiencing terrible ice roads and snow, I've seen very little.

I was driving around country roads last night in - 6 degrees temperature and didn't lose traction once. At the moment I see no need to change my All-seasons.

Hey, I have no beef with All Seasons! I think anyone competant can adapt to drive on them in this weather (while Winters are better again) quite successfully.

The problem is everyone else on Summers. I just had Calor gas out to me to inspect an installation. He refused to visit on the 7 previous work days as the roads were too dangerous (in his opinion). Bear in mind this is a field engineer, a professional driver. He finally arrives today, complaining about how woeful to roads are around where I live compared to the greater Dublin area (note today my roads are in the best condition in 3wks). He was driving a RWD Merc with Summers and it took him ages to make it up and down the road. Not spinning or sliding, just slow slow progress.

copacetic

PaulKK wrote: »

Hey, I know what you're saying. Look, the pics are probably a bad example, they were just convieniant for me to take, but I was just illusrating that the roads were completely untreated. Believe me, there are lots of hills and bends around and the have presented no problems.

I have still found though, that by driving smoothly in a higher gear than normal, you should have no major problems even on decent inclines.

If you want to get winters then work away, as I said they have a purpose. I am meerly saying that as an average driver I am coping just fine on my summer tires driven from the back.

Presumably you haven't had to stop and restart going uphill on these hills? On a properly icy steepish hill with rear wheel drive and summer tires you are going nowhere no matter how smoothly you drive.

Thats the real issue around Dublin imo, you are surrounded by other drivers and cars and often find yourself having to come to a halt on a hill at lights etc and just don't have the grip to get going again no matter what gear you start in.

Piri

Winter vs. summer vs. 4season

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlYEMH10Z4s&feature=player_embedded#!

Manic Moran

3: "Summer tyres opposed to standard tyres".. I said Summer tyres are standard tyres. What exactly are you calling standard tyres?

Isn't that the problem, though? People are throwing around all these words, and, to copy a phrase "I do not think that means what you think it means"

For example, the German law mandating Winter tyres begs the question of how, in law, it is defined. Are they true winter tyres, or is there just a specification that at a certain temperature the compound has a certain malleability combined with certain tread characteristics which is completely independent to the label?

If a tyre will give an acceptable level of grip at -5C, which is pretty much as cold as I've ever seen it in Ireland, it doesn't really matter if it gives up at -10C whilst a true Winter tyre keeps the same level of grip to -25C

Winter vs. summer vs. 4season

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlYEM...ayer_embedded#!

An experiment of limited utility to Ireland: We don't know how cold the ice rink was, and whether or not the difference between ice rink temperatures and Irish winter temperatures cross over the operating boundary between the all-seasons used in the test.

NTM

Matt Simis

Manic Moran wrote: »

Isn't that the problem, though? People are throwing around all these words, and, to copy a phrase "I do not think that means what you think it means"

For example, the German law mandating Winter tyres begs the question of how, in law, it is defined. Are they true winter tyres, or is there just a specification that at a certain temperature the compound has a certain malleability combined with certain tread characteristics which is completely independent to the label?

If a tyre will give an acceptable level of grip at -5C, which is pretty much as cold as I've ever seen it in Ireland, it doesn't really matter if it gives up at -10C whilst a true Winter tyre keeps the same level of grip to -25C

An experiment of limited utility to Ireland: We don't know how cold the ice rink was, and whether or not the difference between ice rink temperatures and Irish winter temperatures cross over the operating boundary between the all-seasons used in the test.

Hmmm, I think you are way over analysing everything here without any clear point.

Winter tyres (meaning tyres tested and certified to operate in Snow and Ice and Sub zero) are quite clearly defined by the Mountain Snowflake symbol (not a German law). Snoop_IE was, for some reason, trying to put forward the idea that just maybe we all had All Seasons as there isnt a Piña colada on the Beach emblem to nicely define summer tyres. Red Herring and largely irrelevant to this thread.

The vagueness of "will a tyre operate well at 0c, -5 and -10" is a question centered on All Seasons and is the reason some of them do rubbish and some dont. Any tyre with the Mountain Snowflake symbol will work in our winter. Thats the be all and end all, thats all you need to know. Note I am aware that some tyres marketed as All Seasons have the Symbol too, you can therefore assume they perform well in Snow and Ice testing.

Now a good All Season (not all countries have 4 seasons..!) would likely work nearly as well (not better though, even at 0c) as good Winter but you need to go out of your way to research just which one is "3 Season plus a chilly morning" vs a true 4 Season Tyre. That confusion doesn't exist for Winters (though some will perform well in our Summer, some definitely dont, thats not the point of this thread).


The Ice Rink video is very useful to debunk the notion that was here on Boards 3mths ago that Irish winter is just Ice and Winter tyres no better on Ice, which they very much are. Also the temp of the Ice Rink isnt some big mystery you are making out, its usually from -5 to -2c. Which ironically makes it a perfect test for our Winter and and a less perfect test for the US and Europe proper.

peasant

one grips in ice & snow, the other doesn't



simples

/thread (please :rolleyes:)

tossy

This thread has been done to death,im happy and content that i am driving on the best tyre for the conditions we generally experience during an Irish winter i.e lots of rain cold temps and a few weeks of extremely cold temps and snow/ice and im also happy to let the begrudgers/non believers continue thinking what they do.

GTE

Indeed, this thread is now just squabbling over things over and over.

Conclusions I draw from this thread are:

1) I would personally be interested in seeing tests of the most popular performance Summer tyres on cold dry and wet tarmac. The temps that we get without the snow. We already know that Summers are rubbish on the snow and ice in terms of getting the car to a stop and cornering forces in an emergency.

2) Having made the switch from Summer to Snowflake mark tyres I will never use Summers if I can avoid it.

3) During the snow and ice I think drivers who knowingly drive on Summers at, to be fair, excessive speed and/or on roads that there is no way a Summer tyre could handle are irresponsible and I again I say that the book should be thrown at them by the Garda and insurance companies.

There is one video I saw on an old top gear of someone taking a light left hard turn and sliding straight and putting oncoming traffic in danger which is an example.

4) Attitudes against Winter spec tyre use in this type of weather are in my opinion awful and are attitudes I can not respect having personally made the what I think was an open minded decision to change to a Snowflake All Season.

Spook_ie

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Not having crashed isn't a indicator of not going to crash.

Neither is actualy having Winter tyres on an indication that you won't crash!

Manic Moran

Matt Simis wrote: »

Hmmm, I think you are way over analysing everything here without any clear point.

Winter tyres (meaning tyres tested and certified to operate in Snow and Ice and Sub zero) are quite clearly defined by the Mountain Snowflake symbol (not a German law).

With respect, the German law mandates a certain level of winter capability, that doesn't mean to say that it mandates that the mountain snowflake be present on the tyre. (Doesn't mean to say it doesn't either, I don't know what it says). By way of comparion, California law mandates acceptability of the M&S rating in certain snow conditions, without requiring the level of the mountain snowflake.

In other words, all mountain snowflake tyres are winter tyres. Are all winter tyres mountain snowflake? I think that very much depends on the larger context.

Now a good All Season (not all countries have 4 seasons..!) would likely work nearly as well (not better though, even at 0c) as good Winter but you need to go out of your way to research just which one is "3 Season plus a chilly morning" vs a true 4 Season Tyre. That confusion doesn't exist for Winters (though some will perform well in our Summer, some definitely dont, thats not the point of this thread).

That's just it though. Whilst we agree on the basic principles behind the distinctions, I think we are diverging on the applicability thereof. Surely the point of the thread is "What tyres should I get to have an acceptable level of grip in this Winter weather", not "What tyres are winter tyres"? To that end, the purchase of extreme winter tyres which will require replacing in the summer vs the purchase of 'acceptable winter capability which are also acceptable in the summer' becomes a factor to someone who does not have an unlimited budget.

Also the temp of the Ice Rink isnt some big mystery you are making out, its usually from -5 to -2c. Which ironically makes it a perfect test for our Winter and and a less perfect test for the US and Europe proper.

The nominal temperature for the ice in an ice rink varies depending on the intended use. NHL (Professional Ice Hockey) temperature range is -9.5C to -5C, you have -7.5C to -6C for speed skating, for example. On the other hand, Curling is -4.5C to -3.3C.

NTM

thetyreman

thetyreman wrote: »

<snip> in Kildare town will fit and balence for the same aswell,,,

<snip contact details - please PM the poster for information>

<snip> In Kildare Town took delivery of very good Second Hand Winter Tyres today.....

<snip contact details - please PM the poster for information>