Winter travel to Europe

[apzs]

Hey all,

I am planning on travelling to Germany in December. I know there is a rule to have winter tyres. I don't plan to use winter tyres after I return so does anyone know if there is a place to rent winter tyres for a short time? I live in a flat so don't want to buy winter tyres and store them as I don't have space for it.

Any suggestions on this would be really appreciated.

 

[Ruislip Resident]

Don't know about renting tyres but I believe cross climates are accepted so you could change to them for all year round.

 

[Robf]

Hey all,

I am planning on travelling to Germany in December. I know there is a rule to have winter tyres. I don't plan to use winter tyres after I return so does anyone know if there is a place to rent winter tyres for a short time? I live in a flat so don't want to buy winter tyres and store them as I don't have space for it.

Any suggestions on this would be really appreciated.

After a year and a bit I am changing mine on Friday (I dont like the cold and wet grip scrabbling originals) for continental all season contact 2's, also highly recommended are michelin cross climate 2's. They are much better than originals in summer and fully classed as snow tyres (being just as capable as winter tyres). Have a look at the reviews, it is surprising just how quickly all climates have improved.
It gives added capability to a really good suv that has excellent ground clearance

 

[Roldorf]

I changed mine for all-season tires when I bought the car (November last year), which are legal during the winter months in Germany.

 

[Robf]

I changed mine for all-season tires when I bought the car (November last year), which are legal during the winter months in Germany.

Hi

Could you let us know which ones you went for and how they are performing?Thanks

 

[Rolfe]

I changed mine for the Goodyears recommended by @QLeo, and plan to keep them on all year if all goes well.

 

[Roldorf]

Kenda Kenetica 4S KR 202 215/55 R17 94W. All seasons tyre. Going good not had any problems with off-roading. Changed them in the first week after getting stuck in a not particularly muddy field with the originals (Michelin). Rated for snow and ice.

 

[Robf]

So changed mine on the ZS to continental all season contact 2's. The car is driving so much better, can hear a little noise from the tyres, but not really that differernt. What is different is the handling of the car, its so much improved, especially going through all the water that is on the roads. I would highly recommend swapping over the supplied tyres on the ZS to good all seasons, it really makes a positive difference.

 

[apzs]

Thanks all for the messages. I stay in a flat and don't have space to store the old tyres. Does anyone know if I can sell these tyres to a used tyre dealer? I do not know anything about it so any help would be greatly appreciated. I noticed the Cross Climate 2 tyres have a £40 cashback this month so would really want to do this change this month itself.

 

[Roldorf]

I sold my Michelin to an end user. Advertised them on a local website similar to Ebay.

 

[apzs]

@Roldorf do you know what these tyres generally go for? My car is about a year and a 4 months old and done about 11.5k miles on it

 

[Roldorf]

These are the tyres I bought for my ZS:-

Ganzjahresreifen (Allwetterreifen) günstig kaufen

They are middle of the range in terms of price, but had a good write-up on various websites that I looked at. I don't do many kilometres a year (5,600 since last November) and as the TÜV inspection (MOT UK) checks the manufacturing date of the tyres they will probably fail on this before they are worn out.

As an addition to the last post. If you get stuck in snow or ice in Germany, or have an accident and don't have tyres rated for snow and ice you will be fined and get points on your licence, and possibly the insurance company will not pay out. So, a no brainer to use summer tyres in winter.