Tyre Choice
 

I'll be picking up my new XC40 Momentum on Monday morning.

I was told the tyres would be Summer tyres. Given that I live in the far north of Scotland, I wanted to have all seasons tyres fitted.

The dealer suggested I should have full winter tyres fitted, as modern winter tyres can be used all year round these days. I was a bit surprised at this suggestion as the research I had done said that winter tyres are not suitable for all year round use. I couldn't find anywhere that said otherwise.

The dealer was quite adamant that winter tyres would be ok, but I insisted I wanted all seasons tyres. So I will be getting my new car with Pirelli Scorpion Verde All Seasons tyres fitted. This is the same as is fitted to my current XC70, which I have found to be extremely good in all weather conditions where I live.

Anyone have any comments as to the suitability of winter tyres being used all year round.?

I had Avon winter tyres which I would leave to March or April. They were fine but soft and wore quick in the summer.

I now have Michelin cross climates and find them almost as good as winters.

Having always had both summer and winters, I will now have them no longer as all season are so good.

My insurance company (Ageas) refused to cover me if I left my winter tyres on all year round.
I rang them in the January as I wanted to avoid swapping back to my summer tyres in the Spring - this was about 3 years ago. In the end, I swapped to Nokian all season tyres and was very pleased with them.

That’s one example where I don’t believe the insurance company would win in court (provided winter tyres were standard size, legal and speed rates). That said could you image the hassle you would experience in a claim!

The only real downside will be increased wear on the winter tyres in warmer weather. Depending on the EU tyre ratings, your fuel consumption may be slightly more or less, and there may be more or less noise.

When the original, and utterly dreadful, Pirelli Zeros wore out on my old XC90, I left my Nokian WRg2 winter tyres on all year round. There was no discernible difference in wear rates between the summer and winter; possibly our summer temperatures are not hot enough to cause problems with winter tyres.

As long as load and speed requirements are met, you can use winter tyres year round. Providing tyres meet the load requirements of the vehicle and are road legal, then they are legal.
However the dry braking distances of winter tyres in the summer are rather elongated.
An all season tyre is marginally better usually, but not by much, and sometimes worse, tyre dependant. The exception to all this are the Crossclimate, which are 97% a summer tyre, with braking and stability behaviour to prove it, yet are 95% a winter tyre too, with the traction, braking and stability to prove it. Designated as a summer tyre, with winter certification.

I've just been looking around the accessories site on volvocars.com/uk and I cannot find pricing for winter wheels for the XC40 - you can get them for every other model but there is no UK pricing - is there something I am doing wrong or is it the case that a set of winter wheels + tyres (18inch Rdesign) are not available in the UK?

There seem to be two Volvo accessories sites - volvocars.com/uk/accessories and accessories.volvocars.com/en-gb - and you can only look at winter wheel/tyre options on the latter.

https://accessories.volvocars.com/en-gb/

You'll need to contact your dealer for a quote. Be warned: the prices are eye-watering and make no sense.