[Proghound]

I once got caught out in the previous D5 manual C70 and had to drive about 20 miles up and down various hills in the Chilterns in 2"-3" of laying snow on summer tyres. It couldn't get me everywhere once other cars compacted the snow into ice, but I was pleasantly surprised at just how much it could cope with. As above, 1200rpm in 3rd got me home, albeit the longer and shallower way round in one place.

With that day in mind, I later jumped at the chance of a set of fairly battered C70 rims second hand and fitted them with winter tyres. They were on the car from early December to at least the end of March for a couple of winters. They rode beautifully but I don't think they ever even saw ½" of snow! For that reason, and because the summer wheels were nicer and with newer and freshly-balanced tyres, I put the winters back on it when I traded it in against the current C70 back in May this year.

So I've just last week put the old car's summer wheels onto the current car for the winter. The idea is that being 17" they should be more resilient against potholes than the 18" that this one came with, plus they've already seen a kerb or two so less of a worry if I do have the odd hairy moment. And I can leave them on as long as I like next year. Which considering how much better they ride than the 18", might even be until it gets properly warm again!