New 2014 V70 Auto Owner & Winter Tyres

[940autobox]

Hi. I was a 940 owner until 2007 when at 264,000 miles she passed away, hence my user name. Previous had numerous company 740 estates, 240 estates and saloon, 460 for a year and 40 years ago a blue Volvo estate with a rounded front, don't know model. Just replaced my Rover 75.

My Volvo is a 2014 (model2015) SE LUX D4 Auto with winter pack. I am delighted with her and the new D4 1969cc 4 cylinder 133 kW, 181HP engine is brilliant, very responsive and plenty powerful enough for the car.

I live in the sticks and spend time winter hiking in Snowdonia or the Peak District. I always use winter tyres and want to buy wheels and tyres. Most of the year I am on 225/50/R17 W98 Goodyear Efficientgrip Performance which are excellent.

Any views on 17inch v 16 inch winter wheels and any views on which make of wheels to buy and which winter tyres? Otherwise I will go with Goodyear Ultragrip Performance Gen-1 (Winter Tyre) 225/50 R17 V (98) at about £129 each fitted. Cheers. Paul

[mhon72]

Originally Posted by 940autobox

Hi. I was a 940 owner until 2007 when at 264,000 miles she passed away, hence my user name. Previous had numerous company 740 estates, 240 estates and saloon, 460 for a year and 40 years ago a blue Volvo estate with a rounded front, don't know model. Just replaced my Rover 75.

My Volvo is a 2014 (model2015) SE LUX D4 Auto with winter pack. I am delighted with her and the new D4 1969cc 4 cylinder 133 kW, 181HP engine is brilliant, very responsive and plenty powerful enough for the car.

I live in the sticks and spend time winter hiking in Snowdonia or the Peak District. I always use winter tyres and want to buy wheels and tyres. Most of the year I am on 225/50/R17 W98 Goodyear Efficientgrip Performance which are excellent.

Any views on 17inch v 16 inch winter wheels and any views on which make of wheels to buy and which winter tyres? Otherwise I will go with Goodyear Ultragrip Performance Gen-1 (Winter Tyre) 225/50 R17 V (98) at about £129 each fitted. Cheers. Paul

16" will obviously give you a comfier ride.
17" will usually mean a set of alloys as steelies are not readily available to fit (I probably will be proven wrong on this).
I use to run a set of 16" Volvo/Ford steelies with Volvo faux-alloy covers on my V70 over winter with Goodyear Ultragrip Gen-1 tyres which were the best rated tyre in the sizes available to me.
I believe Continentals are currently the best but are limited in the sizes they make.

In fact, the very same set are up for sale if I can get round to getting pictures and posting them up.
I can tell you they are 225/55 16 99H. One pair have had half a winter season (fitted in early March 2018) and used for a couple of months. The second pair were fitted the previous winter and have had about 6 months use mainly on the rears.
No punctures or damage (I checked them over before storage) but I will need to get them out of the storage unit and get some tread measurements.

[FIBAMAN]

Originally Posted by 940autobox

Hi. I was a 940 owner until 2007 when at 264,000 miles she passed away, hence my user name. Previous had numerous company 740 estates, 240 estates and saloon, 460 for a year and 40 years ago a blue Volvo estate with a rounded front, don't know model. Just replaced my Rover 75.

My Volvo is a 2014 (model2015) SE LUX D4 Auto with winter pack. I am delighted with her and the new D4 1969cc 4 cylinder 133 kW, 181HP engine is brilliant, very responsive and plenty powerful enough for the car.

I live in the sticks and spend time winter hiking in Snowdonia or the Peak District. I always use winter tyres and want to buy wheels and tyres. Most of the year I am on 225/50/R17 W98 Goodyear Efficientgrip Performance which are excellent.

Any views on 17inch v 16 inch winter wheels and any views on which make of wheels to buy and which winter tyres? Otherwise I will go with Goodyear Ultragrip Performance Gen-1 (Winter Tyre) 225/50 R17 V (98) at about £129 each fitted. Cheers. Paul

I bought a set of Nokians on 16" steel rims in 2017, got through last winter without problems (very hilly round here) and plenty snow.
Nokians perform very well and no complaints, bought complete and ready to fit from My Tyres for about £620.
My wifes Skoda Octavia runs same, no probs.
I have used winters on my previous car (5 series bmw) and never had to resort to using my Michelin easy grips which are still in the bag they came in.

[tt82]

I'm using Pirelli Sottozero II 245/40R18. They would perform better with thinner tyres on a higher profile but they manage ok.

[pacman67]

Check out Nokian or Vredestein range. Currently running Quatrac 5,s on my D5 215.

[FIBAMAN]

Originally Posted by pacman67

Check out Nokian or Vredestein range. Currently running Quatrac 5,s on my D5 215.

I used Vredestein Wintrac extreme for about 5 years or so, over the really bad winters of 10/11/12 on my BMW, absolutely brilliant, even drove from N. Germany to Amsterdam in 12 when Germany was at at a virtual standstill; no problems.
Only changed to Nokians as Vreds started to get a bit expensive, Nokians just as good in my opinion.

[PEGE63]

I have 18 summers and 16 winters (volvo rims with Conti 830's) and prefer the 16's for comfort. Needles to say easy to swop but added cost of rims is maybe a step too far so why not look at the Michelin Cross climates for 365 days of the year, not cheap but no worse than some good tyres in general.

[JonnyA]

On my XC the standard tyre is a 235/50R18 (previous model it was a R17) and I have 215/65R16 as a winter set on Volvo alloys. This was the volvo recommended winter tyre size at the time.
As said above 16" wheels definatively more comfortable but the key on the winter tyres is the slightly narrower tread for snow driving and at smaller dia you'll find tyres are cheaper.
for what its worth - my original winter tyres were Conti winter-cross-contact and my current are Nokians which are almost out (at 4mm depth you lose traction performace apparantly). Both very competant tyres, but i feel the contis had the edge in sligthly warmer conditions - purely subjective I think the Nokian may be slightly softer.

[940autobox]

Many thanks for all the replies. I am likely to keep the car for up to 10 years so it is worth me getting the correct wheels and tyres.. My Volvo handbook lists 205/60 R16 or 215/50 R17 as alternatives to the 225/50 R!7 that I have on.

It tells me to ask my local dealer for advice on winter tyres so I will now do that on Monday when the dealership is likely to be fully staffed. Looking at "MyTyres" I get concerned that some wheels appear to have a different offset and given I am not confident about offsets I am unsure about ordering. My inclination is to get 205/60 R16 but that is much narrower than existing summer tyres so maybe the compromise is 215/50 R17.

I shall post further as I make progress.
Cheers.

[mhon72]

With the face-lift models I believe 225/50 R17 became the only tyre size for 17" wheels.
Prior to that 245/45 R17s were available on certain factory alloys.
The 215/50 R17 size is more commonly found on the S60/V60 range and would make the V70 speedo over-read.
With 16" wheels on the V70/S80 the sizes that would have the least affect on the rolling diameter are 205/60 R16 and 225/55 R16.
The 16" rims have a 50mm offset and are common to the P3 models and Ford EUCD models of the same period (Mondeo, S Max, Galaxy)
Check prices and availability on both sizes as from my experience it's not a given the narrower tyre is cheaper.
From my experience of using the 2 widths the wider ones seem more sure footed on the road. In the snow there didn't seem to be much difference.

PS. Going back to my own set of winters I've finally got photos and will post on the For Sale section shortly.