I've two sets of metal wheels with tyres on them but it turned out they had to be rebalanced anyway every year so I gave up on changing them myself. These are 16" high profile tyres, maybe that's why.
And the tyres hasn't been on the rim for a long time!! Old tyres can be a pain.
I change the wheels on the 328 myself (as I have done with most of my cars over the years. However the Disco is 2 sets of tyres (rather than 2 sets of wheels and tyres) so will be taken to the garage. The other car won't be going on to winter tyres
Thanks for all the advice. Pretty much as I suspected in that 4.9 mm really isn't good enough for living 1400m up an alp with a driveway that is often snowbound. Thought they were struggling a bit last year so that confirms it.
Will ebay off the old ones in the uk and replace the existing vreds with some nokian wr SUV 3 which appear to get great reviews and the cheapest of the premium makes hopefully they won't kill the fuel consumption as badly as the vreds did.
Usefull info on the date marker. What is crazy is that it is perfectly legal to sell tyres up to 24 months old which means that the tyes will probably life out before they wear out. Will have to look at mine.
Check the tire labeling (like those on refrigerators or washing machines). Been official in the EU since end-2012. Many Nokians have a "C" for rolling resistance and many Vredestein have "E". You'll likely gain positively on fuel consumption.
The nokians are C the vreds were E so hopefully... Fitted a set of Michelin Lattitude Tour HP summer tyres at the beginning of the year and am getting 10-15% better consumption on a run. Quite surprising. As the vreds did 10-15% less than the old summer tyres doubt the nokians could be any worse.
I was always taught this but I think it may be a hangover to older days and technology when the theory was you wanted the tyres to cut through the snow to the tarmac. In those days the winter tyres were little more than tractor tyres. The modern tyres are so good on packed snow and at shifting slush that I suspect that you may be better off with normal width. The narrower tyres run the risk of slipping when used with more powerful cars. If you are on deepish snow then you wont cut through to the tarmac so the more area you have the better provided you are still exerting enough force to pack the snow so to speak.