Tyres...... Winter and 21"

[Paulj1]

So I had my sportline 80 since September 2021... great car... looks good....

Back in November 2021, first frosty morning, nearly s**t myself on an icy road, the 21" Bridgestone's were useless.... so winter tyres needed... this is where fun starts

given the different sizes front nad back, and the 21" wheels, winter tyres or all seasons were unbelievably expensive, it was £100 more to buy a set of winter wheels with tyres from Skoda that what i did.

Fitted winters early December 2021.. vibration at motorway speeds.... eventually in march Skoda admitted the tyres were not round enough and would replace them!!! took them ages to source the tyres, winters went back on in October 2022, all good.....

Swap winters off to summers in April 2023, find that when dealer fitted winters in October they put rear on front on passenger side !!!! WTAF... workshop manager claimed they didn't know tyres were different size...... idiots

Car has done 17000 miles, maybe 10000 of those on the 21" summers..... tyres are nearly shot, not very good wear..... What are others getting ?

So now need new summer tyres..... my god sell a kidney £1500 in some places.... struggling to get below £1000.... and ideas ?

May just put summers on the 19" wheels the winters are on and sell the 21" wheels on ebay..... but they do look good.

[Goaty]

We noticed at 17,000 miles that my 21’s needed changing. They probably reached that stage at around 15k. My tracking may have been out, so we’ll see if there’s any improvement with my current set.

[Ken3966]

Surely better to get a set of 19” wheels with winter tyres on and keep 21” for fair weather use.
I did this with my Yeti using 16” steel wheels in winter and standard 17” in summer. I even swapped them over myself, but as the Enyaq is so much heavier may need help.
I did 36k in Yeti and it went in p/x with original tyres still on. I used the winters for 3 more years on my Karoq meaning normal tyres still ok when car p/x for Enyaq.
I still have the winters and will sell them probably Oct as stil have 6-7mm tread left, even after 6 winters use.

[Erakettu]

Just saying my honest opinion.
Wheel size is like manhood size, does it really matter?
Smaller wheels have the lowest consumption, thats all I care about.

[fivetide]

"Wheel size is like manhood size, does it really matter?"

*WOW*

Hahahahhahahhaaaa.

[Aragorn]

IMO wheels (both size and style) can completely transform how a car looks. Ugly wheels can immediately make a nice car look awful, and vice versa.

My car came with the 19" Proteus, and they're somewhat "meh". I decided to fit winters to them and buy some 20's for summer. I bought a set of Vega's and had them refurbished in a sort of Anthracite grey, and its really improved the car. Its also made it look even worse (in my head) on the Proteus wheels

The 21" tyres do seem fairly dear, circa 200 a corner is about the lowest you'll manage for non-junk (Asda tyres have Hankooks for £209 for instance)

The 20's are a little cheaper, circa £160 for the same Hankooks. Cheap budgety tyres are also more readily available in the 20" size than 21.

[foot tapper]

Just saying my honest opinion.
Wheel size is like manhood size, does it really matter?
Smaller wheels have the lowest consumption, thats all I care about.

Smaller wheel & tyre combinations provide a noticeably better ride quality, are less expensive to buy, less likely to aquaplane in heavy rain and safer in a serious crash (god forbid but the 19" wheels give a 2" longer crumple zone than the 21" wheels).

Larger diameter wheels offer more bling/visual appeal and higher price for the manufacturer. That's it.

The fact that we mistakenly think that larger alloy wheel diameters are better shows how naive and superficial we all are!

[Goaty]

Absolutely guilty of superficiality, here. Hands up


I did go for 21” but I think it was to help me ‘ease’ into the Skoda brand. I’ve been fortunate to have a run of decent German company cars and yes, I did ‘pigeon hole’ Skoda as something I’d never even consider.

But when my new company car list was issued to me two years ago - and I realised I could actually save nearly 5 grand a year in BiK compared to a diesel - I knew I had to go EV. The Enyaq became the obvious choice due to range and boot size, and indeed the visual appeal of the Betria alloys helped me overcome my reluctance to go to a Skoda.

And next time… well if the Enyaq still makes sense in 2026 when I’m due to change cars again, I think I’ll be comfortable enough to go for the basic 19’s. If nothing else, it’ll alleviate my fear of scraping my alloys!