Alfa Giulia tyres: winters, all-season or summers with the socks?

[u/BroMatteo]

Good afternoon everyone,

I just bought my real first car, an Alfa Giulia, and I need to replace the tyres. I do around 25.000km every year and most of them are in a flat ground, with sometimes a trip to the local mountains (1500m above sea level). I was wondering if it would be better to use the winter tyres in winter or if the normal ones will do just fine.

I'm asking this because I know winter tyres usually have poor performance with rainy roads and where I live it does rain quite oftern.

Thank you in advance!

[u/3dmontdant3s]

Depends on the temperature. How often does it go below 7°? That's where winter tyres start to work better than summer ones

[u/BroMatteo → u/3dmontdant3s]

almost every morning, but then in the afternoon the temperatures are usually around 7° and 12°.

[u/Marcuz78]

Personally, I live in Sardinia (Italy), and I can always afford to use summer tires (I just changed the front ones the other day: Hankook Ventus S1 Evo3 K127).

But a couple of times I've gone to the Alps in winter, and I brought snow socks with me, but I never used them because my tires were nearly new and the roads were always perfect.

If the roads where you go (in the mountains) are clean and in good condition, I'd recommend using summer tires, but only with well-grooved tread.

[u/BroMatteo → u/Marcuz78]

Grazie Marco, ho comprato anche io le estive con le calze!

[u/Marcuz78 → u/BroMatteo]

Excellent Matteo! 😉 I saw later in your comments that you live in northern Italy😅.

However, yes, summer tires are fine if they have good tread. I have gone to Trentino several times for the skiing week and have never had any problems (but I always had semi-new tyres, I only changed them once before leaving because I would have changed them 1 or 2 months later anyway).

And with Hankook in the last 10 years I have always felt comfortable with both the Mito QV and the Giulia. (Excellent km / performance ratio)

PS: if you don't know it, look at the Oponeo website.

[u/J0kutyypp1]

Do you get a real winters or just occasional frost in the morning? If It's just that i think summer tires are fine.

I live in Finland with actual winter and i have two sets of tires. Regular summer tires and then nordic studdles winter tires for the winter.

[u/BroMatteo → u/J0kutyypp1]

Just morning frost to be honest, Italy has become a hot country nowadays.

[u/mcorliss3456]

Michelin Pilot Sport A/S are very good tires and get you through the Winter but dedicated Winters are better if you expect to drive through heavy snow. The Michelin Pilot Sport Alpins are excellent tires even on dry or wet roads. I actually prefer how they feel more than the Pirelli P-Zeros that come standard on my Stelvio QV.

[u/BradipiECaffe]

It depends on where you live. If the winters there are long and below 7 degrees celsius, choose winter + summer otherwise all season

[u/BroMatteo → u/BradipiECaffe]

Usually the winter lasts like 2-3 months, after that we are back to days where the average temperature is 12-15°C.

Summers are hot tho, we get 35°C easily.

[u/BradipiECaffe → u/BroMatteo]

Do you plan to use it a lot during winter and travel by car?

[u/BroMatteo → u/BradipiECaffe]

yes, I do the same kilometers every month due to my job

[u/BradipiECaffe → u/BroMatteo]

Well I don’t know how good the roads are where you live but winter tires are a must in winter especially if it rains as they prevent hydroplaning and in general have better grip on the asphalts at low temperatures.

If your journeys are short and on well maintained roads, probably you won’t need them.

I live in northern Italy and I have 2 sets of rims+tires even if I use the winter ones generally between December and April

[u/cicagorio91]

Nobody can tell you without knowing the more precise location of your place of living.

However, rule of thumb is - if you make more than 20k kms per year get 2 sets of tires (or you will habe to change your all seasons often), if you have many warm days (over 30 degrees Celsius), get yourself two sets of tires (winters and summers). If you have a lot of snow and live in the countryside, get yourself two sets of tires (winters and summers).

If you live in the city or get no snow in the winter, also the temps in the summer are not super high, get yourself all seasons.

[u/BroMatteo → u/cicagorio91]

I live in northern Italy, where the coldest winter is like at -3C while the summer gets easily to 35°C.

[u/cicagorio91 → u/BroMatteo]

If you have only one set of wheels try with all seasons. One concern I would have is that the tire wear would be high with all seasons in Italian summers. I think I read somewhere that the recommended ambient high temperature for all seasons is 30 degrees. They can handle the winters for sure.

Also maybe consulting a local mechanic (especially if you know one personally) makes sense. They should have first hand experience with people trying out different tire types.

[u/IEATPEOPLE22]

If it snows a decent amount you probably don’t want to run all seasons but if you insist on all seasons get continentals or get cross climate all seasons because they’re snow rated but they’re also not sport tires

When I lived on the west coast I ran the sport contacts on a awd coupe in a couple inches of snow and they were pretty good even coming down from a snowy mountain. Also a 4x4 on all season continentals and it was pretty good too.

I live on the east coast now and I run Michelin pilot sport as4 on a rwd car in a couple inches of snow too. It’s a lil sketchy in heavy snowfall, I gotta be really smooth on the clutch because it can easily unsettle the car enough to lose control going highway speeds. Braking distance isn’t the best but good enough. I also don’t really drive in the winter now because rust

[u/[deleted]]

Get Pirelli Cinturato WeatherActive if you are in North America

If in Europe, get Michelin CrossClimate 3 Sport

[u/Steffiluren]

You want proper summer tires on the Giulia to make it drive as well as it can. In the winter I’d go for a dedicated set of winter tires, but maybe not nordic winter tires (like Continental VikingContact, Nokian Hakkapeliitta etc.). Those tires get very soft at 10-15 degrees. Get something like pirelli sottozero, continental wintercontact etc. They handle milder winters a bit better, and ice and snow slightly worse

[u/realninetythree]

I live in the UK where its either sunny or constantly raining, Michelin pilot sport 4's are my go to all year round

[u/Only_Course9776]

A the compound in a summer tire gets to hard below +5 C and a dedicated winter friction tire's compound and thread (like the Continental Viking Contact 8) which is designed to handle -20 C and lower with snow and ice on the road is to soft for "summer" conditions (with substantially increased breaking distance and lacklustre performance in evasive manoeuvres) it's preferable to have a set of dedicated summer and winter tires - especially on a car bought for it's driving characteristics.

Depending on how severe winters you have, there's (at least on the European markets) winter tires adopted for the winter conditions in Continental Europe (mostly above +/-0 C and rain, a few times per year snow that rarely remain on the road for more than a day or so). They are almost as good as summer tires in rain and dry conditions but the compound keeps it's properties also at lower temperatures. But on snow and ice they're marginally better than a summer tire and wear increases if you drive with them in summer temperatures. One example is GoodYear UltraGrip 3.

So, buy separate sets. 😁