Goodyear UltraGrip 8

Best buy!

Incredible technology in these tyres, makes a standard front wheel drive perform better than a 4x4 in snow and ice.

Very, very good tyres. They lack a bit in road feeling and the sidewall could be stiffer, but this translates in an extremely comfortable ride. Very good noise levels, too, for being a winter tyre.
Dry grip is sligthly above average, but wet grip is just amazing, for this kind of tyre!
Snow: they are absolutely perfect. I've owned several winter tyres in the past and none of them were capable of this kind of snow/ice grip.
Wear: I used them mostly on the motorway and as far as I can see they are in very good shape, at around 6.5-7mm left.
Would definitely buy again.

Great tyre,nice and grippy and brilliant after traction control turned off in snow. Also got superb mpg with these tyres fitted.

Stil new made around 2000 km so stil cant say about wear.great tyre in snow and wet

In contrast to the driver of the BMW 320D below I found these tyres superb in the snow that we had at the beginning of February. I too have a rear wheel drive car with a poor reputation for grip in arctic conditions. When you see the snow on the news they always show rear wheel drive BMW's or Mercedes being pushed along by passers by or being towed by a Land Rover. Not mine!

On the Saturday in question I was on the edge of the Peak District when the snow started coming down. I then drove through Oldham down to Manchester Airport where I stayed for a few hours. I then drove from there down to Rutland then late at night I drove back to my house near Leicester. That's over 200 miles in one day when my tyres barely touched tarmac because of the snow which was several inches deep. In those 200 miles I encountered a hell of a lot of accidents - the roads were total carnage. I also encountered a lot of hills, some of them quite steep where other vehicles including many front wheel drive cars were simply abandoned because they couldn't get up them.

Let's just remind you I was driving a rear wheel drive BMW past all these accidents and abandoned cars on hills and all because I had Ultragrip 8's fitted. Let's not forget though that snow is very slippery (I mean just try walking on it!) so even with Ultragrip 8's you can't drive like a hooligan. You still need to control the throttle and be in the correct gear. It also helps to know how to disable the traction control or put it into a lower sensitivity mode to allow wheel spin. On the BMW this is accomplished by pressing the DTC button on the dashboard. This was my first experience of driving a rear wheel drive car in snow and I can honestly say that I actually prefer it to a winter tyre equipped front wheel drive! I was driving in the outside lane of the motorway and dual carriageways where most others daren't venture. I was even overtaking people in 4x4's because I had so much more confidence than them!

Winter tyres are not just about traction though, they are about being able to steer and stop and the Ultragrip 8's didn't disappoint here either. I did find that if I was going downhill and I just stood on the brake pedal and dropped the clutch then the car took quite a while to stop whereas if I went down through the gears therefore applying engine braking to the rear wheels and foot braking to the front it stopped very quickly. I found the same on sheet ice too. I should also point out that my drive is on a slope and I reversed up it with no effort at all and the car was still exactly where I left it the next morning. Previous cars equipped with summer tyres have been known to slide off the drive in snow.

In other conditions these tyres have been excellent with a very sporty feel and some advanced warning of when they're getting close to the limits. They are very resistant to aquaplaning in the wet and handle very well too. They are very quiet too which is always a bonus. The only conditions where they are inferior to summer tyres are warm dry conditions. They feel too soft meaning that they lack feel and braking distances are longer. Let's face it though, these tyres weren't designed for summer conditions were they? At the end of this month or early April I shall be switching back to summer tyres and the Ultragrip 8's will go into hibernation until about November.

Great tyres. Unfortunatly we had no snow this year to test them out as a proper winter tyre. But never the less they are excellent. No aquaplaning. No road feedback noise. And they handle really well and grip fantastic. I will recommend to anyone these tyres for the winter. And they are cheeper than other brands.

I Must admit that after all of the hype, i'm a little disappointed with the snow grip of these Ultragrip 8 tyres. I'm currently renting a property out in the country for a short period which didn't really justify the purchase of a 4wd, and so snow tyres seemed a good compromise for the odd few days that we get snow in the uk......then the snow actually came this weekend, and I got the opportunity to 'test' them.

I must admit that if my Journey hadn't have been a family emergency, I probably wouldn't have ventured out of doors however when it was obvious that I would need to make the effort, I did at least feel confident that I had snow tyres on the car when I went out into the chaos.

When I hit the roads we had around 6cm of Snow, not extreme by any means at least not when you read reviews of people putting them on their vehicle to go skiing in the Austrian Alps!. On flat, level surfaces, yes the tyres do seem to work, and do increase traction, however if you try to climb an incline or hill in fresh snow its the same old story.....slip, slide, lose the back end, then all traction completely lost and your stuck, just like summer tyres.

So if you live in a relatively flat place, such as Cambridge, or a leafy suburb of London where 1 cm of snow is 'extreme', then you'll love these tyres, however if you have a few hills to climb or live around untreated country roads then do yourself a big favour and hit your browser's back button, because beyond nice flat level motorways and 'A' roads they are no different to summer tyres when faced with a bit of an ungritted incline.

Some people over hype these things on the basis of 'wow I can get in my drive' isn't really a review nor impressive on a suburban housing estate. Try them in an inch of fresh snow on a hill in the country miles from anywhere, then come back and tell us how wonderful they are.

Yes, my car is Rear Wheel Drive, but then that represents a massive target market for Snow Tyres in the first place, especially in Germany and Austria where every other car is a German rear wheel drive and where winter tyres are a legal requirement.

So i'm left bitterly disappointed with what the Ultragrip 8 actually delivers when the snow falls and the going gets tough, and like most politicians they talk big and deliver extremely little.