Given
96%
while driving a
Ford Focus MK1
(195/60 R15 H) on
a combination of roads
for 1,100
spirited miles
I can only afford to run one set of tires a year. So last year I fitted Winter Tires and drove them all year round, (Kormoran SnowPro B2's to replace ContiSportContact2's) and they lasted 21,120 miles (+/- 1000 miles) in 12 months November 2011 to October 2012.
The main reason for investing in winter tires was that I covered 13.9k motorway miles commuting to Derbyshire from Hampshire every weekend all year round and 7.2k miles on A & B roads commuting to work in Hampshire during the week. Majority of the time British weather is wet and cold and roads in general are slippery, seemed like a no brainer - there is significantly more road noise with winter tires than summer tires but the pay off is grip and confidence.
I decided to fit the TS 850 after reading all the positive reviews in auto express and various other sites. I've covered 1100 miles so far and I have noticed that there is significantly more grip than summer tires (my set of snow pros were nearly bald and only 2 TS850's arrived at the start of november so I fit them to the front and the part worn contisport2s on the rear for 4 days); I found that the TS850 handled very well in the variance of wet and cold weather we have had so far. They offer a lot of grip and only noticed that my back end was slipping at higher speeds (only controlled by ESP) on wet or oil/slippery roundabouts and country roads as well as motorways.
I will update the review in January 2013 but all in all - I am happy with my investment so far as grip has been noticeble and that was my main reason in purchasing these tires.