Just refitted mine. I told my insurer when I first fitted them. I bought a second hand set of the same alloys that were fitted to the car from new. I'll phone again just to make sure.

Just in time - this morning was a little wintry. Saying that my "summer tyres" are now Crossclimates. When I wear out the Conti TS850's I'll probably just use Crossclimates and sell the alloys - however the TS850's are looking as though they will last forever. They've done about 13k miles over two seasons and they look like new still.I always swap front-rear and vice-versa every time I fit the wheels.

Edited by Big John on 29/10/2018 at 22:45

@craig-pd130 - The Crossclimates are fitted to my 2014 1.4tsi mk II Superb S which has 205/55 R16 tyres. I've done about 18,000 miles on them thus far and I didn't measure them when I stored them but there was loads of tread in the centre with a little bit of wear at the edges but still loads of life. I'd say I've certainly got another summer season left (circa 9000 miles) and possibly two. Best thing about the Crossclimate is they are very quiet. Grip in the wet is outstanding as well.

For comparison I got 35,311 miles out of the original set of Continental summer tyres.

Sorry, slightly sad but I do note date and mileage when I swap / buy tyres!!

I fitted Quatrac 5 all seasons to my previous 2003 Superb mkI (also 205/55 16) sometime before I sold it - and the new owner still has them fitted some 45,000 miles later and still OK. In my ownership the original Bridgestones lasted 18,000 miles, Goodyears 23,000 and Michelin Energys 30,000 miles( had a few sets of these but grip in winter was poor)

NB With my commute and holiday style I tend to do about 15,000 miles a year so I try to pick cars with higher profiles as I've always find they last much longer and are also much cheaper to buy.

Hope this helps.

Edited by Big John on 31/10/2018 at 21:24

When I wanted to change my wheels and tyres over from the OEM 205/55 R16V to (still allowableand specified in the handbook and on the door plate) 195/65 R15H and from summer only tyres (all year) to CrossClimates, I phoned my insurer to as to whether they would allow this and the implications for my policy/premium.

Tthey gave me a quote (luckily as a long-serving customer [rare to get this these days] they waived the £25 admin fee for the change) after they confirmed via their supervisor that it was ok (as I had also checked directly with Mazda and said so).

They said to phone back once I had a confirmed date for the change or on the day of the change, and they would honour the cheapest requote between the previous one a few weeks ago and the one that day. I was pleased to find out when phoning them on the day of the changeover that my quote had reduced by about £15, so I was to get a refund.

The change was treated as a modification, but a manufacturer-certificated one, unlike, say, me having the wheels changed out for 18in ones etc or lowering the suspension using non-standard parts (i.e. modding). I suspect this is where insurers treat people like us making sensible decisions about changing out parts differently and far more favourably to modders who are significantly changing the nature of a car outside the OEM specs.

I suspect also that quite a few of the customer service operatives just don't have the knowledge (even some supervisors) to understand the difference and often default to what their computer screen tells them, which are too standardised and information can only be changed by supervisors who will use their greater experience and discretion in such cases. This was the case with my change.

The insurers don't want to pay their ordinary CS staff the extra to train them for such eventualities because they believe it doesn't happen often enough to warrant the extra cost of training and salaries. My dad (who worked in insurance for 35 years) confirmed this - for any meaningful/out-of-the-ordinary change to any of his insurance policies, he asks to speak to a supervisor or above almost straight away, so as not to waste everyone's time.

Hopefully as more people in the UK switch to all season or put on winter tyres (with smaller steel wheels) on their cars then the insurers will make the required adjustments to staff training, procedures and their computer systems to account for this.