Change of alloys

[thewinelake]

What brand of tyres do Skoda supply with new cars?

[Gizmo]

Whatever they have the best deal on at the time.

Continental, Pirelli and Dunlop I have personally seen (as well as IIRC Khumo on a Fabia)

[Booble]

I've always been a sucker for nice wheels, finishes the look of the car perfectly. If you're spending 650 on upgraded 19 inch wheels, its the pegasus all day long for me (out of available selection).

[SuperbMan71]

What brand of tyres do Skoda supply with new cars?

 

All that I have seen live / internet for Superb III have been

17" Continental PremiumContact 5

18" and 19" Pirelli Cinturado 7

 

So, not the best choices for noise level...

[thewinelake]

I've always been a sucker for nice wheels, finishes the look of the car perfectly. If you're spending 650 on upgraded 19 inch wheels, its the pegasus all day long for me (out of available selection).

Yes, but isn't Pegasus 18 inches?

[jstallan]

For my SE Business I opted for the zeus alloys at the point of order. Main reason being that there are less spokes to clean - it is a company car after all!!

[l4wrence]

Yes, but isn't Pegasus 18 inches?

 

I'd agree looking at the current brochure. The only 19" choices are Supernova, Sirius and Phoenix. I didn't want 19" until I saw the Supernova but I'm still sticking with Pegasus. Plus Supernova are not an option but sold as an accessory, so they don't come with tyres (unless you get the Sportline where they come as standard). The Phoenix look like they will be a bugger to clean when washing the car.

Edited 1 October, 2015 by l4wrence

[Coops]

I don't quite understand that question!

 

I suspect that spending shed loads of money is rarely something I want to do, but I'd rather the tyres got ditched than the whole car ;-)

 

I agree, but I meant why spend a whole load of cash on a brand new set of alloys just to run in the winter, rather than buying a second hand set of alloys. After all they are only going to run in the salt, grime, snow etc.

 

Unless we are at cross purposes?!

[thewinelake]

Ah! Well I was thinking that I'd leave the winter tyres on the fuglies and move the supplied tyres to the new wheels. But, yes, used winter tyres might make sense at the right price.

And there's a good chance that we won't see much snow etc

Edited 1 October, 2015 by thewinelake

[BillyJim]

I asked if the car could be ordered with winter tyres and was told no, but I could order some extra winter tyres and have them fitted. This would be illegal in Germany, apparently.

I think you've been misinformed.

The law in Germany is that you must have tyres fitted that are fit-for-purpose for the current road/weather conditions.

 

The requirement is that winter tyres (or all season tyres) are deemed the only fit-for-purpose tyres in winter conditions, which are defined as the presence of ice, black ice, frost, snow or slush.

So on a fine clear winters day you can lawfully drive with summer tyres.

The fine for driving on summer tyres in winter conditions is a €40 spot fine. This is doubled if you are unable to proceed (get stuck), hinder (drive slowly) or impede (block) any other road user.

The Polizei also have the power to prohibit the vehicle from being driven any further.

 

There is no law to say that winter tyres cannot be used in summer nor have they been defined as not fit-for-purpose for use in summer.

Whilst the Polizei won't nab you, the insurance companies will. They may add liability (or even refuse to pay) if you are involved in a collision, whether your fault or not, whilst using winter tyres in summer.

 

There are no dates specified. The rule-of-thumb is: 1st November until Easter = fit winter tyres.

[thewinelake]

Thanks for the chapter and verse!

 

But my point was that for a car delivered in January (which mine will probably be) it would (very likely!) have to have winter tyres fitted. Mine won't (unless I opt to buy the winter tyres as an extra). I suppose that dealers in Germany could just say "you have to give us another €500 to pay for a second set of (legal) tyres" but I suspect they'd alternatively say "give us an extra €100 to cover the cost of a winter delivery"?

[Booble]

Sorry my mistake - I meant 19" Phoenix!

[BillyJim]

Thanks for the chapter and verse!

 

But my point was that for a car delivered in January (which mine will probably be) it would (very likely!) have to have winter tyres fitted. Mine won't (unless I opt to buy the winter tyres as an extra). I suppose that dealers in Germany could just say "you have to give us another €500 to pay for a second set of (legal) tyres" but I suspect they'd alternatively say "give us an extra €100 to cover the cost of a winter delivery"?

Confused  :wonder:

Are you buying the car in Germany? (Your location says UK)

Otherwise it doesn't matter what German dealers might say**, and unless you intend travelling to Germany in winter then the law there is irrelevant too!

I travel every winter to Germany so winter tyres are a must-have regardless of the UK weather, therefore I budget extra wheels/tyres into the cost of a new car.

 

** The norm in Germany is to buy winter wheels/tyres with your new car, which is why they're listed as options in the German configurator.

Upon collection the dealer will usually ensure that the correct set of wheels are fitted for the time of year and, for an annual fee, will store the unused set.

Come time to swap you just turn up at the dealer and 10 minutes later the job's done.

[thewinelake]

Ah - no I'm getting mine in the UK. It was just a small matter that I would have preferred to have specified winter tyres as an option and then bought some summer tyres on their own rims to swap over later in the year. Hopefully my tyre man won't charge me too much to do the extra round of swapping/balancing to get the summer tyres on the pretty rims.

 

It's just a shame that although it's an option in Germany (because it has to be), it isn't here (because it doesn't!).

 

On a wider matter, I wonder if it SHOULD be made illegal to drive in snow and ice without winter tyres over here? Obviously the definition would need to be made sufficiently fair to give people a chance to switch, but there does seem to be quite a lot of somewhat dangerous driving when we get our occasional proper winter over here.

 

Are "tyre hotel" services cheaper in Germany, I wonder. £10 a month over here seems quite a lot.

Edited 1 October, 2015 by thewinelake

[Bugginbob]

Got contacted by my dealer today for the same reason. I was annoyed enough that my se business estate ordered at start of August wasn't due to be built until mid December, now I either get the Helios wheels I don't want or wait until an unspecified "new year" build date for the stratos ones. I've I politely told the dealer they can either upgrade the wheels to something decent for free or cancel my order.

I've been really looking forward to getting the car and it was on a great lease deal but I can't wait for nearly 6 months for it!

[sworks16]

I had to make the same decision but in the end the car is only a lease car so just went with the standard wheels, i have to say on reflection because of the size of the car perhaps the wider spokes do look better on a small wheel, however the lack of lower end pictures makes it very difficult, Skoda can lose money in two years time when it's back on the forecourt.

[thewinelake]

I look forward to hearing of their response!

Seems to me that Skoda could say "We'll deliver the car with Helios, but swap you to Stratos when we've figured out how to make them in volume". Heck, I'd even pay towards that kind of deal!

[thewinelake]

BTW, I did wonder if Skoda was worried that they'd exceeded the US regulation for maximum spokes, and decided to fill in between alternate spokes of the Stratos to get around that problem. So I thought I'd mock up what such a scheme would look like: 

 

[thewinelake]

BTW, Just in a brief exchange with Skoda Customer Services on this one.... We'll see if anything comes of it. You never know...

 

Subject:    SD-2015/09-021880

 

Dear Mr Lake

 

Thank you for your recent enquiry regarding the specification of your ŠKODA vehicle.

I have verified your vehicle’s replacement wheels details and it is due to production supply. The brochures do have a disclaimer

advising that the specification of vehicles can change without notice.

The replacement wheels are Helios alloys and not Zeus.

Helios alloys are not classed as a downgrade, the replacement wheels are standard on the SE and the SE Business is based on the

SE.

 

Helios, are the same size wheels therefore should have no impact on fuel economy.

 

I hope you find this information useful, however, if you have any further queries, please don't hesitate to contact me using the

details provided below and I will be happy to assist further.

Thank you for contacting ŠKODA UK Customer Service.

 

Kind regards

 

------------------------------

 

Hi Joanne

 

Thanks for explaining that. I happen to think (did I mention?!) that the replacements are very ugly and spoil what is otherwise a beautiful car.

If I were in Skoda's position, I would consider saying to people like me that I should go ahead and buy the car with the ugly wheels, and then when the supply problems are sorted offer a swap-out to the Stratos wheels. I think people like me would even be prepared to make a financial contribution. I would have thought that in times like these, you could do with a PR "win".

I would appreciate it if you could forward this thought/suggestion to someone who's in a position to be able to make a decision!

 

Rgds,

 

...

[RickTT]

If i was you, another option I would be suggesting to Skoda was that in order to secure your order, you would be prepared for the car to be delivered on steel rims with the same tyre profile/size and then once the alloys are available for Skoda to fit and balance the tyres to the new rims.

 

You then can do a deal or the steels to mount winter rubber on them.

[Coops]

Skoda don't have to do anything else and won't change their tact.

Wheels are in short supply so they replaced with an alternative, disclaimer covers it.

[thewinelake]

My guess is that there's only a 10% chance they might do something, but I wonder if the current s***storm might predispose them to some acts of random kindness ;-)

[Claymore]

Once again I have to admire your optimism.

 

You're kinda screwed as its a company car lease.

 

Your company isn't (screwed) however.

 

Nobody can contract out of their legal obligations.

 

The motor (and every other) trade puts in a lot of time and expense to try to do so and to convince it's customers that they have no rights.

 

The prime example is the warranty. That is not there to protect the customers, it's there to (usually successfully) attempt to limit the manufacturers liability.

 

The manufacturers may pretend that they have the right to alter the specification without notice but you also have the right to reject their unilateral alteration.

 

Your company's fleet manager probably doesn't give a flying fig what your wheels look like and make no mistake when it gets chopped in it won't make any difference to its value.

 

If you were a private buyer you could reject the alteration, despite their attempts to contract out of that.

 

And that would be satisfying if you had a backup plan.

 

Otherwise, accept the wheels and invent a really good story for your friends and neighbours (if they're the kind you spend a lot of time looking at your horrible wheels and constantly talking about them).

 

If the above is a problem move to another area. But then your neighbours will have to move.

 

The only act of random kindness that quickly comes to mind is euthanasia

[thewinelake]

I have accepted the wheels insofar as they're not a showstopper for me. However, it would be nice to get an upgrade at some point. This is a shot to nothing so it's not really a case of optimism so much as a almost certainly pointless gesture!

[RickTT]

Here are the Heilos Alloy wheels on the left with no tyre and the Zeus on the right with.

 

As you can see, the Heilos has a flatter face to the center bore of the wheel whith a more square face compared to the more swirl effect and off square face where the bolts are mounted