18 Nov 00

Winter Tires-V70 T5 2001.

The snow flakes were starting to drift down around Toronto today so I decided to put snow tires on both cars; 1994 850 Turbo and the above noted. The 850 has had Gislaveds every winter since new so there was no doubt as to which brand I was going to put on the V70; size was another question. Volvo seems not to be sure themselves which size to use. In early owner's manuals they listed 215/55 16's as the proper size; in later manuals, ie the one that came with my car, TP 4856, the went down a size to 205/55 16's.

My V70 is an April build car and I have had it since the end of August. I wanted my snow tires to be as close in size, ie rolling circumference, to the summer tires (17 inch P6000's) as possible. The speedometer over reads about 3% with the summer tires. I figured that the 205's would be a bit on the small side. I measured the circumference of each and then I checked the rolling circumference on the car for both. The 205's are definitely on the small side, although they would fit. The measured circumference of the 215's is about 2% less than the P 6000's while the rolling circumference is about 4 or 5 %.

In any case I bought the 215's. Today I checked the speedometer readings with the 215's against the GPS. As expected from the above numbers, the speedo now reads between 5 and 6% high. I will just have to live with it. I would strongly recommend against the 205's if you are interested in an accurate speedo.

I put about 50 or 60 kms on the tires, in the dry, today. They handle quite well and the car feels much like it did with the P6000's. They are a little more noisy. They have a deep center groove just like the P6000's and with the Volvo wheel covers they look very good indeed. It they are anything like the tires on my 850 I should be able to out 4 wheel drive most SUV's, at least in the snow.

Please note the following: The V70 comes with at least three different wheel sizes depending on markets and what is ordered. The numbers stated here only apply to the 17 inch diam, 7.5 inch width wheel. The 17 inch wheel car has bigger brakes and needs a different offset. If you are buying non-Volvo wheels, be sure you get the correct offset.

As soon as we get some deep white stuff here, I will give a snow handling report. The Gislaveds are fantastic on the 850.

All the best.

Robert A. Froebel