Back in a Freetrack

[ALTEA4]

After months of searching I’ve purchased another freetrack, finally a dealer that didn’t piss me around. This time it’s a diesel but for work that’ll be fine. No extras on this one so halogen lights , non heated seats and the mp3 playing stereo. Comes with SEAT history but I’ll be booking it in for an oil and haldex service asap anyway. Price paid reflected no cambelt history in the book since 2015 but I’ve been lucky before where SEAT confirmed a car had a recent change. MOT history shows a well maintained car as far as passes go and only 83k. Dealer pics showed good bodwork with no obvious dents or scuffs , it’s black so going to detail it and ceramic coat it to keep it looking smart. Long distance buying so my first viewing will be when it arrives on a transporter.

 

[Tell]

I enjoyed my standard Altea, a trusty beast. A few high bills as the high value items gave up but it did me for 12 years.... went on a few years longer doing a registration check.

 

[ALTEA4]

My car is now at the local trusted garage having a full service and some parts replaced as the freetrack will be my daily and needs to be 100%. Tyres are almost new maxxi all season which get ok reviews but not crossclimate+ I had before. . As the 225/50/17 tyres attract a premium I’m looking to change the wheels to 18” and rubber with 225/40/18 to bring the prices down considerably. 2nd hand alloys aren’t that cheap or guaranteed quality and I’m liking the steel look. I’ve found these which fit the spec. Has anyone changed over to steelies. What do you think. I’m leaving the suspension as is so no change in clearance gap.

 

[Icarus83]

My car is now at the local trusted garage having a full service and some parts replaced as the freetrack will be my daily and needs to be 100%. Tyres are almost new maxxi all season which get ok reviews but not crossclimate+ I had before. . As the 225/50/17 tyres attract a premium I’m looking to change the wheels to 18” and rubber with 225/40/18 to bring the prices down considerably. 2nd hand alloys aren’t that cheap or guaranteed quality and I’m liking the steel look. I’ve found these which fit the spec. Has anyone changed over to steelies. What do you think. I’m leaving the suspension as is so no change in clearance gap.

I run steelies on my Touran and Freetrack, on and off. They are only 16" 6.5J (205/55/16) with winters on them, but clear the 312mm front conversion fine on mine and the standard 312mm on the Freetrack. Makes tyres much cheaper and narrower in the winter snow performance is better. Also they don't look horrendous, VAG bus style...

My normal daily alloys for the Freetrack are a multispoke A6 (C6) 17" 7j and the ET42 sits nice. I run a slightly shorter profile at 235/45/17 so the speedo overreads fractionally more than normal. You can get them 2nd hand for £35-50 each. Also my old winter alloys were some dished Audi A5 (B8), 17" 7.5j ET28 which also looked nice on a freetrack.
A lot of the 'basic spec' 17" alloys on the A5/6/8 Audi's come up pretty cheap as most want to upgrade to bigger. I did have some 18" 8.5j ET28 Speedlines off an A5 on my old Audi A4 but I found them really soft and was constantly having cracks welded on the inside edges due to low profile tyres.