Great to see all the snow in UK over Christmas; it looked very pretty.

I have to say I think the loacl authorities appeared to be out and about gritting, but no one uses winter tyres. All the pictures you see on the TV of cars wheel spinning etc would probably be alleviated if drivers had the right tyres for the road conditions. You would then find more people on the road, compacting the grit/salt and thus making the snow and ice melt faster. Here in Germany, if you havre the wrong tyres and have an accident, then your insurance company can limit their payout in the event of a claim, and if you cause an obstruction becasue you have no grip then your are fined €40 and get a point on your licence.

This winter I have a second set of full Cooper M&S tyres on 17" alloys and the differance over the AT Continental 18" factory fit tyres are immense. When driving in Uk during the big freeze last Feb in my focus on full winter tyres I and the many East Europeans in there also winter tyred cars were moving easily whilst the majority slid and skid.

I just can't understand why non of the motoring organisations don't talk about winter tyres or in the horrible age of 'ealth and safety why such options as winter tyres are not offered by manufacturers in UK. Maybe in time? Freelander 2.2e HSE , Privacy, Fully debadged, 19" Chrome SHadow alloys

I think this is something that we need to sort out here.

I think it should start with all local authorities and emergency services (if they don't already).

Then they need to either push it through insurance or through some kind of law change, even just an update to the highway code suggesting that it can help.

Managed to find, after a lot of digging, and article on it in the UK, from some safety organisation (can't remember who) stating that they've been talking to Dutch authorities, as they get the same weather, but have now got about 11% of road users have winter tyres, drastically up over 10 years ago.

Winds me up that people claim not to be able to drive, yet have summer tyres, and often warn out.

Stupid Brits (myself included, have Cooper ATRs, but not yet got proper winters)

Unnecessary use of "quotes" removed

If only UK drivers would wake up to the reality of winter and the sensible use of winter tyres in winter, partially in the north of England and Scotland where there is normally more snow and colder temperatures.

BFGLR2Man's comments concerning car insurance and getting a fine for holding up other road users because of using the wrong tyres is much the same here in Scandinavia and is a system which is needed to be enforced in the UK as well. However until I moved to Norway and used winter tyres for the first time, I had no idea of the benefits either. In these days of better communication and travel between the UK and the continent there can be no excuse for having no knowledge of winter tyres and their benefits in lower temperatures, snow and ice conditions.

UK drivers are probably concerned with the expense of an extra set of wheels and tyres and seem to prefer to spend money on car appearance rather than winter safety. 4-wheel drive is a help, but it is not enough and there are still heaps of 2-wheel drives that would surely benefit with extra grip in winter.

modified due to Unnecessary use of "quotes" being removed  2007 Freelander 2 HSE TD4 Manual with Premium Pack & Moonroof.
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Last edited by AndyC on 4th Jan 2010 12:02 pm. Edited 1 time in total

i think a policy change to winter tyres would be a good thing, but like any major change will cause up roar with the people who can't see the benefit of such a tyre.

I have a spare set of wheels in the garage, but to be honest can't justify spending £XXX a tyre at the moment for winter tyres when the car gets around well enough on normal tyres. Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

Good to know I can generate a response. By way of extra food for thought. A few years ago I owned a BMW 530d (225 bhp rwd). On its 17" summer tyres it was difficult to say the least on snow. I purchased some winter tyres (made by AVON and ironically in the UK!) and even when trying it proved really difficult to unstick in the snow.

The set for my focus cost about £300 (4 tyres on steel rims) and i see it as an investment, if nothing else my lovely alloys are safe from winter salt for the winter.

I would also echo the comments that until you drive on them, you don't know the benefits they can bring.

Thanks for the early responses  Freelander 2.2e HSE , Privacy, Fully debadged, 19" Chrome SHadow alloys

BFGLR2Man wrote:

I would also echo the comments that until you drive on them, you don't know the benefits they can bring.

You must also remember that normally here in the UK we only get snow for about 1 week a year, and that doesn't justify the extra expense of winter tyres.

Ok, this year has been the exception to the rule, but having an extra set of tyres sat in my garage for 51 weeks before they are needed again is uneconomical. ______________________
2011 Full Fat RR 4.4 TDV8
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Dave wrote:

Ok, this year has been the exception to the rule

It will get worse due to global warming  2007 Freelander 2 HSE TD4 Manual with Premium Pack & Moonroof.
Stornoway Grey with Ebony Black Pleather, Clear Indicators, Body Side Mouldings etc.

Dave wrote:

Ok, this year has been the exception to the rule, but having an extra set of tyres sat in my garage for 51 weeks before they are needed again is uneconomical.

Mud and Snow tyres work best below temperatures of 7 deg c. Therefore the winter tyres season in Germany is normally considered to be October to the end of March. A normal summer tyre's rubber gets brittle at lower temperatures and doesn't grip as well as M&S tyres which have more silica in the rubber and a much deeper block tread pattern. This results in grip on compacted snow and ice/frosty roads. Those wheels spinning moments pulling out from a frosty junction onto a main road from a side road for example don't happen.

Generally all cars and most high performance SUV's come with summer tyres designed to give optimum roadholding or water dispersion. I include in this things like my last Merc ML, which whilst an excellant 4x4 comes with Z rated 19" 35 profile tyres because 99% of them never go off road. The FL2, Disco and XC90 type SUVs come with All Terrain (AT) tyres. Mine came with Continentals which has an M + S rating written on the side, but no little Alpine symbol which means they are a dedicated M+S tyre. The German Police would have no problem in accepting them (AT) as winter tyres. My tyres worked well last winter, but now have 3mm of tread, so will now remain for next summer only before being replaced by summer only tyres, and since I have winter tyres from my ML and found a set of genuine 17" LR alloys on Ebay for a song made the switch to dedeicated M+S tyres this winter.

AT tyres are a compromise and work well for say UK where you only get a few days of snow a year and have the benefit of 4x4 to cope with the rest. Winter tyres work best when they have 4mm of tread, but the tread block wears much more slowly than summer tyres. For example, those on my focus have done 17.5 K miles are are still at 7mm! I agree that say living on the south coast AT tyres would be fine, but if I lived in somewhere like mid Wales or North of the Peak District, I would want to be equiping my car with winter tyres during the winter. Freelander 2.2e HSE , Privacy, Fully debadged, 19" Chrome SHadow alloys

Thinking back to the 60's when most cars were rear wheel drive, didn't some people put different tyres on the rear, Town and Country I think they were called. They looked semi agricultural in their tread pattern but I bet they helped get the Cortinas/Minxs/Cambridges of the day around in the snow.

And at any speed they wined like a Leyland Truck

mcphersonstrut wrote:

And at any speed they wined like a Leyland Truck