Winter tyres – why you need them

why talk about winter and summer tyres. Why not use all year round tyres. We lived in South Germany for more than 20 years. Traveled in Austria and Switzerland on all year round tyres never had problems in winter or rainy summer days. In winter  we had a set of snow chains in the car. We never had problems in travling up the mountains were roads were covered in 5"  of snow or more.

And to those of you  that say  it's a good  marketing ploy from the tyre manufactures to sell summer and winter tyres beat them and buy all year round tyres and you are safer on the road all year round. We still use all year round tyres

One Christmas (26th December) we traveled up to Engelbird (altitude 3350ft)in Switzerland with temperature of -25C towering a 18 ft caravan no problems at all.

jock 8040 is telling it like it is, winter tyres do work so glad i got mine,

I drive a 4x4 and i live in Finland where it gets to be -26 and -35 in the south of the country during the winter. The roads are cleared of surface snow but that still leaves the ice below so basically your driving on ice most of the time and up in the north all of the time, you wouldn't be able to go anywhere without winter tyres, which is why they are a legal requirement in any Scandinavian country from november to april and some other european countries to.

Are winter tyres needed in the UK? Well i was there just a couple of days ago and my sister was looking into buying some because the rear wheels of her merc were just spinning when she tried to pull off and then had trouble driving up the very steep hill home again, the tyres worked out at anything from £55 to £200 depending on the make. Of course its going to cost the driver more money to drive in the winter if he wants the tyres, but unlike Scandinavia you don't have to have them but you may have had personal experiences over the last couple of winters where you feel you would be better off if you had them. I certainly remember the story of the surgeon who had to walk 16 miles through the snow when Kent was snowed in two winters ago. And other stories just like it. Unless you live with driving  in harsh winter conditions every winter you cant understand the importance of winter tyres really.

Its not about the tyres its about the drivers, and the reality is most drivers in the UK cannot drive in good conditions, let alone ice and snow, and i drive 60-80,000 miles annually so see it all.

Winter tyres do work, but at what price, correct driving for the conditions is much more effective, and winter tyres suffer from many traits such as rapid wear in warm conditions and lack of grip outside their working temperatures. In addition you have the expense of buying another set of tyres and storing them, then having them changed at least twice a year. Tyres only last 5 years so many winter tyres will be sat for most of the year and be thrown away with barely any use, not exactly environmentally friendly, but very good for manufacturers profits.