WInter tyres

[NotAllThere]

Because winter tyres are expensive game for something that may or may not happen. Last real snow was 3 years ago now.

Then there's having to find somewhere to store 4 tyres.

I'll be blunt, I'll be ****ed if I'm paying £600, plus the refetting/removal twice a year and having to store whichever set isn't on for the sake of having tyres to cover a single event in the lifetime of the car ownership!

Point of order. They're not snow tyres, they're winter tyres. Designed for better grip and wear at lower temperatures.

It doesn't snow or get too cold much where I live either; but we will have long periods of less than 7°C. Winter tyres will have better grip than summer ones at that temperature - but all season are a good compromise for the UK. (@clearedforlanding: I always had all season tyres on my cars when I lived in the UK - I didn't think anyone wouldn't).

The additional cost is the exchange during autumn/spring, plus storage. Since you're using tyres roughly 6 months on, 6 months off, they last twice as long. I keep mine in my garage. The autumn exchange I use a local tyre service company, so it's pretty cheap. The spring one is part of my yearly service. With my other car, it came with winter wheels, so we just swap them ourselves.

[AtW]

Wot happened to the social distancing sig?

>1 grand for a set of tyres for me motor, and that's at pre-Brexit prices, cheaper to take taxi for the next 50 years of snow around here

[Dark Black]

I've used both Winter and All Season tyres.

The difference between Winter and Summer tyres when the temperature gets into lower single figures is night and day. When it gets icy, often the only reason I've noticed is because all the summer tyre shod cars are struggling for traction.

I always have a spare set of rims so just swap to the relevant set myself so no extra fitting costs (I assume /hope that was what other posters where referring to and not that they paid some one to jack up the car and swap the wheels?!).

My last set I left on over the summer as they were well past their best to be effective over a winter. Sure they wore quicker but were perfectly useable. Where muddy lanes were involved they performed better than a summer tyre would.

All Seasons are a compromise of course, but do work well if you don't wish to change tyres twice a year or have storage for the spare set. Tyre of choice for this type is the Vredestein Quatrac.

[darmstadt]

Two sets of rims, one with winter and one with summer. The law here is from 'O to O', 'Oktober to Ostern' although I didn't change until end of November as climate change has kept the weather pretty mild. The rims are swapped out and stored by my dealer and costs me about €160 (including fluid top ups) each change. Peace of mind and you can definitely feel the difference once it starts getting cold and white

[Lance]

Next time I need a new set of boots this what I'll get (or similar).

Has Michelin Created The Best All Season Tire? Rain, Sun, or Snow! - YouTube

[GigiBronz]

Unless you are in the category of people with 1k cars bought on finance that they throw away at first issue. And only care to have valid MOT.
And if you spend 40-50k on a car that you enjoy, I would spend the extra 800-1k for winter tyres.

I would buy 2 sets of tyres, winter and summer with separate sets of rims. Get a hydraulic jack and you can replace them yourself, it takes 30min.
Usually aluminium rims get corroded from what they spray the roads with during the winter.

You can rotate tires easily each year which, unless you have AWD this will extend their life.

What keeps a car on the road is a surface the size of your palm on each wheel, investing in good tires is precaution.
Also you get more aware of the surface of the road. I can bet many people do not even realise when the car aquaplanes slightly, they were probably lucky to not do anything else at that time. People here seldom drive on snow and they don't know how it feels when you drive on a slippery surface.

I had a situation a few years back that I think the tires and well balanced car saved me. It was early in the morning trying to catch a bus in Europe. Was taking an exit from a bridge at around 25mps, one of those spiral exits, with some inclination. I guess I briefly touched the breaks and it was enough for the car to go sideways and I could feel the ESP going on and off trying to put the car on trajectory. For those that are not aware, bridges or suspended surfaces are dangerous because in opposition to normal roads they get airflow underneath. -1C and some type of humidity, morning frost and you are easily thrown off road.

[Eirikur]

What twats.

Heavy snow in Midlands leads to travel warnings and road disruption - BBC News

The first photo says it all. Why is there such reluctance to use winter tyres in the UK?

Is it because people think they are exclusively for snow and don't realise they perform better than summer tyres at less than 7 degrees? Obviously they help a lot in snow as well.

They call that heavy snow?

[clearedforlanding]

They call that heavy snow?

I know, lightweights.



What none of these "I don't want to waste money on tyres I will not use" crowd have yet to mention is the consideration of other vehicles and lives when they potentially slip around while saving money & space in their garage.

[vwdan]

I know, lightweights.



What none of these "I don't want to waste money on tyres I will not use" crowd have yet to mention is the consideration of other vehicles and lives when they potentially slip around while saving money & space in their garage.

In 16 years on the roads I've had a single bump in bad weather - a single-vehicle accident where I hit a kerb with a hire car after catching some black ice. I.e., a car where I had no control over the tyre choice.

In those 16 years I've daily driven around 10 cars. So, on average £150 a corner = ~£6k in tyres and it wouldn't have prevented the one accident I had!. No ta bud, I'll just carry on paying insurance and driving sensibly. Far cheaper and easier to simply stay home the handful of time we've had serious serious weather in that time.

[GigiBronz]

In 16 years on the roads I've had a single bump in bad weather - a single-vehicle accident where I hit a kerb with a hire car after catching some black ice. I.e., a car where I had no control over the tyre choice.

In those 16 years I've daily driven around 10 cars. So, on average £150 a corner = ~£6k in tyres and it wouldn't have prevented the one accident I had!. No ta bud, I'll just carry on paying insurance and driving sensibly. Far cheaper and easier to simply stay home the handful of time we've had serious serious weather in that time.

Some could argue the same about ABS and ESP albeit both have been made mandatory due to benefits to safety. They both get into action only in extreme situations and when they rely on the coefficient of friction between your tire and road. ABS releasing braking pressure to both get control of the steering wheel and do not get sliding friction. ESP trying to counter-act any destabilising momentums by breaking on the relevant wheel.
For both of which the coefficient of fricition is paramount.

It is not as if you are not using them because in let’s say in 4y you’d have gone through both sets.
The only cost is storage and extra rims.

Most of the times you do not need them but there are times when even the best of us are taken by surprise and then it matters.

I love cars and have spent a few years in automotive R&D so probably for me it is about other things...