Why we’ve tested winter tyres

My friend in Holland has 2 sets of tyres with his car as it is a requirement of his Insurance to have winter tyres fitted in winter. The tyre firm changes his tyres a the appropriate time and stores the not in use tyre until neede again. He changes his car every 3 years and dosen’t need to buy a new set as the 2 sets last him. He is a salesman and covers a great deal of miles. He says he can appreciate the better performance of the winter tyres in cold conditions and especially in snow and ice.

Having seen the violence with which tyrefitters remove tyres when replacing them, I can’t believe just changing tyres on the same wheels is a safe long-term solution. At the very least, each wheel would need rebalancing every time the tyre is changed? Everyone in Germany seems to keep two sets of wheels, one with winter tyres and one with summer. Does anyone know of a dealer who offers steel wheel and winter tyre packages?

4ft of snow on the ground December last year in the rural area outside Hull and my rear-wheel drive C-Class and IS-220 were undrivable on the local roads and I could not get out of my driveway. However the main A roads on bus-routes and dual-carriageways were cleared by snow plows and passable with care. In the previous January, i was working in Manchester and was able to drive 100 miles from Hull to Manchester, yet my staff, living 10 miles in and around Manchester complained they could not get to work in the snow and ice. It seems it is the local first/last 5-10 miles that are the difficulty.

This year I’ve invested £100 in 4 snow-shoes for my car, this will get me out of my driveway if there is snow/ice and onto the cleared main roads. Careful driving at slower speeds will get me the next 90 miles.

I can’t justify £800+ for tyres + steel rims etc. per car and don’t have the space to store 10 tyres all year round.

I don’t know if Which? has mentioned this but if you do store tyres for 6 months, they need to be stored on their side and sealed/wrapped up to keep light and moisture out, otherwise the tyres will degrade.

Bridgestone Blizzaks on my BMW 330CD auto trasform the car in winter. For the past 3 years I have swapped to these tyres in Nov, reverting to summer tyres in late March. Traction, braking and steering are vastly improved on snow and ice. Whilst 4 x 4 vehicles may have traction on summer tyres, they still cannot stop and turn as effectively as a RWD car on the proper tyres for the conditions. A feature of winter tyres that does not get mentioned is aquaplane resistance on motorways. This is vastly improved giving far more control on our poorly maintained and drained motorway system in wet conditions, irrespective of temp.

Nice article Dave, there’s been a few tests done on the effectiveness of winter tyres. Check these videos out : http://www.blackcircles.com/tyres/winter-tyres/videos it features tyre tests from Goodyear and Tyresafe. If you live in the UK, it’s better to be safe and go with winter tyres during the cold weather months.

Dean, it is your attitude that gets the human race a bad name. Firstly, wet greasy summer roads afford massively greater grip than that available on snow or ice, and indeed non icing, but wet and cold gritted roads. Thats a simple fact. As an all year round driver, motorcyclist, road and mountain biker I can assure you of this. Riding any bike without proper protection is not taking seriously your responsibilities to yourself, family and friends, and society in general, it has nothing to do with civil liberties. I guess you dont wear a seat belt when driving either as this is also a “civil liberties” errosion. Its simple, common sense says dont take a vehicle on the road without it being road worthy, deflating, incorrect tyres for the conditions should not be used. We all have a responsibility to every other road user to ensure we are properly equiped. It matters not to anyone else if you damage your own car, but dont risk my car, and life by venturing onto the roads in sub 7 degrees conditions.

Just read the winter tyre test and to be honest it left me disappointed. Giving a star rating is fine but if you quoted actuall stopping distances in meters people would soon take notice, especially if you also included the results for a summer tyre. I can’t help but feel that the Which testers have not spent much time behind the wheel of a car fitted with low profile summer tyres, wider say than 215mm in severe winter conditions.(worse if RWD!) The difference between driving one of these and a typical small car on narrow tyres is huge the moment the snow starts to fall. Something Which completely fail to mention.

I have been driving for over 35 years in a variety of vehicles, both in the UK and in Europe.
About 15 years ago I was living in a hilly rural area and purchased a spare set of wheels with winter tyres (instead of buying a 4 wheel drive vehicle) to keep me mobile during a particulary snowy and icy winter. The handing improvement on ice and snow was dramatic, so I began fitting winter tyres to my family’s other vehicles.
For the past 5 years I have been fitting “all-season” tyres, for improved summer-handling and tread-life (up to 20K-plus miles per set).

We’re in Sutherland where temperatures are consistently below 7C in winter. We fitted a set of Goodyear SP this year and are delighted with the improved handling in cold conditions, with or without snow. It would have been really useful if Which? had published this report earlier in the year as it came too late to be any use. Manufacturers only distribute a limited number of tyres in the UK and you need to order early, ideally by October to get a good choice of makes. You don’t have to fit them right away. We made our choice after reading German and North American reviews. Michelin were the make most recommended, but we were too late to get them.

first year with winter tyres.made decision back in august,got myself set of secondhand alloys bought set of vredestein snowtrac 3 in september and had them fitted to above s/h alloys.changed over tyres summers to winters in 2nd week in december and haven`t looked back.
below 7deg C handling/grip is sharper,marginally noisier and mpg appears to be about the same,but correspondingly above 7 deg C grip is less,also wet grip/handling so much better with winters at any temperatures.am lucky that have space to store wheels when not in use.
my daily commute is 80 miles round trip,car is bmw 1 series cabby diesel.overall am very pleased with these tyres and their performance,they suit my circumstances.

Given that many cars now have space saver spare wheels, how does this line up with your idea of buying five winter tyres?

I recommend winter tyres, as for the insurance issues, last winter the companies were trying to say that if your car was on V or W speed rated summer tyres you had to have the same speed rating in winter tyres which is just crazy and in most cases winter tyres are only made in H 130mph or V 149mph rated which is way more than most people will use. After this was in the news the insurance companies finally got some common sense: ABI ISSUES REASSURANCE TO MOTORISTS FITTING WINTER TYRES
The ABI has issued reassurance to motorists that fitting winter tyres should not result in an extra charge on their motor insurance. There is lots of good information on winter tyres with videos here http://www.performancealloys.com/Winter-Tyres.aspx and if you are looking for winter wheels you can also get them as well.
Since i bought my winter tyres from these guys last year they now have included the entire new EU tyre labelling information which was very interesting to look over to see how all the different tyres compared.
With regards to the Dave’s comment on the space saver, you can’t buy these in winter options and they are only used to get you to a place to get your flat tyre repaired…