Discovered yesterday or shall I say my poor wife did, that if you cannot actually move then snowsocks aren't much help; you have to be able to move the car forward or backward to put them on.

Unfortunately the front tyres on her Fabia 'spun in' (despite traction control) through the thick layer of compacted snow and ice in her works car park, living her car completely immobile 2.45 hour round trip from where I was to go help her out.

Had ordered steel wheels and winters from mytyres last week but cancelled due to uncertainty of the suitability of the smaller size. Anyway now reordered at an additional cost of £140 over and above the original order :( ; Bridgestone Blizzak LM 30's in the same size as the space saver spare 195/55 R15. Also confirmed this size suitability with SUK against the chassis number.

As a side note SUK did state I could use the smaller 165/70 R14 tyre, however the rim size given at 6Jx14 is to wide; 5.5J being the upper limit for a 165/70 according to various tyre manufactures :wonder: Will e-mail back to question this one in case of printing error.

TP

In my last car I had Michelin Alpin, this year I purchased Pirelli Sottozero: I have sincerely to say that in my opinion the advantage on snow is far higher than the declared 19%. This is also confirmed by several videos showing the difference between summer and winter tyres: the one with the BMW X3 is indicative!

The 'average' daytime temperatures in Gloucestershire don't go below 7 degrees at anytime during the year.

But Birmingham does, according to http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/city_guides/results.shtml?tt=TT003760

As a side note SUK did state I could use the smaller 165/70 R14 tyre

Would have thought 185/65R14 would be more appropriate.