Just back from the nurburgring 24hrs and noticed a large proportion of the local cars still happily running around on full winters with temps of 25 degrees. Some just leave winters on all year and stick to speed limits i'm told and have no problems.

I also dove 360 miles yesterday in my other half's Beetle fitted with goodyear ultragrip 8 winters on the hottest day of the year and also had no problems. Wear rates looking like fine too?

Any thoughts?

There's been many similar reports in the UK - you can find them on Pistonheads, for example. It probably makes more sense in Scotland or northern parts of England, but then again all season tyres that are also suitable for using in winter probably make even more sense for most of the UK.

our rapid response cars are fitted with winters (in the winter) and they dont change them until they run out.... most still running them now (ultragrips) and they are fine....

personally my summers are now in their stride, my winters got "wooly" about 10 celcius...

I took my winters off after the good weather in March as the car was defiantly handling less that sharp. Real improvement now I am back on "normal" tyres.

My swmbo drives like miss daisy so can't tell the difference between winter tyres and track day tyres in the summer but can feel a big difference using winters when it's icy and snowing. A compromise that works well for her.

I'm on full summer tyres and enjoying the pin sharp handling and grip.

Edited 24 May, 201214 yr by mr rooney

Germany and most of the continent that suffers cold winters have better roads than we do. That will help matters

When I spoke to Continental about a year ago, they said go for winters if you were only going to have one set.

I think for my Yeti, and probably all cars out there, if you stay with the 'full size' tyre (225/50R17 in my case) for winters then the handling will be much better in the summer (than my 215/60R16's.)

I have a set of each so I change when necessary.

I do feel a lot less confident in the summers when temps drop below 10 degrees.

With the winters, tfirst time I pushed them hard, I ended up in a 4 wheel drift :lol:

I took my winters off after the good weather in March as the car was defiantly handling less that sharp. Real improvement now I am back on "normal" tyres.

Yep. The winters definitely are less precise above 10 degrees or so.

The weather has been up and down like a nutter here, but it'd certainly now time to get the winters off.

Last week it was down at about 5/6 degrees, but it's going to be above that more than below.

I just sold my Astra 1.7 CDTi today, with the winter tyres it's worn since September 2010. I never got around to swapping them last Spring and ended up leaving them on. They still had plenty tread after ~18,000 miles. I don't tear around, but don't dawdle, it's rare for a car to keep up with me. The handling wasn't brilliant, but then it wasn't previously, which I'd put down to the weight of the diesel engine up front. I've heard you may lose a couple of mpg, though I didn't notice it. Since they're "cold" rather than "snow" tyres (*), we've still had temps <7°C at night until last week, so still some benefit to be had.

(*) BTW, they're awesome in snow!

I spend a bit of time in Slovakia, most cars just keep winter tyres on all year, they get 40 degrees in summer.... I had my winters on in 30 degree heat, they were fine, 95% as good as summers maybe. Not sure about wear rates, certainly not terrible though.

I think that if your driving style is gentle you could definitely get away with decent winter tyres all year as i found out driving a 100bhp Beetle in temps of 26 degrees a few days ago. If you have 300bhp and drive hard things might not be so rosy??

Once read somewhere winters have approx 10% less performance than summers in warm weather but have huge amounts (can't remember %) of extra performance on ice and snow.

Could be a compromise if you can't afford two sets of wheels/tyres?

Left my ultragrips on because I'd have to buy another pair of summers if I took them off.... They've been fine. Given the complete unpredictability of this countrys weather, I stand by my decision. I'll probably leave them on until I need new tyres and just get new winters.

If I do, one day, get a powerful motor I'd probably not operate this way.

Saw a porche cayenne today on winters, only noticed cos wintertrac or something was in my face when I looked out of the window lol

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