So, I'm intrigued.

There's more discussion on here about summer and winter tyres, with a stronger bias towards either swapping them twice a year of running all seasons than I've ever seen on a forum before and is disproportionate compared what I would consider normal.

I literally know nobody who swaps tyres for the season.

 

I personally, like most of the country, just run summers all year long.  I considered the other options but the hassle and expense of  doing it and storing them is just prohibitive.  I have 3 cars..  I'm not paying for and storing 12 wheels and tyres somewhere!

 

I do however ensure that my tyres have a good wet weather rating and have good tread and only buy decent tyres.

 

I've done this on my cars for over a decade and as long as I'm not driving like an idiot don't really have an issue. 

Maybe the weather is just milder where I live (south coast).

 

Anyway, I'm just intrigued what people run in the winter.  I get the impression that it actually largely the cars with less power that are swapping, while the vRS drivers just stay on summers?  I may be wrong.

 

Alex

 

@Alex-W 

Do you travel much north of Hampshire between now and next summer, and how far do you go?

I used to commute North through the peak district and swapped summer/winter every year for over a decade. 

 

Feeling the security that gave I also swapped summer/winter on our family cars.

 

A few years ago with the arrival of the new All Seasons such as The Cross Climate and Vector 4 Season Gen 2 I decided to give them ago. For a family runabout they are great and the safety they provide my family in the winter is worth every penny.

This might have been better in a more general area of the forum, might be worth asking a mod to move it?

 

I used full winters for one year but since then, I've been using crossclimates which seem perfectly suited to the weather in East Anglia.

As the UK has 4 definable seasons it surely makes sense to use an all season tyre. 

Obviously your location and annual mileage has a massive bearing on this subject. 

Personally I wouldn't consider using a "summer" tyre at all. All seasons suit me just fine, I have used winter tyres in the past but struggle to justify changing them over or using a second set of wheels hence my own preference for all seasons tyres for all seasons. 

 

Edited 7 November, 20196 yr by Gmac983

The quantity of misinformed people who refuse to use an all season tyre to suit UK driving conditions (or a full winter tyre in certain parts of the country or if you are a high mileage user in the winter months) continues to astonishes me. 

Probably explains why every year vast swaths of the country grinds to a hault after 2 flakes of snow falls. 

That's the blue touch paper light! Let's sit back and see what happens. 😁

Edited 7 November, 20196 yr by Gmac983

11 minutes ago, Gmac983 said:

The quantity of misinformed people who refuse to use an all season tyre to suit UK driving conditions (or a full winter tyre in certain parts of the country or if you are a high mileage user in the winter months) continues to astonishes me. 

Probably explains why every year vast swaths of the country grinds to a hault after 2 flakes of snow falls. 

That's the blue touch paper light! Let's sit back and see what happens. 😁

 

Manufacturers are also to blame.

 

Our last three Skoda's 2x 1.2TSi Yeti and 1.6TDi Octavia all came with high performance summer tyres rated to 186mph. 

 

For those vehicles and the UK climate they would be much better being delivered with an all season. Or at least offer the choice when buying new. 

It has taken long enough but finally Fleet Operators, Lease Companies, Local Authorities and the likes now know what drivers might well need.

About time the Emergency Services like Police Scotland got with the flow...

 

Light Commercials are more commonly now on suitable tyres, HGV's in the UK still not.

If Home Delivery Drivers, Posties and the likes can get about and not stuck behind jackknifed lorries and cars / suv's / 4x4's on wide low profile tyres

then there is no reason the traffic should not move on ploughed and gritted roads.

Edited 7 November, 20196 yr by Roottootemoot

1 hour ago, Alex-W said:

Anyway, I'm just intrigued what people run in the winter.  I get the impression that it actually largely the cars with less power that are swapping, while the vRS drivers just stay on summers?  I may be wrong.

 

The only set of winter tyres I ever had on a car was my 2009 octy vrs. Transformed it from useless in the snow to a snow plough!

Did that for 2 winters then started using all seasons as couldn't be 4rsed changing them every winter or having a second set of wheels. 

Edited 7 November, 20196 yr by Gmac983

After driving my previous (fwd) car in cold, wet and snow weather with both summer and winter rubber, I'm giving all seasons a go(vector 4seasons Gen-2)

 

The difference is noticeable imo. You feel much firmer footed when driving and certainly a lot less correcting going on in snow.

Edited 7 November, 20196 yr by micro

14 minutes ago, Gmac983 said:

The quantity of misinformed people who refuse to use an all season tyre to suit UK driving conditions (or a full winter tyre in certain parts of the country or if you are a high mileage user in the winter months) continues to astonishes me. 

Probably explains why every year vast swaths of the country grinds to a hault after 2 flakes of snow falls. 

That's the blue touch paper light! Let's sit back and see what happens. 😁

 

My suggestion would be to adopt what some parts of Europe have.

 

Do not force people onto winters or all seasons but the law states if you drive on roads in wintry conditions you must have winter rated tyres. So go out in the snow on summers and you are illegal.

 

Driving in the UK in the snow is a nightmare that most parts of northern Europe manage perfectly well.

Things are starting to change in the UK, go back 3 years and would rarely see an all season tyre advertised

 

Now lot more talk of them (and a lot more makes), but problem remains most people are stuck with receiving summer tyres on a new car, and therefore feel they need to do 25-30k miles before changing them, as they have been paid for.

 

Personally I wish most cars came with option of one wheel size down with all seasons (even if no financial saving) as most people in UK do not need tyres rated at 168-186 mph that are suitable for +40c summer temperatures.  The smaller wheel size increases comfort on poor road surfaces which many would think preferable to high speed handling and very firm ride.

 

The other big misunderstanding is all season and winter tyres are better in cold weather, even if there isn't any snow (some think wrongly they are only for snow)   

Remember a salted road can stay damp at -5c  and summer tyres are usual hard and not grippy, and thus poor when very cold.

Do you really want to be doing 70mph on a heavily salted winter motorway at -5 (or colder) with tyres that have little cold weather grip

 

Edited 7 November, 20196 yr by SurreyJohn

40 minutes ago, SurreyJohn said:

Personally I wish most cars came with option of one wheel size down with all seasons (even if no financial saving) as most people in UK do not need tyres rated at 168-186 mph that are suitable for +40c summer temperatures.  The smaller wheel size increases comfort on poor road surfaces which many would think preferable to high speed handling and very firm ride.

 

The other big misunderstanding is all season and winter tyres are better in cold weather, even if there isn't any snow (some think wrongly they are only for snow)   

 

Absolutely spot on 👍

 

Having said that I do prefer the 20 inchers on my kodiaq to the smaller wheels available. It would be nice to be given the option though. 

Or better still, as a costed option why can we not specify a particular type or brand of tyre on our vehicles (it can't have anything to do with supply as typically we have to wait 3 to 6 months or more for our newly ordered cars from skoda, in other words plenty of time for our choice of tyre to be sourced ready to be fitted during build week) instead we are lumbered with a tyre we did not want. We are increasingly presented with growing lists of often irrelevant/unnecessary options but no choice in the tyres we get. 

Edited 7 November, 20196 yr by Gmac983

As Sir Michael Caine might say'. 

 Not a lot of people seem to know that you put down salt while the roads and pavements are damp so that the salt can get crushed and use the moisture so that there is brine to change the freezing point. 

Air temp might well not be that near freezing when the ground temp is, and black ice has formed.

 

Gritting / salting nights and days coming over this weekend oop north.  

Later this afternoon for some routes.

http://trafficscotland.org/weatherstations

 

Edited 7 November, 20196 yr by Roottootemoot

The major problem with fitting winter biased All Season Tyres or Cold Weather Tyres is encountering vehicles that don't have them fitted. 

 

I also appreciate that the fitment of CWT is not appropriate to all areas of the UK, but they should be compulsory to have them fitted if travelling in the Central Belt of Scotland from at least November to March. The temperatures around here hover around 0°c from mid October to April/May. 

 

As for the cost factor, I recently replaced my Nokian WR A3's and Goodyear Efficient Grip Performance after 5 years and 50k miles of service. Both still had 4mm of tread left. I only replaced them due to signs of cracking around the tread, but that was down to their age.

 

I opted to replace both with Goodyear Vector 4Seasins Gen2 as I intend to get rid of the Unreliable Skoda © in the middle of next year. Depending on how they perform will determine whether I opt for All Season or Summer and Winter on my next vehicle.

 

The attached weather forecast is typical of the temperatures to expect around here for at least 6 months of the year. In fact, when traveling along the M8 at Stupid O'clock in the morning  in mid July I would encounter icy conditions on the road, hence why trialing All Season tyres.

 

44 minutes ago, Fin69 said:

also appreciate that the fitment of CWT is not appropriate to all areas of the UK, but they should be compulsory to have them fitted if travelling in the Central Belt of Scotland from at least November to March. The temperatures around here hover around 0°c from mid October to April/May

 

Why just central belt? 

I don't understand that distinction either. Cold also either side of the central belt and the snow is usually worse on the hills. We have a maritime climate in the UK. So changeable weather unlike continental weather patterns. Winter tyres use is enforced in some countries.

Oh oh, it looks like I've upset the sheep worrying tcheuchters.

 

I never said 'just' the Central Belt.

 

In any case, I'm sure there are many things that should be compulsory in the Central Belt that are not required or not relevant to our woad faced heathen neighbours, and vice versa.

Why confused Fin69? 

Thought it was a fairly unambiguous question. 

 

You said:

3 hours ago, Fin69 said:

but they should be compulsory to have them fitted if travelling in the Central Belt of Scotland from at least November to March.

 

I was just curious as to your thinking there?

 

I didn't realize us tcheuchters and our sheep worrying tendencies had anything to do with tyre preference. Maybe it's to get that all important grip to chase down a really attractive ewe... 🤣

Edited 7 November, 20196 yr by Gmac983

We've been running All Season tyres (Cross Climates) for years now and wouldn't go back to just summers where we live (edge of the Peak District on a hill where we get quite a lot of snow).  However, before I became a convert I used to buy summer tyres with a directional V-Tread and open block tread pattern precisely because they perform better in bad weather.  I'm definitely not a fan of the current summer tyre patterns of  big circumferential grooves and large swathes of solid rubber

My unreserved apologies to the OP of this thread. I hope it can quickly go back on topic.

 

Unfortunately, there will always be those who find fault, arguement or offence where none was intended. My original comment was in reference to the area where I live and commute, and have experience of. 

2 minutes ago, Fin69 said:

My unreserved apologies to the OP of this thread. I hope it can quickly go back on topic.

 

Unfortunately, there will always be those who find fault, arguement or offence where none was intended. My original comment was in reference to the area where I live and commute, and have experience of. 

 

There was no offense taken at all... 

 

Indeed it was yourself who escalated the whole thing. 

 

But yes, let's get back to topic. 

Edited 7 November, 20196 yr by Gmac983

26 minutes ago, skomaz said:

We've been running All Season tyres (Cross Climates) for years now and wouldn't go back to just summers where we live (edge of the Peak District on a hill where we get quite a lot of snow).  However, before I became a convert I used to buy summer tyres with a directional V-Tread and open block tread pattern precisely because they perform better in bad weather.  I'm definitely not a fan of the current summer tyre patterns of  big circumferential grooves and large swathes of solid rubber

 

3 hours ago, Fin69 said:

The major problem with fitting winter biased All Season Tyres or Cold Weather Tyres is encountering vehicles that don't have them fitted. 

 

I also appreciate that the fitment of CWT is not appropriate to all areas of the UK, but they should be compulsory to have them fitted if travelling in the Central Belt of Scotland from at least November to March. The temperatures around here hover around 0°c from mid October to April/May. 

 

As for the cost factor, I recently replaced my Nokian WR A3's and Goodyear Efficient Grip Performance after 5 years and 50k miles of service. Both still had 4mm of tread left. I only replaced them due to signs of cracking around the tread, but that was down to their age

 

Had Nokian WR-A3's on my Focus, was night and day comparing them to the "Prestivo" and even Falkens I had on the previous winters, even in the cold, but especially in the snow.

Didn't really want to keep a set of wheels around hence going for the Goodyear 4Seasons Gen2  94XL's - £292 for the 4, with a £50 Goodyear promotion and sold my Michelin Energy Savers (x4 with 4mm) for £50 - meaning it cost me £48 a tyre to change them. 

Even in just the cold/wet weather we've had lately, they've performed better than the Michelins, even though some have said on here they're a more "winter" biased all season tyre. Good thing to know is that the Gen2's don't seem to have the 3MPSF accreditation so won't suit any kind of driving where they enforce cold weather/winter tyres (although i'd argue if you're driving there you need proper winter tyres, not all seasons).

Edited 7 November, 20196 yr by micro

57 minutes ago, micro said:

Good thing to know is that the Gen2's don't seem to have the 3MPSF accreditation

 

https://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco=110&cart_id=uSh25wekkiV5bzU6.110.680986250&Cookie=sea_rd_uk_Google_Search&sowigan=GAN&Breite=205&Quer=55&Felge=16&kategorie=6&Marke=Goodyear&Herst=Goodyear&m_s=3&rsmFahrzeugart=ALL&Label=B-C-70-2&details=Ordern&typ=R-281917

 

Thanks AG Falco

Slow behind a few gritters getting to Perth in the past hour. Now in Edinburgh and hopefully what ever accident has caused delays near Livingston is cleared before I head across the near tropical central belt then south.