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Winter tyres - the ADAC's annual assessment

Each to their own, I realise they grip better in winter, but I learned in my first year of driving to just slow right down in the wet or ice or snow. It's worked out pretty well so far. No need to change my position / tyres.

I suppose if I wanted to drive as fast as I do when it is warm and dry, then they'd make a lot of sense.
 
richardg said:
Each to their own, I realise they grip better in winter, but I learned in my first year of driving to just slow right down in the wet or ice or snow. It's worked out pretty well so far. No need to change my position / tyres.

I suppose if I wanted to drive as fast as I do when it is warm and dry, then they'd make a lot of sense.
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Well yes of course, driving to the conditions is a basic rule. But not so long ago I got trapped in a car park which was just slightly on a slope, parked on an inch of compacted snow. The bloody car just wouldn’t move off, whether I switched traction control off, or not. Hardly extreme conditions, but it was a courtesy car, an Audi A3 and, frankly, over-tyred for what it was. I had to suffer the ignominy of asking for a push.

Plus, even when driving to the conditions, a little extra margin never hurts, in an emergency it might make a difference. As you say, we all make our own choices here.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Well yes of course, driving to the conditions is a basic rule. But not so long ago I got trapped in a car park which was just slightly on a slope, parked on an inch of compacted snow. The bloody car just wouldn’t move off, whether I switched traction control off, or not. Hardly extreme conditions, but it was a courtesy car, an Audi A3 and, frankly, over-tyred for what it was. I had to suffer the ignominy of asking for a push.

Plus, even when driving to the conditions, a little extra margin never hurts, in an emergency it might make a difference. As you say, we all make our own choices here.
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Indeed that did happen to me too! Once.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
I think all-season tyres make sense in the UK when road temperatures will drop below 7C for a good part of the year, so you get better grip for braking and cornering, and better traction. But I guess the further south you go, the shorter the period when this has value. I’m probably going to Michelin CrossClimate 2s when mine need replacing, but that’s at least a year away.
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Sort of Steve

But it's all down to road conditions too and also the other drivers around you...

Were only a few Miles apart. But the country roads local to me and those in the likes of the Ribble Valley etc are bad in summer, never mind over winter with lots of standing water or snow / ice etc...

And for me as stated before, the road trips to the Highlands through Dec to Feb (and me going into the wilds to find stones to lift and distilleries to visit), the more suited all seasons or winters give a huge peace of mind etc...

Knowing I have better grip, traction, braking and handling over the winter months over those running standard tyres (no matter how premium they are) is paramount. Means I stand a better chance of not getting caught out...
 
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yes, driving with the appropriate season tyres is about one’s own and family safety and, equally, a responsibility for all others on the road.
 
SteveG said:
From the research I did the best all-season types looked like the best option as they' significantly outperform winter tyres in almost all winter conditions we'll normally counter here in the UK, and more or less match decent summer tyres in dry/warmer conditions. The tests I looked at showed the all-seasons performed better than a full-winter in pretty much anything except snow, even sub-zero non-snow conditions.

There will be times (e.g. heavy snow) where full winters will be better but despite driving up to the highest village in the Cairngorms pretty much every week for more than a year I've yet to encounter that (which probably means I will this winter!). Even if I did I suspect that while the winters might be better on a small percentage of that 160 mile trip the all-seasons will be better for 90% of it.
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I was thinking about your circumstances Steve- if you’re going to Cockbridge…. Right now I’m thinking I should have bought a 4Matic and be done with it. :)​
 
Cav said:
Being able to stop more quickly than the driver in front is a good thing; being able to stop more quickly than the driver behind - not so much?
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At least in the second case, the insurance of the other driver has to pay.
 
Aaah, the old “What about the driver behind” comment.

Didn’t stop ABS becoming adopted successfully.
A good driver always monitors the traffic behind and adjusts their speed and distance to the traffic ahead to suit, whether it’s summer in Riyadh or winter in Narvik.

I had winter tyres for my now-gone rwd Merc for about ten years. It wasn’t about cornering or braking, it was, as mentioned above, about moving away from a standstill in the first place. 500Nm is a lot!

My Passat only drives the fronts and has half the torque… I doubt I’ll bother with winters/all-seasons.
 
From someone who lives in Scandinavia:

All season tires are NO-season tires. They are bad all year around.

Summer tires in the summer, winter tires in the winter. In UK you should use winter tires made for the continental market (that's what they tested in the German test linked to in the beginning), they are good in the wet and a bit marginal the few days you have with 'real' winter. There are winter tires made for the Scandinavian market with snow for months, not what should be used in the UK.

NeilR said:
At least in the second case, the insurance of the other driver has to pay.
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Many years ago I was run into from behind, the other drivers fault. I got a wiplash injury and had it for several years. It's gone now, but, to be honest, I bloody hope that the next time it's the other way around! I gladly pay what ever the insurance company think and I take the punishment from the law. I still use the best tires, though.
 
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Tony Lockhart said:
Aaah, the old “What about the driver behind” comment.

Didn’t stop ABS becoming adopted successfully.
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You mean the old 'a good driver can stop at a shorter distance on some surfaces without ABS' bollocks?

I recently flicked through an old Swedish mag, I think it was from 1974, with a feature about the BMW 3.0 CSL that Ronnie Peterson competed with. It had some fancy thing called Anti Lock Brakes. Ronnie used it to brake further into the corners, that meant he could start braking later on the straights... ABS is a good tool for everyone.
 
RJohan said:
You mean the old 'a good driver can stop at a shorter distance on some surfaces without ABS' bollocks?

I recently flicked through an old Swedish mag, I think it was from 1974, with a feature about the BMW 3.0 CSL that Ronnie Peterson competed with. It had some fancy thing called Anti Lock Brakes. Ronnie used it to brake further into the corners, that meant he could start braking later on the straights... ABS is a good tool for everyone.
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No, I mean that in the early days of ABS people were predicting a plague of crashes where an ABS equipped car would be rear-ended if the ABS car did an emergency stop. There was no such plague.
It’s easy to be a doom merchant by concentrating your mind on the one reason not to have something while ignoring the 99 reasons to have it.
 
RJohan said:
From someone who lives in Scandinavia:

All season tires are NO-season tires. They are bad all year around.
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Might be different in Scandinavia of course but that doesn't necessarily match the UK needs.

My experience in Norway in the winter is that they didn't seem to try and clear the snow as much as we'd do here, so there is likely very, very much more driving on snow than here in the UK where it's very infrequent.
 
EPear said:
No one should be allowed by law to drive on summer tyres in the winter months in the UK
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Why?
People manage to crash perfectly well in summer on summer tyres.

I suspect that a lot of the technology developed for cross climate tyres has been making its way into summer tyres. We just don’t need any enforcement of silly rules when almost everyone doesn’t crash more in winter than they do in summer.
 
just reading this thread should answer your question and tell you enough about the lack of understanding and ignorance even among people interested in the matter and having some awareness
 
EPear said:
No one should be allowed by law to drive on summer tyres in the winter months in the UK
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EPear said:
just reading this thread should answer your question and tell you enough about the lack of understanding and ignorance even among people interested in the matter and having some awareness
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You made a statement.

I don’t agree with it.

If you can post some data that might persuade me to change my view, great. Calling me ignorant isn’t a good look.
 
nothing personal meant at all, unfortunately most people seem to think summer tyres are safe in the winter or can be managed by an experienced driver (which everyone seems to think they are until it happens), it’s the lack of experience, understanding and legislation in the country to reinforce winter driving safety - as you see, I hope, most people are unaware or prepared to skimp on that for some reason that is beyond me and find all kind of excuses.
 
I can understand the need for winter/ all seasons if you live in the grim North or the wannabe independent countries but I have never had any and the last time I got stuck was around 12 years ago, before that, God was a lad so I won't
EPear said:
nothing personal meant at all, unfortunately most people seem to think summer tyres are safe in the winter or can be managed by an experienced driver (which everyone seems to think they are until it happens), it’s the lack of experience, understanding and legislation in the country to reinforce winter driving safety - as you see, I hope, most people are unaware or prepared to skimp on that for some reason that is beyond me and find all kind of excuses.
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In the 50+ years of me using 'summer' tyres in the winter I have never had an accident, not even a near miss. I didn't realise that I was unsafe.
 
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