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Winter tyres - the ADAC's annual assessment

canonman said:
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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Indeed. With Summer tyres, performance (braking, grip) drops off below 7C ambient temperature, it doesn't disappear entirely; and there are plenty of places in the UK where Winter temperatures are not significantly below 7C for a lot of the time.
 
Some thrown-out-there comments in here as per the norm...

Winter tyres shouldn't be law in the UK; just personal choice, IMO - Emergency Services don't change to winter tyres; neither do HGVs etc etc etc... For those that do frequent/live in the colder, hillier climbs in the UK probably should take extra steps, whether they do or not is their choice...

And I see the. 'I've been driving for 50+ years and never had an accident' comment is cropping up...

Great; well done you!

But it's not just about YOU; it's about OTHERS around you that drive like first-class twats on a daily basis; it's all about how to avoid anything to do with them as well as better braking/handling and control etc...

But again; it's personal choice...

All I know is that as an advanced driver and having had a lot of driver training from professional forces and ex-forces driving instructors; they run either all-season or winter tyres, every year, without fail, for a reason and that reason is that in the UK, we DO get colder weather, we DO get very wet weather with lots of standing water and we DO get ice & snow. So these tyres come into their own in these weathers and they offer very good peace of mind...

But you still have to drive to the conditions

Having seen first hand on a professional testing circuit what decent all season & winter tyres are capable of compared to top of the range summers is very eye opening...

However, the caveat is really cost & space
 
And remember, they’re not a legal requirement in some European countries that usually have snowier and colder winters than the U.K. has.
 
Tony Lockhart said:
And remember, they’re not a legal requirement in some European countries that usually have snowier and colder winters than the U.K. has.
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France has a requirement for chains in Alpine areas, they are a pain to put on but once on you can drive a car up Mont Blanc. They're an order of magnitude ahead of winter tyres, but of course you have to stop and remove tem if the snow runs out.
 
stevec67 said:
France has a requirement for chains in Alpine areas, they are a pain to put on but once on you can drive a car up Mont Blanc. They're an order of magnitude ahead of winter tyres, but of course you have to stop and remove tem if the snow runs out.
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And U.K. mountains barely qualify as hills in Europe!
 
hifilover1979 said:
Some thrown-out-there comments in here as per the norm...

Winter tyres shouldn't be law in the UK; just personal choice, IMO - Emergency Services don't change to winter tyres; neither do HGVs etc etc etc... For those that do frequent/live in the colder, hillier climbs in the UK probably should take extra steps, whether they do or not is their choice...

And I see the. 'I've been driving for 50+ years and never had an accident' comment is cropping up...

Great; well done you!

But it's not just about YOU; it's about OTHERS around you that drive like first-class twats on a daily basis; it's all about how to avoid anything to do with them as well as better braking/handling and control etc...

But again; it's personal choice...

All I know is that as an advanced driver and having had a lot of driver training from professional forces and ex-forces driving instructors; they run either all-season or winter tyres, every year, without fail, for a reason and that reason is that in the UK, we DO get colder weather, we DO get very wet weather with lots of standing water and we DO get ice & snow. So these tyres come into their own in these weathers and they offer very good peace of mind...

But you still have to drive to the conditions

Having seen first hand on a professional testing circuit what decent all season & winter tyres are capable of compared to top of the range summers is very eye opening...

However, the caveat is really cost & space
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Wot he said
 
We fitted winter tyres to SWMBO'S BMW, & the one time I drove that in snow was pretty impressive. I did fit a set to my old BMW X5, which came in very handy when following the snow plow over the A66 in Cumbria. However, I've realised with a bit of planning we can avoid driving on those very few days we get such bad weather, so we're not going to bother with winter tyres any more (anyone fancy a hardly-used set of Toyo Snowprox 18” tyres for a 2 Series?)
 
Apparently it's now odds on that it's going to be white Christmas.

Bugger... I'm planning to drive to the Alps early Boxing Day morning...

Cross Climates on, and snow chains in the boot at the ready, a snow shovel too....the M20 will NOT get the better of me!

The sad fact is that the M20 is probably much more likely to be a problem than the road up to Val Thorens...
 
Thing is I’m usually that pissed it doesn’t make a difference. Just walk back in the morning with a shovel.
 
hifilover1979 said:
Winter tyres shouldn't be law in the UK; just personal choice, IMO ...
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well, why not make seat belts and protective helmets (just to name a few) also a personal choice then? All good? After all, as rightly pointed out, not everyone would need them in their lifetime and it’s really just about killing and injuring themselves more successfully? While someone driving behind me in the winter on summer tyres is not just more danger to himself, right? and just nuisance to himself when blocking the road?
 
EPear said:
well, why not make seat belts and protective helmets (just to name a few) also a personal choice then? All good? After all, as rightly pointed out, not everyone would need them in their lifetime and it’s really just about killing and injuring themselves more successfully? While someone driving behind me in the winter on summer tyres is not just more danger to himself, right? and just nuisance to himself when blocking the road?
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You're not in the UK, are you? There are certainly parts of the world where winter tyres are an important safety factor. By and large, the UK is not one of them. So please don't bolster a weak argument with silly sideswipes about seatbelts and crash helmets.
 
EPear said:
well, why not make seat belts and protective helmets (just to name a few) also a personal choice then? All good? After all, as rightly pointed out, not everyone would need them in their lifetime and it’s really just about killing and injuring themselves more successfully? While someone driving behind me in the winter on summer tyres is not just more danger to himself, right? and just nuisance to himself when blocking the road?
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If there was a laughing emoji I'd be using it liberally... o_O
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
You're not in the UK, are you? There are certainly parts of the world where winter tyres are an important safety factor. By and large, the UK is not one of them. So please don't bolster a weak argument with silly sideswipes about seatbelts and crash helmets.
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Incidentally, another wrong assumption.
 
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