I have a Skoda Octavia Scout with Dunlop sport tyres .I live 900ft up near Slocht summit in Scotland, lots of snow and ice , and we live on a steep hill . I have had no problems at all, never felt the car slip loose traction . I have considered getting winter tyres on a spare set of rims but my experience does not justify the extra expense. Sensible driving, with a good 4X4 drive system seems sufficient for me.

Having a rav 4 i changed the original tyres for a set of wrangler all season last spring as we drive on grass , mud etc but mainly road .The difference was no more slip on wet grass & when the snow came got around with no problems & may swop to the perreli str as mate has them because they are a bit better but quieter when worn & will fit same to any cars the familly may own in future as the weather is allways a compromise in uk !

Car: BMW V8 M5 Tyres: Conti TS830P 235/45/17

Winter tyres have transformed a car that cannot get out of the driveway on its 18" PS2s when it snows, into one that is usable on motorways as well as slower roads in all the conditions we've had so far this winter - crisp ice, snow, sleet, slush, rain and dry, up hill and down dale.

I now fear other drivers who find they cannot slow or stop in the conditions, or who get stuck or crash, and block the road.

I think at the magic 7 deg C, in the dry, the PS2s are better, but colder than that in all weathers the 830Ps take the prize. The downside is the cost of a separate set of wheels, and worse, finding somewhere to store the unused set, but this is the price of being able to drive each day.

The tyres are not miracle workers and you cannot take liberties, especially on black ice, but they let you get about in safety.

I have a Saab 9-5 2.3 HOT Aero estate (07) and had a full set of Dunlop Sport Maxx tyres on the car when we 1st got snow a few weeks ago. Suffice to say they were shocking in those conditions! Very poor traction even on a flat surface and uphill forget it! What scared me the most is that one morning I was leaving home and I drove round a right hand bend just round the corner from my house. I don't know what speed I was doing but it was certainly slower than in normal conditions when the car suddenly without warning started to slide sideways and I was powerless to stop it. I decided to try and keep the car parallel with the kerb so that I hit the kerb side on. I succeeded in this but I thought "What if there was no kerb there and a woman was walking with a pushchair along the pavement?" It didn't bear thinking about so I decided to get some winter tyres.

Because it had already snowed and as a result of the snow earlier in the year it was a total nightmare trying to find winter tyres in the UK. Apparently the tyre manufacturers had made extra for the UK this year but the surge in demand had completely caught them out. I managed to find a set of Vredestein Wintrac Xtremes at almost £150 each and got a mobile tyre fitter to fit them (£65) and on the day I got them fitted the weather got warmer (8C)! At first I was disappointed with having spent £665 and have a car that lacked the feel that it did before. A few days ago the temperatures dipped again and we had some rather icy conditions. I must say that the Dunlops were great even down to about 0C as long as they didn't come into contact with ice but at -4C the rubber went so hard they were really struggling.

In the icy conditions I was very impressed with the Vredesteins particularly when it came to braking. Last night we finally had some proper snow in Leicestershire so I was thinking "Great I can finally put these tyres to the test" and I had high hopes. I have been left a little underwhelmed to say the least. Whilst they are clearly better than summer tyres they are not better to the degree I expected. Out in the countryside I found an ungritted side road with a snow covered hill. I drove up to the slope, stopped on it and put the car in 1st gear with the traction control turned off. I was expecting to gently pull away with no drama but no the wheels started spinning and I was going nowhere. I tried just using the clutch on its own so the stepper motor could keep the engine at tickover thus not pushing too much torque through the front wheels but all I felt was the front end moving slightly from side to side. "This is ridiculous" I thought so I decided to go for aggression by revving the engine hard and using higher gears. With the front wheels spinning furiously and the engine screaming I dropped it into 2nd gear and was still going nowhere so I then revved it more and went into 3rd. At last some forward motion! Once I'd got some momentum I was fine and continued to drive up the hill with a slight whiff of burning rubber. At the end of the road I turned round and came back down the hill. Only then did I realise it was a 10% hill which is fairly steep but I was still surprised about how much effort I had to put in to get it going. I passed two other cars on this road and they were both 4x4's.

After reading all the rave reviews about the Vredesteins and other winter tyres on this site and elsewhere I was expecting better. I know the Saab is a heavy car with FWD and fat tyres so I would expect a smaller lighter car to perform better in these conditions with winter boots. I would still rather have these tyres over summer ones purely for the extra stopping power but I feel I've been hit hard in the pocket for a small gain on the road.

Keep sharing your experiences please people :)

I fitted winter tyres 3 weeks ago before the big snow. What can I say? I saw a car flying of a turn, landing in a ditch, and am overtkaing cars that are driving 12mph in front of me, where I by 30mph can easily steer like on a dry road. I've bought Pirellis Snowcontrol Serie II M+S Winter 190. Couldn't find any better.
And the handling? Indescribable. It's like day and night. Summer tyres are shallow, flat, have hard rubber compound and are good on dry surfaces. Once you have snow under them, they fill up with mud, snow and ice, and they create flat, slippery surface on which your car floats. I don't care how much they cost, my safety, and my family is more important.

Preperation is key...
I drive a 1999 Suzuki Jimny (small 4x4), An amazing car for what I need.
In March this year (2010) my tyres (Bridgestone Bullers 205 70 15) where looking worse for wear after the 2009 winter, I decided to fit some new ones. Knowing the good weather was comming I had fitted a set of lower profile road tyres, Same width as before, (Mohawk M112 205 60 15). These are amazing tyres in both wet and dry warm weather. I noticed breaking was quicker, Corners much more grip too. Even throwing the car with these on into a corner to fast the front would hold yet allow the rear to step out a little, (a little fun).
So winter 2010 gets here... and I knew another tyre choice was needed. The Mohawks kept me moving but with a lot of wheel spin in the snow and ice. The four wheel drive was working overtime.
After alot of research on the internet I was comming across the same tyre time after time. Hankook Dynapro AT's. The closest size for my requirement was a (195 80 15). A little taller, not so wide but with a very good looking deep treat patern. I made the choice and got them fitted from our local tyre centre (Malvern tyres). Set them at 26 psi. (I can get away with this because the Suzuki Jimny is only 990 KG and the tyres have a firm outer wall). These Hankooks have tread on the side wall too. and look amazing. So once fitted my working day took me into Somerset. I drove down lots of roads with fresh snow (deep too), Slush and Ice. These tyres coped with ease. Hardly any wheel spin, Great turning, and even no spin from a hill start. The slightly higher side wall increases the ride hight by two inches, making the ride more comfortable too. I also noticed no road noise even with the deeper tread.
I would recomend these tyres to anyone who needs to keep going in the bad weather. and best of all as there an All terrain tyre, they can be used in the warmer weather too.
10 out of 10 from me. (a service engineer in weston super mare)... Steve

I first became aware of winter tyres in 2006 and every year since, once the temperature dipped to 7 degrees, I have considered them.

Last winter (the winter of 2009/2010) I just about coped on my summer tyres. I reduced my journeys to just the essential ones, missing out on some work in the process. Once or twice my summer tyres slipped a little but generally I was able to get about, albeit extremely cautiously.

This year two of us in the family decided to finally try winter tyres. One set (the Goodyear Ultragrip 7+) required about 150 miles of running in before they came good in the dry. The other set (Continental 830P) seemed to be good straight from the start.

Our experience over the last month confirms the tyre industry's view that winter tyres are NOT just for snow. They quote a temperature of +7 degrees C when summer tyre performance starts to drop off. Our personal findings are that winter tyres start to come into their own around +3 degrees. They've been an improvement in frosty and greasy conditions, work better in the wet, and the Goodyears (which I have the most experience with) are almost silent in the dry and give about +7% MPG over the summers they replaced. So that's standard warm, wet and cold conditions - the typical "British winter weather" - coped with better than summer tyres - and that's before even considering SNOW performance! The one caveat to note is that winter tyres (particularly those with more open tread designs) do tend to have poorer dry braking performance. (The same could be remarked for summer tyres optimised against aquaplaning; it's just one of those trade-offs. Winter tyres are further disadvantaged by their tall, multiple tread blocks, their softer compound and their sipes (the wiggly cuts on the tread blocks.))

We've experienced enough different snow conditions now to comment on the tyres' performance in that area too, and will be writing up a full article for TyreReviews.co.uk soon.

But as a brief overview, the winter tyres have performed exceptionally in slush, compacted snow, heavy snow and at low speed on sheet ice. Powdery, uncompacted fresh snow still required extra distance for braking and care on acceleration, since while the tyres were getting grip on the top layer of snow, that snow of course was just resting on further snow.

Our overall impressions are that winter tyres, aside for dry braking, exceed the performance of summer tyres in all conditions when the weather becomes colder. They are as such very much "cold weather tyres", and not the "snow tyres" that many mis-categorise them as.

The advice to run winter tyres, and to have them fitted from October/November to March/April, has therefore been categorically confirmed in our personal experience.

It should be noted that most critics or "disbelievers" of winter tyres have not personally tried them themselves. In contrast, proponents of winter tyres tend to have personal experience.

Advanced driving techniques and "driving to the conditions" will only get you so far - to the limit of physics in that situation. Winter tyres offer an expanded envelope of operation, giving you a greater safety margin and offering grip in conditions that summer tyres simply wouldn't.

Winter tyres are obviously an optional purchase, so the decision at present rests with the driver. But we have yet to hear of a single person who has tried winter tyres and not been convinced.

I decided to fit winters this year after last year when I took 25 minutes just to get out of my car park in the morning.

I've got Snowtrack3's on the front and Conti TS800 on the rear of a Fiesta. (supply issues). I had no problems getting about in the recent bad spell. Climbed one hill while watching the car behind fall further and further back. He never made it to the top.

Any car I've seen coming into our car park during the snow had to dig himself out whereas I simply drove out, every day, no problem. Being able to use the snow covered second lanes on Dc's is a bonus. Mind you other drivers don't seem to like it, plenty of horns and flashing lights when you go past.

I fitted Continental TS830 winter tyres to my BMW 320i, and it's been night and day compared to the old tyres. I haven't been caught once and in fact was one of the very few cars in my road (quite a hill) to be able to get in and out every day. Best money I have spent on the car - ever. Period.

I have used winter tyres for several years now, as my daily commute across the Peak District in Derbyshire throws all the worst weather at me.
Last 2 or 3 years I've been using Dunlop Wintersport 3Ds, as they seemed to be coming out top in most of the various winter tyre tests.
This year, I needed a new pair, and decided to give the Continental Wintercontact TS830s a try. So far this year, they've been simply awesome - especially in snow. I'd rate them higher than the Dunlops.
I have some in-car footage of how well they perform:
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

The limiting factor now is ground clearance !

Am I expecting too much?

I fitted my mildly tuned Nissan 200SX with four Conti Winter contacts a couple of weeks ago and they have just had their first long drive. Went from Devon to London and back last weekend on the motorways and have noticed that even on apparently dry, but very salty surfaces (all of them!) wheelspin is very easy to provoke. So much so that in top gear at 80mph ish a big bootfull produces no actual acceleration at all but loads of revs!

The tyres seem very good on the icy surfaces away from treated roads and are OK in the wet and dry in terms of cornering and braking but I was expecting a bit more straightline traction.

The car will unstick the rear wheels fairly easily on summer tyres under acceleration even on dry warm surfaces so I repeat my opening line.

Am I expecting too much?

Or has anyone got any suggestions regarding other winter tyres particularly on light and powerful rear drive cars?

Big Bob.

It's been snowing in Aberdeen for two weeks now so there is plenty of accumulated ice, snow and car park slush. I had four Nokian WR G2 fitted to my Mondeo 3 weeks ago for £370 - undoubtedly my best car investment ever. It just feels like a totally dry road at all times.

I wish more people would use winter tyres and we could all drive more confidently.

i have an astra sri xp 1.9 cdti it has 225 40 18 bridestones potenzas re50a these have been pretty good. last year i had pirelli pzero rossos. the pirellis were always locking up and skidding. the potenzas havent skidded once

I have a Mazda 6 estate, in the snow and ice this was undriveable in the snow, i changed the front tyres from P6000 to Marshal winter at a cost of £170 for the pair. This has been the best investment i have ever made, it now gets anyplace in the snow. i was so happy i fitted them on my works cars (mondeo) too.
Marshal winter are fantastic

Recently purchased an old shape Focus RS and decided that since its my daily driver I would try winter tyres. Id read a few articles about them in EVO magazine which made my mind up. I went for some Falken Eurowinter HS439's. As above I had to buy from mainland Europe (Belgium for me) as no UK sites had any.

In the current conditions I cannot rate them enough. Although you still need to take care as you obviously have far less grip compared to in dry weather, the extra grip over summer tyres is excellent. Ive managed to get off my drive without any digging out (we live on a hill so normally a nightmare), never got stuck, and on the odd occasional ive had to brake (should be planning ahead so you dont have to brake at all for junctions in the snow really) they bite really well and make the car generally very controllable. They even open up the lightly snowy outside lane of motorways and dual carriageways for use.

In comparison we tried to get my dads normal focus with summer tyres on off the drive today and it was a complete nightmare. Reversed mine over the same ground straight afterwards and got no wheelspin at all. Im a convert.

I'm looking forward to getting some winter tyres fitted, however making your car more capable in the bad weather doesnt make the roads any safer for us as it doesn't matter how safe you are yourself its all the other idiots out there that spoil it for you, i've had a couple of incidents over the years:

1. One winter we decided to go skiing in Scotland, i spent a week driving to all the ski resorts and in all did almost 2,000 miles on the round trip. We had no problems driving on the snow covered roads in Scotland, then on the way home i was within 100 metres of home when a car coming towards me decided to accelerate hard and lost control and hit me, as you could guess i was not best pleased.

And many more close shaves with idiots who think its ok to drive the same in snow/ice as on normal dry roads

Looking at fitting some winter tyres on my Audi A4 Quattro as my rears need changing anyway (fitted 2 new fronts in september for mot).

Just wondering if it will be a cheaper option (maybe safer with more grip) to buy some smaller 2nd hand wheels and get some winter tyres fitted or get the same size as my normal (235/40/18) tyres and then either get the tyres changed back over in spring or buy some new alloys for the summer tyres as my current ones are a bit kerbed at the moment anyway and then i will have 2 sets of wheels for changing over next winter.

But there doesn't seem much choice for my original size wheel, just found the "Continental Winter Contact TS830 P Tyre Size 235/40V18" with a couple of stockist with prices ranging from £680 to £1,100, surprisingly the cheapest is a well known high street retailer and the most expensive being one of the so called cheaper online tyre suppliers ( i suspect they have just put their prices up due to our current weather conditions and increased demand)

I am using Michelin PA3 winter tyres instead of Michelin Pilot 2's on my Audi A4 Quattro, superb, especially braking going down hill where the summer tyres would loose grip and the car would plough straight on.
I also purchased my tyres from a German company, in October as tyre dealers in the UK are like Emu's with their heads stuck in the sand ( snow ? ) when it comes to winter tyres, but i notice that the price per tyre has increased by £70 each since my purchase.

drive a RWD 5 series BMW - last year could hardly get moving on the flat on snow/ice - any incline (however slight) stopped progress on my normal tyres. Fitted Dunlop wintersport 3D winter tyres yesterday and now can drive without issue in snow. best example was today driving up about 6% gradient I needed to pull off the single track of clear road into the snow covered (about 3in deep) other lane and just drove up as though the road was clear and dry - had to stop and do a hillstart and no issue at all. In some local lanes drove through 4/5 inches of snow under all 4 wheels and again just kept moving without issue. wouldnt be without them now

can't recommend winter tyres highly enough. in the new year my RWD MX-5 was totally undriveable in the snow & ice. in october i bought a set of Nokian WR-G2's to put on a set of 16" wheels & first time out on the snow it was like driving on a dry road. i drove around for half an hour amazed at the difference. yesterday i had to drive 25 miles in thick falling snow & spent 4 hours gridlocked watching all kinds of cars spinning out as the snow compacted to ice underneath us. not once did my car lose forward or braking traction, at times i was becoming frustrated with other cars as i knew i could go faster - & i'm usually a very nervous winter driver. at no point did i think that i wouldn't be able to get home & the main issue became bottoming out. driving RWD in snow - with the top down - is now fun!

This year I've changed my Summer Avon ZV5's for Pirelli Snowcontrol II's as the ZV5's kept my car off the road last winter (The Pirelli's wouldn't have been my first choice of winter tyre, but there seems to be little available for 195 45 R16 rims - well done to Pirelli for manufacturing such a wide range. However I did have to buy them from a German company, UK tyre suppliers seem pretty slow to catch on to 'winter tyres').

We've had really wintery conditions, and a lot of snow over the last 7 days up here on Teesside. During this time the Snowcontrol II's haven't so much as hinted that they might let me down. I feel far, far safer when driving in these conditions, and much more confident that I can take the car out without it struggling or any risk of getting stuck. Too soon to review them on here, but I am completely sold on winter tyres!

BMW undrivable last winter, fitted pirelli sottozero winter tyres and what a difference. Even with snow touching bottom of car it kept moving. Pulled a hill start where a landrover, admittedly with slightly worn looking tyres, could not pull away.

Two winters in a row like this have made up my mind and as it happens I'm in the market for four new tyres right now. The only question I have left outstanding is whether to go all the way to winter tyres, or to use 'All Season' tyres as a compromise between now and next summer.

Does TyreReviews recommend the use of 'All Season' tyres?

Can't find winter tyres in my size - 225/40 R18 92Y. Only 'summer tyre' option. Anyone know differently?

I have no winter tyres as I have just got 4 new Dunlop fast response. I am sure that winter tyres would be best but, so far so good. I post back a few days later when I have tried them through the snow and sleet.

I've a set of Falken FK452's which are usually fantastic. They're total rubbish in the snow. Looking for winter tyres.

First go with Michelin Alpin a4's this morning and I'm totally converted. On fresh snow it drove like there wasn't any snow at all and in the slush and ice there was lots more grip. You still need to be careful though! and watch out for people behind you, as you'll stop quicker than they will.

I've a set of Avon Ice Tourings and I'm sure they've more grip in the snow than my summer tyres do in the wet. Truely mind bending grip!! 100% converted to winter tyres.