The problem is in some respects it's probably worse. I can see people dumping perfectly good performance tyres and rushing off to Ebay and buying some Nangkang Super Ice Tornado Winter Awesomeness and in reality REDUCING the level of performance they get in a typical British winter.
Why was this not even on anyones radar 5 years ago?
It's this ridiculous notion that apparently as soon as its under 7c outside, all the summer tyres suddenly have exactly the performance, that I just find bizarre.
There is a HUGE amount of difference between the performance offered by different summer tyres even in summer. Is it therefore not beyond the realms of possibility that the same applies when its merely cold and wet/dry? Nobody ever seems to consider this - we just get crap graphs showing how Super Uber WinterContact is better than 'A Summer Tyre'. Great.
But then a Pilot Sport PS3 is better than your average summer tyre as well. Just how hard do really rather soft tyres go? I wish they'd go hard enough for them to last a bit longer
We've all driven cars for years and I bet none of us have ANY traction or braking issues in the winter that they dont have in the summer that isn't directly attributable to either leaves on the road, ice or snow.
It was 1c on the way to work a couple of weeks back and with this argument in mind I tried to light the rear tyres up or trigger the ABS a few times and you know what? My crappy death trap Summer tyres performed just as I'd normally expect them to! And this was near 1c! I bet the road temperature was even less given I'd had to scrape my car from an icy tomb first.
Why was that?
Do you know what I think the benefit of a winter tyre is? They offer 'average' performance in the snow (Where a snow tyre would offer 'good') but also offer 'good' performance when it isnt snowing (Where a snow tyre would be 'poor'). Compare this to a summer tyre which offers 'very poor' performance in the snow but 'good' performance when it isnt snowing and you can see how in places where there is regular snowfall, a winter tyre is a good idea as you don't compromise your grip levels when it isn't snowing. Then the marketing teams had a lightbulb moment and realised they could massively expand the market for these tyres if suddenly they were infact super awesome all winter and everything else sucked..
And given that nobody has any data they can use to disagree with the notion that once below 7c, you die on a summer tyre, it is quickly becoming the new religion and those of us who think 'hang on a minute' should be burned at the stake.
Wicksta is somebody whose opinion I trust. He's even spent numerous years living in Germany where they DO get snow and they DO fit winter tyres. He finds this whole thing as perplexing as I do and was telling me how the Germans are desperate to get the winter tyres OFF at the first sign the snow has gone....
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