Last winter was pretty bad in Gloucestershire, the snow only fell a few nights, but it stayed for a couple of weeks at least, and since I ventured down to plymouth, and saw first hand the conditions in a lot of places there, to just say it had 2 nights of snow, as if it all suddenly disappeared and went back to normal roads the next day is highly inaccurate IMO.
Given that I live here and you popped down for the day I'd suggest my account of what last winter was like here is a tad more accurate than yours, don't you think? We had very few days of heavy snow. It was reasonably cold so it did hang around for a while but not on the roads. Infact even driving to work the night after the heavy fall of snow once I'd negotiated the road to the main road it was already cleared. The only area where I had difficulties was the first/last mile from/to my house.
ANY tyre choice is a compromise. It is impossible to buy a non compromise tyre.
If you buy a budget tyre you compromise on performance in favour of price.
If you buy a midrange tyre you compromise a bit on performance in favour of a bit of price
If you buy a UHP tyer you compromise on price and longevity in favour of performance
Winter tyres are no different.
If you buy a winter tyre you compromise on dry performance, you compromise on performance in heavy rain and you arguably don't gain much in wet braking (Sorry but every time I point out braking differences of MORE than a single car length (Source: AutoExpress winter tyre test 2011, Summer control tyre versus best winter tyre in 3c wet braking) I get a good flaming and told it doesnt matter). But you gain excellent snow ability and more ability in icy conditions.
It is therefore up to the individual to look at the sort of driving they do and in which conditions and make a decision on what is the best tyre that suits the needs of that driver. Everyones decision process will be different - because most peoples needs are different.
If you live up in Cumbria you may well decide that for ability to not have to worry about whether you can make it to work along untreated, rural roads is well worth a tradeoff in dry/wet performance. If you live down in Hampshire you may well decide that the dry/wet performance on the clear, gritted Motorways you use isn't worth losing when weighed up against the chances of severe weather.
My personal decision process, which I will share, is thus. My driving is mostly compromised of either local trips to and from work/town or long trips up the Motorway to the Midlands. I have little if any call to use rural roads and value the wet/dry performance and aquaplane resistence a UHP tyre gives me. I've therefore decided that a winter tyre would offer me more downsides than it would plus sides.
Its not even about cost for me - I need a new set of tyres probably this month, and a set of ContiWinterContact 830's is coming in at the same price as the CS3/F1A2's I'll probably buy anyway. You guys know how fussy I am with tyres. If I ever encountered suboptimal grip on a regular basis from a tyre I'd deem it unacceptable and replace it ASAP - which I have done in the past with perfectly legal tyres.
I've looked at the evidence, I've looked at my needs, I've made a decision. My decision might well be completely different if I lived in Edinburgh.
What does nobody any favours is the ridiculous quasi-religious opinion on BOTH sides of the debate, but mostly focused on the winter side. The people who claim anyone with half a clue can quite easily navigate Hardknott Pass under 3 feet of snow in an M3 on Pilot Super Sports are idiotic, but then barely any better are those who point blank beleive that as soon as it's 7c all summer tyres magically morph into a tyre of identical properties and throw you into the nearest hedge. Disagree with this and you are treated as you'd be treated had you said 'Err guys, this Bible...' 500 years ago irrespective of how much rational decision making led you to the opinion in the first place.
So bottom line? Use your brain, decide what you think is best for YOUR needs based on the evidence around you. Don't take much from peoples opinion because when it comes to tyres little is more rubbish than user opinion. There will be people who will swear blind that they can drive normally in snow on a summer tyre. They are wrong. There will also be those who will swear blind they can now corner at the speed of light on the new winters and would surely be dead on the 'awful' summer tyres that 'almost killed them' on the way to buy the winters. They are wrong too. I mean for goodness sake, I read a post from a guy on another forum who claimed that on his way to work after forgetting to fit his winter tyres he encountered catastrophic understeer off a roundabout from his Eagle F1 Assymetric 2 because it was 2c outside. These people do as much harm to the genuine case for winter tyres as you'll ever get, IMHO.
As an aside, my thoughts relate to UHP v Winter. I've no doubt that a quality winter tyre is probably a much better bet than any of the crappy budget/midrange summer tyres. But as I don't use those I'm not really bothered about them.
I am quite happy to rationally debate this subject provided there is a lack of hyperbole on both sides.
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