Why do UK cars all come supplied with 'Summer tyres'?

Even here cars don’t come with winter tyres from the factory. In fact they probably come with the same tyres as they do in the UK (model dependant). At this tim of year winter tyre packages (a “free” set of winter tyres and rims) are usually offered as an incentive when purchasing a car though. Saves having to bother working out which cars need them and which don’t.

grudas said:
no tyre will be good on ice without studs..

winter tyres do work better on snow because of softer rubber and different thread pattern than can use snow to it's advantage and increase grip but in my opinion the logic is simple.

we have less COLD/Snowy/ICY days compared to warm(over 7c) to justify having winter tyres... and to be fair the only time I genuinely had issues with my "summer" tyres is in ice or snow which is very rare, especially down south where I live.

I guess people in scotland etc have winter tyres and never question the point of them.
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Winter tyres work a hell of a lot better on ice. They have silica compounds in the rubber which basically work like micro spikes. That and the softer rubber moulds to the ice more, meaning it takes advantage of any imperfections in the ice. It’s actually the tread itself that helps in snow by holding on to the snow go as long as possible, then using the snow it’s “captured” to help grip snow around it.

From a stud/non studded winter tyre perspective unless you’re literally driving on an ice rink non studded tyres work best. They’re a lot less noisy and damage the road less too.
 
Kreeeee said:
How do tyre manufacturers make extra revenue from doing this? Your tyres will last roughly twice as long as they are used for half a season for each set. If anything they'll last longer if you use the correct compound for the season.
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My winters Bridgestone Blizzaks were also cheaper than the summers I will be buying next year, although they do have a slightly shorter tread warranty. There really is little difference in cost IMO. Maybe it’s the Rim manufacturers in on the conspiracy? :p

Housey said:
Because people go out and buy 2 sets when they used to buy 1.

Cross climate is marketing, in the olden days they were just tyres. They are built for a purpose, so will compromise in other areas.
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Agreed, tyres are jut tyres, which is why I go and buy the cheapest* set I can when I need a new set. I presume you do to.

*I don’t, but Houseys argument goes both ways, why buy expensive UHP tyres if it’s all just marketing.

These threads always make me laugh, the people advocating the “best” tyres money can buy in summer, for that little extra performance, completely ignore their own arguments when it come to winters and insist a summer tyre is just fine. Even though that additional summer performance is minimal compared to the potential life saving benefits of a tyres that can perform much better on a random icy corner in mid winter (not you specifically Housey, just in general).
 
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Amp34 said:
My winters Bridgestone Blizzaks were also cheaper than the summers I will be buying next year, although they do have a slightly shorter tread warranty. There really is little difference in cost IMO. Maybe it’s the Rim manufacturers in on the conspiracy? :p
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At least that conspiracy makes a little bit of sense :p
 
Amp34 said:
These threads always make me laugh, the people advocating the “best” tyres money can buy in summer, for that little extra performance, completely ignore their own arguments when it come to winters and insist a summer tyre is just fine.
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How is that the case? I have a full set of winter tyres on one of the cars yet still believe that on the other car summer tyres are the best fit.
 
[TW]Fox said:
How is that the case? I have a full set of winter tyres on one of the cars yet still believe that on the other car summer tyres are the best fit.
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Because the performance where it actually counts (icy patches)* is night and day better, yet because summers are “fine” for the rest of a journey it’s apparently good.

To flip that round it seems perfectly logical to use that argument about ditchfinders in summer. For 99.9% of the time they are “fine”, and in reality it’s only that 0.1% that a set of better tyres will actually make a difference.

Sure, there’s an argument about performance vehicles etc etc, but the vast majority of drivers neither drive performance oriented vehicles or push their vehicles to the limit enough to actually benefit from high performance tyres outside of those edge cases.

*and icy patches occur more than a couple of times a year. Outside of the Isle of Wight and Cornwall they can and do occur from October to March.
 
Amp34 said:
My winters Bridgestone Blizzaks were also cheaper than the summers I will be buying next year, although they do have a slightly shorter tread warranty. There really is little difference in cost IMO. Maybe it’s the Rim manufacturers in on the conspiracy? :p



Agreed, tyres are jut tyres, which is why I go and buy the cheapest* set I can when I need a new set. I presume you do to.

*I don’t, but Houseys argument goes both ways, why buy expensive UHP tyres if it’s all just marketing.

These threads always make me laugh, the people advocating the “best” tyres money can buy in summer, for that little extra performance, completely ignore their own arguments when it come to winters and insist a summer tyre is just fine. Even though that additional summer performance is minimal compared to the potential life saving benefits of a tyres that can perform much better on a random icy corner in mid winter (not you specifically Housey, just in general).
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Well as long as you drive according to the conditions your fine, your just much more likely to get stuck than people on winter tyres. If I wasn't driving a light RWD car I probably wouldn't bother either.
 
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Amp34 said:
These threads always make me laugh, the people advocating the “best” tyres money can buy in summer, for that little extra performance, completely ignore their own arguments when it come to winters and insist a summer tyre is just fine. Even though that additional summer performance is minimal compared to the potential life saving benefits of a tyres that can perform much better on a random icy corner in mid winter (not you specifically Housey, just in general).
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The problem is the argument is no where near this simple. As you can see from the video above, even at -4C the winter tires take a full 30% longer to stop the car than the UHP summers. Yes winter tyres will give you an advantage on an icy patch. But so would sensible driving. If you are in an environment where you are going round corners that are likely to be iced at low temperatures you should be taking it slowly. I'd rather clip a curb doing 15-20mph on an icy bend than sacrifice 30% of my stopping distance everywhere else for the entire time the winter tyres are fitted.

If winter tyres were clearly better in all regards as the temperature dropped, I'd be on board, but the fact that in the tests we can find they arent, and that the tests we really want to see (panic stopping in the wet at low temperatures) don't seem to exist. I'd wager that they simply don't offer the benefits people claim unless there is snow / ice on the ground and fortunately, in the UK, there are many more days where there is no snow, compared to when there is.
 
I’ve always thought that vehicle performance starts with the driver. Adapt and anticipate. I’ve never ran winter tyres, and doubt I ever will.
 
People will always make an argument to justify their particular stance on this at the end of the day it can only ever come down to what you are prepared to compromise on... unless you are going to swap tyres multiple times on every journey in the depths of winter :D

I'm far more confident about my wife not being caught out on a twisty country lane by a patch of ice than I am concerned by the fact that she may have to jump on the brakes, to the limit of the traction of the tyres, from 70 mph... she doesn't even have the opportunity to do 70 mph in 99% of her driving! My driving on the other hand is mainly up and down the motorway network, the chance of me finding icy patches is such a tiny fraction of the miles I do that the compromise ISN'T worth it for me.
 
The motoring press are responsible for a lot of the hype. It's alright doing group tests inside the Arctic Circle, but how much relevance does it have to those of us who drive on congested UK trunk roads to work in 10 Deg C winters?
 
I consult the met office before every journey and will purchase a tyre based on the weather conditions that day for optimum performance.
 
vanpeebles said:
Just you lot wait until we get 1cm of snow, and there are cars arl ower, tipped ower, and upside down in hedges. :D
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I keep seeing snow referenced as being the one time they are useful but in the UK winter tyres make jack all difference to being able to get where you are going because at the first 0.5% incline there will be a RWD saloon with 300/35 R19 tyres at a 45 degree angle blocking both lanes while turning the road surface into a sheet of polished ice :p
 
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