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

Nasher said:
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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So everyone should just buy the cheapest tyres and drive for the conditions? :p

BinnsY said:
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.
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Agreed. I actually wrote something similar in the reply to Fox, and then deleted it as the post was getting long. It really depends on what you want to prioritise. Do you prioritise the 200%+ stopping distance difference in icy conditions (hard frosts, black ice etc as well as actual snow), or do you prioritise the 20-30% stopping distance in normal conditions. As you say, if you're driving on well main roads all the time then perhaps it doesn't matter - just don't complain when it snows/its cold and the gritters aren't out instantly - but if you're driving on less well maintained roads and have to get from A-B no matter the conditions then winter tyres may well be a better bet (or a decent set of all weather/seasons for year round use). Personally I'd rather keep back a few extra feet in the wet, knowing I had the best chance of surviving if I hit a patch of ice, but each to their own.

Here it's not quite as questionable. I got the best winter tyres for the job at hand (icy conditions for 5 months of the year). If I moved back to the UK would I buy winters? Depends where I moved to. The South East, probably not. Scotland Probably yes.
 
I have been driving in the UK for nearly 50 years and at no time have I driven with 'winter tyres' fitted. This includes some extreme journey conditions on untreated roads.
 
But snowy winters are getting more frequent. As are **** councils who fail to prepare for it every single year :/

I wouldn't have been able to drive anywhere for at least week last year if I didn't have winters. I'd have got off the driveway and immediately got stuck in the middle of the cul-de-sac (which is also on an incline).
 
Nasher said:
But snowy winters are getting more frequent. As are **** councils who fail to prepare for it every single year :/
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This years March so was very well prepared for around me. Are you sure about failing to prepare ? Beyond stopping snow in the first place I don’t think they could have done anymore.

Surprised your car with those narrow bike tyres wasn’t ok on normal tyres in the snow.
 
You can understand why those towards the south coast assume the rest of us get no snow:

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We had snow on the high ground two weeks ago and earlier this year i had to abandon the car.
 
No **** sherlock, a fair number of people live in areas of higher elevation with even those at the foothills of those elevations see significant different weather from those who live in the south.

I was driving through snow a couple of weeks ago 4 miles from my house.
 
Then again i live in one of the darker blue areas, in the last 4 years I have personally only driven 6 times where there has been snow on the roads, and only 1 of those would be considered borderline (they closed the road not long after).

And lets not forget, if you're the only one with winter tyres it doesn't matter if everyone else is stuck blocking the road :D as happened here

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Firestar_3x said:
No **** sherlock, a fair number of people live in areas of higher elevation
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An absolutely miniscule percentage of the population live at an elevation above 500ft.

Today I drove in typical December conditions - 12c, torrential rain and standing water everywhere. Best tyre for this isn't a winter tyre.
 
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