Our little Ford Fiesta family runabout needs new tyres. So before I automatically click on Black Circles and order up some new 195/50 15s of a half decent variety, I've had a thought.
Given that we appear to be living in a semi-apocalyptic climate even in the UK nowadays, should I be buying a set of winter tyres instead?
And the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Why? Because the last set of winter tyres I used on a regular basis were fitted to my old long term Jaguar XKR-S convertible.
They were enormous great 20-inch Pirelli Sottozeros and they went on the car in January, where they stayed until it went back to Jaguar in October, during which time I covered around 10,000 miles on all sorts of roads, at all sorts of speeds, sometimes at all sorts of angles.
And when the car went back it still had bags of tread left on its tyres, even those at the rear, and at the time I found that deeply impressive considering how much punishment they’d taken.
So my logic regarding our Fiesta is now veering towards one fairly obvious course of action; given how well a decent set of winters lasts, and how much more traction and stability they provide when it gets cold and miserable (let alone when it actually snows, when they become nigh-on invincible) why not just run our Fiesta on winters all year round?
True, there’s a touch extra road noise to put up with, and they cost between 15-20 per cent more to buy in the first place – but the extra security they will offer my nearest and dearest when she’s out there this coming winter is surely worth these small compromises?
And anyway, the cost is hardly a deal breaker when the difference is less than 90 quid for all four tyres, which will last for at least two years at my wife’s somewhat glacial annual mileage.
Which is why I’m about to do precisely that and order up a nice new set of Dunlop Winter Response 2s for the car.
I’ll let you know if they feel any different to drive on in summer – and winter – in months to come, but in the meantime; if you’ve got a car in your family that doesn’t do many miles but whose driver you are rather fond of, you might want to think about doing the same. And when the bad weather arrives, you might even feel slightly smug.
Or do you think I’ve completely lost the plot, in which case feel free to tell me why?
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Dangerous nonsense, perfectly avoidable in these days of google
It should take you less than 5 minutes to find yourself a nice online test comparing winter and summer tires. And to understand that with temperatures above 7 degrees, winter tires perform worse in every circumstance - dry or wet. At 15 degrees braking distances and lateral grip of winter tires can be as much as 10% worse than summer tires.
Fine idea but not always
Maybe a mixture...