After a few weeks of snow and ice on the roads of the United Kingdom, drivers are at last starting to take winter tyres seriously. What is a legal requirement in the majority of most of northern Europe, winter tyres continue to be very misunderstood here in the UK. There are quite a few reasons why motorists may want to consider swapping over to winter tyres.
Probably the most common reason we hear in the UK as to why winter tyres are not needed is because we do not get enough snow to warrant paying out for more tyres. However, winter tyres are designed to be much more effective than regular tyres in any temperature under 7 degrees Celsius and on any road type. A cold weather tyre is designed with a bigger percentage of natural rubber and silica in the compound which does not harden up as much as synthetic rubber when the conditions turn cold.
Independent tests were recently carried out on winter tyres against summer tyres in icy conditions. From a speed of 10mph the winter tyre stopped in 6.4 metres, while the summer tyre needed over twice that distance to stop, finally coming to rest after 14 metres. Just imagine what the difference would be if the vehicle was travelling at the normal speed of 30 mph. Another false-truth driver’s hear a lot about, is that winter tyres are not needed if a car has ABS. This braking system is designed to allow steering to be retained while in an emergency situation, but it will not stop the vehicle any quicker than winter tyres will. Another reason given for not using winter tyres is a loss of ride comfort, or extra noise, but in truth modern winter tyres are every bit as comfortable as summer tyres, sometimes they can be more so. Winter tyres can also help reduce the chance of an accident in wet wintry conditions when accidents increase along with insurance claims.
It is no secret that modern cars have increased in weight, and with all that extra weight added problems occur when attempting to change direction or slow down. In these situations the tyres have much more work to do. To make the problem worse more cars are coming with overly wide sports tyres which have less chance of slowing a big heavy car. Fitting winter tyres should make your vehicle safer and make no difference to your motor insurance quote although there is a case for them to actually bring the quote down.
