Winter, Seasonal or Cold Weather Tyres

Until recent years the United Kingdom’s South West winter tyre market was small.  After a couple of severe winters a great flood of enquiries came through about winter tyres, chains & socks.  Unfortunately mid-winter is not the time to plan a purchase of winter tyres as the manufacturers schedule production around previous demand, some time before.   Over recent years winter tyre demand and availability has improved.  The benefits of winter tyres are now widely recognised and the market is still buoyant even though a couple of milder winters have occurred. 

Types of Seasonal Tyres

Summer Tyres (Above 7°C)

Summer tyres sold in the UK are designed to deal with our milder weather. They offer a balance between longevity, handling, road noise and fuel performance.  At temperatures below 7°C they struggle to cope with traction demands put upon them, so safety is compromised.  All Weather or full Winter tyres would be more suitable.

All Season Tyres

An alternative to full winter tyres All Season tyres have high silica content for low temperature flexibility and a tread pattern somewhere between a normal summer and full winter tyre.  Some of the latest generation of All Season tyres now have the 3 peaks winter symbol on them.  They are unlikely to perform as good as the specialist tyre but can be expected to work better on wintry roads than a summer tyre and you will avoid the hassle and cost of swapping wheels/tyres twice a year.

“After fitting B.F Goodrich All Season tyres to my wife’s car she is more confident when driving in wet weather conditions, the control on extremely wet roads and those large deep puddles is so much better than her previous high quality summer tyres, so much so that she refused to have the summer tyres refitted the following spring”