Dibby Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Same here, never found snow bad enough to warrant staying at home but if it does happen there's internet, VPN, mobile phones to save having to take a day's leave. ... although it's always the city lot who get snowed despite their roads being gritted, those that live out in the sticks always seem to make it in just fine and don't complain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wile E. Coyote Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 better off trading the car in for a 4x4 if I was serious about snow performance. However, a 4x4 won't stop you any better if it's on normal tyres... I avoided two insurance claims last year - in both cases other drivers approaching icy junctions, applying the brakes too late, and sailing straight into my path - that I am convinced would have been incurred had my car had standard tyres on it. It genuinely is one of those things though that you think you don't need until you try, after which you won't go back. A 4x4 with winter tyres would however seriously raise the bar though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dibby Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 However, in a BMW on normal tyres I didn't have any trouble stopping by simply leaving enough room to stop and driving according to the conditions. If you hit proper ice, no tyre, winter or summer will stop you without metal spikes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzz Billsberry Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Never really seen the point. With careful driving and route choice I've never had a problem on normal tyres Off course if it's that bad I stay at home Ditto and I do 40k miles a year Buzz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wile E. Coyote Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 However, in a BMW on normal tyres I didn't have any trouble stopping by simply leaving enough room to stop and driving according to the conditions. If you hit proper ice, no tyre, winter or summer will stop you without metal spikes "driving according to conditions" is all well and good. I do the same. But I take the view that if I can better prepare myself and my vehicle for the unexpected then I shall do just that. But having experience of both, I know which I'll be using in the winter (and they DO stop you on proper ice and ). More than happy to agree to disagree though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dibby Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Oh aye, it's all about where individual people draw the line of investment and return when it comes to safety. It comes down to what really is necessary, to me it's not worth fitting airbags, ABS and traction control to a Westfield but I wouldn't fit a 4-point harness to the commuting road car and I'd rather spend winter tyre money on whiskey and hookers - a worthwhile investment if ever there was one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wile E. Coyote Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 On that we can agree Dibby. For me though the investment case was equally on of finance: I work for myself and winter before last I lost around two weeks' money due to being unable to get the car out of our road. Last winter I didn't miss a single day's work (even though conditions were equally bad) with the investment made in winter tyres paying dividends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dibby Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Do you live right out in the sticks? I'm not completely rural but then not in a city where the roads get gritted and haven't ever been snowed in in 10 years of being at work ... ok, I've had to dig my way along certain bits of road but a spade was cheaper than winter tyres and I haven't bumped into anything or failed to get into work ... that's gone and jinxed it though! I did see a middle aged woman pull a wonderful 360 outside the local Spar and missed all the parked cars on either side of the road, she looked terrifed bless her but it looked like Ken Block himself was behind a stunt like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Seabrook Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Never really seen the point. With careful driving and route choice I've never had a problem on normal tyres Off course if it's that bad I stay at home Some drivers would never tell the difference between tyre A and tyre B though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lippydave Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 It's a cultural thing too.... Use of winter wheels and tyres is widespread and accepted across mainland Europe. They do really help,especially on rwd stuff that usually wears wide lowprofile rubber, a lot of sportier 3 series variants for example are complete s***e in the slippy stuff... Not saying you can't cope without, but it makes life a lot easier with 'em. Having said that a few years back we were on our way to Garmisch (skiing) in Austria from Ingolstadt in Germany. The German lads with us were in a couple of Quattro A4's with winter tyres and chains in the boot to get up the passes. We'd just had the biggest dump of snow for yonks. Unfortunately we (the Brit's... ) had been on the lash big time the night before and the only one sober enough to drive was me.. We took my mate Sean's Sierrra 4x4 on normal summer tyres and set off down the A9 autobahn early before the snow ploughs had been out. Some of the Jerries in one of the Quattros decided it was too bad and turned back to Ingolstadt.... We carried on. When we got to the bottom of pass in Austria, our German mates pulled over in the layby and fitted chains. We hadn't got any so I just adopted a Colin McRae Lanarkshire style brogue and said hang on p*ssheads we're not stopping for anything until we reach the lifts.... We sailed up....altough we may have struggled if we'd had to have stopped anywhere....The Jerries were telling us it was illegal without chains, but hey we won the war anyhow.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dibby Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Aye, if I was living in the Alps they would be very necessary but in Britain it's a bit like an outdoor swimming pool, absolutely brilliant for 1 week of the year but an unecessary expense for the other 51. Oh the dream of retiring in my 30s, mountain biking all summer and falling off a snowboard all winter in the Alps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lippydave Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Aye, if I was living in the Alps they would be very necessary but in Britain it's a bit like an outdoor swimming pool, absolutely brilliant for 1 week of the year but an unecessary expense for the other 51. Oh the dream of retiring in my 30s, mountain biking all summer and falling off a snowboard all winter in the Alps Why d'ya need to retire to do that? Amongst other places, lived and worked in both Munich and Freiburg (much prettier) in the South east an south west of Germany. Quck scoot down to the autobahn to either Austria (whilst in Munich) or Switzerland (from Freiburg)and hey ho off ya go. In Freiburg I used to live just off the Rhein and 5 minutes from my front door was the French Alsace[1] (had to cross into France to go motocrossing!), Switzerland 25 mins south on the autobahn, the Black Forest on the doorstep... One of the lads I worked with had part-ownership in a ski lift in the Black Forest, we used to work late until about 7pm., leave the office and he'd arrange for his ski lift to be closed to the public whilst a group of us had it all to ourselves... Happy days... Never mind retiring mate, I was still booking hours to the client whilst on the piste.... [1]Alsace and crossing over into the Black forest on the German side, I know some tremendous blatting roads, (used to be my backyard on my Fireblade... ), feel a need to go back in a Westie or similar sometime soon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dibby Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Why d'ya need to retire to do that? As the Streets once said: A grand doesn't come for free 25 days holiday a year means one trip in the summer with the lads and the bike, no holiday left to go in the winter after I've bee away with her majesty so I've never ski'd or fallen off a snowboard but it looks fun ... the winter chalet and lift pass prices are 3x the price of the summer. We can usually do 2 weeks on £500 all-in for a cheap lads holiday but couldn't even rent a chalet for that in the winter Unless I sack of work and go live out there, become a challet boy, bum around, make beds, clean out hot tubs and smoke pot for a living there's not a great lot to do in these towns. Our last chalet we stayed in was looked after by a local lad who had a Kawazaki and the times he was quoting from Morzine to Thonon were insane, would love to drive those roads in the Westie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wile E. Coyote Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Do you live right out in the sticks? Nope, problem is our road has a slight incline, never gets gritted, but catches the sun. First snowfall gets it nicely covered... traffic then compacts it all. After that the daily sun melts top layer just enough for night time temperatures to turn it into sheet ice. I've gone A*** over t*t just trying to walk on it before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lippydave Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Why d'ya need to retire to do that? As the Streets once said: A grand doesn't come for free Unless I sack of work and go live out there, become a challet boy, bum around, make beds, clean out hot tubs and smoke pot for a living there's not a great lot to do in these towns. Our last chalet we stayed in was looked after by a local lad who had a Kawazaki and the times he was quoting from Morzine to Thonon were insane, would love to drive those roads in the Westie. Naaaahh....You just need a better job in a better location is all... You could even justify winter tyres to yerself then... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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