Is there anything inherently wrong with putting some all season tyres on the front (front wheel drive) and summer tyre son the back?

I was thinking of driving to the Alps and the summer tyres I have are apparently awful in the snow, they don;t have much cross tread on them.

You should not mix all season/winter/summer tyres if you follow the manufacturers advice. Your insurer would also be upset should you have/cause an accident. The reason is the different charisteristics can result in a car that has very little grip at the rear in poor conditions which can result in a skid.

In countries where "snow" tyres are mandatory you would be looked on very badly if you had/caused an accident.

Are all season tyres passable as winter tyres in places like Austria and Switzerland?

Nankang and STar Performer do some all seaosn ones that look decent. My current Continental are summer only with naf all grip for snow/ice.

Presumably, if you have these tyres, you do not also need snow chains?

I suppose I could have a set of winter tyres and a set of summer but doesn;t seem much point in the UK.

I have Kleber Quadraxer on mine, they are an "All Season" tyre with the 3 peak mountain and snowflake symbol on them which means that they are approved for use in areas where snow tyres are mandatory.

Don't buy the cheap eastern brands, they may appear to have the correct symbols on but if you search on her you will find threads where the symbols are mirrored and obviously faked. You only get what you pay for.

I have both summer and winter tyres, wheels of e-bay are cheap and overall don't add to your motoring cost. Actually I save, the Klebers were £74 each, my summer tyres are £170 each.

What do you mean by mirrored? COpied logo?

These are Asian brands from Mytyres, I doubt they're fake if that's what you mean?

As I said there was a thread on here a few months ago. Shortly after I parked next to a Nissan Note fitted with a set of ?'s and the mountain symbol was a perfect mirrored image compared to that on my Klebers. The only possible reason for that would be misslead people, the correct symbol can be found easily in a Google. It can only be used after the tyres have been tested and approved.

No one is saying the tyres are fakes but the symbol is suspect and the tyres may not have been tested and approved thus the suspect symbol instead of the real one.

As I said European tyres with the correct symbol for my car were £74 each, "cheap" far eastern ones were about £20 a tyre cheaper. Just look at the tests and they are not worth the trouble.

Edited by skidpan on 22/02/2012 at 14:45