4 x 4's are only really of use if you live in the country and get week after week of seriously bad weather every winter with deep drifts to navigate. With a 4 x 4 you still need winter tyres.

A 2wd conventional car with winter tyres is better than a 4 x 4 on summer tyres plus because its normally lighter a 2wd car will brake better, pretty important in my opinion.

We have used winter and propper all season tyres since about 2009 and the difference they make is huge. With a BMW i never had an issue (if you igore the idiot who managed to get stuck outside out house and block the street) and even then with TC in the correct setting moved off no issues.

If your mileage is not great I would suggest you look at the new breed of all season tyres such as the Michelin Cross Climate, Goodyear 4 seasons, Vreidestein Quatrac and Nokian Weatherproof, no need for 2 sets of wheels and expensive TPMS valves if your car has them) and providing you choose good ones the performance is almost up with winter tyres in the snow and better in the wet and dry.

Whatever you do make sure they heve the 3 peak snowflake symbol, without it they will possibly be useless. M & S has no official meaning, you can stanp it quite legally on a summer tyre.

We will be fitting all season tyres to the Fabia later in the year, not sure what brand yet but probably the Vreidestein or Goodyear.

But since winter is almost over I suggest you wait until September/October time, they will be cheaper then.

Bit late for this winter.

All-seasons fitted by November?

Too late for this year, and next year we might get no snow!

Due to the recent bad weather. I've found it very difficult getting around.we have a Jetta 1.4 automatic. Had to dig it out of the Snow the other day and it was struggling to go up inclines and such. I'm wondering if fitting Snow/Winter tyres for the winter months would be an idea or possibly look for a second hand small 4x4

Thanks

Ian

A couple of things to bear in mind:

1. How old is your car and realistically how much longer do you intend to keep your car? Even if buying at the cheapest time of the year, a set of all-weather tyres, and especially winter tyres are far more expensive than summer ones.

2. How old and how worn are your existing (summer) tyres? If they are 6 years old or more, or are worn below 3mm, then they will give even poorer grip in these conditions due to them becoming hard/brittle (all-season and winter tyres are softer compounds so they can work better in the cold [below 7degC, around Oct - Mar/Apr depending upon location] temperatures) and/or the tread being less effective.

If your existing tyres match the conditions in point 2, I would suggest you source some all-season tyres unless you have the money for winter ones or need them because you live in a location (as Skidpan says) that gets VERY bad weather in winter (not just the occasional day or week of snow) for extended periods, especially very hilly and rural areas that roads aren't gritted and/or well used.

Note that if you did want to buy winter tyres, you must have sufficient space to store the other set or pay a local tyre outfit/garage a reasonable sum to store them for many months (likely not cheap), plus, if your car has low profile tyres (below 50 profile, especially below 40), you will get far better traction/handling out of the winter tyres if you purchase a set of smaller steel wheels and matching higher profile winter tyres.

You'd need to check with your manual/dealership to confirm the minimum wheel diameter/tyre width and correct size of tyre that is possible to fit over the brakes and have the same circumfrence as the lower-profile tyres - many modern cars, especially range-topping/Sport models have bigger brakes and cannot accomodate much smaller wheels or skinnier tyres. This is why, if you can stick to all-season tyres, then its better to do so.

If you are experienceing really bad problems even in relatively average snowy conditions (less than a couple of inches) on a regular basis, I would say that its likely that your existing tyres aren't up to the mark generally, and/or your driving style isn't conducive to doing so in snowy/icy conditions - people with a heavy right foot or more aggressive driving styles fair less well than smoother, but confident drivers. Other threads on the forum have discussed this as it can make just as much difference as the tyres themselves.