Summer, Winter / All seasons tyres

chris_n

john432 said:

Interesting replies thankyou.

So, all seasons tyres are more expensive, and may not last as long as summer tyres.

Anyone else experience this?

Before winter and all seasons came into play, were summer tyres (what they are called now) what we all used?

Don't know how old you are but years ago all tyres had tread that zig-zaged around the circumference. Then in the search for better fuel efficiency while still being able to displace water (they actually do it much better than older designs) the current 'summer' tread patterns appeared with usually 3 or 4 wide grooves straight round the circumference with only the shoulders of the tyre having any lateral grooves. This tread design is clearly no good whatsoever in snow and the lack of sipes mentioned earlier means they can't clear the water that is formed when you drive over ice makes them useless for that too. Over the last decade or so most of the major manufacturers have put a lot of work in to compounds and tread designs that maintain (nearly) the fuel economy, wet weather performance and dry weather performance on summer tyres. I live in the Alps and drive year round on Michelin CrossClimate 2's, yes they aren't quite as sure footed as full winters but I don't need to use the car every day so for me the compromise works well. I put a set of the same tyres on my daughters car, she lives in NE England and they work well there too.