Firstly before some clot say "We're not bloody Finland or Russia, we don't always have snow" let me just say that a more correct name for winter tyres would be cold weather tyres because they are made of a far softer compound than summer tyres and are still softer than all weather tyres. Because we're all motorsport fans here we know that the hotter it is the harder the compound you run because rubber softens up under heat and the colder it is the softer the compound you run because rubber hardens up when it's cold. The tyre companies say that summer tyres and winter tyres are equal at 7 degrees C and below that the gap just gets wider and wider.

Here's a graphic illustration of the capabilities of winter tyres on 3 cars of a similar weight and configuration.
[youtube]pXuhfwY74b8[/youtube]

Now we've had a bit of snow in the South West of England yesterday and today and because the tyres sold in the UK are almost exclusively summer tyres every one is (to quote Dave Brockman) "doing Torville & Dean impressions" on the road and no one's getting to work and the economy is losing money, cars are going off the road, having accidents etc etc. Now if we're to believe what the media tells us, these sorts of events will be more common and probably more severe in the future because of global warming so is there now a case for winter tyres in the UK? People argue that it's an extra expense but can you really put a price on having more grip in the cooler months and also not being completely helpless in the event of heavy snow? It's not even that much of an expense! You buy some cheap steelies or alloys and then you buys your winter tyres which in general are actually cheaper than summer tyres so you don't get all that nasty salt screwing your nice wheels up, and you save wear on your more expensive summer tyres.

A link to a BBC story so some of the foreigners can have a read and a larf.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8419898.stm

Am I missing something here?