Should we be using winter tyres in the UK?

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20th December 2010, 15:48
Mark in Oshawa

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daniel

Watched your vid. I would say there was almost as much snow as that in Llanberis in parts but nowhere near up to your knees as you said earlier today on another thread :)

Your video had this one of the suggested videos :D
[youtube]PApZm9-rwFc&NR=1[/youtube]

Do you not have a mapping app on your Android phone to help you find your way around? :)

Dopes! It looks like it snowed after an ice storm. If you don't see signs of a salt truck, or sand truck having been out, don't bother going anywhere without Winter tires..and then even then, hang on.....
20th December 2010, 18:31
Daniel

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa

Caroline needs that sense of adventure! Looks like a decent snow, but nothing horrible by my standards. That said, I take it half the locals are acting like the world came to an end!

Well that was in a town which is a bit more used to snowfall so everyone did seem to be dealing with it OK :) But yes, Caroline does need more of a sense of adventure :p To be fair to her it's the first time she's been in the Fiat in snowy conditions so I can understand why she was a little bit worried.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa

I would shock you with what you can get away with in this sort of weather. It can be done, just it shouldn't be done....

Buddy of mine drove his Dodge Dakota "Sport" pickup to Kingston, 2 hours east of here Saturday, and we went through snow squalls. The roads were greasy and then snow covered in spots....he has 235/r55 BF Goodrich T/A's..a very much a summer style all around tire...and he never had an issue. IN a PICKUP! I say he is nuts...but he has driven for 30 years and never had an accident. IT CAN be done...I just wish people would learn to handle snow.

That said, If own the pickup, winter tires on on that puppy in December.....

It's the age old thing, "I managed without them so I don't need them" which to me just doesn't make sense. If you go out in a car on a journey you want to know that you're as close as possible to 100% sure that your car can do the journey. The only thing that's going to stop the Fiat is the depth of snow.

I quite fancy one of these :D

http://imganuncios.mitula.net/used_2...0825134092.jpg
20th December 2010, 21:42
Valve Bounce

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa

I would shock you with what you can get away with in this sort of weather. It can be done, just it shouldn't be done....

Buddy of mine drove his Dodge Dakota "Sport" pickup to Kingston, 2 hours east of here Saturday, and we went through snow squalls. The roads were greasy and then snow covered in spots....he has 235/r55 BF Goodrich T/A's..a very much a summer style all around tire...and he never had an issue. IN a PICKUP! I say he is nuts...but he has driven for 30 years and never had an accident. IT CAN be done...I just wish people would learn to handle snow.

That said, If own the pickup, winter tires on on that puppy in December.....

I agree with you. I had the advantage of practicing on ice and snow after the graders had pushed 3 foot high windrows on the side of the road. Thus I was able to establish the limits of adhesion/drive without getting into trouble. I found the most difficult conditions was black ice, which gives very little warning.

But I want to say again that no matter how well one can drive in such conditions, there are many others on the road who simply cannot.
21st December 2010, 09:57
Mark

A stripy jumper and hair which is far too long is a requirement too.
21st December 2010, 13:28

http://citrons.lv/hbd1 EASY MONEY, JUST WRITE YOUR E-MAIL!
21st December 2010, 19:53
Daniel

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valve Bounce

Having seen the traffic conditions and how most cars on the road are affected, I'd rather not take my car out in that traffic. Some bugger could hit you (see above vid) while you are going nicely yourself.

As silly as it sounds I'm not that bothered about that. When the roads are bad no one is really travelling fast enough to do me any serious bodily harm and I've got gap cover (and no I didn't pay the stupid price my dealer was asking, I shopped around on the interweb) so should the 500 be written off between now and July 2013 we get what the insurance company pays out + up to £7500 from another insurance company to cover the gap between what the car insurance pays out and what a new 500 costs at the time (not what we paid) which is good because when VAT goes up a replacement for our car will cost £1500 more than what we paid for it.

Whilst of course I'd prefer not to be crashed in, it's not something which worries me all that much tbh.
21st December 2010, 20:26
GridGirl

I had constant gap cover between March 2002 and December 2009 due to a combination of buying new cars and administrative mess ups. There was a big part of me that loved having gap cover when the car had been paid for for two years. :D

Daniel, I hope you got a good interest rate if you are paying for you car over 5 years.
21st December 2010, 20:28
Daniel

Quote:

Originally Posted by GridGirl

I had constant gap cover between March 2002 and December 2009 due to a combination of buying new cars and administrative mess ups. There was a big part of me that loved having gap cover when the car had been paid for for two years. :D

Daniel, I hope you got a good interest rate if you are paying for you car over 5 years.

Paying over 3 years. I think we only financed about 7200 and if you can't afford to pay that off in 3 years you can't really afford a new car IMHO :)

Gap insurance just plain makes sense (unless you buy it from the dealer!) because you don't need to worry about getting crashed into and being out of pocket.
21st December 2010, 20:47
GridGirl

How does your gap insurance work then? July 2013 is another 2 and a half years away. I've only ever purchased gap insurance for the period the car was under finance. I did have it 2 years longer on my old 206 but that was only because Peugeot had messed up with the gap policies in 2002 and internal auditing found the errors with the policies a couple of years later. I got the two years extra as a goodwill gesture due to them messing up.

The gap insurance on my ST was purchased third party but was around the same price as what I'd paid on the 206 5 years earlier. How much do dealers try and charge you these days?
21st December 2010, 21:15
Daniel

Quote:

Originally Posted by GridGirl

How does your gap insurance work then? July 2013 is another 2 and a half years away.

Well my gap cover isn't against the finance per se. Basically it's against the value of the replacement car. Basically we've got up to £7500 cover. So basically if when the car is written off it's deemed to be worth £6k and a new one costs £13k then the car insurance pays out 6k and the gap insurance pays out 7k so we can get a new car of exactly the same spec. Or we can go out and buy a 3k car and put 10k in the bank or whatever but at least we've got lots of options open. We're covered for 4 years because in the first year the car insurance covered new for old and then the cover runs for 3 years after that so for a total of 4 years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GridGirl

How much do dealers try and charge you these days?

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much is all I can say! :) We paid £202.36 and I'm sure we were offered less cover for about 3 times the price ;)

We'll probably never buy another new car again (unless a good deal comes along!) but I wouldn't dream of buying a new car without gap insurance.
21st December 2010, 21:29
Daniel

Quote:

Originally Posted by henners88

Haha really? Most Panda owners I've seen have been in their seventies and usually loading pot plants into its surprisingly spacious boot in the car parks of garden centres. I would say clothing of the grey and beige variety would be standard issue .. :p

PS: A trilby on the parcel shelf is also common as you tend to notice these things whilst following them at 10mph through Chipping Norton.. :eek:

Very true. But the 4x4's don't tend to be driven by coffin dodgers like the 1.1's and 1.2's :p

Prime coffindodger stuff this ;)
http://cars.cozot.co.uk/coches/uk/2010/11/10/109478.jpg
21st December 2010, 21:42
GridGirl

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daniel

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much is all I can say! :) We paid £202.36 and I'm sure we were offered less cover for about 3 times the price ;)

We'll probably never buy another new car again (unless a good deal comes along!) but I wouldn't dream of buying a new car without gap insurance.

You paid around the same price as me when I purchased from a dealer in 2002 and third party in 2006. The price hadn't changed at all really in the 5 years between each time I bought it. You had me worried for a minute that I'd been completely ripped off. I never bothered asking Mr Ford how much it was when I bought the ST as I didn't take their finance. Sounds like a nice little earner for the sales person if thats how much it costs now. Did the £400 you saved pay for your winter tyres?. ;) :p :)
21st December 2010, 22:00
Daniel

Quote:

Originally Posted by GridGirl

You paid around the same price as me when I purchased from a dealer in 2002 and third party in 2006. The price hadn't changed at all really in the 5 years between each time I bought it. You had me worried for a minute that I'd been completely ripped off. I never bothered asking Mr Ford how much it was when I bought the ST as I didn't take their finance. Sounds like a nice little earner for the sales person if thats how much it costs now. Did the £400 you saved pay for your winter tyres?. ;) :p :)

More than paid for the winter tyres :D They were £208.80 :p

I think garages earn more from a gap insurance sale than they do from most car sales......

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