I think it also depends what kind of car you drive or how you drive. If you drive a sports car or enjoy driving and how a car feels on the road you're probably more inclined to not compromise.
On the other hand if you drive an MPV or SUV as purely a functional means of transport then you probably don't care. You just want to get in the car and arrive safely at your destination.
If safety is a priority, then surely compromise is something you should avoid?
Most people don't even bother to switch though, they just drive on summer tyres their car comes with all year round.
They're better off in the summer and worse in the winter.
That's kind of where I am.This is the first time in over a decade when I will HAVE to drive in bad weather.I now have an 8 mile cross country school run with a couple of steepish hills (for Norfolk, stop laughing data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7).
I had the "joy" of trying the Golf GTi on wet grass hill at the Milton Keynes bowl and I don't much fancy trying that in the snow it's just had new fronts.
Our Mini Cooper S needs new fronts soon.Until now we've just replaced the OEM Goodyear Excellence run flats like for like but I know they're shocking in the snow.
In East Anglia we rarely get a lot of snow - none last year that I recall - the chances are most of the roads will be gritted but I'm wondering it would be sensible to spend a few more quid (£95 a wheel vs £81.50) and have some security if it does snow if regular performance isn't significantly worse?
The big question is how much of a compromise will the dry performance be vs what we have now.
The tyre labels show
Goodyear Excellence - E for fuel, B for wet braking, 67dB for noise
Michelin CrossClimate - C for fuel, A for wet braking, 68dB for noise.
So the fuel figure suggests a bit less grip, but in real world driving will I even notice?
I certainly baulk at buying a set of real winter tyres and wheels given it might not be necessary at all.I have no idea about all seasons.
So I'm pondering...
I drive pretty sedately when it comes to cornering, but there are a couple of corners when I've pushed a bit and in the dry and wet, I'm getting grip levels comparable with the RFTs I was running previously. For the enthusiast driver, the loss of feel may be a put off and one might prefer the best summer and winter tyres and change accordingly. For the rest of us (including me), I'm not finding any negatives with the Crossclimates yet. Even if we get no snow, the performance should be better in sub 7c temperatures, which is mostly what southern Britain winters are these days. But if we do get snow, I'm dead curious to see how they perform.
I noticed comments about not yet knowing about wear and was about to say look at the tyre sidewalls. Then I noticed that in the UK there is no requirement to add the American quality markings. Technically here in Australia it is not a requirement either - the vast majority of tyres have them though. The tread wear number is a good indicative guide to how quickly the tyre will wear. Here in Oz at least there is a good correlation between cost increasing as that number increases!
What are UTQG Ratings - Cooper Tires
If your tyres have the American ratings they can help as a guide. I have no idea if you can use the UTQG ratings for an exact tyre make and model from another country - I suspect you can since the tyres should be "identical" between markets. BTW the Coopers Tyre example with a number over 700 is the top end of the market.
Edit - I presume you can ask the manufacturer what the markings would be on your tyres of choice. I am sure they know the numbers but don't add them where they don't have to and customers don't ask what they are.
Why would you need another set of wheels?
It's something people seem to link with winter tyres, for reasons I simply cannot fathom.
Just put winter tyres on your standard wheels.data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
I choose to do that and have a set of wheels that are 1 inch smaller for winter, you don't have to but you will need to pay to get your tyres swapped over.
If you're willing to change wheels over yourself, good on you.
But I bet most people would expect a garage to do it.
In which case, they're paying the same money as me swapping tyres over....
One thing that occurred to me about these cross climate tyres.
Insurance implications?
I have to tell my insurers when we change to winter tyres.