Driving in winter

Do you keep the sports alloy wheels on throughout the winter? Unfortunately, this is only advisable with a special coating. Find out why.

Snow is great fun. Snowball fights, snowmen, sledging – it brings out the child in all of us.

Laws surrounding the use of winter tyres vary from country to country and even region to region. So, where are winter tyres mandatory in Europe? And where are they recommended?

Swapping tyres every six months or so can be costly but, in many countries, it’s compulsory. So why do it? Why not drive on winter tyres in summer or summer tyres in winter?

Snow chains can be fitted to most cars, SUVs and trucks. They greatly improve traction on snow and ice and can be a temporary solution when fitted over summer tyres.

There’s a good reason why ice skating and ice hockey are so popular – it’s great fun to glide across ice at speed. But it’s not so fun when you’re in a car and the road is covered in ice.

No one wants to spend more money than they have to, so it’s understandable that you might question the value of paying more for separate winter and summer tyres.

It doesn’t take a lot of water to freeze your car locks but, when it happens, it can create a lot of problems. The good news is that there are several ways to open frozen car door locks.

If you want to carry on enjoying driving all year round, you need to think about preparing your car for winter. The following checks are easy to do and don’t require any special mechanical knowledge.

If there’s been a snow dump while your vehicle’s been parked, or the tyres you’ve fitted simply weren’t up to the job and you’ve veered off the road, you may find yourself stuck in snow.

There are three ways you can tell a winter tyre from a summer tyre by sight: winter tyre treads are deeper, they have a different tread pattern and they have additional markings on their side walls.

Some countries insist that you swap from summer to winter tyres as the cold weather approaches. But what are winter tyres? 

For many people, particularly those living in countries with extreme weather, it is mandatory to have two sets of tyres – one for summer and one for winter.