Winter tyres. Do you need them?

Well winter is finally starting, yesterday the temperature in London was 6 degrees. The summer tyres fitted to your car will start to stiffen up once the temperature drop to 7 degrees and below giving you reduced grip. Winter tyres stay flexible at these temperatures and that is what gives you grip. They also have a different tread pattern that will clear the snow (if we have any) from the tread and thus keep your grip levels up.

So do you really need winter tyres? It all depends on what you use your vehicle for. If you live in London the chances are that you use public transport to get to and from work, the car probably sits outside your house (if you are lucky enough to park outside your house) for most of the week, in this situation you could probably argue that if the weather is very bad you can just delay anything you have to do until it clears.

If you use the car every day then things might be different, say you have to drop the children off to school and then carry onto work. If you cannot get the children to school then you will have to take the day off and a lot of companies know expect you to take it as holiday, not the most ideal situation.

What if you are self-employed and use your vehicle for work? With luck your customer will understand and wait for the weather to improve so you can get to them, this could lead to a back log of jobs and some customers saying they can't wait. What is a lost days' work going to cost you?

Maybe this observation (I noticed this yesterday walking to the local shop) I made yesterday will help. I passed 2 ambulance vehicles, 1 was a paramedic estate and the other an ambulance, both had winter tyres on. The ambulance service must have worked out that there customers can't wait a couple of days for the weather to improve to get to a job. They need to get there as soon as possible.

Maybe you put winter tyres on your plumbing van and a customer calls to say they have a problem, you are the 3^rd plumber they have called but the other 2 cannot get to them because of the weather, you can. Don't you think that next time this customer has a problem they are going to call you 1^st as you can always turn up? Or you get your children to school and then get to the office, day's holiday saved and it show that you are committed.

As for the cost of another set of tyres, while your winter tyres are on your vehicle the summer tyres are not wearing out, and if they stop you having an accident you're no claims bonus if safe.

So if you would like to have winter tyres or maybe to talk to somebody about them call Hometyre on 0800 783 93 10