Snow Tyres in Switzerland

Transportation, Travel and Trips
41

'cos there's nowt wrong with them. While I'm aware tyres can degrade, mine haven't done and are still in "tip top" shape. It's probably safer to be on my old summer rubber in the summer than winter tyres.

I also eat eggs past their use by date as long as they don't float.

42
each to their own, personally I'd never drive a car with 10yr old rubber on.

43
Yes. It's very well hidden somewhere under the steering wheel.

Admittedly I have bottomed out only once, and it won't happen again.

44

ah......same car as Elton John then ?

45
This one?

No, but I had one 25 years ago in BRG.

46
LOL he has some seriously terrible cars

47
And quite a few stunners. I wouldn't say no to his (ex-)collection.

48
I drive year round on wintertires. This way I have fresh new winter tires every 3 years, instead of having two sets of 6 or more year old tires... I have done a trip to Venice with more than 30C weather, but never had any problems or noticed extra wear.

49
I've turned the air-bags off in my car as I've never used them so far and I haven't noticed a difference...

In extremis, the handling of your car will not be so good with hot winter tyres on a hot road. You probably won't realise until too late.

I wonder (and this isn't directed at you), how the Police/car Insurance would see it if you had an accident and they thought that having winter tyres fitted in Summer was a contributing factor?

50

They'd think nothing of it.

51
Interesting question Tom - why not ask the TC?

52
You're most likely using quite a bit more fuel than you need to in summer, and tyre noise is louder and handling a little more sluggish than if you change to summer tyres in summer. Plus snow tyres absolutely do wear a lot faster than summer tyres, as they are made from a considerably softer compound. But if none of those consequences bother you, keep on using your snow tyres as all-season tyres. One advantage is improved handling and braking distances in wet weather, whatever the season... ETA, or not, if Tom's source (below) is correct...

53
And you know that because.....?

I just googled it and found I was right and you.... well wrong.

Here's a translation of one article:

54
TCS agree too. Much greater stopping distances - up to 20% greater.

Here's a link to a TCS article (in pdf form)

55
Of course the stopping distances quoted in the Swiss Highway Code are way more than with winter tyres in the summer

56
Snow tyres are one of those things you need to consider mandatory in Switzerland even if officially they aren't, and don't even bother wondering why. Home insurance is another good example.

57

That doesn't make sense. Do you mean "way less"?

58
Look at the no's & you will see what I mean, cars had drum brakes & crossply tyres when it was written.

59
Which numbers? In the TCS article? I can't see what you're talking about.

60
That article refers mainly to "winterreifen im sommer ausfahren" and "fast abgefahrenen Winterpneus".

IMHO: Using winter tyres with a good thread depth in summer is very different from driving almost used-up winter tyres in summer until there is no thread left.

Again IMHO: if you have relatively new winter tyres (>4mm thread left) and you drive few kms a year and well below the tyre's speed rating (e.g. max 140 vs. a 240kmh rating) and not in extremely hot temperatures (e.g. southern Italy) then your risk is not higher as compared to decent summer tyres.