Where in Geneva area the best place to change the winter tyres? Do any garages provide storage rooms?
answer a) a garage
answer b) yes, usually at a price
This's is in Zurich. But I need advise for Geneva.
Funny enough, Geneva is the same - any garage will do it.
did anyone wake up this morning and wish they'd never changed to summer tyres? Certainly here at the bottom of lake Zurich, we have over 10cm at 450m above sea level.
I was just beginning to think about changing my tires over but as I'm skiing over Easter I decided to wait another month.
Re the original legal requirement for winter tires. The Germans, started this season or start next year. Its something to do with an average 10,000 accidents on the day of the first dump of snow...
The Austrians are already following suit, which means that the Swiss will have to
With regards to driving without them, you'd have to be nuts. I heard all the 4 seasons crap but I work under this one simple rule:
You only have 1 life (budhists excepted obviously) and tossing it away because you can't be bothered to give yourself every bit of safety margin available is just plain stupid.
Think how chuffed your parents would be to receive a knock on the door from a Policeman to tell them their son / daughter have died. Now think again about how much effort an appointment and 10 minutes waiting at the garage takes.. It should only cost 50 CHF or so to switch them over..
Hi all, I don't live in La Suisse but we're getting a holiday place there (I know, I know....). Anyway, thoughts began to turn to how to best have my aging Mondeo Estate shod for the winter. I'm considering winter tyres, even though they may only 4 - 6 weeks use a year, and something called Autosock or Wiessesock, like a textile cover for the tyres. Anyone got any recommendations, particularly for reasonable value winter tyres, fitted in maybe Vaud or Valais (Sion/Martigny for preference)? Chains - do you all carry them and never use them if winter tyres fitted? We want to do the right thing!
Thanks for any advice and guidance!
Ruddsyboy
I would certainly fit winter tyres and also carry a set of chains. I can’t comment about Autosock, I’ve never seen them here. I’ve only had to put the chains on a few times in 18 years and when I did it was because without them I would probably not have been able to move !
You could go to any tyre dealer and they will probably have a choice at different prices. The Touring Club Swiss do an annual comparision of different brands and you might find this at the dealers.
Chains are great. Shackles and other bondage gear is cheaply available in Switzerland.
However back on thread, if you've a UK car then it probably has all-season tires already. Which means its not great but if you are coming for a couple of weeks each winter then it will probably be OK. YOu will definetly want to keep a set of chains in the boot. And if I may suggest it, practice putting them on before you get here because once you are here, and its -10c, and its snowing, and you are half way up a hill, with one wheel in a ditch, and the wind is blowing, and its night time and you don't have a torch, then this is not the time to learn how to fit a set of chains for the first time. Nor is it a good time to find out that the chains are the wrong size...
So if the tyres supplied on my new Swiss Jeep are marked 'M+S' are they 'All Season' or 'Winter'?
M+S is matsch und Schnee or Mud and Snow and usually but not always is on winter tyres. Better said it can be on tyres that are not winter approved...
M+S = Mud + Snow. Legally, they are winter tyres.
If they are All Season (compromise between grip in snow and grip on wet/dry road) or "proper" winter tyres (priority: snow) I can't tell; AFAIR the latter type has an ice crystal and a mountain on the side.
A few more details:
1) The story of summer/normal tyres loosing grip under 4/7/10 degrees is from decades ago. Modern summer tyres have a better grip on a dry road at -10 than winter tyres.
2) The German rules do not specify winter tyres, but that the tyres must be suitable for the road conditions. I.E. if there is no snow, summer tyres are fine. Otherwise leave the car where it is.
3) If you drive in Germany with winter tyres with a lower speed rating than your cars capabilities (illegal with summer tyres), you are ok if you have a sticker near the speedo saying "Max 190" (or whatever the rating of the tyres)
I don't plan to get winter tyres this winter. There is rarely snow in Basel, we do not need the car, and I think I keep my Mobility subscription for the few days we want to go sledging.
How up to date is your information on this? Because I thought it was quite clearly WINTER TYRES in winter on account on the winter season always kicks off with 80,000 car accidents on the first day of a big dump..
Do you have reference to this please?
After all, you are stating that entire swathes of Northern Europe change their tyres for no reason .
AFAIR, I looked in a German newsgroup no more than a year ago - that was when the legislation was on the way. The point they made was, that if you had a sports car which you did not want in the snow, there was nothing to stop you taking a trip on summer tyres on a crisp sunny winter day.
I actually think the legislations is quite sensible: If you have an accident in snow with summer tyres, you have to prove that was not a contributing reason.
There are places in Germany where they very rarely get snow - why should you force winter tyres on those people, if they can leave the car those 2 days?
As far I as remember, it was an ADAC test, but I saw it referred elsewhere and cannot find it right now. There is something here, in German, about half way down:
http://www.pro-winterreifen.de/faq.p...q_winterreifen
Please note that virtually all quality tyres these days are with silica, which prevents the hardening by low temperatures.
Summer tyres are also better on wet roads (which is the most normal in Danish or Norther German winter), as the lamellas (?) on winter tyres retain water.
I do not state that the change is for no reason. In dry/wet conditions, the summer tyre has perhaps 10% shorter braking distance than the winter tyre. But the day there is snow, where you are much closer to the limit all the time, the advantage to the winter tyre is perhaps 30% or more.
In Denmark where I come from, we have the discussion every year. I think there about half don't change. In Norway and Sweden it is law to have winter tyres in a specific period, and Germany has this conditions-dependant rule.
I did a bit of research on this last year as, being an Australian, I had only heard vague rumours of something called a snow tyre. I think these graphs show a pretty good breakdown of the comparison between winter and summer tyres.
The full article is http://www.tyres-online.co.uk/techinfo/winter.asp as there is a lot of debate in the UK at the moment as to whether UK drivers should use winter tyres or not. Admittedly I think some of this is possibly driven by tyre manufacturers wanting to sell more tyres.
These graphs do back up the idea that with dry roads, summer tyres are fine in the cold. But what are you going to do if it unexpectedly rains? Get out and walk home in the cold rain?
There might be a case for cars in northern Scotland (north of Glasgow) to have winter tyres in the UK, but otherwise it's too mild generally.
Edit: We're in Switzerland... ignore me...
There are two problems with the article:
1) It only states Summer tyre and winter tyre - not which one. And after having searched myself, I found that I have to modify my statement to "the best summer tyres are better than most winter tyres on cold and wet roads."
2) The source is a tyre-pusher. Makes me wonder about the impartiality.
And of course you don't walk home in the cold rain - you slow down, as you also should with winter tyres :-)
Well, duh...
You could also say that the best summer tyres will be inferior to the best winter tyres on a wet and cold roads...