OV9

Honestly the difference could be down to 'the wrong kind of snow' when I was on all seasons, and the 'right' kind of snow when I was on winters

But yeah, I'm generally a fan of all seasons(particularly if you don't have space to store a spare set of wheels), because most of the time they're all you need to get you moving, and once you're moving, they're actually usable, in snow and ice - if they can't handle it, you should probably walk.

And in 98% of normal driving for normal people (which is about all I do these days, sigh), there's really no difference with summers - unless it's an unseasonably hot day and they run out of grip during that emergency lane change etc, but if you lived your life like that you'd never leave the bloody house.

Obviously with us being "Hoi, no professionals" level drivers we can tell the difference at the limit of the grip envelope when driving at 9/10ths to pick up KitKats from Lidl, but for most people, they really should just run all seasons, all year round.

Dropped the spare M3 wheels off today to get the Alpin's on them. Had forgotten about TPMS though so will just go with normal valves on them for the time being I think.

Of course, I had to use the Navara to do it as we've been in what the Daily Fail would call a snowpocalypse if it had happened south of the border.

Our road...


A9 this morning...


Whole village was cut off from the outside world for 48 hours or so and A9 is just back to passable now. Which meant we did get to call this bad boy in over the weekend to evacuate someone. Air Ambulance had nowhere to land and it was a total whiteout with mad wind, no problem to the coast guard heroes who just set it down in a tiny field over the road. Was very cool to see it up close.

We haven't bothered changing any cars over to winter tyres this year, probably end up with the above later
Last time there was a foot of snow 4 years ago a van with almost bald tyres got stuck at the bottom of the single track road, and then two cars stuck at the other end and that was that for the next 3 days...

We've used winter tyres in the past but as already mentioned storage can be an issue. Since switching to all seasons I've never had a problem and now don't have the ball ache of swapping a set of wheels over. It's very hilly in the Sheffield area and half an inch of snow can bring the complete area to a standstill with vehicles abandoned everywhere. Obviously some routes do become totally blocked due to this but I've always managed to get home eventually.

integrale_evo wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 11:51 am Nexen Winguard sport winter vs a normal ‘sporty’ but not particularly high performance Goodyear eagle F1.

One will be ok in snow, the other virtually useless!
IMG_8000.jpeg

Got Eagle F1's on the Up....got stuck a few times in the snow this morning

Not really had any issues with my PS4 tyres but all the major and nearly all the minor roads had been salted/gritted and had zero snow on them.
I was taking it easy today although I had noticed the tail would slip a little more easily if I overdid it out of a roundabout over the past few weeks.

Ascender wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 3:30 pm
Whole village was cut off from the outside world for 48 hours or so and A9 is just back to passable now. Which meant we did get to call this bad boy in over the weekend to evacuate someone. Air Ambulance had nowhere to land and it was a total whiteout with mad wind, no problem to the coast guard heroes who just set it down in a tiny field over the road. Was very cool to see it up close.

Those guys are amazing landing where and when the little helimedics birds can't. The other advantage is that they can perform care on the casualty in flight, the smaller helis they just strap the patient in and basically have to hope they stay stable-ish for the journey!
Hope your patient did ok.

Matty wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 4:56 pm

integrale_evo wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 11:51 am Nexen Winguard sport winter vs a normal ‘sporty’ but not particularly high performance Goodyear eagle F1.

One will be ok in snow, the other virtually useless!
IMG_8000.jpeg

Got Eagle F1's on the Up....got stuck a few times in the snow this morning

The Mrs took the boy out in his one some of the local backroads so he could experience driving in snow. We might not get any more for a few years. Seemed to do ok on its skinny little tyres.

The X5 is on winters to go skiing. The mountain roads were fine (no snow for a week), but we were driving through this near Reims a couple of hours ago -

Ascender wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 3:30 pm Dropped the spare M3 wheels off today to get the Alpin's on them. Had forgotten about TPMS though so will just go with normal valves on them for the time being I think.

Of course, I had to use the Navara to do it as we've been in what the Daily Fail would call a snowpocalypse if it had happened south of the border.

Our road...


A9 this morning...


Whole village was cut off from the outside world for 48 hours or so and A9 is just back to passable now. Which meant we did get to call this bad boy in over the weekend to evacuate someone. Air Ambulance had nowhere to land and it was a total whiteout with mad wind, no problem to the coast guard heroes who just set it down in a tiny field over the road. Was very cool to see it up close.

Wow - so different to how I have seen it!

Missing the Dakar?

Ascender wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 3:30 pm Air Ambulance had nowhere to land and it was a total whiteout with mad wind, no problem to the coast guard heroes who just set it down in a tiny field over the road. Was very cool to see it up close.

I’m pretty certain that flew over our house really late - like 00:00-01:00 either Friday or Saturday night? I heard it and checked Flight Radar as the time was so weird to be hearing a chopper and it sounded different to the Airbus the cops / air ambulance use in Glasgow

@Beany a driving instructor on YouTube has made a comparison video - easy enough to fast forward to the actual demonstration bits rather than listen to him talking:

Man I miss snow. I'm at my mum's place a few hours from Melbourne helping for a few days and according to my Pixel phone thermometer the inside of the garage roller door was 60+ degrees... Absolutely miserable to try and do anything away from AC.

Marham in Norfolkshire recorded -12.5 overnight

The Clio on PS5 tyres has no turn in bite but is oddly grippy, very easy to set the ABS off though so I'm guessing it's a pretty old system on them.

The ML on Asymetric 5 (I think) is fine aswell, the weight helps and relatively narrow tyres.

I was tempted to try the Clio on winters as I have spare wheels but I really don't think I'll bother.

Dave!

Focus on “slippery” mode is quite impressive, alters the throttle and traction control, gets you moving surprisingly well given it’s on summer tyres

Shame the snow didn’t happen over the weekend, I would have got up early and taken the x5 for a play on quiet roads.

Haven’t bothered using it for work as with its silly wide summer biased tyres it’s probably far worse than the mito on modest width all seasons.

-7.5 was the lowest I saw on my Norfolk / Suffolk borders commute today.

-5 here this morning, no snow but plenty of ice. Car been parked at LHR for a couple of days so cold soaked, but defrosted itself quickly and after 15mins driving the tyres were all at 10-12oC. Roads are all well salted but didn’t feel any slip during drive home. (Mich 4S)

TL:DR - don’t need winter tyres in Home Counties (so far)

We were on the edge of the weather last night clearly. Within 30 minutes of getting home from work my car had a couple of inches of thick wet snow on it, but I moved it under cover and this morning what had fallen was already melting away. But a bit further north was somewhat worse so I've had fun following people on basically clear roads at half the speed limit on my way to work. It's not the snow which is the problem, it's the other people.

Still a fair bit of snow on the pavements and lots of water where it's melting, and outside lanes still covered on dual carriageways etc. But I think it will all melt fairly quickly.