All season or winter tires?

For drivers who cover most of their miles in relatively well-cleared cities, all-season tires can be an interesting alternative to winter tires.

For drivers who cover most of their miles in relatively well-cleared cities, all-season tires can be an interesting alternative to winter tires. 

When deciding to buy a set of tires, there are many criteria to consider, not only climatic and geographic, but also individual driving style, type of car, how the car is used, the number of kilometers traveled and the budget.

“You should think carefully about your choice, because the tires are the only part of the car that keeps the car in contact with the ground and has a big impact on the safety of its use,” said Leszek Shafran from Goodyear Polska Group.

Drivers can now choose from a wide range of winter and all-season tires. Only studded winter tires are allowed only in some countries with a more severe climate than ours (for example, in Russia and Ukraine). In Poland, the law prohibits the use of this type of tire.

For economic reasons, it is worth thinking about purchasing all-season tires. We save on replacement and storage costs. This is an interesting solution for cars that cover several kilometers a year, mainly in the urban cycle.

Unfortunately, as the saying goes, "if something is good for everything, then it sucks." The compound from which the tires are made must have a composition that provides sufficient grip under certain conditions - it must be soft in winter and hard in summer. The need to reconcile these two conflicting parameters means that the tire will not work 100% in both summer and winter.

In Germany, where winter conditions are similar to ours, only 9 percent. drivers still do not change tires for winter or all-season. In Poland, this percentage exceeds 50 percent. A common reason why drivers do not buy winter tires is the low awareness of the risk of not having them and the fact that they drive little or only in well-cleared cities.

– Often it is because you want to save money. It is forgotten that even a small cullet and its consequences can cost more, Leszek Shafran said.

Regardless of which tires you choose, remember that no tires are a substitute for common sense. When driving on all-season tires, you definitely need to be more careful than when driving in the same conditions on winter tires, but this does not mean that winter tires on slippery surfaces will provide you with grip comparable to a summer tire on good roads. terms.

Источник: Goodyear Dunlop Tires Polska