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Welcome to the club !!

:)

4v6, I was the same as you, my then work partner lives next door and he asked me to order a set of snow tires for his wife's car a 3 series diesel BMW, my advice to him was there won't be much of a difference between normal summer tires and snow tires, tires were ordered and went on a spare set of 16" wheels, when the snow came that year I struggled to get her car from his driveway to my garage to change over the tires, I had a we run back to his drive with the tires on, turned round and drove back to my garage with no problems using very little throttle, just using slow lift off on the clutch, well, out on the road I went over the forth humps, a local road in my area, at the top stopped in fresh snow area at a junction on a hill and pulled away with very little wheel slip, I was as you a driving god in a BMW in the snow, also do you know that cars stop better with winter tires on cold dry (gritty) roads, have a try you will be shocked how quick a car will stop compared to summer tires, I am talking 5-10 Ft less at 30mph, you don't need to fit brand name winter/snow tires because any winter/snow tire will preform better than summer tires, have a look on youtube, by the way snow tires are on my Golf.

I, as a person who lives in country where all season or winter tyres are compulsory between 1st december and 1st april, always find it amusing how britons find out the reason why manufacturers are making winter tyres and how less knowledge about them they often have :smilewinkgrin: The main reason to have winter or all season tyres during winter isn't the chance to have snow, but because summer tyres are made from different kind of rubber which is harder and stops to provide adequate grip below, IIRC, +5c. So those who keep driving below that threshold with summer tyres are essentially suicidal drivers.

Due to not having real winter for half a dozen years I'm half-joking that now car requires three sets of wheels/tyres - summer tyres for summer, all season tyres for winter and winter tyres for the occasion if the winter really arrives...

It's because most don't have a reason to warrant them as most of the population live in areas that do not normally get weather conditions to justify the expense.....and it's not compulsory.
MSH, tell us about different brands you've tried.
:tup:

Not in the UK but in germany it is and he is in latvia looking at his sig. I run winter tyres on my Evo and can confirm the performance difference between them and my Good Year Eagle F1 Assymetricos in temps below 7 degrees.

I ran winter tyres on my b6 a4 Quattro Michelins. Disagree with the any winter tyre thing, theres some right crap cheapo makes our there that are rubbish. These were fantastic, as has been said above just when the temps drop stuck them on. Mpg dropped by 4 on a run. The only worry I had was that someone on summer tyres would pile into me as the difference is chalk and cheese.
On a recent trip to Iceland the tyres fitted to the polo had metal studs as well as winter tread patteren and they were unbelievable, amazing traction even with a heavish right (well left but right) foot. Get my vote 100%

Well, average briton, like average people everywhere, don't know this little thing about tyre performance vs ambient temperature, and, like average people everywhere thinks that "winter tyres are needed for snow" , only they don't have law that would force them to mount more suitable tyres :)

As for my personal experience - I'm poor and so far I've either had money but lacked need for new tyres, or I've had need for tyres but no money - so far in my life I've bought few sets of used tyres. Currently my mk2 golf rides on 15 years old Nokian Hakapeliita 2's, I bought them used 5 years ago for my A90q, used them for 1 winter, then they sat unused, until I failed technical inspection due to too low thread on one tyre, Debica all-season, so then it was time to switch golf from 13" to 14", only usable 14" tyres I had in my possession, was these, and if I would keep them as winter tyres, I would still have them 5 years later :lol: , so I put them on in order to wear them off - so far it seems I'll be using them for at least year, if not two.

I mounted set of new Westlake tyres on my mothers mk3 year ago and I was disappointed - in snow it felt like my mk2, which at that time had tyres that few months later failed technical inspection :D

I have a set of Hakkapeliitta 7 for my UR... Yokohama on the Merc, Michelin on the G1Cabriolet and a good asian brand (forgot name) on the Mazda2.
On average i have 20+ wheels on storage just for our own cars ... plus the ones on the cars.
When temp go below 5c we change and when the last salt is washed off the roads in the spring we change back.

Some years back we had extreme cold so some of the fjords froze... A local rallyclub arranged iceracing... Police tried the track too and all of us guys from audiclub.dk were faster around the track... A S4 B5 Avant drives like a ferry but 330 hp/516 NM sure helps move the ferry in a straight line ;-)

Cheapest tyres I ever had were winter tyres on my wife's car (Honda Civic at the time), they were of eastern European origin and I was gifted them by a friend who was tidying out his garage. They were great, wife had confidence to drive in the snow with them which was a result! :tup: Got 4 winters out of them and sold them on with the car.