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Not all makes of winter tyres are made to the same standards and can perform differently.
Just like any other thing in life that you buy, there are different
qualities at different prices.
The first point to remember is that all makes of winter tyres will give you better service in the winter months, than say summer tyres. Summer tyres are the regular tyres that are fitted to the car when the car is brand new. Even on SUV and X over cars they will be fitted with summer tyres.
Winter tyres were once thought to be a luxury and indeed in the early days of my career, we only fitted winter tyres to let’s say, the better of type of customer. I remember very clearly, when I worked for a national tyre company, the first time I had ever heard of winter tyres.
The guy was called Kenneth Knight and he owned a local newspaper shop,(everything was local in the late sixties). It was important to him because he had to collect the papers from the local train station every morning at 5 am, in winter he was probably one of the first up on the snow covered roads.
Mr Knight owned an Austin Cambridge car and wanted to two Firestone winter tyres. This was the first time that I knew they existed and the first ones that I had ever seen.
I remember that they were special order and took two weeks to arrive at our fitting depot in Dewsbury, Yorkshire UK. When they arrived they were what I would call the old fashioned type of winter tyres with a very junky tread pattern, I also recon that these tyres would have been very noisy bit affective on wet or snowy roads.
This brings me back today’s driving and especially women’s cars and advice.
Back in my early days Lady Drivers were a rarity, driving the cars was a man’s job, and few women owned cars or learned to drive.
Today is a much different world and I would say that there is as many lady drivers as men. This is why I feel that it is important to educate all drivers in the benefits of fitting winter tyres to their cars before winter arrives.
Winter tyres for the SUVS and X OVERS
Winters in the UK have become more extreme in recent years, last winter 2013/2014 was extremely mild with practically no snowfall recorded here in West Yorkshire.
Across the Atlantic North America was struck by many large blizzards and had their worse snow falls on record. The truth is that none of us know what the weather will bring and so it is hugely important that we prepare our cars for what may hit us.
The first advice I would give lady drivers would be to give their cars a winter service. This would include anti-freezing their engines and additives in their windscreen bottles to stop them freezing when the first frost arrives.
Many of our customers ignore this advice and you would be surprised how many frozen cylinder heads that we get from lack of anti-freeze in the engine, costing over £1000 to repair.
The next advice is to change your summer tyres to winter tyres.
The perfect fit for your car would be to change all four, but if your money won’t stretch to that then fit two to the drive wheels. I am not going to recommend any brand names, but in my opinion it would be better to stick to mid-range brands as they are excellent quality and would be cheap tyres compared to leading brands. Pellon Tyres in Halifax stock all brands of winter tyres.
These tyres are going to help you get about during bad weather in the winter months.
We all know how important our jobs are now, and taking the children to school usually becomes a woman’s job, so safety is paramount when it comes to your family, and winter tyres will give you the edge in all types of bad weather and not just snow, although these tyres are fantastic when it comes to handling your car in snowy conditions, especially in hilly areas such as here in the West Yorkshire Pennines.
So in the coming months, you should be at least thinking about your car and your safety before the winter weather is upon us again.
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