Video: Is Buying Premium Snow Tyres Worth It Over Budget Brands?
I understand completely that some of you are looking out of your windows and seeing rain right now, instead of snow. But soon enough that slippery white powder will be falling from the sky bringing places like the UK to a halt.
You see, we’re not very good at driving in the snow. We don’t get enough of it for the majority of us to understand how to drive in such conditions, and it certainly doesn’t warrant buying a separate set of tyres for the few days a year it does snow. But we should do. A good set of snow tyres make one hell of a difference. Here’s a video to prove it.
Two makes of tyre are being used in this test: Nokian WR Snowproof and the Tristar Snowpower 2, with the former being the premium brand. They’re both dedicated snow tyres, but the Nokian set are more expensive and a far superior product. You can see from just a quick look that the Nokian set have deeper and more aggressive treads.
After they’ve finished testing the two types of tyres on the small Golf with the 205/55 16-inch size rubber, they move onto a larger and heavier Volvo S90 with tyres sized 245/45 18-inches to cover more variables.
On evaluation, is it worth spending the extra wonga on a better set of tyres? Well, the more expensive set always come out on top, with shorter stopping distances and better handling on both snow and ice. These differences become even more apparent on the heavier Volvos with the wider tyres.
So if you live somewhere and are expecting snowfall, be it a lot of a little, very carefully consider buying a good set of snow tyres. Skimping now can have real consequences in the future, and could lead to you spending more money after an accident, or even worse. Despite the torrents of rain I’m currently experiencing, I’m going to be whacking a search into Google after this to get me a nice set of my own.
