It’s that time of year where I harp on about winter tyres again, but this is mostly to explode a few myths.

Myth 1: 4 wheel drive will get you anywhere.

Myth 2: a rear-wheel drive car is hopeless in snow.

Myth 3: Winter tyres aren’t worth the cost, and there’s little benefit (with a caveat).

I’m going to do this with the help of some videos from tyrereviews, who have prompted this bybtweeting the first video.

First: a BMW M3 (powerful, rear-wheel drive, with an automated SMG gearbox– so bound to be lousy, huh?) versus a 4-wheel drive Subaru. The M3 has winter tyres, the Subaru has normal, high-performance summer tyres, but has the magic of 4WD:

Cool eh?

Then, just for comparison, the same M3, against some other cars, FWD and RWD, all wearing summer tyres- you’ll notice the Ford Ka, with its relatively narrow, low peformance tyres does quite well, compared to the others:

but in every case, the M3, which ought to be a handful, just drives….

It’s worth noting here that a proper, workhorse 4×4 like a Defender (or anything of a similar ilk) will probably be much better, as they will have at least M+S (mud and snow) tyres, even if not cold-weather ones, and they’re unlikely to be high performance tyres with low profiles, a wide section, and high-speed compounds. The more modern, fashionable things like an X5, or Evoque will probably be lousy on their standard-wear tyres. However, fit winters to them and they’ll trounce the 2WD cars easily: it’s just that 4x no grip is the same as 2x no grip (and let’s also mention that all cars have brakes that work on 4 wheels, so don’t imagine your X5 has miraculous stopping power).

One last video: two identical Honda Civics: one on premium winter tyres, the other on premium summer tyres, as it left the factory:

says it all really. Dunlop are staging an entire even to show that their summer tyres are shit on snow…

That caveat? If you can avoid using the car, then do so, it’ll be cheaper. If you never use intreated roads, you might well be OK, but it should be noted that winters will give you better grip on a merely cold, damp road.