Vredestein Snowtrac 3 Reviews - Page 3

Until the bad weather set in - 21st December 2009 - we had been using Toyo all-season tires on my wife's Yaris automatic and with some careful driving we actually managed to get home from High Wycombe on the awful night of 21 Dec 2009 - 8 miles in five hours. I then decided that there must be a better way, particularly if the appalling weather looked set to continue.

I did some basic internet research about winter tires and realised that 'winter' did not mean simply snowbound. In fact I had never appreciated or understood the differences in structure and performance characteristic between all-season and 'winter tires.

Next day I went to my local Merit tires center in Little Chalfont, Bucks and they suggested I have a look at Vredestein Snowtrac3s for our car. They also suggested I but a set of basis 14" 5.5J steel wheels on which to fit them. Two days later the Snowtrac3's were fitted and over the next three weeks the Yaris did not put a foot wrong during some of the worst road weather conditions in the Chilterns in the past 30 years.

So sure footed are the tires that my wife calls them her "Fred Astaire's".

My Toyo's are in storage, free of charge, at the tire shop until March - small charge to swap tire sets of ?18 - when the Tokyo's will be refitted.

Absolutely sold on the concept of using winter tires particularly as the bleeding hearts at the Bucks CC Highways Division show no sign of understanding that the first "essential/front-line service" that local authorities need to have as a priority is the 'infrastructure and the ability to ensure that everything that needs to work has the ability to do so."