Michelin in connection with Mumsnet users conducted a survey about tyres; maybe not a sexy topic but an important one. They polled 1097 users who own a car and have at least one child at home.
The survey revealed, there was still a discrepancy between genders with more men taking responsibility for tyres, but women are acknowledging that this shouldn’t be the case; 97% of the people agreed all drivers should take responsibility for their vehicle and its safety.
Surprisingly for me 7% of Mumsnetters currently own winter tyres, which is above average when compared with the UK as a whole.
We don’t own any winter tyres, but if the weather keeps going in the direction it is at the moment, we will have to consider getting a set.
Winter tyres are recommended for use in temperature below 7C, which we actually have now. They are manufactured from different materials than summer or so called all year round tyres; they offer a different grip and their main job is to make our winter car trips much safer! They aren’t cheap, this is a downside, but can we really try to save money risking our wellbeing, health or even life?
A few years ago my cousin came to visit. He drove from Poland in January so yes, he had winter tyres on his car. Unfortunately he got a flat, and new, modern tyres are not repairable, or at least this is what we had been told. We actually tried to buy a new one but as it ended up it wasn’t possible. I live just 40 miles north of London and we couldn’t find any store within those 40 miles which would actually have stock in on the day, so we could just pop by and get a new tyre. He ended up driving to Europe on his spare. We ordered a tyre in Germany and it was waiting there for him the next day.
We don’t get snow so often so we don’t need winter tyres… wrong… Only two days ago when driving to the post office we hit a patch of ice… on a sharp corner, on a narrow village road… it was scary… the car started to dance… nothing happened but if there was a car coming from the opposite direction it could have been a totally different story all together. I think there are a lot of things we could save money on when taking care of our car, but tyres should never be one of these things. Buy good quality premium tyres as they could save your life one day and remember… not all tyres are the same!
Do you own a set of winter tyres?
*Post written in collaboration with Michelin and Mumsnet. I was not compensated for writing this post, but I will have a chance of winning a set of tyres.
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