discool said:

As my “statement“ it could depend on where u are in the UK, I’ve never had an issue in my part of Kent either.

Click to expand...

As you said yourself, the concept of "summer and winter" tyres is a new concept.
To me it smacks very loudly of tyre manufacturers trying to persuade the gullible to buy two sets of tyres for both "seasons".
I treat this with the contempt it deserves having used the tyres I mentioned above in both the Yorkshire Dales in the depth of winter, back in the days when we had real snowy and icy winters, and towing a huge heavy trailer in both the winter up to 600 metres in the Montagne Noire AND in the heat of summer in southwest France. At all times going down there on Autoroutes.
Both types behaved impeccably.
There are areas in other countries where you have to drive around on winter tyres, by law, and those are only designated as "M & S", fair enough, go for it. But they are quite rare, France for instance which has some very high passes it is optional.

But where in the UK is the OP going to be driving regularly enough to need to think like that?
He will have to tell us as much of this is assumption.
And he needs to think about where he is going to properly store the second set when they are not on the vehicle, so people find that difficult in itself.

Stanleysteamer said:

And he needs to think about where he is going to properly store the second set when they are not on the vehicle, so people find that difficult in itself.

Click to expand...

Some tyre places operate a 'tyre hotel', where they store your other set and swap them over for you when you need them. Not sure if it's just the tyres or the wheels too if you have spares. Seems like a good business opportunity if punters want to go down that route, but I'd rather have a decent set of all season tyres* and not bother.

*Which I don't! They are Godyear EficientGrip tyres on the 18" wheels. Came with the car and have replaced with the same, but they are not M+S or three peak marked. They are quite road biased and I haven't had any problems with them, but next time round I might get something a little more grippy looking.

Theres not enough temperature difference in the UK to make it worthwhile. Unless you live north of the border, theres only a few snow days, if you are lucky...

tilly2 said:

Theres not enough temperature difference in the UK to make it worthwhile. Unless you live north of the border, theres only a few snow days, if you are lucky...

Click to expand...

Even up here, in Peterhead, 32 Miles North of Aberdeen, 57.5° N, yes it gets cold, as low as minus 10 in the winter, I don't bother with winter tyres, AT's or better yet Muds are a better choice...

Muds, or to a lesser extent All Terrains, get me through what little snow we get in the winter, and any terrain I dare point the landy at all year round. Winter tyres are possibly a smidgeon better in the snow, especially when it gets polished to hard ice, but they get eviscerated by higher temps in the summer, and really need changing in the summer. Trust me, I "lost" a set of 235/45/19 continental winter tyres on my wifes car in 2020, thinking "if the world's ground to a halt, how bad can it be to keep the winter tyres on for all the miles they'll do this summer?" Bad enough they became rumbly, hard and brittle. Also, winter tyres have naff all ability to deal with sandy beaches, seaweed strewn rocks, loose mud and gravel trails, or saturated muddy fields/paths, so the winter tyres are only really in their window for twenty odd days a year, and get cooked in summer.

However, the landys are not my only vehicles, as both my wife and I typically "daily drive" faster cars, my landys are but toys and winter transport, so I just throw muds on, and run them all year, sometimes setting up "summer wheels" with all terrains. That said, I only put on new carcass tyres, from main manufacturers such as BF Goodrich, Kumho (KL71 & MT51), or most recently Falken (Wildpeak MT01). Insa or other remoulds need not apply.

This week we had somewhere around 9-10cm of snow up here, which became 7cm of slush, and with the wildpeaks on, you'd never ken it was there, and I know I can run them al year round, while if I'd spunked up for winter tyres, by easter time, I'd be lookng for a nook in my workshop in which to store 5x 255/55/18 winter tyres, and either 5 tyres to change, or a few hundred quid tied up in a second set of wheels.