It depends. On a "normal" car or if you aren't doing a lot of Bahstorming, it doesn't make much difference. Most of the branded and "unbranded" tyres from the big manufacturers are good under normal conditions at normal speeds.

Winter tyres are generally limited to 190km/h, which is more than the maximum speed of my car, so getting "performance" winter tyres is, for me, a waste of money. I also do around 95% of my mileage on A and B roads, so I can't get near those limits anyway.

I drove back from Ballingen last year in an A6 Avant Quattro fully loaded and in icy and slushy conditions. The tyres were still good at 240km/h, but in slushy conditions, that isn't a speed I'd be comfortable driving.

To be honest, anything over 180km/h is too stressful on a dry road to keep up for long periods of time. I generally keep it in the 140-150km/h range these days. With the traffic and roadworks on the network these days, going faster doesn't bring much advantage, you just reach the next traffic jam a few minutes earlier...

Also watch out for speed restrictions. Large parts of the network now have severe speed restrictions due to the surface breaking up - they generally put a 120 limit on, then a 100, then 80, when it gets too bad for 80km/h, they will resurface that stretch.

The police are very strict about it as well. Fines increased dramatically this year.

On our street, which is fairly steep, when it is covered in ice, I couldn't stand on the road, because the ice was so slippery last year. With winter tyres, I could drive up the hill without any wheelspin.

Are those winter tyres studded?

Are those winter tyres studded?

Are those winter tyres studded?

No, they are winter tyres, not spiked tyres. Spiked tyres are illegal here.

Interesting, the minimum for Winter Tyres used to be 4mm, now it looks like 1.6mm is allowed?

Not everybody is a boy racer. Perhaps normal winter tyres would suffice for the majority of Northern and Alpine Europe.

I've never looked into winter tyre costs, but why would winter tyres be more expensive than winter sports tyres? Or perhaps I misunderstood your post.

I've never looked into winter tyre costs, but why would winter tyres be more expensive than winter sports tyres? Or perhaps I misunderstood your post.