I'm thinking ahead to the winter skiing holiday and as I have a lot more time this year, am considering driving and taking a couple of days at either end to do so quite sedately.

I would be driving to Austria, via France and Germany. I have standard fitment M+S (not mountain/snowflake) all season Pirelli Scorpion Verde 21" tyres on my RRS with a good 6mm on and they are pre-2018 so would still be legal in Germany even with their new laws. How good/bad are they in cold weather? I've driven the area on dozens of previous trips in a hire car, and there is rarely much, if any, in the way of snow on the roads I will use and - when there is, it is cleared within 24 hours. The vast majority would be motorway. I have previously used winter tyres on a rear wheel drive car and know how good they are compared to summer tyres on ice and snow, but I now live in the southwest of England and very rarely have the need for them even on a RWD car (perhaps one week every three years). The rest of the time, although the winter tyres may well be the better tyre, they aren't essential and I haven't bothered using them at all since 2015.

I am not going to spend £1-2k to buy a new set of winter tyres +/- wheels, so there's no point suggesting it. I won't have the time to drive again for many years. The option is to drive the car as is, or to fly and get a hire car.

Should I drive? RRS MY17 SDV6 AB
Evoque MY17 TD4 AB

I’m not sure what the winter tyre regs are in Austria, France and Germany but my experience of driving a 2007 TDv8 RRS on 20” summer tyres over a winter of consistently frozen snow in Scotland was that even on summer tyres with the snow setting of the Terrain Response selected the going never gave a minute of worry. Driving in Grass, Gravel and Snow setting takes a bit of getting used to as the electronics combined with the traction control and ABS made initially for a very unresponsive pull away but once up and running it was confidence inspiring. I really surprised the driver of a Porsche Cayenne who was well and truly stuck on the higher sections of the M74 by easily pulling him out of the drift he had slid into on tyres you would think most UN-grippy in the conditions - they were also Pirelli tyres. YourRRS is quite a bit more advanced than the 2007 cars were and you could probably leave the car in Auto TR and it would look after itself. The additional rear e-diff also makes a considerable difference in keeping going compared to earlier versions of RRS. That said clogged treads can render all the electronic aids redundant if the snow freezes in the sips. How much extra is it to fly/hire a car that comes equipped with the right tyres to comply with the regs in the country over possibility of expensive damage to your own car if everything turns nasty on a slippery bend at night in driving snow....... at least you don’t have to get a mangled/undrivable owned car back to the UK and yours will still be at the airport in one piece when you get back after wrecking a rental car..... 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Flying and hiring a car may well be cheaper. I've done that dozens of times though, but have never driven. There won't be much in the way of night driving, The M+S pre-2018 tyres comply with the regs.

The year before last the hire car (FWD Ford Focus from Munich) had all season tyres on - but they did have the mountain/snowflake symbol, unlike Pirelli Scorpion Verde All Seasons. RRS MY17 SDV6 AB
Evoque MY17 TD4 AB