Hi Singletrack. I am glad to see you have purchased winter tyres. When you drive down to the alps in the winter it is usually the Dutch, Belgiques and a few Danes that drive on summer tyres and put the snow chains on when they are withing 1km of their destination. This year they will be fined in Germany for not having the correct tyres for the conditions and if they manage to get through without being caught, the Austrian police will fine them. To rub salt into the wound, if they do not have snow chains that they can put on immediately upon being stopped then they will have to either call the emergency breakdown service or will have to discontinue their journey!!

Canaryman...you're talking to a boy from Montreal...most of us get winter tires as a gift on our first birthday! What's remarkable here is that most of the cars on the road are leased - these lease agreements generally all include winter tires but most people in Belgium never bother with them. Then, when it snows...the fun begins.

While not proper offroad tires, I also wanted the winter tires mounted on an extra set of wheels for modest offroading. Seems little point in having Range Rover if you don't get it muddy from time to time. 2006 Range Rover Sport TDV6 HSE, Java/Ebony/Cherry, Privacy, Sunroof, PTI, Premium Sound, SatNav, Cold Climate, Tow kit, CarStyle coded grill and vents, Tasmods, Stormers, JE Exhaust, Autobiography badge

Yep, I visited Hongcouver a few years back in the summer but they still had snow really low down in the mountains as it was the best year for snow they had ever had (according to the locals).

I have offroaded mine quite a bit as round here you can drive through the woods and use the tracks as short cuts !

Last year, when we had the record snow-falls in Bavaria, it was incredible what people were doing. The autobahn was stationary due to the snow and we all came off in some village near the German-Austrian border. In the village there were swarms of foreigners putting on snow chains as they had heard the Austrian police were pulling people off the roads and fining them or refusing to let them drive any further. The car parks all over this little town were just full of people fitting snow chains in the blizzard. I took the back roads to Austria and they were impassable if you did not have a 4wd and I even had to pump the suspension up a couple of times

It seems that most Belgiques, Dutch etc etc seem to think that the Autobahn will be clear so they keep their summer tyres on (as they can drive faster on them) and put the chains on in their destination car-park.......idiots.

canaryman wrote:

This year they will be fined in Germany for not having the correct tyres for the conditions and if they manage to get through without being caught, the Austrian police will fine them. To rub salt into the wound, if they do not have snow chains that they can put on immediately upon being stopped then they will have to either call the emergency breakdown service or will have to discontinue their journey!!

PS: it says you have to have appropriated tyres.... (whatverer that means) 
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Well, Angelxxx, the way the coppers here have explained it is that if a driver is involved in an accident during the winter months and they do not have the either snow tyres, chains or all weathers then they will be fined. Even if they do not have an accident and the coppers pick them up for a random check, they will be fined.
Do not forget if you have an accident (involving only the driver and his own car) with no witnesses, the police can decide the accident is your fault (for whatever reason)......It happened to me! The insurance paid out because I had winter tyres on but I had to pay for the repair to the motorway crash barrier myself!!!!

To be honest, the way the law is written is that the coppers decide whether you like it or not. My only question is what happens when you land in munich, you have a blizzard but get given a hire car only to be told it has summer tyres???? Yep, it actually happens!!

car rentals know very well that the insurance wont pay in a crash in wintertime without winter tyres - but they dont equip their cars...  
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Well I've finally bought the Nokian WR Sport Utility 275/40R20 106V that Pers1 recommended. I bought them from a German Ebay seller for a good price I think. 949 euros delivered and I'll get the tax off so that'll be 818 euros (approx 550 GBP) in total, plus fitting.

Will have to fit them when I bring the car over to Germany at the end of the month. Until then, I will probably fit my old stormers/conti tyres to the car and keep the 10 spoke 20'' wheels 'mint' for when I eventually sell it. Driving - TDV8 HSE in Stornaway / Ebony / Brunel
Sold - 56 TDV8 HSE in Java Black EBONY/RHODIUM/PRIVACY GLASS
Sold - 05 TDV6 HSE BONATTI/BLACK/RHODIUM 20''STORMERS, PTI AND FACTORY TINT.