After Last Winter – Big Increase In Demand For Winter Tyres
Monday, 26. July 2010
Another report I mentioned earlier this year spoke about the likely move by drivers to winter or cold weather tyres following the severe weather last winter. Well the move has already started according to ATS Euromaster. No I don’t mean drivers are already fitting winter tyres in the middle of the summer. Orders are already being placed by ATS for winter tyres to the tune of £3 million. They already have forward order for 9,000 tyres with initial demand coming from emergency services, government departments, home delivery companies and leasing firms with vans accounting for about two thirds of orders placed to date. We don’t know exactly how they will operate their scheme but if you are considering the fitting of winter tyres on your car and are wondering if this will mean throwing away of perfectly good summer tyres in order to replace them or find somewhere to store the summer tyres till spring when they are swapped back? Fear not as the scheme running in northern Europe, if adopted here, will result in the old tyres being stored for you and then swapped around at the end of the winter – probably forever or until you sell the car. Of course it does beg the question as to what happens at the end of a lease but I’m sure the tyre providers will have that one covered. Winter tyres in the UK? Is that a good idea or are we simply going to waste precious resources providing 8 tyres per car? What do you think? By Graham Hill
