I guess that these days all season tyres with the mountain and snowflake symbol are very good. Even better is the true snow tyre (produced by Nokien, Vredstein, Michelin and Continental ... and others, is best.

M&S rating merely means the tyre manufacturer recommend the tyre for mud and snow.
3 Peaks and snow flake means that is has passed the USA tyre manufacturers TESTED STANDARD for snow tyres.

A real snow winter tyre has A) A Silica tyre compound that is still flexible at -7 deg centigrade and below .... this allows the tread to squeeze out the snow in the tread pattern thereby presenting a clean tread on the next revolution ... I have seen this for myself ... it works! B) The tread has Sipes ... small zig zag grooves in the tyre pattern each of which gives extra grip in bad conditions ... look at the pattern in the snow behind your tyre .... are there hundreds of small grippy bits showing ... it really does work! Some manufacturers have the sipes cut into the tread at 89 degrees so that they present a self sharpened grippy slit to the snow ... it works! C) The trye tread is cut for winter use.

I feel qualified to mention these points thorough over 40 years of driving in mountains ... making my own snow chains in 1972, through to buying proper ones, using snow socks, snow tyres on a BMW 7 series, pushing Range Rovers, L200's, Toyota Land Cruisers, X5's and Jeeps up mountain roads ... To be fair, over here the Defenders with chains on the front and rear wheels, never get stuck in the snow! And, I dare say, a 4x4 with studded NOKIEN would do well, too.

Richard Freelander 2 HSE. Santorini Black. Roof Rack, Running Board, Auto.

Over here?. Your location says “Chippenham”. Where are you really?  10MY (Sept 09) TD4 HSE Auto in Stornoway Grey (Now Gone)

08 FL2 TD4 SE Manual in Rimini Red (Now Gone)

Been out and about today in the snow with my OEM Continental Cross Contacts (M+S) on. They've done nearly 29Kmiles and are down to 4mm min and I was looking to change them soon.

Pleased to say I didnt have a problem at all - lots of virgin snow, hard compressed stuff and hill starts. Auto box with GGS + HDC makes a gentle start really easy. Remembered to get the speed down in plenty of time of junctions etc as AWD has no effect on braking. Passed many a stuck vehicle with Smug mode engaged.

I think the FL2 is better than my old Disco TD5 was in the snow - the weight difference being a big part. Jules

dunkley201 wrote:

Over here?. Your location says “Chippenham”. Where are you really?

Quote:

Passed many a stuck vehicle with Smug mode engaged.

Is this a dealer fit option for the terrain response?  Landrover - turning owners into mechanics since 1948

2014 Orkney grey Freelander SD4 GS.
2004 Zambezi silver Discovery 2 Td5 (Gone)
1963 Surf blue Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe (my little toy)