Moving to rural Wales and need a new vehicle...

[Avocet]

there's not much call for it in a country that doesn't have a dependable x months per year of cold, snow and ice.

Where I live now there is only snow about one year in 5. I have a set of wheels for snow tyres and have never needed to fit them on my summer car.

This winter most days here have been 5C to 10C

Scandinavians who come to England and laugh at the locals' nervousness in snow change their minds when they discover that most of the time the temperature is just above or just below freezing, and you might be on dry roads, black ice, hard snow, soft snow, frozen slush or, worst of all, melting ice at any moment.

But Winter tyres are better than Summer tyres under ALL the conditions you describe! About 7 degrees C is the "break-even" point. Below that, Winter tyres grip better (wet or dry, snow or slush, or even just rain), and the difference gets bigger as it gets colder, so at 1 or 2 degrees, they're significantly better than Summer tyres.

 

[norseman]

I guess it's difficult to find exactly what fits your
My Bipper van with normal new radials wouldn't come out of my gently sloping drive. Traction is amazingly poor but it may get Cross Climates when they are due.
Genuine mud/snow winter tyres are the best for snow use. Cross Climates are very good too but are expensive and wasted in the summer. M/S tyres are noisy on tarmac and don't last too long.

It sometimes interesting to return to an old thread on which you have post & this is the case here.

I have to agree with you about M/S tyres & the resulting road noise. Having recently had a full set of Cross Climates fitted to our old 5 series BMW they are undoubtedly noisier than the summer tyres fitted previously, but not what I'd call expensive for a fairly large tyre at £367 (fitted) for the set. We live out of town & on a hill so with RWD I thought it would be an investment, but having splashed out this winter is turning out to be very benign

 

[ericmark]

I can only say what we have, an old battered Honda Jazz, a Jaguar XE two wheel drive model, and a Kia Sorento. OK Jag is wife's I am not allowed to touch it, and the Kia Sorento is for pulling the caravan, so in real terms we are using a rather old Honda Jazz.

If we visit brother-in-law then Kia Sorento as he has a long unmade road to house, but the snow is no worse than when I worked at Sizewell 'B' there is in the main no need for a special car, yes loads of people do run around with 4 x 4 vehicles, but Chelsea has so many they are called Chelsea tractors, it's not the weather it's the keeping up with the Joneses and we do have one or two of them, not sure where they came from no J in Welsh alphabet so clearly not Welsh.

There are steep roads, but in Wales in the main roads go around the hills, unlike the South of England where they just go over hills, so on average likely less need for 4 x 4 in Wales than in England. Also we are a bit more laid back, if it does snow hard, cure is simple, stay at home.

Likely the best car for Wales was the Morris Minor, upright loads of ground clearance, and rear wheel drive. However the Agila

was similar shape and size, but in real terms the Yaris

worked out a lot better, it is not always what we think will work best, the wheels were too small on old Agila, yet it was the thin wheels on the Morris Minor which allowed it to grip.

However any small car has less over hang front and rear so less change of grounding, this

is useless, I bang my head getting in and out, and have to wait until out of drive or it grounds, but wife loves it, so just have to wear a hat, and once in it on the road it's great, and there is a 4 x 4 version, but I would be able to get more in the Agila with seats down than ever in the Jag, although the Yaris boot was rather small, however I used them all in Mid Wales, so yes this

looks good, and is a 4 x 4 but it is so wide and with manual you have to play tunes on the gear box to get reasonable MPG so unless towing trailer I still use the old Honda Jazz. Oh yes with some models of the Sorento you have to change all tyres together or it will keep engaging to auto 4 wheel drive.