Winter tyres on VW Golf
 

We have moved to a fairly remote area in Scotland which is accessible by a minor road.
We are also fairly high so do get a covering of snow more often than other parts.
I want my wife to have a safer and more confident journey back up our valley.

Question is,
My wifes Golf TDI.

Do I get a set of winter tyres and change them with the seasons?
Do I get a spare set of wheels and change them according to seasons, but remove them for long journeys back down south when we go.

How good are winter tyres?
Is it worth the hassle?
What should I look for?
Should I trade car and get a 4WD Fiat,Skoda or similar?

Advice appreciated.

im my opion snow tyres are very good, i have rrelatives in germany and go over in the winter where there can be 5ft ov snow and its a legal requirement to have snaow tyres on and we go over in a new shape vectra so fwd and we have no problems the only other opion is to have tyre chains.

I used to always put on snow tyres for the winter when I lived up int thills!

This was on a 2WD car.

They give you sooooo much confidence, i never got stuck and I used to drive up some very steep hills covered with snow.

In my experience, they never stop pulling the car forward, even if you are only doing 1"/second. I remember one time driving through a snow drift which was higher than the bonnet of the car. It just ploughed on through slowly.
Dont stand behind them though because the treads do not clog up with snow like a normal tyre, they chuck out what looks like 10000 high speed sugar cubes every second.

So yes, they are totally different to a normal tyre in snow

Assume a proper snow tyre has poor grip on a non snow covered road?

Will look out for some alloys on Ebay,thanks for info.

Yes, very soft. They don't last too long