The cold snap that gripped Belgium this Friday did not delight everyone : some motorists had not foreseen the arrival of such a quantity of snow, and had not taken out the appropriate tires. Some had simply not bought any, following several months of mild weather. “People waited and were caught off guardexplains Thierry Hennaert, manager of a tire center in Hainaut. They stay on summer tires and the summer tire isn’t really intended for winter, so they slip right away, they get stuck.“
The best solution is perhaps to opt for “four season” tires: like winter tires, they are designed to evacuate water and snow. “Snow clears automatically“, specifies a mechanic. The tire remains as flexible, it does not harden. “When it’s very cold, it always stays at its temperature“, notes the mechanic.
The winter tire is not compulsory in Belgium, nor in the Netherlands, but it is the case in Luxembourg, in Germany and in the mountainous regions of France.
