Snow socks

Its been suggested by my tyre dealer that I shouldnt bother with winter tyres for my mercedes as its rear wheel drive and theres little point taking it out on the UK roads in ice/snow. However, he did suggest I might want to consider snow socks for the rear wheels. Not for use on a ski trip but for getting about here once its snowy on our roads.
Anyone got any, or any experience with these, and whether I should consider these a good investment?
I run my other car with snow tyres in the cold weather and can always leave the Merc at home if things get icy/snowy.

I have a Merc and in last years weather it was hopeless, not sure the snow socks would have made any difference to be honest.

Someone I know has some for his Audi and says they work okay but wasn't signing their praises.

Having been snowed in in Germany the year before and taken around Munich to a hotel in driving snow in a Merc, why would winter tyres not be any good?

Probably the wrong sort of snow here!!!

A high percentage of cars in Germany were rear wheeled drive Merc's or Audi's they didn't seem to have an issue every year.

Got it covered this year, picked up a fairly inexpensive 4X4 X-Trail and will be driving it to Austria in Feb 2012, so got some snow chains for £30, so need to practice putting them on!

I bought a set last year but by the time they arrived (as they were out of stock!!) the snow had gone so not had chance to try them! My brother in law got stuck last winter, popped on his snow socks (they're really simple to use) and bingo, finished the journey home.

I guess the moral of this story is don't leave it till the snow comes to try and get them!

They hardly weigh anything so I have left them in the boot just in case.

You put them on the driving wheels so I don't think it matters FWD or RWD.

TC wrote:I have a Merc and in last years weather it was hopeless, not sure the snow socks would have made any difference to be honest.

Someone I know has some for his Audi and says they work okay but wasn't signing their praises.

Having been snowed in in Germany the year before and taken around Munich to a hotel in driving snow in a Merc, why would winter tyres not be any good?

Probably the wrong sort of snow here!!!

A high percentage of cars in Germany were rear wheeled drive Merc's or Audi's they didn't seem to have an issue every year.

Got it covered this year, picked up a fairly inexpensive 4X4 X-Trail and will be driving it to Austria in Feb 2012, so got some snow chains for £30, so need to practice putting them on!

Ive been told by hundreds of people simply not to bother using the Merc in ice and snow as apparently rear wheel drive is hopeless, even with winter tyres. The bloke at the tyre dealers even said so.

I've had Audis before and they were distinctly average in snow, but I never had winter tyres on them.
All Audis are front wheel drive are they not?

Snow socks aren't really a substitute for traditional snow chains; they wear out quickly, don't grip as well on snow, are almost useless on ice and have a tendency to come off the wheels on rear wheel drive cars, but they are much better than nothing if you get stuck. The Michelin Easy Grip is much better, although they are also a bit weak on ice and not as easy to put on as Michelin say.

There are loads of people with big powerful rear wheel drive cars in this part of the Alps (lots of taxi firms run E class Mercs) and they don't seem have any bother driving in winter. Don't be tempted to buy cheap winter tyres, although they are generally not too bad on snow their performance (stopping distance) on wet and dry roads is usually very poor, they also wear out much faster and have much greater rolling resistance. Beware of too good to be true deals on known brands (especially Continental) as they might well be fakes.

Hi had a Clk and fitted Nokian WR and never had any problems in very snowy and icy conditions.
Goff

I own a bodyshop and my most common vehicles in for repair in the ice and snow are Mercedes and BMW.
I had an Audi A4 last snowfall and it took me everywhere I needed to go.
I see a few people using the snow socks and they looked like they were working well.

I have an Audi TT Quattro now which is 4 wheel drive so am quite excited to see how that performs.

After Clk had a A6 Advant quattro to be honest it was not a lot of cop on normal road tyres, after two weeks slipping about in the Juras had Avon winter tyres fitted was a whole different ball game was even fun on the empty roads :)
Goff