Winter tyres are required from the beginning of November to the end of March whenever the weather or the road surface calls for them. The rule changed in 2020 from a fixed calendar period to a conditions-based one, so the date alone no longer decides. In the Helsinki region the first icy morning usually arrives in late October, and every year it arrives unannounced.
Spring is the busiest tyre season of the year, not autumn. April is the single busiest month for tyre changes, with October and November close behind. In those weeks every workshop and tyre shop is booked out weeks ahead. Book early: you pick a free time online, and the booking is confirmed at once. If no time suits, call us and we will look at the calendar together.
The legal minimum tread depth is 3.0 mm for a winter tyre and 1.6 mm for a summer tyre. Traficom nevertheless recommends replacing winter tyres by about five millimetres, because grip on snow and ice falls off well before the legal limit. We measure every tyre separately and record the figures.
We check two things at the same time that are easy to forget. A non-studded winter tyre must carry the snow-grip marking, the mountain and snowflake symbol on the sidewall, and it is checked at the inspection. And rubber ages whether it is used or not: the week of manufacture is moulded into the sidewall as four digits, and a six-year-old tyre has hardened regardless of tread.
We do not sell tyres, and that changes the nature of this conversation. When we say your tyres will last another season, we have nothing to sell you in that sentence. When a tyre has reached the end, we say that plainly too, and point you to where to buy one.
A tyre change is a short job and the car is on the lift for it. At the same visit we do the small extras you tick when booking: balancing, washing the tyres taken off, fitting your own wiper blades or cabin filter, winter washer fluid, cleaning the inside of the windscreen and a battery health test. Each extra reserves its own time, so choose them when you book, not on site. If the oil change is due as well, book the package Tyre change and oil service: tyres, oil, oil filter and cabin filter at one visit and one price. If a scheduled service or the brakes are due, book them their own time or call us.