Motorists should fit their cars with winter tyres to ensure safer road journeys before the advent of harsh winter months, What Car? has advised.

The car expert claimed that tyres designed especially for winters offer vast safety benefits over normal tyres during journeys in adverse conditions.

Speaking on the need for winter tyres, What Car?’s editor-in-chief Chas Hallett said, "Winter tyres make for much safer winter driving, so we would encourage all motorists to change their tyres in the colder months.”

Goodyear's UltraGrip 8 tyre scored top ranking in the list of ideal winter tyres for grip, steering feedback and handling predictability. The second on the list was Continental's ContiWinterContact TS830. Michelin's Alpin A4 emerged at the third spot with a score of eight for lateral grip and steering feedback and a score of seven for handling predictability.

Winter tyres feature an improved tread pattern that ensures more grip than normal tyres on wet and frosty roads. A research has found that normal tyres took more than double the distance to stop on average compared with winter tyres.

Compiled figures suggest that merely 10 per cent of motorists in the UK swapped to winter tyres in 2010. Fiver per cent had tried to swap to winter tyres but failed due to shortage of tyres. A whopping 85 per cent did not even bother to think about that.