I live in Braemar, so I see plenty or real winter weather. On my Mk5 Golf these tyres were great. The golf itself is a fantastic car in the snow and the vredestein tyre didn't let that down. It ploughs in deep snow even up to bonnet depth, and I found myself getting more places than expected too, and have never once been stuck, even when drift bashing. They even give me confidence when overtaking the summer tyre brigade in snow / slush.
Downsides, they are a harder tyre and you feel the bad bits of the road more. When you start to slip in the snow, you really lose it, but those are both characteristics of winter tyres and snow driving in general, so wouldnt fault the tyre I dont think.
All in all you are if you buy these they will be about as good as you can get, but i've opted not to go back to them. Not because of anything wrong with the tyre, just fancy a change and thought the Avon Ice Tourer ST looked pretty good and about ?20 cheaper a tyre - I run summer Avons with much enjoyment.
The Snowtrac 3 is out now and looks slightly better.
I got 18,000 miles from these tyres - winter only use on 60% country / 30 % Motorway / 10% Dirt track.