You will find most places, have sold out. I enquired about winter tyres for my Mazda 5 (I have a spare set of rims) and every place I have tried including Dunlop UK has sold their entire winter stock. Autosocks are also sold out in my tyre size. Guess I shall act earlier next year. In answer to your question, I beleive that snow socks are effective, but don't use them on tarmac for too long, as they will get destroyed. Personally, having to keep taking them on and off during my commute would be a real pain, especially as some of the rural roads are difficult and dangerous to stop on. If you get some, remember to keep a bin liner in the car for them, as they are sopping wet when you remove them. Good luck.

If your "bog standard road tyres" are at 3mm or less, you'll get some benefits by replacing them now even if they are normal summer tyres.

our recent experiences are,vectra with 3/4mm lassas on front was rubbish,huge difference when new mohawks(cheap tyres)put on;missus zafira with 5mm pirellip6000 was also totally rubbish,new pair of winter tyres,mastersteel? made amazing difference;put key in tread and you can see the tread move quite easliy.