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How to choose the right new tyres for your vehicle

With so many factors to consider when you are looking to buy tyres online, it can be tough to be sure that you’re making the best choice. You can easily find out a tyre’s speed rating, load rating and fuel economy, for example. You can also think about whether you need summer or winter tyres – or something for all seasons.

We know this vast amount of information can seem overwhelming when you’re looking to buy your new tyres online. It can, however, be really helpful when choosing the most suitable new tyres for your vehicle. Here are some of the main things to consider:

Driving Style

To help narrow down all these factors into the right tyre choice, it can be a good idea to know your driving style. How you drive will impact the longevity, wear and roadworthiness of a tyre. Are you calm behind the wheel or slightly erratic? Making a conscious effort to drive smoothly can prolong the life of your tyres, for example. But habits like driving too fast, quick cornering and heavy braking will cause abnormal wear.

As a result, you’ll need to buy tyres more often.

Different Seasons

Summer tyres are designed to provide the highest safety performance when the temperature is above 7°C. This is what makes them ideal for use from April until September. Their rubber compounds provide good grip and handling on dry and wet roads but only in warm conditions.

Winter tyres come with safety features that offer drivers more stability and greater control on the road. This includes extra grooves and sipes to provide greater resistance to aquaplaning, as well as rubber compounds that can endure colder conditions and tread patterns that offer more traction in rain or snow.

All-season tyres can be used throughout the year in any weather conditions. These tyres are also more suited to smoother drivers.

Specially designed tyres

In some cases, you may need to buy homologated tyres for your car. These are tyres designed specifically to be fitted on a particular model of car – such as a Porsche 911, for example. It can take years to develop and supply homologated tyres for Original Equipment (OE). It’s because the process needs to ensure that the tyres complement the key features of that specific vehicle.

Legal tyre tread requirements: What you need to know?

Under UK law, you must make sure that your vehicle is safe to drive at all times. Part of this is checking the tread on your current tyres is at least a certain depth – 1.6mm for cars and light vans and 1mm for motorcycles and larger vehicles.

As a driver, it’s essential that you meet this requirement. If not, you could get a fine of £2,500 and three penalty points for each illegal tyre. This can rise to £5,000 for a goods vehicle or one that’s built to carry more than eight passengers.

Disqualification from driving is also possible. So, why risk it?

How to check your tyres are legal

The best way to check if your tyres are legal is with the 20p test. It’s a quick and easy way to check your tyres are legal. But you should remember to check at least three locations around each tyre. This is because tyres can wear unevenly for a number of reasons – including heavy braking, aggressive acceleration, poor inflation or misaligned wheels. 

Find out more about how to check your tyre tread depth.

If you think your tread is reaching the minimum depth or your tyres are nearly at the end of their life, it’s time to replace them.

Get a free quote from us today.