Whether you’re looking for budget, safety or performance, car tyre choices can be overwhelming. We’ll explain how to choose the best tyres for your car, so you can be more informed when it comes to replacing your vehicle’s tyres.
What you should look for when choosing a tyre
Once you know your car’s tyre size, you’re half way there to choosing a tyre. Tyres are usually classified by three main factors:
- Wet Weather Performance & Grip
- Summer Tyres – Great if you’re looking for better performance during the summer months.
- Winter Tyres – Ideal for winter weather, providing more grip in wintery conditions.
- All-Season Tyres – Caters for a range of weather conditions for the whole year round.
- Tyre Noise – Noisy tyres may not be ideal but it’s definitely worth factoring in if you’re driving long distances and get bothered by road noise. These ratings are usually measured in decibels.
- Fuel Consumption / Rolling Resistance – Tyres can save you fuel, so this is an important factor to consider.
Budget tyre choices
For smaller budgets, you may only have one type of tyre you can afford to consider. Whilst perfectly suitable, a budget tyre may come with several drawbacks compared to more expensive tyres and provide poorer handling, or feedback on the road. Depending on your driving style and habits, consider focusing on tyres with the best fuel economy labels, as you’ll want to save as much money in fuel to help with your budget. Compromises may be required for noise and weather ratings, but ideally all season tyres will also save you money and keep you safer in most conditions throughout the year. Sadly you may also find that budget tyres have a shorter lifespan, so buying cheap may not save you money in the long run, depending on your driving habits.
Mid-range tyres
Mid-range tyres provide you with improved performance over a budget tyre, yet with caveats compared to high performance tyres. Expect a good all-round performance on economy and noise ratings with mid-range tyres, providing a longer lifespan than budget tyres. Medium to long distance drivers may prefer these types of tyre, for their quieter drive and economic benefits, however you won’t experience the best and latest features with these types of tyre. Again, most drivers would opt for all-season tyres with overall ratings where possible but some who have higher mileage and want more control could benefit from choosing suitable summer or winter tyres, changing them as desired.
High performance tyres
If you’re serious about the best contact and feedback on the road, buying the latest high performance tyres will provide you with the best tyre technology to improve your ride. Whilst costs will increase compared with budget and mid-range tyres, you’ll definitely notice the benefits a premium tyre brings. Not only does handling improve with this choice of tyre, fuel economy is usually much better and you’ll expect quieter contact with the road for a more pleasurable driving experience. The longevity of high performance tyres is expected to be much better too. Weather performance will usually be very high and again when factoring a suitable summer, winter or all-weather tyre, it will be down to personal preference and driving style.
Further tyre buying advice
Your tyres are the first point of contact with the road. Choosing the optimum tyre for your car could also help stop accidents and improve your driving experience. Here at MCM Garage we provide a tyre fitting service in Radstock with a wide variety of car tyres for many vehicles.