Tire Reviews

If you have been shopping around for tires, then you might have been recommended a set of tire reviews by your tire vendor. You might have been given pamphlets comparing tires across brands, with numbers and letters thrown around as ratings for individual tires. You might have been given a short talk on why certain brands are better than others, and why certain tread designs can make life harder for you and your car. You might also have been recommended online forums or review sites that look at how good certain tires are.

But how reliable are these reviews? Should you even believe them, or dismiss them as a marketing ploy by some tire manufacturers to discredit others? Before you launch into a full review of tire reviews, make sure that you know the different factors that affect the life, durability, and reliability of a tire. With some background knowledge on ratings and tire care, you should be able to judge which tire reviews work, and which of them do not.

First, there are three major federally regulated tire ratings that are assigned to your tire: traction, tread wear, and temperature resistance. These ratings are obtained after tires are tested and compared with one another. The testing is done by the tire manufacturer’s themselves, and the comparisons made are between tires of the same tire manufacturer. In fact, the ratings are given by the tire manufacturer, not by the U.S. government. It would therefore make no sense to compare between tire brands based on these three tire ratings.

Traction is a measure of how well your tire establishes a hold on the surface through which it rolls; in particular, it is a rating of the tire’s ability to stop while you are going through wet pavement. The best rated tires are grade AA for traction, while those that meet minimum federal regulations are rated C. Temperature resistance is a measure of how well your tire can withstand the destructive effects of heat without cracking or being deformed. As with traction, grade A tires are the best, while grade C tires meet minimum federal regulations.

Tread wear, on the other hand, is a measure of your tire’s longevity and ability to resist wear and tear. Manufacturers have a tire that meets minimum wear requirements, which they designate as 100. A 300-rated tire from the same manufacturer will last three times longer than the 100-rated tire, while a 500-rated tire will last five times longer than the 100-rated tire. Because the basic, 100-rated tire is specific to manufacturers, it would make no sense to write a review of different brands of tires based only on their tread wear ratings.

Some people also write tire reviews without being aware that they are abusing their tires, and that any tire would give way when subjected to the wear and tear of the reviewer. For instance, many car owners know that they should rotate tires and exchange the front and back wheels routinely. This is because each tire on an automobile holds up different amounts of weight, so that the tires wear out at different rates. Rotating tires can relieve the weight burden on some tires while giving a new weight burden on others that have hitherto been subjected to less pressure.

Before making any conclusions on reviews and tire ratings, visit the United States Department of Transportation’s “Uniform Tire Quality Grading” page online at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/testing/UTQG. This can give you a better idea about how the ratings are made and what tests are carried out, along with charts so that you can make better comparisons.

Moreover, if you are shopping for tires, you have to make sure that the front and the back tires match. Some people make the mistake of mixing and matching their tires, as though they were after a certain pattern or design. By placing different designs, different tread wear tires, even different sizes and brand on your car, you are putting the car off balance and subjecting yourself to accidents. You can also make your tires wear out much faster. Look for reviews that try out tires without pitting them against each other in the same vehicle.

Reading tire reviews is no crime, but making reviews or believing in them without the proper background can lead people to make faulty purchases. If you are looking for tires for your car, consult with your tire vendor first, and be as thorough and in-depth as you can about the weather and road conditions that your car will encounter. You can find a better set of tires if you get tires that are suited to your needs and budget.

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