How To Pick The Best Tires For Your Vehicle

Tires keep you and your vehicle driving safely and smoothly which is why it’s important to pick the best tires for your vehicle when it comes time to change them.

Factors such as size, performance, weather and road conditions are the most important aspects to consider. We offer you a brief guide to help you choose the proper car tires.

Go The Safe Way: Buy The Originals!

If you like the way your car drives then the choice is easy, buy the original tires it came with from the manufacturer. These tires where designed specifically for your car’s make and model so you can trust they will be the right fit.

You can find the kind of tires your vehicle originally came with by looking at the owner’s manual or quickly searching an online tire retailers site.

However, if you still feel like changing things around, some more research will be involved.

Understanding The Terms

There are a few terms you’ll come across when choosing car tires such as treadwear, traction and temperature. They come imprinted as codes engraved in the sidewalls of your tire, along with a Department of Transportation safety code and the main characteristics of your tire (size, construction, speed rating, etc.).

Treadwear signifies the wear rate of the tire and is only comparable to other tires within a tire manufacturer’s line. Since 100 is the baseline grade, a tire with 200 would last twice as long as one with 100.

Then there are traction grades: AA, A, B and C, with AA being the highest grade. This measurement represents the tire’s ability to stop straight on wet pavement, so any tire rated under C is unacceptable.

 Lastly, there are temperature grades: A, B and C from highest to lowest. These represent the tire’s ability to dissipate heat under controlled indoor test conditions. Just like traction grades, anything graded lower than C would be unacceptable.

 Choose The Right Size

 When it comes time to pick the best car tires, the first thing you want to look at is making sure you’ve picked the right size. Check your owner’s manual or a placard at your driver’s side door for this information. Your tire size might read P215/65 R15, which means the tire width, and the height compared to the width and the diameter.

When shopping online, many sites will ask you to introduce the make, model and year of your vehicle in order to define what the right size for them is.

All season? Winter or Summer Tires?

All season tires are the most popular since they’re appropriate and convenient for year long use, meaning you won’t have to change tires according to the season. All season tires offer modest grip and traction on ice, with a good compromise of dry and wet grip.

Winter tires are specific to driving on snow and ice. They’re made of a pliable rubber compound that make them best for cold temperatures. These have a deeper tread and more slits to break ice and ride into snow, wheras summer tires are most suited for sport cars, given that they’re made with performance driving in mind, offering good grip on dry roads with warm temperatures and at high speeds.

Handling and Comfort

 You want your tires to optimize your vehicle’s’ handling and braking ability, something that reduces noise on the road and offers you a comfortable ride.

Above all, remember that there are only a few brands of tires developed specifically for your car, since they’re meant to achieve the ride and handling the manufacturer wanted your vehicle to have.

Plan Ahead

There’s an important element of timing when it comes to picking the best car tires. You don’t want to wait until your tires are dangerously worn out.

Once you know which characteristics and size to look for you can read reviews and check out ratings on sites such as Consumer Reports and SaferCar.gov. You’ll then have the option of either shopping online and having them sent directly to a local installer, like USA Automotive, or finding a tire shop that sells the type you want at a cheaper price. Either way, the earlier you start this process, the more time you’ll have to look at all of the specifics, do your research right and find the best choice at the best price.