How to pick the right tyres for your car

Together with one of our partners of the Festival of Speed, eBay UK, we’ve put together this one-stop shop of everything you need to know about car tyres. With eBay you can find the right tyres to fit your vehicle, alongside all of the tools and equipment you need to properly maintain them and you can get them fitted by professionals at over 3,000 locations nationwide.

With some very simple but effective checks, you can be sure that your car is well prepared for whatever lies ahead.

How do I choose the correct tyre for me and my car?

The tyres you choose can directly affect how your car drives, so it makes sense to choose a tyre that suits your car and how you use it. Performance tyres make sense if you have a high-performance sportscar. Their rigid sidewalls help maintain the shape of the tyre during hard use, making the car feel more precise during cornering and braking. They'll also have a tacky compound that increases grip.

That sounds good on a performance car, but it's overkill in a regular family car. The thick sidewall that makes the car feel more precise when driving makes it less comfortable over bumps. Meanwhile, the tacky compound that adds grip also harms fuel economy. For these reasons, a standard tyre might be a better option for families.

Equally, if you want your 4x4 to perform properly off-road, you'll need an off-road tyre with a tread pattern suited to the terrain you intend to use the car on. Even the fanciest SUVs will be useless in the mud with a high-performance road tyre.

Because of this, it's best to do your research. Consider how you'll use your car and do plenty of research to find the tyre that best suits your needs. Head over to eBay to shop through a broad selection of tyre sizes, with various tread depths from all-season tyres to all-terrain

Should I use winter tyres?

Winter tyres are so effective that they're a legal requirement in some countries, such as Germany and Switzerland, at certain times of the year. These tyres are identified by the M+S (Mud + Snow) and 3PMSF (Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake) symbols.

Winter tyres have a high silica content that makes them soft and malleable in cold weather. They also have a specific tread pattern with micro-grooves that bite into snow. Because of their effectiveness it’s often the case that a two-wheel drive car fitted with winter tyres is more effective than a four-wheel drive car with summer tyres.

If you’re planning to drive in particularly poor conditions over the winter months, we would recommend investing in some proper winter tyres. But be aware that their construction will affect fuel economy, so once the weather improves, you’d do well to swap them out for some summer or all-season alternatives.

Should I use all-season tyres?

All-season tyres strike a good compromise between summer and winter performance, and some carry the 3PMSF symbol, which means they are legal to use in places where the standard is required.

All-season tyres won't offer the steering precision and dry grip of a summer tyre, but they're great all-rounders that can cut through standing water and deal with snow. They also offer more off-road grip than a standard summer tyre.

If you live in a temperate climate like the UK, an all-season tyre is likely to do you just fine all year round as the perfect middle ground to perform well in summer and winter.

How do I know which tyres to buy?

The easiest way to answer this question is to look at the tyres currently on your car. Their markings usually look like this: 265/45/R19 Y 94.

The first three digits, '265', refer to the tyre's width, and the second two, '45', refer to the tyre's aspect ratio or the profile. 'R' stands for Radial, which is the type of tyres most cars in the UK have, while the next two digits ‘19’ refer to the diameter of the wheel in inches. The letter, in this case ‘Y’ refers to the tyre's speed rating, and '94' for the tyre's load rating, which is measured in kg. You’ll need to consider exactly what you’re planning to use the tyres for before committing to a purchase.

Once you’ve identified your car’s tyres you can head over to eBay and search for suitable replacements.

What are tyre speed ratings?

The speed rating of your car tyres tells you the maximum speed they’re legally approved for, running from A1 (68mph) to Y for tyres travelling at more than 186mph. Not that ‘H’ is mysteriously out of position in what is otherwise an alphabetical system. It was once used to denote ‘High Performance’ with a speed rating of 130mph, and thus sits ‘U’ and ‘V’ on the scale.

What is the correct tyre pressure?

The correct pressure for your tyres can be found on a sticker on your driver’s side door frame. It'll likely show different pressures depending on the size of your current tyres (different variants of the same car can often be available with a variety of different wheel sizes), the load you'll be carrying, and the speeds you'll be travelling at.

How do I check my tyre pressures?

There are several ways to do this. If you own a car that was built after 2012 your car will be fitted with its own tyre pressure monitors that will notify you of any loss in pressure. If you own an older model, you can purchase and retrofit your own tyre pressure monitors via eBay.

If you’d rather not rely on technology, and prefer to do things the old-fashioned way, using a pump with a pressure gauge will give you a good idea of how much air is currently in your tyres. You don’t have to use a manual pump either. Most fuel stations will have an air pump where all you need to do is remove the dust cap from your tyre valve and attach the air line. The pump will tell you the current pressure of your tyre before you select the desired pressure you want to inflate or deflate it to.

When should I replace my tyres and valves?

Tyres perish with time, so no matter the condition of the tread it's good practice to replace tyres that are more than ten years old. Tyre valves should also be replaced with your tyres.

Most tyres will be due for replacement long before their tenth birthday because, by law, tyres should have a minimum tread depth of no less than 1.6mm in the UK. The easiest way to measure this is with a tyre-depth gauge. However, the 20p piece does the same job; if the coin's outer rim is concealed when you put it in the tyre tread, then your tyre has a safe amount of tread.

Tyres with a tread depth of less than 1.6mm can earn you a fine of up to £2,500, and that's per tyre. You'll also get three points on your licence for each bald tyre, which translates to an instant driving ban if all four tyres are bald. Safe to say you’ll be wanting to keep an eye on your tyre wear.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.