Tips on Choosing the Right Tires for Your Vehicle

Perhaps you've noticed a marked difference in the handling of your vehicle; driving in the rain now feels a lot like skiing, or maybe you took your car in for routine maintenance and the mechanic tells you the tires look like racing slicks. Whatever the reason, you now find yourself faced with the dilemma of choosing the correct tires for you. If you have no knowledge of what your vehicle, the area you live in and your driving habits dictate, you will probably come away with a lightened wallet, incorrect tires, and a bad taste in your mouth. Let's try to shed some light on the situation before you find yourself there.

Three Things which should Dictate the Tires you Choose

There are any number of things which will decide which tires finally go onto your car, including price and availability, tire/wheel size, driving habits, the area you live in, and manufacturer recommendations. First we'll focus on the big three: vehicle specifications, driving habits, and geographical area.

Vehicle Specifications: All vehicles have a specified range of tire sizes. These can sometimes be found in your Owner's Manual, though with the trend of making these more generic, a better source is the informational placard. It should be on the driver side of the vehicle, in the door frame (the body of the car). This will list the manufacturer's recommendations for tire size, tire pressure (at cold), and any other pertinent information. Usually these only show the size tires the vehicle came with from the factory, which is a good thing to go back with. If you want to go with a different size tire, there are other sources, though each vehicle will only have a few different sizes specified, even in these. Information about additional tire sizes for a vehicle can be found at most aftermarket tire dealers. Remember, though, your speedometer and odometer are calibrated to your stock tire size; changing this size will alter both of these. 4 wheel drive owners need to be particularly careful with this, as with tire rotations; these vehicles are very sensitive to tire size changes.