They are at best a guide but the way a tyre works on different cars can never be measured.

In the real world at normal speeds all tyres are fine but its when the going gets tricky that you find out if yours are any good.

As for dry grip, in 41 years of driving I have never had a skid or even felt my tyres loosing grip on a dry road and I don't hang about. In the wet its obviously different but if you drive sensibly you should not have issues.

With regards to braking things have changed greatly since ABS became available. If its working you should not have a skid.

Well researched Leif.

I've long been an advocate of good tyres, not necessarily the premium makes though if they're well priced why not, but by buying as good a product as you can whilst being sensible in the outlay, i've had disappointments with premium makes and pleasure from mid range, and my family's and my own experience of cheap unknowns has always been disappointing.

I'm not paying for racing car sponsorship nor advertising campaigns if i can help it, i usually end up with middle of the road products made in Europe, my usual makes of choice are Vredestein, Nokian, Uniroyal, but i found General UHP's to offer superb grip for general use on my Hilux and currently Hankook AT's are doing the business on my Landcruiser...i shyed away from Nokian AT's for it because it's not their natural market and on the LC forum the Hankooks have been given fair reviews, but its always a bit of a gamble till you try them yourself, they'd better be good it'll be the only set it gets, with 12mm tread depth they'll probably see the vehicle (and me) out.

I tried a set of cheapies that had good reviews on the Merc last year, it was an experiment to see if my prejudices were really just that, they started out well but with still 7mm of tread on them they provided me with two unprovoked but easily controlled (RWD) oversteers...you know all about those Leif..:-)..and they came off the second their replacement Uniroyals arrived from Germany, prejudice or not, never again.

I do take notice of the EU labelling if i know the maker is of good repute, some of the newer entrants to the western tyre market i take with a pinch of salt...not through prejudice but by many hours spent perusing tyre review sites and european tyre tests where the results are often at odds with the claims.

You have to use some care when using some review sites, sometimes there appears to be a pattern of positive reviews in short order. TyreReviews is good becuase you can judge the review on its merits if the reviewer goes into details (also a good source of euro tyre tests), the TyreTest site is on a 1 to 5 star scoring basis with very few worded assessments, whilst a valuable source of info it's not so easy to judge the reviewer especially when its obvious some of the replies have the star system back to front.

It's like anything else, time spent researching before buying is seldom wasted, it might seem over the top to those who think tyres are just smelly round black things but last time i looked they were the only thing touching the road and i wish that to continue to be the case.

Sorry i've gorn on rather a lot again.

I am a fan of the EU tyre labelling. If job public turns up at tyre fitters needing a tyre what info or research will they have done? The eu rating is at least some info. An A or B wet grip tyre has got to be better than an E rated tyre. Before all you had to go on was fitters recommendation brand and price.

I always now buy A wet grip rated then look at fuel rating, currently Goodyear efficient grip performance. Used to get continental which now seen expensive for rate scored.