I take the reviews with a pinch of salt. How many of the reviewers can quantitively ascertain the differences in the limit of wet and dry traction or stopping distance in the snow between two brands of tyres? Not many.

The biggest difference in changing tyres will be going from 2mm tread depth to 8mm. by the time you've worn the new tyres in you'll have forgotten what the old ones were like.

Reviews probably have as much to do with consumer expectation as anything else.

I think A-G ratings are facile. Rather like the traffic light system in food labelling they are aimed at the lowest common denominator.

You don't need to know which tyre is the "best" in each field; you need to know if your chosen tyre is good enough overall. That means that you need to know the difference between an "A" rated tyre and a "G" rated one. Which the labelling system doesn't tell you.

With this new greener conscious world we live in it is becoming something we should consider besides all the other aspects

This only really applies to tyres with a new tread pattern. As the tread wears down all tyres become low rolling resistence! If this is your primary concern, just buy a second hand tyre!

Edited by unthrottled on 23/10/2012 at 18:14

Looking at the review sites, I find that most tyres perform completely differently from one vehcile to the next, even those that are quite similar. One thing to bear in mind is that the tyre review sites lump all the reviews about a particular tyre together, including all the different size variants. The best thing is to search for reviews for the tyres of your car's size and for your make/model (or at least a similar one from another make), and if possible, one where the reviewer states they drive in a similar manner to yourself. How full a review makes a lot of difference as well - reviewing a tyre after using it for 1000 miles will give little insight into the following 14000, etc.

The "formal" reviews/tests in magazine cannot also be completely relied upon, especially given the wide variances in the test results for the same tyres (my new Dunlop SP Sport FastResponse 205/55 R16s have been 2nd and 7th in similar tests (from different magazines) with the almost the same groups of alternative tyres - go figure! I think it depends often on the car they use for the test - it may be suited to some tyres better than others.

Regarding the A-G EU "test" ratings, I just hope they are not as "accurate" as the EU mpg figures quoted for new cars - I think realistically you'll only notice a mjor difference between tyres that are at least 3 letters different in the grouping. One thing to not is that I read somewhere that the "D" rating is void for cars for some reason, so a "C" is only one up from an "E" rating.

I wonder how many people are going to be worried about the noise of a car tyre ... especially as the label refers to 'external noise'.

Personally, I'm more concered about safety (stopping distance, behaviour in wet etc) and secondly about fuel consumption, as well as purchase price of course. (Note how external noise is not in my thought pricess).

Choosing tires for your car can get confusing if you want to upgrade to an alternate tire size and performance. A rule of thumb with most reputable tire dealers is that you should never go down in tire variables, but you can always go up. For example, if the car's recommended tire from the manufacturer indicates a designated speed rating, you can purchase an aftermarket tire with a higher speed rating, but don't buy one with a lower speed rating.

Edited by Avant on 10/11/2012 at 23:46