How Does Tyre Size Affect Your Car’s Performance?

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Buying tyres can be a tricky prospect. They all look so similar, but there are distinct differences between them all and you have to make sure you get exactly the right ones for your car’s make and model. How much difference to your car’s performance does your tyre size make though?

Go Big!

Larger tyres have a larger surface area which means that they grip the road better. If you tend to drive a lot on poor or slippery roads, opting for a bigger, wider tyre can be your friend, helping your car to grip the road and keeping you safely in control. However, that increased friction does come with a price: your fuel efficiency will go down as your engine will have to work harder to move the car, which will make it use up more fuel.

Try Small

Smaller tyres are great for boosting your fuel efficiency, and they have less rolling resistance which means that small tyres make your car more responsive, which is ideal in stop-start traffic where you will need to have fast reflexes to stop or start as traffic ebbs and flows. Smaller tyres can have a lesser grip on the road due to the smaller surface area, making them less desirable on poor roads or for drives in inclement weather.

Just Right

The best tyre size for your car is one that is recommended by your tyre supplier within your budget range so for great prices consider Eco Tyres Stevenage Centre. Putting on too large a tyre or too small a tyre, diameter-wise, can upset the meters in your car: if the ‘right’ sized tyre uses up 1.5 metres of road, but the larger tyres need 1.7 metres, and the smaller ones, 1.3 metres – you can see that your speedometer and mileage readings will soon be very inaccurate. This could leave you at risk of speeding, because your speedometer is not properly aligned, or at risk of missing an important service because your car cannot accurately tell you the number of miles since the previous service.

Many manufacturers do allow for a little variation in the size of the tyres your car can use, so you can indulge your love of customisation without putting yourself, your car or other road users in danger. Differences in width, rather than height are much more suitable for you to experiment with, and it is here that you can make much more drastic changes without any negative effects on your vehicle.