The Importance of Quality Tires

If you stop to think about it, the importance of the tires on your vehicle is actually quite obvious. After all, the tires are the only part of the vehicle that actually contacts the road, so if you are going to maintain traction and get where you need to go, the tires are going to play a critical role.

Yet, many of us take our tires for granted day after day. We don’t regularly check on their condition and just assume that they are doing okay. In this article, we’d like to explain a little more about why tires are so important and why you shouldn’t take yours for granted any longer. Once you understand why your tires matter so much – and why it’s important to have quality tires – you’ll be more likely to keep up with their maintenance moving forward.

It’s All About Safety

When it comes down to it, having good tires on your vehicle is about safety first and foremost. We all want to stay safe on the roads, and we want to keep other people safe, as well. While there are a variety of pieces to the overall safety puzzle, perhaps no single piece is as important as your tires (with the probable exception of always wearing your seatbelt).

How do good tires help keep you safe on the roads? The list below highlights some of the key reasons why quality tires are so critical.

• Maintain grip. A vehicle that doesn’t have a firm grip on the road is a dangerous vehicle. This is why driving in ice is so scary – your vehicle can’t make a good connection with the ground and it’s hard to say where you are going to end up. With good tires that have plenty of tread remaining, you’ll be able to hold onto roads in most conditions and remain in control from behind the wheel. This is particularly important in a region like North Idaho where we are no stranger to a variety of challenging weather conditions.
• Stop promptly. Sometimes, you need to be able to bring your vehicle to a stop in a hurry, whether it is because of changing traffic conditions or maybe to avoid an animal on the roadway. Whatever the case, having good tires will help the braking power that is exerted when you step on the pedal actually slow your vehicle down promptly. If your tires aren’t up to the challenge, even powerful brakes aren’t going to do the job and your vehicle is going to skid a significant distance before it finally stops moving.
• Avoid a blowout. While not particularly common these days, tire blowouts are a major hazard on the road when they do occur. And such events are more likely to happen with old, worn tires than they are with a newer set. As tires age, the tread gradually becomes thinner and thinner as it is worn off on the road below. By equipping your vehicle with a good set of tires that have plenty of tread remaining, the likelihood of a blowout will be reduced dramatically.

Even if you have no other motivations for getting new tires than the desire to keep everyone safe, that’s good enough to take a look at some options today. Contact Taylor & Sons Chevrolet or stop by to see us in person and we can talk you through this important maintenance consideration.

A Surprising Benefit

One thing you might not immediately associate with good tires is improved fuel efficiency, but that’s another potential benefit that you could enjoy thanks to an upgrade. If you are currently driving on tires that are worn out, the rolling resistance that your vehicle experiences is likely to be increased, and as a result, you’ll need to use more fuel than necessary to get from one place to another.

There are a couple of tire-related steps that you can take to make sure you aren’t doing anything to accidentally harm your gas mileage. First, make sure your tires are in good condition and haven’t lost most or all of their treads just yet. Also, you need to monitor the air pressure in your tires to keep them within the recommended range. If the air pressure dips too low, as can happen when warmer temperatures give way to cooler temps, you’ll again increase rolling resistance and hurt your fuel efficiency. By staying on top of the air pressure in all four tires, you can avoid this problem and also get better driving performance at the same time.

How to Pick the Right Tires

When you decide that the time is right to pick up a new set of tires, how do you know which ones to pick? There are countless models on the market today, and if you don’t work in this industry or have much tire buying experience, it can be overwhelming. Fortunately, you can lean on the experts in our building to provide you with the direction that you need. We’ll be happy to chat with you regarding important points like the kind of vehicle you drive, your driving habits, the conditions you typically face, and more. With the necessary information collected about what these tires are going to face once installed, we’ll be able to help you pick out exactly the right set.

Having the right tires for your vehicle is one of the main jobs of any car or truck owner. You don’t necessarily need to have the most expensive tire put on your wheels – in fact, those might not be the right choice for the job – but you do need to have a set that is reliable and up to the challenges that you are going to present to it when you head out onto the roads (or off the roads). For assistance finding the right tires for your needs, or for any other maintenance points, contact Taylor & Sons Chevrolet right away to get started. We’d love to serve you!

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