The most crucial part of buying tires is matching the tire style to the vehicle and driving needs. With so many different tire options, narrowing down the best choice can seem a rather daunting task. This guide is here to help, breaking down the possibilities by vehicle type to make finding the right tire quick and straightforward. Before buying tires, you need to check the wheels size of your car in order to choose the most suitable option.
People Movers, CUVS, and Minivans
Tires that are designed for this vehicle class have been engineered to ensure a smooth, quiet ride, reliable traction, and long-lasting tread life.
All-Season Tire:
Designed to deliver comfort and easy handling, in addition to dependable traction suitable for any time of year. Usually featuring symmetrical tread patterns and circumferential grooves for wet weathers.
Summer Tires:
Designed to be used on hot roads, they offer a good level of grip in both wet and dry weather. With circumferential grooves to avoid hydroplaning, they will have little to no slipping.
Touring Tires:
Another form of all-season tires designed with an increased level of responsive handling. They often come with a higher speed rating than the standard all-season option and frequently feature an asymmetrical tread pattern.
Performance Tires:
These offer the highest speed rating of any tires so far thanks to larger circumferential and lateral grooves for wet weather and dense tread compounds for better overall grip on any road condition.
Truck and SUV
When it comes to the truck and SUV category, finding the best tire means focusing on tires for different terrains.
Highway:
With all-season tread patterns, these offer a comfortable drive on roads no matter the heaviness of the load. They feature durable compounds and tread patterns to resist uneven wear that comes with large hauls.
All-Terrain:
Featuring a more aggressive tread pattern than highway tires, their large blocks and voids give an increased level of traction perfect for off-road conditions. Working well on a variety of off-road surfaces such as gravel, sand, and light mud, they also provide a pretty comfortable highway drive too.
Mud-Terrain:
With their aggressive void and tread patterns and reinforced sidewalls to resist punctures and abrasions, these are the best tires for off-road driving. While they offer great off-road performance, they tend to be noisier and less comfortable when driving on regular roads.
Ribbed Tires:
Some of the longest-lasting tires fit in this category, as they are designed for superior highway handling. Their ribbed tread makes them a reliable and comfortable option, even with heavy loads.
Specialty Tires
As the name suggests, specialty tires fulfil specific driving or vehicle needs.
Spare or Temporary Tires:
These come in two sizes: compact or full size and are usually only driveable for up to 50 miles at no more than 50 mph since they require a much higher air pressure than standard tires.
Winter Tires:
Featuring a heaving dipping, deep grooves to provide the best possible traction in snow and icing conditions. The two most common forms are either studded, which have small metal pins, or non-studded which do not. Although studded is the best option for extreme conditions due to them having the best grip, they do not perform as well overall and are even banned in some states.
