Merityre Article Archive

It’s that time of year again, the one when we awake to the merry sound of sparrows shivering. Temperatures are down thermostats are up. We have the occasional benefit of a pretty, snow clad landscape and the road conditions that put us and our car tyres under stress.

Luckily, car tyres are made to cope with harsh conditions, which they are perfectly capable of doing, with a little help from their friends, i.e. you, their owners. None of the following little maintenance tasks are particularly difficult, time-consuming or even expensive. Carry them out and your car – and its tyres will carry you around reliably, in most conditions.

The first idea to take on board is that there isn’t a road tyre made that will provide grip on sheet ice. On such a surface, a car tyre might as well be a ‘slick’ with no tread at all. However, on snow, slush and in the wet, tread matters. Officers of the law will have something to say if you don’t have the regulation 1.6 mm of tread around three quarters of all your tyres and this is a worst case scenario. In practice, letting tyres this worn meet winter conditions is folly.

How can you maximise grip? Among the car tyres on the market are numerous ‘Winter Tyres’. These are made of a softer than usual compound and offer superior grip in winter. But are they worth it? If you do a lot of driving in cold, disagreeable conditions, the answer is ‘yes’.

Then there are grip aids for car tyres. In some countries, snow chains are a legal requirement in winter conditions. This is not so in the UK but there are ‘snow socks’, tough, net covers that enhance grip in the short term at low speeds. Are these worth it? Assuming conditions are seriously bad, the answer is a qualified ‘yes’. Bear in mind that snow chains do tarmac a power of no good, while tarmac will soon put paid to snow socks. Think of these things as emergency equipment.

Naturally, car tyres should be at the correct pressure. Checking this is any easy job that should be repeated regularly throughout the winter. Bear in mind that temperature and tyre pressure are irrevocably interlinked, so head for the tyre inflation facility soon after the ice appears.

While up close and personal with them, run a hand over your tyres’ carcasses to check for bulges, lumps, cuts or the evidence of misalignment. Remember also that you have a spare tyre that you might need in a hurry. Check first that you can access it, particularly if it lives beneath the car. Finding out that the spare is shredded and corroded firmly into place mid-snow storm is undesirable at best.

There are a number of bits and pieces that warrant checking as much as car tyres. Screen wash fluid needs to be kept up to strength as well as up to level. The same goes for your car’s coolant, as well as its oil. A car battery rarely has to be checked these days but if yours is marginal, a cold snap will probably kill it off completely.

Your car tyres can’t carry you safely if you can’t see where you’re going. This is reason enough to regularly check every last bulb and LED on your car. Also, pensionable windscreen wipers merely tend to move snow and rain around on your screen. For deicing, a proprietary spray is worth having, as is the more paint friendly and economical

‘Ice Plane’. You can tackle frozen-up doors using cold water but be quick – it re-freezes. Hot or boiling water is a great way to crack cold glass. Remember that setting off peering through a ‘porthole’ that represents the total extent of your demisting is an offence.

Finally, what should you take on a winter journey? This depends on the conditions. For example, you might need a torch, reflective waistcoat or jacket and a warning triangle, and some extra screen wash fluid for normal journeys. Whether you need boots, gloves, a shovel and a thermos of tea depends on where you’re headed. The last, some bars of chocolate and heavy clothing are for when conditions are despicable. In any event, a functional, well-charged mobile phone can be a life saver.

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Merityre.co.uk are one of the  leading UK independent suppliers of car tyres. Why not visit their website for an online tyre quote or contact your nearest fitting centre.

Maximizing your car tyres’ useful life is as much about being both safe and legal as it is about saving money in the long run. Your car tyres may not receive too much of your attention but a combination of forethought and maintenance will help you achieve the very best results for your car tyres.

Buy the right tyres

Car tyre choice is a matter of making an educated selection. So-called ‘long-life’ tyres may perform as advertised but can have downsides. They are liable to be noisier in use than ‘normal’ tyres, whilst also being less grippy. Similarly, ‘normal’ tyres could save you a few pounds but could let a higher performance car down grip-wise. The solution? Trust your tyre fitter.

Make sure your wheels are properly aligned

Given that wheels running out of alignment spell an early demise for car tyres, it’s worth having a wheel alignment check at tyre replacement time. Significant misalignment will show in odd wear patterns on the tyre treads, and can make the steering feel odd.

If you’ve encountered a big pothole, road debris, or have had an argument with a kerb, get the alignment checked as a matter of course.

Use the right pressure

You can usually find this out from a sticker on your car’s doorpost, or from your user manual. Too little tyre pressure can cause fuel-wasting drag, excessive tyre flexing and tyre failure through overheating. Too much air in your tyres can lead to premature wear and unreliable handling.

Drive with sympathy

…,for your car tyres, that is. Consistently taking corners at 9/10^th of your car’s (or your) abilities shortens tyre life. The same goes for aggressive accelerating and braking. Movie stunt men don’t have to pay for their car tyres!

Give your tyres a break

Following on from the previous tip, this kind of mechanical sympathy specifically concerns physical damage to your car tyres. We have, for our pains, got to put up with speed bumps and speed pads on our highways. We don’t, however, have to let them damage our car’s wheels and tyres.

The way to tackle these devices is to treat them as what they are – hazardous to your car tyres. Always cross them slowly. If you come across the kind of speed restrictor where there’s one speed pad per carriageway, never straddle them. Instead, let the wheels on one side of your car traverse them. Also, try to avoid touching a kerb, far less mounting one.

Driving like this will protect your car tyres, as well as greatly reducing the chances of expensive and/or dangerous damage to wheels.

These are proven practices that will prolong the life of your car tyres. They can also help save wear and tear on your car’s wheels, suspension and steering. Don’t be misled by knowing that car tyres are very tough indeed. They are tough but they aren’t invincible. Pay attention to the above and stay safe, and you will save money by not having to replace your tyres before their useful life ends.

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Merityre.co.uk are one of the  leading UK independent suppliers of car tyres. Why not visit their website for an online tyre quote or contact your nearest fitting centre.

Floods have featured heavily in the news media lately. We’ve just experienced the wettest summer in UK history, and the consequent flooding has affected a number of cars. In some instances the results have included fatalities. Your car tyres may provide as much grip as you need – until your car starts to float. Yet the tyres won’t stop a car sinking, or being swept away. Here’s how to deal with floodwater.

There you are, driving along, minding your own business. It’s pouring with rain but you’re perfectly confident about your car tyres’ abilities on wet tarmac. Then it happens, you’re faced with glossy sheen of floodwater in your path. Your thoughts begin to race. ‘Should I keep going, or turn round?’; ‘Will I get stuck?’; ‘How deep is it?’

Depth is the very first thing to consider in such a situation. In most instances, a car can handle floodwater as deep as its wheel rims – the car tyres will be submerged but they’ll cope. The snag is; how do you gauge the depth of the water?

There is no simple answer to this question. You may have local knowledge to tell you what to expect in a given location. You may have a good view of the white line, or you may have just seen another car successfully wading through the water. There are, however, warnings to consider. For example, you can bet your car tyres that a flood stretching away out of sight, such as around a blind bend, is liable to get deeper. Similarly, your seeing a big 4×4 happily paddling doesn’t mean your saloon car will manage.

Apart from your car tyres’ role, the major element to consider is your engine. All engines compress the fuel and air mixture that enters their cylinders. A petrol engine may squash the mixture by a factor of fourteen, while a Diesel engine might compress the mixture to twenty-five times atmospheric pressure.  Here’s the rub: you can compress air, you can compress vapourised fuel but you cannot – repeat cannot – compress water. A surprisingly small drink of floodwater will instantly stop whichever pistons encounter it. However, the connecting rods will still be pushed upwards by the crankshaft…but not for long. Broken or bent conrod(s) – for which read ‘scrap the engine’ are the inevitable result. This is exacerbated by many modern cars having a low-mounted air intake. Cool air drawn form low down equals improved combustion. Water drawn into the air intake equals a dead stop.

What, then, is in our line of defence before we try to dip our car tyres into floodwater? Local news, via the TV, radio or Internet, are helpful sources, provided you pay attention to them. It’s also a great idea to have a fully charged, functional mobile phone with you, just in case. Remember that, if you encounter a flood, asking around – especially if the police are present – could save your life, let alone your car.

Now for the worst-case scenario. You arrive at flood and have to decide on how to tackle it. Stop and take a look, getting out of your car unless you’re 100% sure of the water’s depth. Is the white line, or the underwater tarmac surface visible? If so, remember you can go to about the depth of your car tyres’ sidewalls in most cars. Is the water still? If it’s rushing, forget it – unless you fancy being on the news. Moreover, if someone starts beeping at you to hurry, invite him/her to go first. You’ll know what to do if this car suffers a grinding halt.

Assuming you plan to go for it, put your trust in your car tyres and go slowly forward. Use a low gear, so that the increased engine revolutions will allow the exhaust gases to keep the water at bay. Go slowly, so as to not create a big bow wave – which might just drown your engine. And remember to stick to the crown of the road, where the water will be shallowest.

Finally, though your car tyres will dry off after a few revolutions, your brakes will stay wet. Lightly touch the brake pedal until you feel the brakes bite again.

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Merityre.co.uk are one of the  leading UK independent suppliers of car tyres. Why not visit their website for an online tyre quote or contact your nearest fitting centre.

All car tyres wear – they are, after all, consumable items. However, some car tyres wear faster than others. Let’s take a look at eight aspects that affect car tyre life.

1. Wheel Alignment

When your car’s wheel alignment is correct, the tyres can run true on the road. This means that a balance exists between the car tyre’s drag and the amount of compliance in the car’s suspension.  Incorrect alignment spells increased wear, and can affect your rear wheels as well as the front ones.

2. Speed

Continuous high-speed driving accelerates car tyre wear. If you doubt this, just take a look at Formula One – pit stops aren’t to give the driver a rest while the tyres are changed!

3. Driving Style

If you drive sympathetically, your car tyres will last longer. Drive aggressively and you’ll pay for it through having to replace your car tyres sooner. An aggressive driving style will raise car tyre flexing and running temperature, and increase tread wear.

4. Car Tyre Placement

On a rear-wheel drive car, the front tyres must cope with steering and braking while the rear tyres offer traction as well as grip. On a front-wheel-drive car, the front tyres have still more to do, consequently wearing faster.

5. Vehicle Weight

Heavier vehicles wear our car tyres faster than lighter ones. There are, of course, heavier duty car tyres to compensate for this to some extent. However, the basic principle remains.

6. Car Tyre Type

Car tyres are constructed to meet particular needs. A performance tyre will give superior grip but will wear out sooner, as it has a softer rubber compound. Conversely, a harder, long life tyre will offer a longer life, at the cost of lesser grip and increased noise. There are tyre types that offer a compromise between the various demands on car tyres.

7. Tyre Pressure

An underinflated car tyre flexes more, runs hotter and wears faster than a correctly inflated one. Underinflation also increases fuel consumption, by creating additional tyre drag. Overinflation is nearly as bad, causing strange wear patterns and reducing grip.

8. The Passage of Time

This is the one aspect affecting tyre life that can’t be avoided. Ultra violet light causes rubber to degrade, as do chemical spills on the road. The usual giveaway is the appearance of cracked sidewalls…themselves indicative of a car tyre that is old. A car that is garaged will receive better car tyre life than a car that lives outside.

As is now clear, the factors affecting car tyre life – and performance – are many and varied. Mechanical sympathy and assiduous car maintenance positively affect tyre life. Conversely, it isn’t really surprising that bad habits can affect tyre life negatively.

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Merityre.co.uk are one of the  leading UK independent suppliers of car tyres. Why not visit their website for an online tyre quote or contact your nearest fitting centre.

Car tyres? Pretty much of a muchness, aren’t they? The one-word answer is ‘no’. There are many different kinds of tyre and here are six types used with road cars.

The most commonly-fitted type of car tyre is known as a standard, or all-season tyre. Such tyres are essentially a compromise. They work well enough in both wet and dry conditions, last for a fairly long time and aren’t too noisy on normal road surfaces. A jack of all trades and therefore a master of none? You may think so but in practice, standard car tyres work well for a lot of customers. There are some sub-divisions within this classification. Some car tyres are claimed to give better fuel economy, for example. These nevertheless remain under the ‘standard tyre’ banner.

So, when might you need non-standard tyres? Winter is a good example. Winter tyres come into their own when there’s snow and ice to be tackled. These car tyres have coarse tread patterns, the better to keep the treads clear of snow and ice. Less obviously, they contain rubber compounds and structures that remain flexible at lower temperatures, which enhances performance and roadholding. On the downside, they are noisy and, in normal conditions, wear out faster than standard tyres. For this reason, some people have a set of winter wheels to go with their winter tyres.

A car tyre that performs well in cold weather is totally different from a performance tyre. These, sometimes called ‘summer tyres’, are made of softer compounds, to offer superior grip. As well as having impressive marked speed ratings, such car tyres can cope with the demands of more powerful, faster cars. To do this, they trade wear rate for performance – they don’t last as long as lesser rubberware, and they abhor cold conditions.

As their name implies, run-flat tyres can be used even after suffering a puncture. Such car tyres achieve this with the imposition of a specific distance and speed up to which they can safely be used. Space-saver tyres are a cousin of run-flat tyres. The take up less space in the car but when fitted, must be used with similar restrictions on speed and distance.

What about the still less friendly conditions we might encounter? Enter the all-terrain tyre. For use on such surfaces as gravel and sand, these are particularly tough customers with very bold tread patterns. They have stiffer sidewalls, and the kind of structure that can handle potholes and debris on the road. The car tyre for all seasons? Not really. Sturdy? Yes. Long-lived? Yes? Quiet? Definitely not!

Similarly, mud tyres have an extremely large tread block pattern and are suitable for use only in muddy conditions. Car tyres of this kind are often used on those four-wheel drive vehicles that are actually taken on rough roads; this includes 4×4s that specifically go off-road regularly. The ‘Chelsea Tractor’ that does the school run doesn’t need them.

As should be obvious, the type of tyres you choose depends entirely on the use to which they will be put. Your local Merityre staff will happily give you a professional opinion on what type will be best for your needs.

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Merityre.co.uk are one of the  leading UK independent suppliers of car tyres. Why not visit their website for an online tyre quote or contact your nearest fitting centre.

When you drive out for the first time on a brand new set of car tyres, you’ll probably be experiencing one of two feelings. You may have a sense of pride in the knowledge that you’ve had your tyres replaced after getting the full life from the previous set. On the other hand, you may feel frustration. Why? Because you misused or neglected your old tyres, making the new set into what retailers call a ‘distress purchase’. You had to replace your car tyres early, when a little car tyre care would have put off the evil day.

It would be naïve to expect a set of car tyres to last indefinitely – they are consumables after all. However, bad driving habits, poor road conditions and mechanical faults can limit the lifespan of car tyres. Let’s look at some of the more common causes of premature tyre breakdown.

Much as your continuing health can depend on your car tyres, the health – and lifespan – of your car tyres largely depends on you. Yes, you can drive on the limit, squeaking your rubber on the Queen’s highway at every opportunity. Alternatively, you can drive more, well, let’s say soberly, and increase your car tyres’ longevity.

Though you can’t choose the road surfaces on which you drive, you can drive according to the road surface. We’re not quite at Third World status in this country but the combination of heavy traffic, severe winters and saving money on repairing the damage these do; means we encounter some bad roads. Car tyres are of necessity tough but they aren’t indestructible. When you find yourself driving on a particularly poor road surface, slow down. This gives your tyres an easier life and gives you time to steer round potholes.

There are also road ‘surfaces’ that can be detrimental to tyre life. Traffic-calming measures (some call them ‘traffic-harming measures’) such as speed bumps and speed pads can damage your car’s tyres, steering and suspension.

These devices are designed to make you slow down. The sad truth is that if they don’t do this sooner, they probably will later, to your cost. Rule one is to never straddle a speed bump. Your car tyres and suspension are not really designed to take a load that effectively pushes them outwards forcibly. Straddling speed bumps can lead to increased tyre and suspension wear, and misalignment. Instead, drive so that the wheels on one side of your car pass over the speed bump. Hint: if driving alone, let the passenger side wheels take the strain.

You can’t avoid full width speed bumps and speed pads, even for your car tyres’ sake. You could, of course, press on regardless but even big, butch 4x4s can suffer damage from excessive speed over speed bumps.

The other car tyre killer isn’t so much a road surface as a piece of street furniture. Kerbs have their rightful place in the scheme of things. Your car tyres have no right to be traversing or hitting kerbs. Yes, your car tyres have a cushioning effect, so you can lightly touch a kerb if it confirms your position during parking. However, with low-profile tyres and alloy wheels being so common, raked rims are all too evident. Look at a few parked cars and you’ll see the results of car wheel to kerb contact. Just bear this in mind: if the wheel rim is gouged, chipped or cracked, what’s going on in the tyre?

Such damage and the effect of speed bumps can put your car’s wheels out of alignment. This in turn causes the car tyres to wear unevenly, even if you don’t feel its effect at the steering wheel. Having wheel alignment checked isn’t too expensive, and is far less costly than new tyres. Have your car’s shock absorbers checked too, and remember that over- or underinflated car tyres cost, the latter in terms of fuel consumption as well as wear.

Looking after your car tyres and its suspension and steering pays dividends in terms of economy, longevity and performance. Should these not be enough of an incentive, there’s that small matter of personal safety too.

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Merityre.co.uk are one of the  leading UK independent suppliers of car tyres. Why not visit their website for an online tyre quote or contact your nearest fitting centre.

Depressing as it may be, the tottering economic situation, in this country and across much of the world, is a fact. This means we must live with it but we needn’t merely accept it passively. We can take active steps to keep costs down, and in regard to our motoring and especially our car tyres, there are plenty of tips and tricks for saving money.

Efficiency Counts

The deductive powers of a Sherlock Holmes aren’t needed to figure out where car tyre factors could be costing us money. The key word is ‘efficiency’, and here’s how inefficiency can affect motoring costs.

All cars give a certain power output. Whether this is quoted in kilowatts, pferdestärke or good old horsepower is irrelevant, power can be wasted by inefficiency.  A certain amount of power is required to make a car progress, and anything that impedes this progression is wasteful. Under inflated car tyres require more power to make progress, because the lesser tyre pressure increases their rolling resistance. Run your car tyres at the correct pressure, or even a little higher, and you’ll soon see rewards at the fuel pump.

Of course, it isn’t just car tyres that can cause drag, which in turn increases fuel consumption. The current warm weather makes it tempting to use the car’s air conditioning. Would you use it so readily if you knew it could worsen your car’s fuel consumption by up to 11 per cent? You could open some windows, but this creates aerodynamic drag – it seems you can’t win. In fact, it makes sense to cool the car interior by opening the windows at slower speeds. When motoring at 40mph or over, use the aircon – it costs less.

Weight Issues

All car tyres create some drag, that’s also a fact. All car tyres also carry weight, and it’s a fact that the amount they carry can be trimmed, in some cases radically. What you carry on a regular basis in your car depends largely on how you use your car. That said, a lot of people carry unnecessary objects in the car at all times. You could argue that you really need your Wellington boots, snow shovel, overcoat and Thermos flask on board. Well, argue away – you’re carrying what represents dead weight for August and it’s you who are buying the fuel. A combination of ruthlessness and good sense about what lives in the car and when isn’t hard to apply.

Similar thinking should apply to your car’s roof rack or roof box. Sure, it’s well away from your car tyres but what’s on the roof costs you fuel simply by being their. Each has a weight, which you’re paying to transport. Each has a degree of air resistance, even if your roof box has sexy, aerodynamic styling. Again, you’re paying to push that roof-mounted deadweight through the air. Remove it when not in use and your pocket will thank you.

Obvious Strategies

There are a more fuel wasters than car tyre rolling resistance. Driving too hard and/or too fast when you needn’t are money guzzlers, as are speed camera fines and the increased insurance cost of points on your licence. Use the most efficient route, use the highest possible gear and above all, use your head. Everything in this article comes under a single heading, common sense.

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Merityre.co.uk are one of the  leading UK independent suppliers of car tyres. Why not visit their website for an online tyre quote or contact your nearest fitting centre.

Car tyres are often taken for granted. You turn the steering wheel, your car takes the corner, you press the brake, your car stops. This is fine but knowing how car tyres work and the characteristics they generate in terms of handling and roadholding is both interesting and potentially helpful to your driving.

Every car tyre has an area of tread, about the size of an adult’s footprint, in contact with the road surface. This is called, somewhat predictably, its contact patch.  Imagine the tyres’ four contact patches travelling along a road in a straight line. These four areas of tread are what keep your car on the road, allowing you to accelerate, steer and brake with confidence.

Now, what happens to car tyres in corners? Imagine the wheels following the arc that the corner represents. The wheels will be following the arc faithfully, but there’s a hidden force at work. Imagine you’re Superman and have X-ray vision. Looking down at the top of a wheel and tyre combination, you’d see that the contact patch will be following a tighter curve than the wheel is following.

So, what’s happening? Why the difference? It’s there because sideways force put on the tyre by the weight of the car is deforming the car tyre’s carcass. Now, imagine a straight line drawn through the centre of the wheel and another drawn through the centre of the contact patch. There will be a difference between the two – this difference is called the slip angle.

As slip angles increase, the car tyre’s grip increases, up to a point. When the forces involved head towards the maximum level of grip the car tyres offer, one of three states will apply. Say the slip angles are equal at both ends of the car. In this case, the grip at each end of the car will be the same. When the grip level’s limit is reached, the car will go into a classic, four-wheel drift. The car’s handling will be ‘neutral’. Racing cars are set up to give neutral handling.

Supposing the slip angles of the car tyres at the front are greater than those at the rear. Then, the driver will need to apply more steering input to make the car follow the chosen curve. This is called ‘understeer’.

When it reaches the limit of effective grip of its car tyres, an understeering car will slide off the track forwards – it simply won’t be able to corner tightly enough. In practice, most road cars understeer. Why? Because understeer is a generally controllable condition –  it’ll help scrub off excess speed when a corner is taken too enthusiastically.

The third state occurs when the rear car tyres’ slip angles are greater than those of the front tyres. The rear tyres will be giving less grip than the front ones. At the limit, the car’s tail will slide towards the outside of the curve. When you see a Formula One car or Touring Car spin off a track, it’s gone beyond oversteer.

This explanation is necessarily basic. In fact, very many parameters affect how car tyres respond to the forces imposed upon them. However, the physics are just as basic, and give car designers benchmarks from which to work.

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Merityre.co.uk are one of the  leading UK independent suppliers of car tyres. Why not visit their website for an online tyre quote or contact your nearest fitting centre.

Suppose you were regularly wearing out a set of tyres on your Mini Cooper in three miles. You’d certainly be doing something very wrong, wouldn’t you?  However, this is the usual car tyre mileage on one of The Russ Swift Mini Display Team’s Coopers and Russ is doing something very right – in the eyes of his sponsors and spectators, that is.

The Team, part of Russ Swift Driving Services, was formed in 1981. Current British Autotest champion and England Autotest Team Captain Russ had often been asked to demonstrate his incredible, tyre-testing car control skills. He realised a gap existed in the marketplace and contrived to fill it.

In 1987, an advertising agency saw a video of Russ at work. This led to the renowned Montego “Car Park” commercial. Though this was aired in the UK for just six weeks, the squeal of tortured car tyres was heard when the performance was featured at the Cannes Film Festival. It was also voted by American judges as the world’s most imaginative car commercial.

Where did Russ go from there? A long, long way. Eight thousand tyre-munching displays in more than 50 countries and three Guinness world records (Parallel parking in the tightest space, J Turn in the tightest space and the fastest donuts) form just a small part of his CV.

Russ and Minis go back a long way too, starting with four British Autotest Championship wins and an International Rally win in Sweden in the early eighties, in a Cooper S. More recently, Russ was involved in promoting the remake of ‘The Italian Job’, performing at premieres in London and New York. He fulfils an advisory role with many police, military, royal and diplomatic drivers, also working closely with RoSPA, the IAM and various other road safety bodies to promote safe driving. A versatile player on the car world’s stage, Russ is committed to ensuring that it is only car tyres that suffer!

The tools of Russ’s trade are largely unmodified cars. Russ uses a Mini Cooper S, standard apart from a “piece of tape on the handbrake button”. Another Mini Cooper has one other mod – a locked differential – to allow for driving on two wheels (this is the one that gets 3 miles per set of tyres – should that be per pair?). Typically, a further Mini Cooper is used (all these are BMW MINIs). Often, an MR RS Mitsubishi Evolution undertakes power slides and donuts.

A typical show features reverse spins at 40mph, parking in a slot between two cars parked side by side, using only the handbrake. Similarly, ‘parallel parking’ involves a handbrake turn into the gap between two cars parked as though at the kerbside. Then there is a ‘dance routine’ to music, involving two cars and a ramp. This last – the ramp – is used for the business of getting the locked-diff Cooper up on two tyres. The show features music and commentary – and audience participation is encouraged. The tyres may be red hot but the invited passengers have been known to end up on the pale side!

Find out more – and see pictures and videos – at www.russswift.co.uk.

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Merityre.co.uk are one of the  leading UK independent suppliers of car tyres. Why not visit their website for an online tyre quote or contact your nearest fitting centre.

For many people, a car is the second most expensive purchase they make. Buying the right car can be easy but it’s just as easy to encounter expensive pitfalls, especially when buying used. You need to check on everything, from the car tyres upwards and here are some pointers to help you.

Start by making sure you are looking at the right kind of car for your needs. No matter how much you may want to, you won’t fit a family of four in a two-seater sports car. Most people don’t make such an obvious error but many buy a car that’s too big for their garage, too thirsty for their wallet or too expensive to maintain. All cars have tyres, not all have the ability to be run on a shoestring – and you’ll always lose if you have to sell.

Lets assume you’ve found a car. What next? You have to be certain that the car matches the claims made about it. Checking the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) is a primary requirement. Does it match the number in the V5 document? If it doesn’t or isn’t clearly stamped, without any evidence of tampering, the car could be stolen, a ‘ringer’, or the result of two write-offs welded together.

If the VIN is good, does the history add up? We’re talking paperwork here, as well as the state of the car itself. Good car tyres, not to mention shiny paintwork and a ludicrously low mileage are of little value if the mileage figures in the previous MOT certificates don’t tally. No MOT certificates? This is your cue to walk away.

Much the same goes for service history, which usually has a record of miles covered in it. If the car has in fact been serviced as it should have been, preferably by an approved dealership, which has entered the details into the service record, the car’s beginning to look like a good buy. If every last invoice for what has been spent is present and correct, so much the better. This may include receipts for new tyres, an exhaust, a battery and any accessories.

If buying from a car dealer, a genuine HPI certificate must be provided by law. If buying from a private individual, you can arrange to have an HPI inspection. An HPI check validates the car’s history and will reveal any shady elements in its past. Remember that, if buying privately, you will buy a car ‘as seen’. This means that you can set tyres to tarmac quite happily but if the engine grenades on the way home, it’s your problem. There is no recourse in a private sale.

When looking at the car, be very, very critical indeed. If it has been repaired and the repairs have been professionally done, that’s fine. If you see badly-matching paint, poor panel gaps, scuffed tyres and ripply surfaces, the car has been badly repaired. Under the bonnet, look out for oil leaks, corrosion, fluid stains and amateur fixes. Pull out the dipstick and look at the oil. Is it black and treacly? Look elsewhere.

Car tyres can be excellent tell tales, as can the wheels that carry them. Uneven tyre wear suggests suspension misalignment at best, damage at worst. Tyres with 3 millimetres or less of tread need replacing, which won’t cost the seller a penny. The same goes for cracked tyres or ones with lumps or bulges. Alloy wheels that have been badly kerbed will show significant damage, and say a lot about how the car has been driven.

Finally, remember these golden rules. One: you can always find a rival example of the car you’re examining. Two: it’s a buyer’s market; you can always walk away. Three: always buy with your head, rather than your heart!

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