GRIPPING STUFF

Tyre choice can make a huge difference to how your car behaves in changeable weather. We search for the best

- Claire Evans and Neil Winn

TYRES DESERVE RATHER more consideration than many drivers give them. Those four strips of rubber provide the only contact between a car and the road, making them crucial to your car's safety and performance. Yet 40% of drivers don't know which brand of tyre is fitted to their vehicle, and more than half of tyre buyers don't ask which brand made them before having them fitted.

Grip levels vary drastically between the best and worst tyres on the market, and this has a huge effect on stopping distances. In our wet-weather tyre tests, we found a 10.4-metre difference between the stopping distances of the best and worst tyres. That's about the length of a double-decker bus, and in an emergency situation it could mean the difference between being involved in a collision or not.

Such is the importance of tyres that many car manufacturers spend three to four years working closely with their chosen tyre brand to make sure that new models have the right rubber when they reach the showroom. The tyres fitted as original equipment have to provide a high level of safety and performance, as well as being durable and of high quality.

With some cars, it's worth sticking with the same model of tyre that it was fitted with when brand new, because this should be the one best suited to it. However, there are plenty of alternative brands available, and cost is a factor for many drivers.

After all, tyres from premium brands can cost more than £150 each and you're likely to need to replace two at once, so you could save more than £100 by opting for a cheaper brand.

However, with more than 200 tyre brands on sale, many of which most people haven't heard of, it's difficult to know how to choose the best. That's why we've tested a range of tyres for a popular family SUV, to see how well they bring the car to a stop in both wet and dry conditions, as well as how well they cope with fast cornering in both types of weather.