What's the news?
Can you honestly remember when you last checked your car's tyre pressure and tread depth? Tyre manufacturer Continental recently conducted a survey of 300 cars across four locations in Ireland to determine the state of tyres currently in use by Irish motorists.
The survey took place at Maxol outlets in Donegal, Dublin, Kildare and Mayo and was conducted by trained staff from tyre and car servicing provider, Advance Pitstop. Areas that were examined included tyre tread depth and whether the tyres were inflated to the correct pressure.
Of the three hundred cars surveyed, 16.7 per cent, or one in six, were found to have at least one tyre at or below the legal minimum tread depth of 1.6mm. Driving with tyres so worn is not only illegal in some cases, but can have serious effects on the level of control that the driver will have in the car, not to mention having a serious impact on the cornering ability and stopping distances in both dry and wet conditions. In addition to this, a further 48 per cent had tyres that were at or below 3.0mm, which is generally considered the point at which the greatest potential of a tyres ability to perform has been used up.
Aside from tyre wear, more than half of all cars tested had tyres with incorrect tyre pressures. Not only can this affect the safety of the tyre but can have a huge impact of the car's fuel consumption as the engine needs to work harder to overcome the increased rolling resistance of under-inflated tyres. In the long term this can also increase tyre wear. When asked, a quarter of motorists say that they never check their tyre pressures.
Anything else?
Given that your tyres are the only part of your car that is actually in contact with the road, perhaps more attention should be paid to the condition in which they are kept. For the short amount of time it takes to check and adjust your car's tyre pressures, and given how much money you could end up saving in the long term, isn't it worth the extra few minutes?