Tires

About Tires

The tire decides how your car grips before the wheel or the suspension get a say. A summer tire on a WRX or a GR86 is the single biggest handling change available to you, and it's useless below freezing. An ultra high performance all season gives up the last of the dry grip for something that still works in January. A track tire is a third thing entirely and it disappears on the street.

Size is where people guess and get it wrong. Section width has to suit the wheel width, and you'll find the maker's rim width range on every tire page. Stretch one on a wide wheel and you're trading sidewall protection for the look. Taller sidewall, more arch filled, softer ride. Your door jamb sets the load index and the speed rating, and load rating is part of the fitment guarantee.

Packages leave here mounted and balanced, so all that's left is bolting them on and setting the torque. Most of the names you'd expect are here, from Michelin and Continental through to Toyo and Nitto. Noise, tread life and wet grip trade against each other on every model, and the ratings on each page come from the maker rather than from us.

Common questions

What size fits my wheels

Whatever the wheel listing recommends for your car, and these pages filter to it once a wheel is in the cart. The width has to land inside the rim width range the tire maker publishes. Keep overall diameter close to factory so the speedometer and the fender gap stay honest. Anything too wide for the wheel or too tall for the arch won't stay on the list.

Summer or all season

Summer if the car never sees freezing weather and grip is the point. All season if it does. A summer compound goes hard in the cold and loses grip quickly below freezing, and it wears fast if you drive it on snow. An ultra high performance all season trades a little dry grip for a tire that works all year. In Arizona, summer. In Ohio, you're buying two sets.

Can I stretch a tire

Inside the rim width range the maker publishes, yes. Past it the bead sits at an angle, the sidewall pulls in and you're outside anything the maker tested. A mild stretch tucks a wide wheel under the arch and leaves the lip exposed to curbs. Each tire page shows the approved range and we flag a combination sitting outside it.

Do packages come mounted

Yes. A wheel and tire package leaves here mounted and balanced, with sensors fitted if you added them and any rings or lugs boxed alongside. You bolt them on and torque them. Bare tires ship on their own for a local shop to fit, and each listing makes clear which of the two you're buying.