When looking at new tyres and brakes, there’s always a lot of misinformation thrown around as about what is the best for your car.
The difference between economy tyres, budget, semi-slick, all terrain, wear and speed ratings and even the different load rating can have a major factor in keep you safe and alive.
When coupled with the various different types of brake pads and rotors available, this can add up to an expensive and confusing mess. Do you want a more expensive tyre or a more expensive set of brakes?
The reality is that in most circumstances, your car’s factory style brakes are more than capable of bringing you to a very quick stop and that they’re limiting factor is actually the tyre. It’s far too common to see a modern car with incredibly powerful brakes that are ineffective when coupled with a poor-quality tyre.
The easiest way to show this is through the ABS system in your car (we’ll cover this at a later date).
If your car is fitted with ABS and you were to attempt an emergency stop, you will almost always fell the brake pedal pulse or hear a pulsing noise through the car. This show’s limitation in the tyre as the braking system is able to overcome the grip of the tyre.
The other outcome of this test is that you’re not able to feel the ABS override (pulsing), which shows an ineffective braking system. If this is the case on your car, you should always start by trying to improve the braking system as the tyre is not your limit.
Does this mean that you should spend thousands of dollars on a set of tyres though?
Well not particularly. If you are an average driver that doesn’t take your car to the track or something of that nature, the reality is a high-quality economy tyre is probably suitable for you.
Our best advice is actually quite the opposite of what you might think, in that, if you are an average driver with an average car, the best tyre and brake combination might be the average.
Alternatively, if you have a high-performance car or a 4WD vehicle with lifted suspension or a bigger tyre, we would very much recommend that you spend fair money on both tyres and brakes to ensure that you’re able to stop in an emergency or from speed.