Not all tires are made the same. When getting new tires for your car it can be hard to pick which tires to purchase. The Government provides testing for nearly every tire line available for purchase. However, not everyone knows what the reports the Government gives means. A summary can be read below.
Tire Scores
The Government supplies a rating system called the UTQG (Uniform Tire Quality Grading) scale. The list provides the tire maker, tire type, tire size, treadwear score, temperature rating, and traction ratings. It is not as difficult as some think it is. They grab a control tire and test it. Once the testing is completed they record a rating to compare the other tires against. The tread life of the baseline tire is assigned a rating of 100 - so if your tire has a treadwear rating of 200 you can expect it to last around twice as long as the baseline tire. Nearly 4,000 tires are rated in the UTQGS report. There are sites that break these down in easy to view ways listed below.
Temperature Ratings
High temperatures make tires wear our quickly. To see how a tire performs in high temperatures all are ranked either A (best), B, or C (worst). Only 27% of all tires got a score of A.
Traction
Traction ratings rank how well a tire grips the road. They are recorded as AA, A, B, or C. 75% of tires received an A for this rating (only one rated as a C. Traction is critical, especially in snowy and wet climates.
Treadwear
Treadwear gives an idea of how long the tire can last under typical driving circumstances. Nearly all tires fall between a rating of two-hundred and four-hundred. The higher the score the longer you can expect the tire to surive. Remember, the baseline tire has a score of one-hundred so a tire with 300 will survive about three times as long. You should also use this to compare tires. If a tire has a rating of 200 and another has a score of 300 then you can expect the 300 to last fifty percent longer than the 200.
Hopefully this has helped answer some questions you might have had about what the ratings on your tires mean. If you would like to find out more try seeing: Tire Wiki Ratings for more info on tire ratings and how each tire did or My Tires to find out what goes on your car and your car's specs.
