Why the difference between new tyres and worn tyres is absolutely frightening
I got into an argument with my mother recently. I pointed out that the tyres on her Jeep Renegade were looking worryingly bald and she insisted her mechanic had told her they were legal. They had at least 1.6mm of tread on them across the central three-quarters of the circumference of the tyre.
Her mechanic was right. But it still troubled me. They might have been legal, but they looked like a bit of a liability. However, my mother is stubborn, so she ignored my pleas to go and get them changed and she plodded on.
She actually went on to do two trips to Wales and various school runs with my niece and nephew. Eventually they came up as an advisory on her MOT so she finally caved in and bought some new ones.
I can remember feeling relieved at the time, but a recent demonstration I went to the other day really hammered home just how relieved I should have been.
The nice people at eBay invited me to Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire to illustrate to myself, and a host of other journalists and influencers, just how much difference a fresh set of rubber makes to the handling of your car.
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So, on a gorgeous sunny day, I strapped myself in to eBay's borrowed Ford Puma STs and followed the instructions to carry out a series of tests, in two cars - one fitted with new tyres, the other one fitted with tyres that were just on the legal limit.
In each car I had to do a 70mph brake test, then drive it as fast as I could in a circle, then I had to hit a slalom course at 25mph.
The brake test was relatively easy. Drive up to 70mph, reach a set of cones, stand on the brakes. I brought the Puma to a stop in 65.3 metres. The highway code reckons it should be 96 metres so I was pretty chuffed with that.
And then I did the same test in the second car, on the worn rubber. And it went around 10 metres further before it came to rest. That 10 metres could have fit three small cars in it. Or, to put it in a slightly more alarming way, I'd have piled into the back of three more cars if I'd had to stop for real on a motorway.
Slightly unnerved, I moved on to the second test. Barreling around a Tarmac lake in a hot hatch is fun, you didn't need me to tell you that, but it took some really silly helmsmanship to unsettle the sticky Continental tyres on the Puma and to bother the traction control.
In the second car, however, it was a different ball game. On our wettened tarmac circle, in front of Millbrook's impressive Concept 1 venue, I could feel the tyres struggling to contain the shifting weight of the car straight away. The traction control fought back constantly as I deployed the usual tricks to try and get it to spin.
And as I increased my speed, steering inputs became pretty much futile as the front wheels understeered - I could play around with the steering wheel as much as I liked, but the momentum of the car just wanted to carry me out of the circle. A quick lift-off would throw the back end out, with the traction control doing its best to quell the oversteer and stop me spinning. This was a graphic illustration of just how sticky fresh tyres are - and how much trouble you could get into with older worn-out rubber.
The third test, a 25mph slalom, sounded harder than it actually was. On the fresh tyres I tore through it cleanly, missing all the cones. No problem.
On the worn rubber, it was certainly more of a challenge. The car still pitched and rolled in the same way, but the tyres were less able to tuck the front end in neatly enough, which meant I was losing control on every turn. By the penultimate cone, I was really struggling to complete the sequence. My rhythm was ruined, and I clipped the cone.
I felt embarrassed, but actually, that was the point eBay was trying to make. Keeping an eye on your tyre tread, the age of the tyres, the condition they're in and the pressure you've got in them is so important.
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While my data was downloading I asked eBay's representatives why they were going to so much trouble to make a point about keeping fresh tyres on your car.
The message was all part of promoting eBay's new tyre fitting service, which enables customers to buy tyres from independent sellers on its familiar platform, at eBay's famously cheap prices, and then get an installation arranged at the same time.
EBay has 3,000 installers across the country, so you just put in your tyre size, pick the ones that suit your budget and requirements, then add an installation.
On the next page you'll be given a list of garages that are near to you, and they'll all offer you a price for the installation of the tyres you picked. You can filter them by price or distance.
And then, once you've paid a combined price for your tyres and installation, the tyres will be delivered to the depot, and the installers will contact you to arrange getting them fitted.
It's a great one-stop shop, and another option for people who are keen on getting the best deal, especially considering how expensive tyres can be.
And I guess that's why we tend to overlook our tyres. EBay tells me many people wait until their MOT tester flags them up, just like my mother did, and people just don't seem to realise how poorly their car will be performing when they're close to or on the legal limit.
But I do now. And, remarkably, I was right and my mother was wrong. That almost never happens.
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