SWEETIESAL

Hands up who is completely clueless when it comes to their car? Thought so..

Today I thought I’d talk about the important topic of car safety and in particular, tyres!!

Now, I am sure you all got the whole driving test, show me/tell me and theory test highway code trivia nailed, but in actual fact have you ever been able to judge what low tread actually looks like and feels like? If you can, then brilliant. This post isn’t about shaming anyone, it’s more of a thought provoker of how dangerous it can be when you unwittingly drive around with ‘end of life’, bald, or damaged tyres.

I’m guilty of this too I must add!!

Tyre safety contributes to over 1200 road accidents and being caught driving with defective tyres can result in a hefty £2500 fine along with 3 points on the license. And that is before we consider the potential danger you put yourself and others in.

I drive a rather nippy little Mini and after a lifetime of #tyreprobs with my old cars, I do try and pay more attention to it now!

Most car garages will check over your tyres for free. Places like Kwik Fit, Tyre-Shopper.co.uk, National.co.uk and Point S are great for this service. If they are low on pressure they will often also top you up and advise if you have an tracking problems. Perfect tracking is where your car will drive straight and you won’t have to hold the wheel to do this, imperfect tracking is where you might have dented the inner rim of your wheel, which is easily done with all the pot holes around these days and the result is that your car will pull to one side and you will find you need to manually direct your car back to straight driving. The effects of this are that your tyres will wear down unevenly and can cause other problems elsewhere in your car.

I can highly recommend Point-S tyre dealers in Manchester as they sorted my tyres for me. They have loads of brands in stock, good prices and you can prebook your tyres and fitting online at a time that is convenient for you. Bonus!

So, before it gets icy and driving conditions become even more dangerous, maybe add a tyre once over to your to do list?