Today’s Hot Topic from TyreQuote.com is ‘Tyre Labelling’.
Sounds fascinating, doesn’t it?! Well to us, it could be. Let me explain…
In November 2012 another bit of European red tape will hit our shores and this time the impact will be on tyre retailers. The lovely people in Brussels have decided that all tyres should come with a label that allows consumers to easily compare 3 criteria – Fuel Efficiency, Wet Grip and Exterior Noise.
The labels will look much like the sort of thing you see on fridge freezers with coloured bands that range from a greeen ‘A’ to a rosy red ‘G’ with A being the best and G being the worst. We assume that low noise is good and higher noise is bad – contrary to what many motor enthusiasts believe to be true of their exhaust or engine notes!
So far there’s not much noise from the major tyre retailers about the forthcoming tyre labels, it will certainly cost them to ensure that all the right labels are displayed in the right places but in our view the concept is a good thing. At TyreQuote we already grade almost all of our tyres for Dry Grip, Wet Grip, Tyre Wear and Comfort. We then compile these measurements for an overall grading to help you purchase the right tyres for your motoring needs. We shall certainly be looking to add Fuel Efficiency and Noise to those gradings as soon as we can tease the data from the manufacturers.
We know that picking the right tyre can be a confusing task, especially if you do few miles each year and care little for the mechanics of the rubber wrapped round your wheels. The average punter is very much in the hands of the salesman/mechanic in their local fitting centre and we’re not saying that is a bad thing, but having clear and concise labels on each tyre has got to be an improvement on just the bewildering impressions of letters and digits we find on tyre sidewalls these days.
TyreQuote.com say yes to EU Tyre Labelling and look forward to displaying them on our site as soon as we can get the relevant data from the manufacturers.
James