Tire Shopping Made Easy: A Closer Look at the Types of Tires and Their Impact

Are you looking for a reputable tire shop that can help you find the right type of tires for your vehicle? Fortunately, you’re in luck because your search led you to the tire experts at Loganville Ford. We take great pride in being a full-service automotive center dedicated to handling all your automotive needs, from our showroom floor to our service and parts department.

Shopping for tires is often overwhelming because, let’s be honest, tires are an investment. As your vehicle’s only point of contact with the road, you don’t want to skimp on tires because it can negatively impact your safety behind the wheel and how your car performs. However, that doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune on tires or dread the process, at least not when you work with us.

We’re here to kickstart your search for new tires by sharing our expertise. Join us as we highlight the different types of tires and how they can impact your experience behind the wheel. From there, we’ll review what happens during installation and the tire services that should be part of your routine maintenance schedule.

Exploring the Different Types of Tires: How Do You Choose?

Tires may serve the same purpose on every vehicle, but not every vehicle requires the same types of tires. Why? Cars, trucks, and SUVs handle differently, from performance-tuned sports cars with a penchant for speed to trucks used to tow heavy loads and SUVs that venture off the pavement and tackle technical terrain. The type of tire directly impacts your vehicle’s performance, which is why many different types of tires are available, most differentiated by their tread pattern and rubber compound.

All-Season Tires

All-season tires are among the most common and are often found on sedans, crossovers, and larger SUVs. As the name implies, they are designed for year-round performance in areas where conditions never reach extremes. The rubber compound can handle the summer heat and colder winter temperatures, and the symmetrical tread pattern optimizes traction in slippery conditions like rain or snow.

Why choose an all-season tire? These types of tires are incredibly popular because of their year-round versatility. With regular rotations, they are extremely durable and can log thousands of miles without fail. Likewise, they can withstand the Georgia heat just as readily as they can handle the occasional snow and ice storms that affect the region throughout the winter.

Performance Tires

Performance tires and their ultra-high-performance counterparts appeal to drivers who want a more engaging experience behind the wheel. These tires have a unique tread design that heightens traction and responsiveness, each with a specific speed rating that reflects what it can handle. For example, performance tires with a speed rating of H can handle speeds up to 130 mph, while ultra-high-performance tires with a Y rating can handle speeds of up to 186 mph.

Why choose a performance tire? Performance tires aren’t ideal for everyone for many reasons beyond the obvious. These tires are typically more expensive and, because of this, aren’t suitable for logging miles on your everyday commute. Instead, performance and ultra-performance tires are perfect for drivers with a road warrior dedicated to pushing the envelope, whether on winding backroads or the track.

Touring Tires

Think of touring tires as an upgrade to all-season tires. How so? Where an all-season tire provides year-round capability, a touring tire enhances that year-round performance by improving ride quality and mitigating road noise. These tires are known for delivering a smooth ride and responsive performance without compromising traction, thanks to their asymmetrical tread pattern and higher speed rating.

Why choose a touring tire? Touring tires are excellent for drivers who value the versatility of an all-season tire but want a better, more comfortable ride. Like their all-season counterparts, they are excellent for everyday driving and only falter in extreme conditions and temperatures.

All-Terrain Tires

All-terrain tires are widely popular on trucks and SUVs because they are versatile on various types of terrain. These tires are easy to differentiate from touring and all-season tires because they have a more aggressive tread pattern with larger blocks and more voided areas. This unique design improves traction, allowing water, sand, mud, dirt, gravel, and rocks to move through the voided areas. Because of this, all-terrain tires are typically used on off-road-oriented vehicles destined to venture off the pavement.

Why choose an all-terrain tire? All-terrain tires offer outstanding capabilities in many driving conditions, whether your weekday commute means spending time on the highway or your weekends involve blazing a new trail in the woods. This versatility makes them an excellent investment, but the perks don’t stop there. The tread pattern isn’t aggressive enough to negatively impact ride quality, longevity, comfort, or efficiency.

Mud Tires

Mud tires are perfect for drivers looking to venture off the pavement and deeper into the woods. With a significantly more aggressive tread than all-terrain tires, mud tires have more voided areas and prominent tread blocks to improve traction on softer terrains. Mud and sand can move through these deeper voids, with the larger tread blocks maintaining traction despite the softer and slippery conditions.

Why choose a mud tire? Mud tires are far more aggressive and are perfect for dedicated off-road vehicles. They have reinforced sidewalls that make them more durable in extreme conditions. However, the aggressive tread pattern means a significantly bumpier and noisier ride.

Run Flat Tires

Run flat tires are becoming increasingly popular as more drivers discover their many benefits. First introduced in the 1980s, this type of tire lives up to its name and can be driven when the unthinkable happens and you’re faced with a flat tire. When a run-flat tire is punctured, the tire continues to work without negatively impacting your control behind the wheel. This gives you the opportunity to drive your car to our service shop or an area where it’s safe to change the tire.

Why choose a run-flat tire? Run flat tires are becoming more common because of their stability. While you can’t drive on a run-flat tire indefinitely after it’s punctured, it’s an excellent investment and usually standard on luxury vehicles.

Maximizing Your Investment: From Installation to Routine Maintenance

Tires are an investment, whether you opt for all-season tires on your crossover or mud tires on your 4WD SUV. Because of this, it’s crucial to get the most from your tires by relying on our team to handle installation and routine maintenance. We’ll help you find the perfect set of tires and oversee the initial mounting and installation, setting you up for success behind the wheel.

You can turn to our team for routine tire rotations, which extends the life of your tires by promoting even tread wear. This service is included with every oil change, mitigating inconvenience and ensuring you get more for your money with each service. We can also handle balancing and wheel alignments, both services that can dramatically improve how your vehicle handles by ensuring the wheels are correctly balanced according to manufacturer standards and aligned with your vehicle’s suspension.

Your Tire Destination

Shopping for tires doesn’t have to be overwhelming or exhausting when you know who to trust. We are thrilled to share our expertise and help you find the right tires for your performance and driving needs. From there, we’ll partner with you to protect your investment with routine tire care every mile ahead.