What is one letter actually worth? The wet grip grade on a tyre label runs from A to E, and unlike almost everything else printed on a tyre it describes something you would recognise if it happened to you: the distance between hitting the brake pedal on a wet road and stopping.
The grades are steps rather than a sliding scale, and each step is worth a few metres in a hard stop on a wet surface. That does not sound like much until you consider where those metres get spent. They are the last few, between the front of your car and the back of somebody else's, and they are why two tyres of the same size can be very different products. It is a better guide than the name on the shoulder or where the tyre sits in a range.
Nothing about this is urgent, which is the point. Choosing tyres is one of the few decisions about a car you get to make calmly and in advance, with the car sitting where it normally sits.
Whether the car is on the drive in Shepherd's Bush or a side street in Brook Green, the fitting happens there. If you would rather we came to you on Shepherd's Bush Road at the end of the working day, that is fine too. Whether it is Brook Green in rush hour or Great West Road at midnight, we answer. On King Street, day or night, Shepherd's Bush included, arrival across W6 runs 30 to 60 minutes.
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Fitting new tyres around here comes down to where the car can stand still for an hour. A residents bay off King Street works, so does a driveway near Brook Green, so does an office car park along the Great West Road. Tell us the size and the right ones turn up on the van.
A customer near Barons Court asked us to bring both so they could be compared side by side. Physically they look much the same. The difference lives in the compound and in how the tread blocks are cut.
Buying two rather than four means the pair you keep matters. We look at what is on the other axle and put the same grade or better on so the car brakes evenly. A strong pair in front of a poor pair is worse than four ordinary tyres.
One premium tyre we were asked about had been graded for low noise and low rolling resistance rather than wet braking. That is a legitimate design and the wrong one for somebody doing short wet journeys. We said so, and fitted something less famous that stopped better.
No. It comes from a standardised test on a standard vehicle and surface, which is what makes it useful. It compares tyres against each other under identical conditions rather than predicting what your car will do.
It matters far less to most drivers. It describes rolling resistance, which shows up slowly across thousands of miles, whereas the wet grade shows up in one afternoon. Where the two letters pull in different directions, take the grip.
Across axles it is common enough and not a problem in itself. On the same axle they should match, because two tyres of different grip brake unevenly. If you are replacing a single tyre, tell us what its pair is and we will bring the closest match.
Many are, because a compound that works in the cold is a compromise in warm wet weather. That does not make them wrong for somebody doing short local journeys through the winter. It does mean reading the actual grade rather than the description on the box.
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