A worrying 13% of drivers put off making repairs to their cars last year, including replacing illegal tyres, due to cost, according to a survey by YouGov.

But deferring annual services and not buying critical safety components, such as tyres and brakes, is a false economy in the long run, which could lead to accidents, fines, penalty points and vehicle damage.

Motorists who are put off replacing their tyres by concerns about high prices should turn to the internet to keep costs down, according to etyres, the UK’s leading online tyres fitting company.

Etyres, which has been singled out for recommendation by TV car consumer champion Quentin Willson, offers tyres up to 40% cheaper than leading tyres depots.

It provides a mobile service, which means the fitter goes to the customer to change the tyres.  This eliminates the need for expensive depots and with lower overheads etyres can recycle savings into cheaper prices for customers.

Oliver Hall, Operations Team

Bridgestone have come under fire for tyres they are supplying to this seasons Formula One teams, according to media reports.

By Oliver Hall

Goodyear chiefs are bouncing for joy after winning a prestigious award for their tyres protection product from the rubber industry.

The DuraSeal technology, which belongs to the company’s Max Technoogy concept, is used in Omnitrac truck tyres to combat punctures.

The tyres have an additional layer beneath the tread which consists of a special yellow gel-like rubber mixture.

When the tyre is penetrated by an object, such as a nail, the gel flows into the puncture and forms a plug, which is impermeable to air.

DuraSeal also seals the puncture, up to 6mm in diametre, when the nail is removed. The technology allows vehicles with punctures to remain in operation until the tyre is repaired or retreaded.

Goodyear received the Product Award 2009 in the elastromer category for DuraSeal from the German Rubber Association.

Typically, vehicles in the waste management and construction industries suffer from regular punctures. Repair or replacing tyres and the associated downtime means high costs.

The technology is now available to order in South Africa.

Holidaying motorists should be on their guard against thieves who use their tyres to trick them into being robbed.

Travellers lose billions of pounds each year to series of scams, cons and tricks - the majority of which occur in foreign destinations when people are at their most vulnerable.

Here are just two examples:

Tyres - you are driving along the motorway when a driver draws alongside you, pointing to one of your tyres and gesturing to you to pull over. You stop on the hard shoulder and the other driver kindly pulls over to help. While you inspect the tyre, he lifts all your valuables from the front seat.

Flyers - another version of the scam is you return to your parked car and get in, only to see a flyer stuck under the rear window wiper obscuring your view. So you jump out to remove it, thieves nip in and grab your valuables or drive off in the car - more than likely taking your bag/shopping with it.

Tips - if you fear you have a flat tyre, try to continue until the next service station. If you do have to remove the flier, ensure your valuables are hidden. In both cases, always keep the car locked.

Denna Bowman, Head Office

By Oliver Hall

Vehicle owners have been warned about the dangers of driving with under-inflated tyres, by consumer watchdoge magazine Which?

The research team took a typical family hatchback – a Peugeot 308 – and deliberately deflated one or more tyres at a time to see how it affected the cars performance.

In every case its anti-lock braking system (ABS) was less effective and the fuel economy was worse.

The researchers reduced the pressures of the different tyres from their original setting of 2.4bar (35psi), first by 0.5 bar, then by 1.0 bar and then by 1.5 bar (down to 13psi). As a guide, one bar = 14.5psi (pounds per square inch).

They found that when the right front tyre was deflated, the biggest risk was to how the car gripped the road when a sideways force was applied. After accelerating round a fixed-bend from 37mph to 60mph they measured how much sideways slip there was.

When the pressure in the right front tyre dropped by just 0.5 bar, the cars ability to keep its line was reduced by 7%.

When the pressure dropped by 1.0 bar, it lost one third of its lateral grip, although further reduction made it no worse. The car was also slower at making an emergency lane-change (in the dry).

A drop of 1.5 bar brought the maximum swerve speed down from 44mph to just over 37mph.
Fuel use increased a little – by about one or two miles a gallon.

When the right rear tyre was deflated there was has far less effect on safety, with one exception.

In a situation such as when you have to change lanes in an emergency where the load is suddenly transferred on to the back wheel, a reduction of 1.5 bar led to diminished lateral grip, reducing the maximum test speed from 44mph to about 39mph.

When all the tyres were deflated the performance was generally similar to having low pressure in the right rear tyre, although the ABS was more effective.

There was a similar drop in how quickly you could change lanes while still keeping control of the car, as was seen with one tyre deflated.

By Alex Kapadia

Summer is here and you know what that means – autumn clothes in the shops and winter ranges wheeled out by the tyres manufacturers!

Pirelli has just announced its line up of winter tyres for the 4×4/SUV and van markets.

So here’s a preview of the tyres the Italian company want to see the best dressed cars sporting for 2009 to 2010.

The Scorpion Ice & Snow is designed to work particularly well at low temperatures and is produced in aspect ratios 35 to 75 Series, wheel diameter codes 15 to 21 and speed codes T, H and V.

The Chrono Winter, meanwhile, is available for vans in aspect ratios 60 to 75 Series, wheel diameter codes 14 and 16 and speed codes R, S and T.

Both tyres are emblazoned with the “Snowflake” symbol in the North American market, which is embossed on the sidewall of winter tyres that indicates their specialisation for snow.

But will they make your car’s bumper look big?

Formula One world championship leader Jenson Button has put his tyres nightmares behind him and is confident he will bounce back to form with a strong performance in this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

After two difficult races in Britain and Ger­many, where cool conditions stopped him getting heat into his tyres, the Brawn GP drivers believes the hotter weather in Hungary, plus upgrades for his car, will see him back on the podium at the circuit where he picked up his maiden win in 2006.

While Button and his Brawn team-mate, Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello, have battled to generate any heat in their tyres at the last two colder races, their two main rivals have enjoyed their superiority.

The Red Bull duo of Australian Mark Webber and German Sebastian Vettel, delivered two successive one-two triumphs at Silverstone and the Nurburgring to underline their bid for world title glory.

But Button, who has been training hard at his home in Monaco, is still 21 points ahead.

He said: “I know that the guys at the factory and at Mercedes-Benz have been working really hard on our latest upgrade package and I just can’t wait to get back in the car.

“We need to make another step and to show our performance is still there. Red Bull have stepped up their game and it is up to us to respond now, and I am certain we will.

“The Hungaroring is one of my favourite races and I feel good about it even more so this year as it should finally see a return to some real summer temperatures. I’ve been at home in Monaco for the past week concentrating on my training because I know how physical it can be there with the heat.”

Button won six of the opening seven races this year before the Red Bull revival in colder climates and after the German race, he said: “This is hurting now. If Vettel had won here that would have been a disaster for me.”

His team boss Ross Brawn said: “I know we face another fierce battle, but we have significant upgrades on the car for Budapest and they will give us performance gains.

“The last two races at Silverstone and at the Nuerburgring were frustrating for the team. We could not achieve the full potential of our car at the same time as our competitors have taken a good step forward.

“However, the problems we faced were unique to the circumstances of those races and we are confident that the inherent performance of our car has not disappeared. Now we have to focus again.”

Alex Kapadia, Operations Team

As vehicle owners search around to find cheaper tyres, it’s worth remembering what Britain’s top motoring writer Quentin Willson has to say on the subject.

Asked by a reader of his Sunday Mirror motoring column if he should opt for a set of reasonably priced tyres made in China to save a few pounds, this is what Quentin had to say:

“There are a lot of Chinese and Taiwanese tyres on the net and they may be e-marked for safety, but they rarely get tested for severe weather and braking.  Don’t worry about whether they wear out faster, worry about how well they stop.

‘Autocar magazine did a test and found one Chinese brand needed an extra 10 metres of stopping distance in the wet.  Scary.’

Quentin has recommended etyres to his readers on more than one occasion, writing recently: ‘There’s a company on the internet called etyres.  If you ring them up, they’ll deliver new tyres to your door in their van, then fit them on the driveway.  Their tyres are a lot cheaper than the places on the high street.’

Before you set off on your holiday this summer remember to take good care of the car you’re leaving behind.

You wouldn’t leave a bottle of milk in the fridge for two weeks and you shouldn’t leave your car sitting on under-inflated tyres.

Slight punctures have a nasty habit of turning into flat tyres and nobody wants to come home to that, anymore then they want to find fungus in the fridge.

It only takes a few minutes to check the tyres pressure to give you peace of mind and you can do it when you’re out and about buying your holiday essentials.

But if you do come home to a flat tyre, don’t despair, etyres won’t burst your holiday bubble.

Our mobile fitting service means you won’t have to worry about finding a way of getting your car to a garage or taking time off work to sit in a depot getting a new tyre – we come to you!

We fit tyres at a location of your choice – at home or work – and because we don’t have expensive depots our overheads are low so we pass the savings on to our customers with cheap tyres prices – up to 40% lower than the leading high street depots.

And when you come back from your holidays the last thing you want is another big bill to load on to your credit card!

Denna Bowman, Head Office

By Alex Kapadia

For aspiring young racing drivers the opportunity to smoke the tyres in a supercar has just arrived!

And it won’t just be the kids who are screaming with delight once they get behind the wheel of a Lamborghini or a Ferrari - it’ll be the sound of the tyres as they stop dreaming and start driving.

The amazing 6th Gear Experience offers any young person – boy or girl - the opportunity to get behind the wheel of a legendary supercar.

The only proviso is that they are at least 4ft 10ins tall and can reach the pedals!

Then the budding Jenson Button’s or hopeful Lewis Hamilton’s can choose between a real Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Ferrari or Audi R8 to make their dreams come true.

Ideal as a holiday treat, Christmas or birthday present, or even as an exam pass or other incentive, a TeenTrackAttack supercar drive is exactly that – a thrill-a-minute driving experience.

All cars feature an automatic gearbox and are very straightforward to drive, so no previous driving experience is necessary, although more confident drivers can opt to change gears using the ‘paddle shift’. Cars are also fitted with dual controls, and an experienced instructor sits alongside in the passenger seat to ensure each driver gets the maximum enjoyment in complete safety.

6th Gear Experience currently operates from two principal tracks, at Prodrive, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, and Elvington Airfield, York. Two new locations, near London and Manchester will be added shortly.

TeenTrackAttack prices start at £89 for 10 - 15 minutes driving in one of the four cars above on a specially coned circuit.