Owner's Manual
Buying New Tires
To find out what kind and size
of
tires you need,
look
at the
CertificatiodTire label.
The tires installed
on
your vehicle when
it
was
new
had
a
Tire Performance
Criteria Specification (TPC Spec) number on each tire’s sidewall. When you
get new tires, get ones with that same TPC Spec number. That way, your
vehicle will continue to have tires that are designed to give proper
endurance, handling, speed rating, traction, ride and other things during
normal
service
on
your
vehicle.
If
your tires have an all-season tread
design, the TPC number
will
be followed by a
“MS”
(for mud and snow).
If
you ever replace your tires with those not having
a
TPC Spec number,
make sure they
are
the same size, load range, speed rating and construction
type (bias, bias-belted or radial)
as
your original tires.
Uniform Tire
Quality
Grading
The following information relates to the
system
developed
by
the United
States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which grades tires
by treadwear, traction and temperature performance. (This applies
only
to
vehicles sold
in
the United States.)
Treadwear
The treadwear grade
is
a
comparative rating based on the wear rate
of
the
tire when tested under controlled conditions on a specified government test
course. For example, a tire graded
150
would wear one and a half
(
1
1
/2)
times as well on the government course as
a
tire graded
100.
The relative
performance of tires depends upon the actual conditions
of
their use,
however, and may depart significantly from the norm due to variations
in
driving habits, service practices and differences
in
road characteristics and
climate.
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