Strathclyde Tyres Blog

Goodyear tyres helped to speed Volvo hybrid truck Mean Green on its way to two new world speed records in April.

The Volvo hybrid established new world speed records on 27th April at Utah’s historic Wendover Airfield, eclipsing its previous marks established in June 2011 at the Hultsfred Airport in Sweden.

Firestone, part of the Bridgestone group, has extended its European winter tyre range with the launch of the Winterforce studded tyre for severe Nordic winter conditions. Its pattern provides confident braking and traction in ice, snow and slush conditions.

Firestone Winterforce is a studded tyre for passenger cars in Europe. It has studs on the shoulder and lateral ribs, which provide confident acceleration and braking on ice and compact snow, enhanced by a combination of sipe designs across the whole tread area for maximum biting edge effect on frozen surfaces.

What do motorists get up to in the car when alone behind the wheel?  One third of drivers sing in the car, while 23% just get lost in their thoughts, according to a recent AA/Populus poll.

Singing in the car seems to be a trend amongst the young which declines with age, as 60% of 18-to-24-year-olds sing in the car compared to just 13% of over 65s. There are more car singers in Scotland and the East Midlands than any other part of the country.

Strathclyde Tyres, one of Scotland's leading independent tyre dealers, has announced a new service partnership agreement with global tyre manufacturer Bridgestone, which will see a potential extra annual revenue of £120,000 per annum for the company.

With a reputation for outstanding service, innovative tyre management programmes and value for money, the company secured the contract following a strong period for the business. Last year it reported annual turnover in excess of £6 million and it anticipates exceeding that in 2011/12 by as much as £1 million.

Hankook has announced that it is now an Original Equipment tyre supplier for the new generation BMW 3-Series. Hankook's new high-performance Ventus S1 evo² tyres - initially in the size 205/60 R 16 W - will be fitted as standard on the BMW 3 series versions 316d to 320d and 316i to 320i.

The brand-new 3-Series is the third model from BMW Group to be fitted with Hankook tyres, joining the new generation BMW 1-Series and MINI Cooper.

Which?, the consumer champion, has awarded Best Buy status to tyre-maker Continental in two popular tyre sizes for both the ContiPremiumContact 5 and ContiEcoContact 5.

The Which? Car Best Buy endorsements reveal the must-have tyres across various popular sizes. The awards highlight exceptional performance with an overall ranking and are seen as an important indicator for consumers looking to choose the best product available.

Tyre company Michelin has launched a FaceBook game, aimed at teaching road safety skills to young drivers.

Young drivers are much more likely to be involved in road accidents than older drivers, and it is hoped that a social media site, such as FaceBook, will be a good way to reinforce their road awareness and safety skills.

The Range Rover Evoque has won the Women's World Car of the Year 2012. The award, which is only three years old, is granted by a jury panel of women motoring writers from 12 countries.

According to Chief Judge, Sandy Myhre from New Zealand, speaking in 2010, the awards were created “simply because we felt there was a need for the collective voice of women to be heard since the majority of cars of the year or the favourite cars of motoring magazines or newspapers are chosen by men.”

Bridgestone Potenza RE050A tyres have been selected as original equipment for the Renault Clio R.S. Red Bull Racing RB7, launched in March 2012.

The sporty 200-horsepower deep-black limited edition has been developed to celebrate Renault’s Formula 1 Constructors’ title with Red Bull Racing in 2011. It rides on 18-inch alloy wheels fitted with ultra high-performance Potenza RE050A tyres in size 215/40R18 89W. Around 350 Clio R.S. Red Bull Racing RB7 hatchbacks will be produced.

One in five (18%) motorists have driven cars without a valid MOT certificate, according to research from Britannia Rescue. Two thirds of these say they did so unknowingly because they had forgotten to check the renewal date on the certificate. A third say they were aware at the time and drove the car anyway.

If you are caught driving a car without a valid MOT, you can be given three penalty points, be fined up to £1,000 and invalidate the car's insurance.

Strathclyde Tyres is pleased to announce that, in a recent survey from March 2012, 96.8% of our customers stated that they were ‘highly satisfied’ with the service they received (with only 3.2% stating that they were fairly satisfied). This was in respect of tyres purchased, MOTs, servicing and other services provided by our staff at Strathclyde Tyres across our branches in Scotland.

This was complemented with other positive feedback received on our services in our key locations in Johnstone, Coatbridge, Kilmarnock and Leven, with over 60% strongly agreeing that we provide a modern service, over three quarters strongly agreeing that we provide a customer friendly service.

Seventy-one percent of motorists are driving on under-inflated tyres, according to Bridgestone. The company calculates that this habit is leading to the equivalent of 2 billion tons of wasted fuel, worth €2.8 billion a year.

The 38,000 tyre safety checks were conducted by Bridgestone at shopping centres and public car parks around Europe, as part of the company’s regular tyre safety campaign activities.

Performance sport tyres overtook luxury tyres to gain the top spot in a recent survey of customer tyre satisfaction by marketing information firm J D Power and Associates.

The report, the '2012 US Original Equipment Tire Customer Satisfaction Study,' surveyed over 27,000 new-vehicle owners who purchased a 2010 or 2011 model-year vehicle. It reveals that owner satisfaction with performance sport tyres increased 29 points to 686 on a 1,000 point scale, compared to last year.

A few simple tyre checks could make all the difference this Easter, according to tyre safety organisation, TyreSafe.

Punctured or torn tyres were the second most common reason for calling out the AA in 2011, and breakdown associations are bracing themselves for another flood of calls over the forthcoming holiday period.

Firestone has launched the Firehawk SZ90µ RFT for the replacement market, the brand’s first tyre with Run-Flat Technology in Europe.

The tyre’s reinforced sidewall rubber construction enables the driver to continue driving safely if the tyre deflates or suffers a total loss of pressure, says the company.

RAC patrols have witnessed a near 20% surge in call outs from motorists stranded in their cars because they’ve run out of fuel over the past twelve months, says the motoring group. In February 2012, 4,780 motorists called an RAC patrol because they’d run out of fuel, compared to just 3,900 one year earlier.

The record high price of petrol and diesel is likely to be a leading cause of the surge of drivers running dry. Diesel is now running at over 146p/litre and petrol at over 139p/litre, meaning a driver of an average car with a 55 litre tank faces a bill of £80 to fill up on diesel - £17 more than in February 2010.

Lower road tax, female drivers and inconsiderate motorists are some of the best and worst things about British roads, according to a survey by Swinton.

The car insurance retailer surveyed its customers about motoring in Britain and, despite being tarnished with a bad reputation for driving, 41.1% of respondents voted women as the best drivers on the roads, with men trailing behind at 31.5%.

One of the innovative technologies on display at the 82nd Geneva International Motor Show is Goodyear's Air Maintenance Technology, a self-inflating tyre system that can help reduce fuel consumption.

Visitors to the show will see how tyres can remain inflated at the optimum pressure without the need for any external pumps, electronics or driver intervention.

Tyre safety organisation TyreSafe is reminding drivers that they could reduce the amount they are spending on fuel simply by making sure that their tyres are correctly inflated.

According to TyreSafe, apart from improved safety and the reduced risk of experiencing a dangerous blowout, correctly inflated tyres provide lower running costs. This is because the rolling resistance of an under-inflated tyre increases, meaning that a bigger force or more energy is needed to make it turn.

More than half of drivers (53%) are risking deadly pile-ups on motorways by driving too close to the vehicle in front, according to research by road safety charity Brake and Direct Line.

The figures reveal that more drivers are taking this deadly risk compared to seven years ago (49%), and men are far more likely to do it than women, with a horrifying three in ten male drivers (30%) doing so at least weekly.