Does tire speed rating matter?

guptash · Post by **guptash** » 14 Jan 2005, 09:56

1995 850 Wagon - non-Turbo

Volvo recommends V-rated tires, what will I loose or risk if H-rated were put into it. Some stores refuse to even put in H-rated when manufacturer recommends V-rated, others do not care.

Advise or opinion is needed.

Does tire speed rating matter?

Post by **matthew1** » 14 Jan 2005, 10:32

How fast do you plan to drive?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 14 Jan 2005, 11:51

It's really more of a personal decision:

If you scroll to the bottom of this page you'll see what the speed ratings are rated at:

http://volvospeed.com/Repair/tireinfo.htm

Basically if you're not gonna be pushing your car to hard the H rated will be a slightly better ride, but you'll lose some performance. If you look at the tires you'll see that the V rated will be more agressive in tread patterns and style and generally will wear out faster. But you get a bump in performance and a little better handling and maybe stopping power?... I'm not positive on that.

So basically with anything that you put on your car just see how you plan on driving it and choose accordingly. And also it is acceptable to put H rated tires on your car... if a place won't put them on because the manufactuer recommends V rated that's just a bunch of BS.

One last note... you could also buy the performance tire for just the summer and use an all-season or more moderate tire the rest of the year.

Hope this helped.

guptash · Post by **guptash** » 14 Jan 2005, 12:33

Thank you, that helps.

My driving is simple highway within speed limit driving and therefore I will get H-rated this time.