Consumer information and Reporting safety defects
13-2
For U.S.A.
The following information has been compiled ac-
cording to Code of Federal Regulations “Title 49,
Part 575 ”.
Uniform tire quality grading standards
This information indicates the relative performance
of passenger car tires in the area of treadwear, trac-
tion, and temperature resistance. This is to aid the
consumer in making an informed choice in the pur-
chase of tires.
Quality grades can be found where applicable on
the tire sidewall between tread shoulder and maxi-mum section width. For example:
Treadwear 200 Traction AA Temperature A
The quality grades apply to new pneumatic tires for
use on passenger cars. However, they do not apply
to deep tread, winter type snow tires, space-saver
or temporary use spare tires, tires with nominal rimdiameters of 12 inches or less, or to some limited
production tires.
All passenger car tires must confirm to Federal
Safety Requirements in addition to these grades.
Treadwear
The treadwear grade is a comparative rating based
on the wear rate of the tire when tested under con-
trolled conditions on a specified government testcourse.
For example, a tire graded 150 would wear one and
one-half (1-1/2) times as well on the government
course as a tire graded 100. The relative perfor-
mance 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 character-istics and climate. Traction AA, A, B, C
The traction grades, from highest to lowest, are AA,
A, B and C. Those grades represent the tire ’s ability
to stop on wet pavement as measured under con-
trolled conditions on specified government test sur-
faces of asphalt and concrete. A tire marked C may
have poor traction performance.
