And now...a review of some tyres.

This is a sponsored post. And it's about tyres. Read on! 

Once upon a time I was a penniless student. I had no licence to drive and no car to drive if I did.

My Dad told me he would buy me a car but he gave me two conditions that I would need to meet before he would be handing over the keys.

First, I needed to get myself a job, I would be responsible for the petrol, services, insurances and tyres.

I also had to prove to him that I could change a tyre. On my own. This was so that if I needed to change a wheel in the middle of nowhere I could do it.

I ticked both of these boxes and became the proud new owner of a 1980 Datsun 200B. It was baby blue on the outside and baby poo on the inside. It had air conditioning. I was thrilled.

I wish I had a photo of me and the Datsun, I know somewhere there is one of me sitting on the car, spiral perm giving me the 2 minute noodle look of the early 90s. But someone else must have it, I can't find it.

I kept that car until it wouldn’t drive from A to B any longer and in all that time I never changed a tyre on it again. Those tyres never went flat the whole time I had it. This is possibly because Dad also had a thing about having good tyres.

Remember how Dad had just bought a new car the week he died? He loved that car, but had said to Mum, “the tyres are ok, but we will get new ones still”.  But that was just one of the things on his to do list that week that didn’t get done.

I, however, got an email asking if I wanted to check out some new tyres. Good ones.

Why yes, actually, I believe I do!

Mum and I headed to the tyre shop with strict instructions from my brother that we were to bring the old tyres home with us (Is this normal? Don't know, but we did as we were told.)  

A coffee and a few pieces of cake later and the new tyres were on.

They are black, they are rubber, they are round and guess what – they look just like the other tyres to Mum and me.

But looks can be deceiving, they looked the same, they felt the same, but they didn’t sound the same.

They are ever so quiet. Not like most SUV tyres. 

Mum doesn’t like driving in the city so I get to pretend I am not in our old rust bucket and to drive her car when she visits. I also drive her car around when we are in the country (best to get hers all dirty and not mine).

The Goodyear Efficient Grip tyres are good. I know this because the men folk stood around discussing how the heck Clairey got asked to review tyres like these, they touched them and rubbed them and made faces with their mouths as they nodded silently, mmm, not bad tyres. Mmmm, you'll get a good few years out of those...yep, you wont be needing to worry about tyres now... Mmmm, this blogging thing seems alright...

Black, round, rubber.

Goodyear tells me that the efficient grip actually does more than provide peace and calm regarding noise levels. They also say it shortens braking distances, offering lower rolling resistance, this is good to know, but I am not going to put it to the test when on the school run.

But if  you find yourself needing new tyres for your SUV and you are looking for something that allows you a peaceful ride – just tell them you want the Goodyear Efficient Grip, see if they will make them look as pretty as this one.

The fact remains though, that even though I was taught well the skills required to change my own tyre I have still never actually done it. 

Can you, have you, changed a tyre all on your own?