When selecting a new set of tyres, you are going to find there are dozens of different options available to you. From all weather to snow, performance to used, there is really any make and model available to you for tyres. One of the newest editions to the tyre line-up are run flat tyres. These tyres are designed to still drive, even after a puncture. This, in theory, allows you to drive to safety and patch or replace the tyre then. However, this isn’t always the case, so it is best to look at the good and bad of purchasing and using run flat tyres.
If you hit a sharp nail or other object in the road, and the tire is pierced, you are able to drive to a safe location, often up to 60 miles, before you need to change out the tire. As long as you know the tire has an obtrusion you are fine. So, if you suspect you have driven over something sharp, it is extremely important to check over the tires for any sort of puncture or object stuck in the tire. If you spot anything it means you need to go and have the tires patched, or even replaced. This is an excellent safety feature to ensure you never lose control of your car, on the point of impact.
There is still a few major downsides to this. The main being if you don’t know you have a flat, you don’t know when to pull over and when to have the tire patched. So, eventually the tyre is still going to run out of air, it is just more gradual. This still leaves you out with a flat tire that you need to fix yourself, essentially rendering the run flat tires useless.
On top of this, the run flat tires technology is more expensive than standard tires, so you end up spending more money for the feature. And although it saves you the chance of a spin out do to a sudden flat tire, you may still need to replace the more expensive tires once a flat occurs, causing you to spend even more money, if you decide to go with another run flat option. Between the money and not knowing if the tire is actually flat or not, you may be better off just going with a solid set of standard tires, which in turn are going to save you a considerable amount of money. And, with standard tires, you are not left constantly checking for a flat, because you know exactly when you have a flat or not.
