Close to half of UK motorists are ‘unfamiliar’ with the labels printed on the side of car tyres, new research has shown. A survey of 2,000 drivers conducted by eBay found that 47 per cent of those questioned have ‘no understanding’ of the safety information printed on a tyre whatsoever, while two-thirds didn’t know what these labels were really for.

Each EU tyre is printed with key readouts detailing efficiency ratings, wet grip classification and road noise level, as well as diameter and width. However, on average, motorists identified the tyre labels incorrectly two-thirds of the time, with the ‘icy conditions’ marker most frequently mistaken. In contrast, two-thirds of those questioned managed to correctly identify the ‘wet grip’ class indicator, which is highlighted by a raining clo

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