It is no secret that tyres are crucial components of a car – just look at what is happening in Formula One these days. While there is no comparison between those tyres and the ones on our cars, it is still important to choose the right tyres for your car if you want to maximize safety and comfort.

To begin with, you have to choose between tubeless and tube tires. For the reasons listed below, I recommend tubeless:

1. Tubeless tyres do not burst, since there is no tube.
2. The tube valve of tube tyres will get cut if you drive with low tyre pressure. This is not an issue with tubeless tyres. So for extra comfort, you can run the car with a little lower tyre pressure. There is no risk.
3. With tubeless tyres, If the tyre gets punctured by a nail, you can still reach your destination. With tube tyres, you would only be able to travel a few meters.
4. When running with tube tyres, you will always have to carry a spare tyre and jack. With tubeless tyres, the jack and spare would be needed only if you hit a stone directly, which is rare. However, on Indian roads I would never travel without a spare tyre.

With my experience, tubeless tyres are much better for safety and comfort. But it seems some drivers get a flat tyre immediately after switching to tubeless, and then think that tube tyres are better. I say this is a coincidence. Stick with tubeless.

My next piece of advice is this: Choose higher profile tyres. They are more suited to Indian roads. To understand what tyre profile is, it is necessary to understand the tyre code that is molded onto the sidewalls of tyres. This code is easier to understand visually, and the below image does a good job of explaining it:

Image taken from http://heffernantyres.ie/

In the above image, the tyre profile (or aspect ratio) is 55. I recommend a minimum of 50. The higher the profile, the more rubber there is between the ground and your car. So now you know why I advise higher profile tyres: more rubber, more cushioning.

Run flat tyres are the opposite of what I recommend (on Indian roads). These tyres are low profile, are used in high end cars, and are very good only at high speeds of above 200 kmph. But the speed limit on our highways is something between 80kmph and 100kmph, I think. So why bother? To properly use these tyres, the road must be like a runway. Instead, it’s better to switch to normal high profile tubeless tyres. The comfort will noticeably and considerably improve. Autoguide has a very good article on the pitfalls of run flat tyres. Please read it and be sure to take a look at the comments section also.

So, there you have it: For maximum safety and comfort, go with tubeless, high profile tyres (minimum profile: 50) and avoid run flat tyres.