Some of the pass-by noise a car makes comes from the tyres. By choosing a tyre with a good noise rating you can lower the impact of your driving on the surrounding environment.
What does the EU noise rating measure?
The EU rating measures the external noise emissions of the tyre in decibels.
Since many people are unfamiliar with decibel values, a loudspeaker image with black waves is shown to signify how noisy the tyre is. The more waves there are, the louder the tyre.
Decibel levels are measured on a logarithmic scale. This means that an increase of just a few decibels represents a big difference in noise levels. In fact, a difference of 3dB doubles the amount of external noise the tyre produces.
Think about the many thousands of cars on our roads each day. If we all chose tyres with lower noise ratings, imagine how much quieter our towns and cities would be.
