Given that a vehicle purchase is typically the second largest expenditure for most people, many will lavish great care upon their cars, with some personalisation to boot. What might be your first port of call – a bodykit, engine upgrades, maybe a fruitier exhaust, an exterior wrap or a new set of wheels?

The first upgrade one should make to a car is the tyres. This is especially important if you’ve bought a used or grey-import car, as you don’t know just how long the tyres have been sitting there on the showroom floor. It’s likely that they haven’t been used for quite a while, and this may have caused the tyres to harden, thus giving significantly less grip on the road.

These pre-used tyres may still look good, have a healthy amount of thread left, and even still be fairly new (from the date of manufacture printed on the tyres themselves), but just a few months of sitting around, not being used is enough to affect the characteristics of the tyre compound. A set of hardened tyres give out less grip and may result in inconsistent handling, making your vehicle tricky to control in emergency situations.

Tyres, after all, are the only contact points between your car and the road. So if you’re considering upgrades for your car, new or current, get new, good quality tyres first, like the Toyo Proxes Sport.