While many of us may claim to know little or nothing about car maintenance, the importance of either getting a professional to look over your vehicle regularly, or learning the basics yourself, have been highlighted by a recent survey which found that 60% of drivers don’t know the legal tyre depth for their car. Being caught driving a car with un-roadworthy tyres can have major consequences for the driver with fines of £2,500 and 3 penalty points added to the licence of anyone caught with a single tyre which has tread below the legal requirement. The fine could rise to as much as £10,000 should all four tyres be deemed unacceptable for use on the road as the standard fine and penalty points is multiplied for each additional bald tyre. Despite the serious consequences for driving with bald tyres, a survey by car insurance comparison website, Confused.com, found that 60% of drivers don’t know the correct tyre depth, whihc is 1.66mm, while the same percentage don’t know how to put air in their tyres, while 14% admitted they didn’t even know they had to put air in their tyres. Another major repercussion of driving with illegal tyres is that your insurance may not cover you if you have an accident which could have been prevented had your tyres have had better grip. To ensure you’re not caught with illegal tyres, car insurance experts recommend the 20p trick. Place a 20p coin in the main tyre tread, if the rim of the coin is covered by the tread, then your tyres are legal for use on UK roads.