The insurance company may well be more than a little antzy if anything less then the OEM is fitted

True, and worth bearing in mind, but I cannot imagine that 91W is required on the Focus - I had a 2.0 Mondeo in 1996, and the speed rating on that was only H. W equates to 168mph, I don't think the Focus would get terribly close to that.

Edited by Mike H on 08/03/2011 at 20:18

it's normal for the tyre rating to exceed tha car's capability. The manufacturers are CTOA. If they did any less then they'd be legal fodder.

Well, the manual was as much use as a chocolate fireguard :)

However, Pirelli and Dunlop both list the tyres for my car as being 205/55R16 91T (yes, T) and Bridgestone are suggesting H for a winter tyre (V for summer).

Is this "good enough", I wonder? I suppose the only way of knowing for sure is to call Ford.

Thanks for the help.

Thanks for all the responses, especially turbo11. If a very similar car (which the Mazda3 is) can take the H tyres, and three major tyre manufacturers say it's OK, then I'm fairly happy with that.

I'll give the car another look over tomorrow, but I have to say that I've not found anything to suggest the answer to the question on any labels.

The irony is that the "sweet spot" for value-for-money winter tyres, which seems to be the Nankang SV-2 (which gets some very good reviews on-line, lasts well and seems to have more than adequate grip in all weathers) is available in V-rating anyway so this might be academic. It's just that a lot of products are only available in H, hence the question.