Cheap tyres

[AndyT77]

I was just browsing for new tyres on Camskills, and was suprised to find that you can buy 18" tyres for a MkV Golf GTI from about £32 each! Of course i wouldn't put these on my car, but i can certainly see the advantage of tyre prices like this if you're looking to sell your car and want minimum bargaining tools for the prespective buyer.

Does anyone on here skimp on tyres? I have in the past when i had less performance orientated cars, and had to adapt my driving style accordingly!

[ging84]

that is without delivery or fitting
you would probably be looking at £40 fitted, most tyre shops will sell you a budget tyre in most common sizes for £40 or less
18" wheels are now fairly common

[Rincewind209]

The really "Budget" tyres tend to be ok in the dry and nightmare in the wet.

[philmots]

If I was looking at a Golf GTI with a spanning set of ditch finders I'd still use it as a bargaining tool, they may as well be on the wear bands as I'd be swapping them asap.

[AndyT77]

philmots said:

If I was looking at a Golf GTI with a spanning set of ditch finders I'd still use it as a bargaining tool, they may as well be on the wear bands as I'd be swapping them asap.

Me too to be honest, but as a seller/trader inner, i wouldn't accept that as a bargaining tool. I'd just remind them that they don't physically need to spend any money on new tyres, as the new 'ditch finders' were brand spanking and of course road legal.

[kambites]

AndyT77 said:

philmots said:

If I was looking at a Golf GTI with a spanning set of ditch finders I'd still use it as a bargaining tool, they may as well be on the wear bands as I'd be swapping them asap.

Me too to be honest, but as a seller/trader inner, i wouldn't accept that as a bargaining tool. I'd just remind them that they don't physically need to spend any money on new tyres, as the new 'ditch finders' were brand spanking and of course road legal.

Except with the most specialist of cars, no trader is going to give you money off for it because for every potential buyer who notices, there will be 100 who don't.

[Evanivitch]

It's pretty sad that people don't pay attention to the quality of their tyres.

Even amongst the branded performance tyres you can see a difference of several metres in a braking test. That's the difference between avoiding the crash and planting yourself firmly into the back of a truck.

[CallorFold]

Tyres are one thing I made an effort to check on all cars I went to view. Miss-matched tyres or poor quality tyres just lead me to believe the car wasn't really as well looked after as it could have been. It's not a deal breaker, but it's great to see a full set of same-brand premium tyres all round.

[andy-xr]

I buy part worns, I'm not too bothered on the brand and dont really go all out to spend a day reviewing the possible options o websites of dry vs wet vs ice grip. I go by the tread depth, the make and the location. You can get some really really cheap tyres this way, full set of winters for mine was £100 fitted with 7mm tread, the Mrs KA was £45 for a full set with 5mm all round. Run them to 3mm, change for another lot

The only time I'd ever buy tyres new is emergency stuff, because it'd spit me into the arms of Kwik Fit and their range and prices arent the sort of thing I want to be involved with.

[16plates]

You can get budget 255/35/19 for £50.

If i turned up to buy a performance car on budget tyres, even if they were brand new, i'd still see it as a haggling point/something i'd have to shell out on immediately.

[SmilerFTM]

CallorFold said:

Tyres are one thing I made an effort to check on all cars I went to view. Miss-matched tyres or poor quality tyres just lead me to believe the car wasn't really as well looked after as it could have been. It's not a deal breaker, but it's great to see a full set of same-brand premium tyres all round.

It is a deal breaker for me, when I found my current car I got it down to a list of around 10 or so I wanted to look at. I rang each dealership and asked exactly what rubber was in each of the four corners and the condition. My list soon shrank to just 2 cars, I just can't see the point in spending a few thousand only to then find yourself needing to spend a few further hundred on the tyres.

[JuanGandini]

Personally if I was looking at second hand cars and they were on budget tyres then I couldn't help but think that if the owner scrimped on those then what else is he/she scrimping on in terms of looking after the car? Would raise alarms bells to some degree anyway. Just a thought.

[wildcat45]

I have quality tyres on my cars. One still on its factory rubber, the other on tyres reccomended by the owners club.

What I don't understand - and I would love it to be explained to me - is how it is possible in the UK, or even the EU, to buy new dangerous tyres.

If I go to buy a kettle, electric razor, sofa, washing machine etc etc, I know it has to be safe, to meet basic standards with things like a CE mark.

I know that's a guarantee of safety, but it's a fair indication.

So how when tyres are so important to safety can I buy dangerous tyres here from reputable companies?

[TurboHatchback]

I always buy the best tyres possible for my cars though I have bought several cars with newish cheap nasty tyres already on.

• My Clio 182 had Nexens on it, they were hopeless. Replacing with a set of Michelin Pilot sport 3s completely transformed the car
• My Mk5 Golf GTI had 'Event' tyres on the front, again they were hopeless, it couldn't put the power down at all. Putting a matching set of Eagle F1s on made a big difference.
• My current Audi A6 4.2 FSI Quattro has nearly new 'Accelera' tyres on. They are a bit slippery in the wet but in the dry they seem perfectly fine so far though I think the quattro helps with that impression. I would like to change them but I can't justify throwing a set of basically new tyres away and spending £500+ on their replacements at the moment . I will get some decent Michelins or Goodyears on it at some point though.

[TurboHatchback]

JuanGandini said:

Personally if I was looking at second hand cars and they were on budget tyres then I couldn't help but think that if the owner scrimped on those then what else is he/she scrimping on in terms of looking after the car? Would raise alarms bells to some degree anyway. Just a thought.

You'd think but the previous owner of my car got everything done at the Audi main dealer (full service history with invoices) regardless of cost including new tyres and the dealer put on Acceleras. This rather suprised me but that what the paperwork says .

[HustleRussell]

The margins are normally bigger on cheap tyres.

[cheesesliceking]

yay, this thread again.

[Lundqvist]

As others have said, if I was looking at a car and it had ditch finders all round, I'd immediately be assuming that other maintenance had been skimped on as well and be walking away. If you care about your car, you care about your tyres.

In fact, I'd say that a pretty much worn out set of Michelin's would be more attractive to me (even though they'd get swapped straight away) than a brand new set of Landsails...

[Daston]

I have some very interesting rears on the RX7, they seem to be made of solid granite or something. They are ok in the dry but in the wet they are uhhh "fun" I don't think I have driven anything so tail happy you really have to be wide awake.

They will be changed asap.

[MysteryLemon]

TurboHatchback said:

• My Clio 182 had Nexens on it, they were hopeless. Replacing with a set of Michelin Pilot sport 3s completely transformed the car

In contrast, I had Nexens on my Bravo HGT and they were great tyres. Really grippy in both wet and dry and the car felt really planted on them at all times. Would have them again.