Cheap tyres

[fivepointnine]

g3org3y said:

With the emergence of decent mid-range brands such as Kumho, Hankook and Vredestein, cheap(er) doesn't need to mean nasty.

There are some absolutely great tyres in the mid-range brands. Avon's and Hankook's are among the best in my opinion.

[PlayersNo6]

bhstewie said:

I've had a couple of surreal conversations when I've tried local places for tyres where they almost don't seem prepared for people to be bothered to ask which exact tyre they're quoting on - a bit of a rinse and repeat of "They're Michelins" "Which ones?" "Michelins" "Yes but which model?" "Michelins".. you get the idea.

Probably because they don't actually keep them in stock and have rung the wholesaler for a price on 'Michelins'

[jamiebae]

For me part worn tyres are even worse than budget ones in terms of safety and risk. Where do you think they've come from? Generally there are three sources - crashed cars, lease cars where the fitter swaps out a potentially repairable punctured tyre, or tyres imported from other countries where they are punctured but can't legally repaired.

By law they have to be permanently marked as 'part work' but almost never are, they don't get properly checked before sale and without knowing the history I wouldn't the saving a few quid in return for that risk personally.

[Ghost91]

jamiebae said:

For me part worn tyres are even worse than budget ones in terms of safety and risk. Where do you think they've come from? Generally there are three sources - crashed cars, lease cars where the fitter swaps out a potentially repairable punctured tyre, or tyres imported from other countries where they are punctured but can't legally repaired.

By law they have to be permanently marked as 'part work' but almost never are, they don't get properly checked before sale and without knowing the history I wouldn't the saving a few quid in return for that risk personally.

Actually lots of them aren't necessarily punctured but come from countries like Germany where the laws on tread depth are much stricter so perfectly decent quality tyres are chucked away - sold to the UK.

Personally I don't touch them these days, when I was younger and on a tight budget I don't really think they're that bad.... Wouldn't have them if I had kids though to be on the safe side

[jamiebae]

Ghost91 said:

Actually lots of them aren't necessarily punctured but come from countries like Germany where the laws on tread depth are much stricter so perfectly decent quality tyres are chucked away - sold to the UK.

Personally I don't touch them these days, when I was younger and on a tight budget I don't really think they're that bad.... Wouldn't have them if I had kids though to be on the safe side

I don't believe the German thing - I've heard it a lot but I've never seen or heard of anyone chucking stuff with 5mm left. Sure, they chuck out tyres at 3mm because when you're switching from Summers to Winters it isn't worth remounting and balancing something which won't last the season.

Nobody seems to have done a decent study into the source of the part worns in the UK, largely because the retailers like to keep their sources secret, for whatever reason...

[Moos3h]

A good few years ago I had an accident - was hit from behind whilst stationary and forced into the car coming the other way. Was nasty but we walked away.

Our brand new (6 week old) KA, however, was totalled. Interestingly three out of four of the tyres blew out on impact - they were the factory fit Michelin (Energy Saver IIRC).

I took from this that they all suffered serious trauma during impact, but whilst they were still inflated, MAY, just MAY have contributed to reducing the speed with which we were launched forwards and therefore perhaps saved our lives.

Regardless of the accuracy or otherwise of the above, I will never fit anything less than 'name brand' tyres - if that means I'm a mug or paying more than I should, so be it. Should I ever be in an accident again, I don't want to be thinking if something I did to prepare the car for the road resulted in harming someone or some thing.

[matchmaker]

BigMacDaddy said:

I recently bought an Ignis Sport, fitted with "Talon Triangle" tyres. Round ones would have been better no doubt, arf arf etc......

Anyway, I digress. They all had even wear and many, many mm of tread left on them, and last week we were scheduled to head up to Wales for a long weekend exploiting the excellent roads and scenery. I was in two minds whether to get them changed for something a little less obscure/cheap/undoubtedly deadly (delete as appropriate) before we went, but then thought I'd give them a chance; worst case scenario if they were really awful I could just pull into a KwikFit/F1/National somewhere en route and buy some new ones.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that actually they were pretty decent; excellent grip under some very spirited driving conditions, no skidding under heavy braking and good performance on some pretty varied road surfaces. The caveat to all of this of course being that I was driving a very light car in totally dry conditions. I've yet to experience their wet performance, and on a heavier vehicle they may not have coped quite as well.....

They don't have any My Octavia was terrifying to drive in the wet. Flogged all four within a month of getting them fitted.

[AndyT77]

cheesesliceking said:

AndyT77 said:

You don't have to partake.

Irony.

No thanks, i get my missus to do mine.

[otolith]

HustleRussell said:

The margins are normally bigger on cheap tyres.

I've read that. It wouldn't surprise me, given how hard people who make a living from tyres push the crappy things.

[KungFuPanda]

I need 265/35/19 on my S6 which is a little wider than on a normal A6. The price of AO rated Continentals is around £210 plus fitting. Tyre Leader have Toyo Proxes with an AO rating for £76 delivered. The only thing is, these are DOT rated 2012. I know people say rubber can degrade over time and you don't know how they've been stored. Personally, if I need a new set, I'll probably go for the Toyos.

[sebhaque]

Whenever I buy a performance car, I always use the "tyre test" - I ask the seller what tyres the car is on. If it's a private seller and they don't know, I don't buy the car. If you've got a decent car that needs more attention than a Micra and you don't even know what tyres it's on, then that's a car I'll avoid.

I'm of the belief that tyres are one of the most important things you should spend a bit of money on. I run my 370Z on PilotSport 3s all round, my MX-5 on UniRoyal RainExperts, my sheddy Rover on Toyo Proxes CF2, and my rolling shell Mini is on Sime tyres but will be swapped out for some sticky Yokohamas when the engine's running. Winds me up no end when friends of mine, who own respectably fast cars (Civic Type Rs, S-type Rs or Clio Sports) happily buy mismatched ditchfinders.

Whoever buys any of the rest of my family's cars should be pretty satisfied as they're all running decent Continental tyres all round - my sister even spent £70 a corner on Contis for her 1.2 Corsa. I have no apologies for influencing that decision.

[Ghost91]

sebhaque said:

Whenever I buy a performance car, I always use the "tyre test" - I ask the seller what tyres the car is on. If it's a private seller and they don't know, I don't buy the car. If you've got a decent car that needs more attention than a Micra and you don't even know what tyres it's on, then that's a car I'll avoid.

I'm of the belief that tyres are one of the most important things you should spend a bit of money on. I run my 370Z on PilotSport 3s all round, my MX-5 on UniRoyal RainExperts, my sheddy Rover on Toyo Proxes CF2, and my rolling shell Mini is on Sime tyres but will be swapped out for some sticky Yokohamas when the engine's running. Winds me up no end when friends of mine, who own respectably fast cars (Civic Type Rs, S-type Rs or Clio Sports) happily buy mismatched ditchfinders.

Whoever buys any of the rest of my family's cars should be pretty satisfied as they're all running decent Continental tyres all round - my sister even spent £70 a corner on Contis for her 1.2 Corsa. I have no apologies for influencing that decision.

That's a good test! But, you could potentially miss out on the man who pays through the nose for the best for his car with little interest as to what's actually being done to or gone on it. My dads a bit like that - he will ask what a good tyre is and get it, last time I noticed he had rainsports. He has 'the best' service every time done at well known decent specialist garages - but he hasn't got a clue what they do or why. Obviously it helps to keep a car good if you are clued up but sometimes a car has been very well maintained even if the owners a bit ignorant to it. And I know a lot of drivers like this too, who I wouldn't hesitate buying a car from

[gazza285]

Black and round on the van, Hankooks on the car. My Westie had Yokohama A539s on though.

[Mr2Mike]

r11co said:

People will now trot out the results of various tyre tests to try and prove I am wrong, but there are innumerable threads already in here where these are discussed and the point is made that the tests are neither objective nor conclusive as different tyres will perform better or worse on different vehicles based on other factors such as suspension set-up/geometry and brakes, or even the type of surface that the tests are conducted on and the ambient temperatures. All the tests tell us is the relative performance of the tyres on the particular test vehicle on the particular test track on a particular day.

The common factor in these tests is that some no name piece of Chinese crap inevitably comes last in the wet braking test. Must be coincidence I suppose.

philmots said:

You sound like someone who puts cheap tyres on their cars.

He's PH's resident defender of the cheap and nasty, promoter of the mediocre.

Edited by Mr2Mike on Monday 4th May 09:45

[HustleRussell]

r11co I don't see how like-for like testing of a range of tyres of the same size on the same car under conditions as close as reasonably practicable to 'controlled' is somehow not relevant to or representative of the relative performance of those tyres. Surely these independent tests are as close as we the consumer can get to objective performance analysis of the various tyres?

And yes, I have to agree with MR2Mike, they are most frequently footed by efforts from the far east.

[kambites]

Mr2Mike said:

The common factor in these tests is that some no name piece of Chinese crap inevitably comes last in the wet braking test. Must be coincidence I suppose.

Whilst this is true, there's usually also some Chinese tyre that I've never heard of up amongst the mid-range tyres as well. There's certainly a correlation between price and performance, but cheap does not always equal nasty any more than expensive always means good.

Nankang, especially, make some very capable tyres these days. Obviously they aren't going to be competing with Eagle F1s, but they're perfectly adequate.

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 5th May 10:59

[BorkFactor]

I tend to put matching decent tyres on my cars, thankfully my wheels are only 16" so not terribly expensive.

I had a very cheap Astra 2.2 SRI for a while that was bought as a runaround, and that had fairly cheap Kumhos on the front and mismatching budget tyres on the back. To be honest, it was absolutely fine in the year or so I had it in all weather conditions. Not saying you should skimp on tyres, but they really weren't that bad.

[r11co]

G

Mr2Mike said:

He's PH's resident defender of the cheap and nasty, promoter of the mediocre.

No. I'm just not as snobbish and irrationally judgemental of people who do not spend a disproportionate amount of their disposable income on tyres with a kudos brand, justifying the overreaction on some 'think of the children' safety crusade that bears no relation to reality.

Edited by r11co on Tuesday 5th May 11:04