Cheap nasty tyres spotted

[Rob 131 Sport]

Red 5 said:

Countdown said:

We'll have to agree to disagree.

There are two roads near to me that over the last 10-15 years have changed from NSL to 50. I personally know 3 people who have had accidents on one of them and somebody at school totalled his dad's car on the other one. Both roads were really nice to drive - lots of curves, generally good visibility, a mix of bends, climbs and dips. However they could catch you out if you were going too fast / not paying attention. It's a shame that one of them is now covered by ASCs and the other one has had speed cameras added to it but it wasn't done arbitrarily. It was done because people kept crashing.

I only know about these because they're local but I'd be surprised if a similar process didn't apply to other roads where the speed limits had been reduced.

There’s little point is discussing anecdotal exceptions. We all know some of them.

In the South, we see vast sections drawn on a map, then get told they are already going to reduce the NSL roads by between 33% and 50%.
Look at Wales. Not only ruined for fun driving, but also for actually getting anywhere. Lots of limits are set below a speed at which I’d drive on a freezing misty night in December. Purely politically motivated.
It’s done because there is a powerful anti-car lobby and they want us taxed out of cars, but criminalising normal driving is also a favourite.

[foxbody-87]

VeeFour said:

I do wonder if those who think 'Triangle' tyres are perfectly acceptable have experienced the true horror of oddly named budget rubber.

I've had LingLongs, Roadstones and Dark Horses on used cars I've bought.

All of which were absolutely lethal.

Even Mrs VeeFour, who isn't the world's quickest driver, described a car she bought as 'a death trap' after experiencing the prolific grip of budget crap on wet roundabouts.

If you've had three sets of absolutely lethal tyres how are you still alive, though?

[What The Deuces]

Joey Deacon said:

I thought the majority of powerfully built directors could tell if a car was rear wheel or front (wrong) wheel drive within 5 meters of pulling away?

I'd also suggest googling 'the 50m test' that Richard Parry Jones advocated so famously

[Bobupndown]

Nothing like a set of triangles on all four corners

Really? Which think tank sat down to brain storm a name for their new (presumably round) tyres and came up with "triangle"?

[Evercross]

What The Deuces said:

FWIW I dont class Nexen in the same category as a GoodRide/Nicelife/LingLong etc etc

You still have some way to fall

TBH I don't rate them, not because they are poor for driving but because they represent poor value. No better than the aforementioned Greenmax or an LS588 Landsail yet commanding a 'mid-range' price (if I was inclined to replace like with like - they came on the car).

If anything Nexen are a testament to branding/naming being as much a factor in product perception.

Edited by Evercross on Friday 21st July 12:58

[7 5 7]

I am running a set of 'Hilos' and 'Delintes' on my shed, quite like them, they replaced some rather old and tired Bridgestones.

[ChocolateFrog]

Bobupndown said:

Nothing like a set of triangles on all four corners

Really? Which think tank sat down to brain storm a name for their new (presumably round) tyres and came up with "triangle"?

There's loads of terrible Chinese brands with silly names. Triangle seems almost deliberately obtuse, maybe that's the point.

They're not even the worst because you've heard of them. There's plenty around that are so obscure even when you Google them not much comes up.

[MitchT]

ChocolateFrog said:

There's plenty around that are so obscure even when you Google them not much comes up.

Tell me about it! I've seen a lovely BMW for sale but it has Churchill tyres on it. Can't find anything much online other than a topic I started on here asking if anyone knew anything about them. Car is otherwise perfect but the tyres are putting me off. It'll be about £800 to swap them for Goodyear Eagle F1s as per factory spec.

[Gad-Westy]

MitchT said:

ChocolateFrog said:

There's plenty around that are so obscure even when you Google them not much comes up.

Tell me about it! I've seen a lovely BMW for sale but it has Churchill tyres on it. Can't find anything much online other than a topic I started on here asking if anyone knew anything about them. Car is otherwise perfect but the tyres are putting me off. It'll be about £800 to swap them for Goodyear Eagle F1s as per factory spec.

I've had the odd conversation with garages about this when looking at cars. They look at you like you're mental when you say you'll need to budget for a new set of tyres. They've just forked out 50 quid a corner for some brand new Margerinis and you're talking about tossing them in the bin. It doesn't always completely put me off on a trade car as I know they will routinely just throw something cheap on to sell it and 99% of customers will not care at all but it is massively off putting when buying privately. As others have said, it's not some kind of fool proof rule but it's an immediate red alert along with a Halfords service history.

Edited by Gad-Westy on Friday 21st July 16:19

[MitchT]

Gad-Westy said:

I've had the odd conversation with garages about this when looking at cars. They look at you like you're mental when you say you'll need to budget for a new set of tyres. They've just forked out 50 quid a corner and some brand new Margerinis and you're talking about tossing them in the bin. It doesn't always completely put me off on a trade car as I know they will routinely just throw something cheap on to sell it and 99% of customers will not care at all but it is massively off putting when buying privately. As others have said, it's not some kind of fool proof rule but it's an immediate red alert along with a Halfords service history.

The dealer with the car I've seen says all its cars are prepared to main dealer standard. To be fair, they have 97% five star reviews from 287 on Trustpilot, so they must be doing something right, but I'd want an extra £400 off on the basis that a BMW main dealer car would have had good tyres on it, albeit possibly worn down to as little as 3mm, so half the cost of a new set of Goodyears would seem fair.

[Strangely Brown]

MitchT said:

Gad-Westy said:

I've had the odd conversation with garages about this when looking at cars. They look at you like you're mental when you say you'll need to budget for a new set of tyres. They've just forked out 50 quid a corner and some brand new Margerinis and you're talking about tossing them in the bin. It doesn't always completely put me off on a trade car as I know they will routinely just throw something cheap on to sell it and 99% of customers will not care at all but it is massively off putting when buying privately. As others have said, it's not some kind of fool proof rule but it's an immediate red alert along with a Halfords service history.

The dealer with the car I've seen says all its cars are prepared to main dealer standard. To be fair, they have 97% five star reviews from 287 on Trustpilot, so they must be doing something right, but I'd want an extra £400 off on the basis that a BMW main dealer car would have had good tyres on it, albeit possibly worn down to as little as 3mm, so half the cost of a new set of Goodyears would seem fair.

Well that's clearly not true and if they are happy to lie about something that is so obviously wrong and visible then what else are they lying about? Personally, I would walk away. YMMV.

[cptsideways]

Having worked in the automotive industry much of my life I can assure anyone at the point you might need to use your tyres to the maximum potential to save a life or yours you'll be thankful for decent ones. Having worked for multiple tyre & car manufacturers doing industry testing I've seen the difference is massive at times.

You'd be amazed at how hard ESP systems have to work to save the day on crap tyres.

I'm really surprised the insurance industry haven't cottoned onto this one yet. Stipulating minimum standards for tyres for them to cover you for anything other than third party. There was word of the tyre industry lobbying for minimum standards in Europe.

Some of what is coming over to feed the cheap is frightening in it's ability to do anything other than be black and round.

[The Wookie]

ChocolateFrog said:

There's loads of terrible Chinese brands with silly names. Triangle seems almost deliberately obtuse, maybe that's the point.

I see what you did there

[Lotobear]

I'm going to raise the bar, I use parts worns and the last parts worns I bought were Winruns

Nothing wrong with them really, a bit noisy but just fine on my 12 year old Allroad and only £45 a corner fitted.

[LunarOne]

cptsideways said:

Some of what is coming over to feed the cheap is frightening in it's ability to do anything other than be black and round.

I do understand that people who have no interest in dynamic driving, and who mainly just potter about in 30pmph zones don't need anything better than good enough. But if you are someone who drives for enjoyment, and you have a car which you bought because of its dynamic properties, and who might take their car to the track, or the mountains, or do high speed runs on the autobahn, or those who take their car to snowy places on ski trips or even those who knowingly do exceed speed limits (rightly or wrongly) - I think those are the kinds of people who are much more likely to push the limits of grip from time to time, and for whom buying good tyres well suited for their intended use is a worthwhile expense. You wouldn't take your car on track with winter tyres. You wouldn't go on a skiing trip on semi slicks. And if you're serious about driving, you wouldn't put ditchfinders on your £30k+ sports car. I'm not averse to a bit of shed driving, but even my sheds have known brand tyres from Michelin, Pirelli, Goodyear or Continental.

[nunpuncher]

Bought a van back in February that had 4 brand new Cumfarters on. Might be comforters or even comfortars, the only other place I;ve seen them was on one of the CarTrek series where they continually ripped the piss out of Hoovies car for having them.

Anyhoo! It wasn't a great sign of things to come(forter) when I wheel spinner away from the dealership on minimal throttle. They seemed to scrub themselves in a bit and were tolerable on a shed on wheels even in the Scottish winter. Then along came the summer and the inevitable rain and greasy roads. Holy Christ on a bike! It's like driving a bloody canal boat. The worrying thing is that I'm actually starting to quite enjoy turning for a corner 50 yards before I get there then throwing a bit of opposite lock on half way in to straighten the ice skating shipping container up for the exit. And all usually done at about 10mph under the speed limit.

I figure that if I stick with them I'll either be dead in 6 months or will be one of the greatest drift artists in the world.

[ChocolateFrog]

cptsideways said:

Having worked in the automotive industry much of my life I can assure anyone at the point you might need to use your tyres to the maximum potential to save a life or yours you'll be thankful for decent ones. Having worked for multiple tyre & car manufacturers doing industry testing I've seen the difference is massive at times.

You'd be amazed at how hard ESP systems have to work to save the day on crap tyres.

I'm really surprised the insurance industry haven't cottoned onto this one yet. Stipulating minimum standards for tyres for them to cover you for anything other than third party. There was word of the tyre industry lobbying for minimum standards in Europe.

Some of what is coming over to feed the cheap is frightening in it's ability to do anything other than be black and round.

Interesting point about insurance.

I've heard they can get uppity about winter tyres.

It's headbangingly frustrating that you have to inform them that you're fitting a set of Michelin Alpin's but a set of the cheapest summer ditchfinders worn down to 1.6mm in January is fine.

[ChocolateFrog]

Lotobear said:

I'm going to raise the bar, I use parts worns and the last parts worns I bought were Winruns

Nothing wrong with them really, a bit noisy but just fine on my 12 year old Allroad and only £45 a corner fitted.

I bet they're ste. Not worth it even if they've got 7.9mm on which seems unlikely.

[Lotobear]

ChocolateFrog said:

Lotobear said:

I'm going to raise the bar, I use parts worns and the last parts worns I bought were Winruns

Nothing wrong with them really, a bit noisy but just fine on my 12 year old Allroad and only £45 a corner fitted.

I bet they're ste. Not worth it even if they've got 7.9mm on which seems unlikely.

No they are not ste at all actually - they had 7mm on and still going strong. It's the right thing to do from an environmental viewpoint and I can't tell the difference from the previous Toyos.

It depends what you want really, I only need to car to go back and forth for work and other things so part worns suit me just fine and save me money which is no bad thing.

If I was a powerfully built PH Co D I would obviously be going for something very, very expensive and way in excess of what is needed for everyday use but, sadly, I'm modestly waged and need to cut my coat accordingly - there is a cost of living crisis on after all.

[Andy616]

McLaren 540c from the "Lots of car for the money" article.

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