Tyres - am I mental?

[Moos3h]

Having recently bought a new (to me) largeish saloon motorway muncher, I was disappointed to see the tyres are a mix of ‘Accelera’ and ‘Kpatos’.

I’m a fairly steady driver but do lots of miles and have always had a ‘thing’ for name brand tyres.

Car has just passed an MOT, and both sets have about 6mm of tread yet I’m considering getting them replaced (Good Year Eagle F1s are quite well priced at the moment).

Am I being daft, or would it be wise to look to change them? The snob in me looks at them and turns my nose up, but the car feels ok on the road etc, so….?

[RSTurboPaul]

Moos3h said:

Having recently bought a new (to me) largeish saloon motorway muncher, I was disappointed to see the tyres are a mix of Accelera and Kpatos .

I m a fairly steady driver but do lots of miles and have always had a thing for name brand tyres.

Car has just passed an MOT, and both sets have about 6mm of tread yet I m considering getting them replaced (Good Year Eagle F1s are quite well priced at the moment).

Am I being daft, or would it be wise to look to change them? The snob in me looks at them and turns my nose up, but the car feels ok on the road etc, so .?

Well, they are the only thing holding you on the road, including in heavy rain... so to quote a famous chap, 'do you feel lucky?'

[Evanivitch]

Replaced and sell the tyres on if you're really fussy.

[57Ford]

If you are mental for doing this, take heart that you’re not alone. I’ve always done similar. On a strict commuter, I don’t go for full-on best tyres around, but certainly go for an upper mid range proper brand irrespective of how much life appears to be left on the budget ones the car came with.

[stevemcs]

I would do the same, acceleras are awful.

[Mr Tidy]

On a Motorway mile muncher I'd replace them, although they may be OK for a few months of summer use so long as it is dry.

[Fastdruid]

I've only ever regretted not getting better tyres sooner.

...although my wallet may disagree!

[Smint]

Have swapped almost brand new tyres out several times over the years if they prove themselves not up to the mark.
Don't always go for the so called premium makes.

I zoom in on tyre pics whenever possible on used car adverts to see whats fitted, if you see budget or a mixture of rubber invariably the wheels will be kerbed to buggery and when you look past those you'll see ropey/rusty discs and calipers behind, generally confirming cheap and or poor maintenance, click onto the next vehicle for sale.

[king arthur]

Not mental at all, those budget tyres may feel okay in every day driving...until you need to do an emergency stop or swerve sharply to avoid something, or hit some standing water on the motorway.

[skyebear]

Bought a car a few months ago that is (mainly) RWD that had Davanti tyres on the rears. Ok in the dry but quite numb. Close to undriveable in the wet and twice nearly spun on roundabouts at 20 mph with very gentle throttle.

Put on four Michelin Pilot Sport 4S and they've transformed the car.

[Boringvolvodriver]

Not at all - I once bought a car with newish ditchfinders on the front - first time I drove in the wet after a couple of days convinced me to change them.

Tyres are the only things that connect your car to the road and I will never scrimp on them.

[Fastdruid]

Boringvolvodriver said:

Not at all - I once bought a car with newish ditchfinders on the front - first time I drove in the wet after a couple of days convinced me to change them.

I once spun one of the Company "pool" Mondeos in the damp, realised I'd got the exit wrong on a roundabout so just went to go all the way round and the back just stepped out and I ended up facing the wrong way.... Which was a bit of a shock given I was driving a Mondeo at the time and rather used to how they handled... until I looked at what they'd fitted to it and it had three different makes on it with the cheapest possible (and mismatched) ditchfinders on the back (and IIRC some reasonable Mitchelins on the front). I refused to ever drive that car again.

[dreamcracker]

The last and only time I had Accelera tyres fitted, they had no grip in the wet, which was very obvious on any roundabout. Get rid of them asap.

[CoreyDog]

Would definitely do the same, I’ve changed “name brand” tyres before just because I didn’t like that particular tyre! Any cheapy, Chinese rubbish wouldn’t stay on 5 minutes. I’d rather be a few hundred quid out of pocket and staying on the tarmac than few hundred in my pocket and sat in a ditch.

Goodyear Eagle F1 are very good, our last car (260bhp FWD) had Hankook on when bought and they just had no grip, swapped onto the Eagle F1 and vast improvement.

[trickywoo]

I would and have done the same. Didn’t regret it for a second.

[Chubbyross]

Yep, I'd do the same. I bought a car for my daughter last year when she passed her test. The first thing I did on the car was change the ditchfinders to Michelin.

[Bill]

Entirely normal IMO.

[georgeyboy12345]

Non-car people probably don’t care, but I’m willing to bet most on here have decent tyres on their cars. I do.

[DonkeyApple]

Moos3h said:

Having recently bought a new (to me) largeish saloon motorway muncher, I was disappointed to see the tyres are a mix of Accelera and Kpatos .

I m a fairly steady driver but do lots of miles and have always had a thing for name brand tyres.

Car has just passed an MOT, and both sets have about 6mm of tread yet I m considering getting them replaced (Good Year Eagle F1s are quite well priced at the moment).

Am I being daft, or would it be wise to look to change them? The snob in me looks at them and turns my nose up, but the car feels ok on the road etc, so .?

The lesson to learn going forward is that you need to check the tyres before making the purchase (and keep a copy of the images). If only because you can agree to buy a car that's sitting on nearly £2k of top quality tyres only to discover when delivered it's now on £500 of junk. But given the cost of tyres to not take that cost into account during the purchase is a daft mistake to make again.

First step is to read the reviews for the tyres you have. Some cheap tyres are just as good as some mid range ones. Then do some research into which alternative tyre works well for the car that you have. And if mile munching and living outside of the SE then it's worth pondering all seasons and trading the loss of a few seconds on your summer Ring time for being less likely to hit the barriers in Winter.

[Riley Blue]

Surprised OP needed to ask...