Tyres...what would you rather be driving on?

[Lordbenny]

Budget tyres with 7mm of tread or Premium tyres with 2.5 mm of tread...often wondered what people think is better.

[kambites]

Depends on the situation. The budget will do better if you try to drive through a lake and high speed, the premium better in almost every other situation.

[R2T2]

2.5 on premium.

Better in most ways.

[Dannbodge]

Premium.

Regardless of tread depth the contact patch is still the same therefore in good conditions a premium with 2.5mm tread will out perform a budget with full tread.

2.5mm will clear water fine so should be okay in the wet too. There is a reason the minimum is 1.6mm so....

[IanCress]

I'd say the budget tyres. They might not give ultimate grip in either the wet or dry, but when it really matters ie driving through a deep puddle at 70mph, the 7mm of tread could be a life saver compared to the 2.5mm of the premium tyre.

[Monty Python]

Fitted to what car?

[andy-xr]

I'd take the budget, the premium will need changing soon but the budget one has loads of life left in it. Driven sensibly quite a good 10k miles of life. I dont get the stigma associated with them, drive to the conditions you've got outside and under your foot and they're fine

[Frankthered]

From my own experience, I once sawpped my fronts from a pair of Michelins, which the MoT tester informed me were illegal, to a pair of Stunners.

The Stunners felt worse in the wet than the illegal Michelins!

I vote for premiums!

P.S.This was long before anybody had thought of always putting new tyres on the rear of FWD cars.

[AnimalMkIV]

Totally depends on the car, but my XK8 had brand new Landsail (!) tyres on when I bought it and the handling was comically dangerous. No grip whatsoever if it even looked a bit like it might rain. After a few weeks I ditched them in favour of Conti Sport Contact 3s and the difference was night and day.

[otolith]

Depends. 2.5mm will have pretty poor standing water clearing ability, but will usually drive better in the dry than budgets. I don't usually run my (premium) tyres down that low. I wouldn't really be happy with either scenario, but in heavy rain on the motorway the budgets are probably less of a risk.

[SuperPav]

Depends on the car, but on a boggo daily (e.g. a diesel focus), I'd take the budgets. Especially if there's a chance of snow or standing water!

Mind you, depends on the budgets and premiums...

[V8forweekends]

What's the weather like for this poll?

[otolith]

Dannbodge said:

2.5mm will clear water fine so should be okay in the wet too. There is a reason the minimum is 1.6mm so....

http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/adviceandinformati...

[soad]

Premium is winning, I went with the other option.

[Lordbenny]

No specific weather, no specific car....seems the premiums are winning so far though. I personally would go for the budgets. Obviously if it was a performance car in the hight of summer with no chance of rain the premuim's tread depth wouldn't be an issue.

[IanCress]

It seems people value handling over aquaplaning resistance. I can't quite work out why.

[Munter]

V8forweekends said:

What's the weather like for this poll?

I think that's the main point.

If it's not a specific point in time. The Budgets because they'll last longer, as apparently I can only afford almost worn out premium tyres.

If it is a point in time. What's the weather like?

Wet: Budgets
Dry and Sunny: Premium
Snow: Walk

[GC8]

Age?

[poing]

V8forweekends said:

What's the weather like for this poll?

That's the problem isn't it, there are too many possible options for a true definitive answer.

I went premium but if there was an inch of snow I'd take the budget.

[anonymous-user]

otolith said:

Dannbodge said:

2.5mm will clear water fine so should be okay in the wet too. There is a reason the minimum is 1.6mm so....

http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/adviceandinformati...

The ditchfinder graphs for both will start WAY over to the right. According to the various ADAC reviews and suchlike on tyrereviews.co.uk (and my own sphincter clenching experiences) the stopping distances in the wet are often 10s of metres more from 70 with brand new cheapo tyres vs proper tyres. Interesting choice though, and from my experience I've found 90% worn premium tyres to deliver far more stable and predictable performance than even brand new economy tyres.

In the case of hitting a lot of standing water the cheapo tyres might do better but that is exactly the sort of hazard you can usually predict or see ahead and drive accordingly, as the st tyre apologists always claim they do. Not so much in the stopping suddenly because of an unforeseeable event or momentary lapse in your prophetic powers case where the £30 you saved stops looking like such a crafty idea.

Edited by dme123 on Tuesday 3rd March 13:54