Car tyres – big brand names worth the extra cost?

Right, obviously you've never driven some on the sh1t that is pedalled around. A few years ago we were 'forced' to use Dunlops on our company cars, I had a 2.5 V6 auto Vectra, I'd be lucky to see 9k out of the fronts. They just fell apart.

More hysterical BS. They didn't actaully 'fall apart' at all, did they? They just wore out quickly.
I've probably driven more different tyres on more different vehicles, in more different situations than nearly anyone on here – Cars, vans, trucks, mobile plant, 4x4s, motorbikes….. It's not unusual for me to drive 4 or more different vehicles in a day. I've used Firestone, Mitchelin, Conti, Dunlop, Bridgestone, cheap budget makes, remoulds, the lot.
The only thing I wouldn't buy is used tyres because they could be damaged and you'd never know – They don't get tested like anything that's come from a factory, yet some people say they are better than remoulds…..

Yes, it's a fact that some tyres last better than others, or feel a bit different, but that simply does not make them unsafe. Your Vectra was a front wheel drive car with a big, heavy powerful engine. That's why it got through tyres. I know someone with a (IIRC) sporty TDi Audi A3, and he gets through fronts in 10k. Our 1.6 Focus got through some front Contis in 16k. Nothing unusaul there.

If you're gonna bang on about safety and that tired old line "Your only contact with the road" then let's see: How often do you check your tyres for pressure and condition? How often do you check the brakes, the lights, the oil, clean the windows and a million different saftey things in your car. You can't fit expensive tyres and then just assume you're safe and never touch them, or anything else, again

EDIT –
Just read BWD's post above mine. I'd say he's about spot on with that.

Oh, and FWIW, I put Michelins on our car before you ask. Why? Because it's a nice car, they last a bit longer and I have the money. If I was broke and drove a £500 car, I'd stick the cheapest tyres on I could find. 🙂

It's not as simple as "big name brands". The Pirellis, Continentals, Michelins of this world make some great performance tyres but also make some godawful, hard, poor performing but long-lasting stuff designed for skinflint fleet managers.

Equally there are plenty of brands that have a lower brand profile in the UK (but are often big elsewhere) that make some excellent performance tyres at the kind of prices that will only get you a low/mid tyre from the big names. Toyo, Falken, Kumho all make some great tyres – I'm currently on Kumho Ecsta KU31s which are really good, better than the Michelin Pilot Primacys that were OE spec and near enough half the cost. On my last car I had Falken FK452s which worked great too – they replaced Pirelli P6000s which were awful.

Tyres are important – don't go as cheap as possible but you can certainly get excellent performance without breaking the bank.

People are not worried about tyres failing, rather that they don't have enough grip. And we all know that the legal minimum standards are often ridiculous. Look at cycle lights for instance.

I put michelin energy savers on our car, they are supposed to last a lot longer as well as giving more mpg. People are reporting 40k miles, so they are fairly reasonably priced when taking that into account.

And yes I do check the pressures every couple of weeks and the condition of the tyres.

Slightly hysterical post there PP 🙂

I personally bang on about safety with regards tyres because it does make a massive difference, good tyres are not a luxury. I personally check my tyres, brakes, lights, oil/water levels weekly.

Cheap tyres ARE unsafe. I wish I'd video'd the tests I did on my old set – after 3 near rear-endings ("doublestar" tat the previous owner put on) well within a sensible speed and distance from the car in front (assuming tyres that are not made of chocolate) I decided to do a test before replacing them. Trust me I didn't want to splash out on new tyres but for the sake of myself and my other half I did. The new tyres almost halved the stopping distance with an emergency stop in the wet (and the doublestar rubbish still had 5+mm of tread depth, so that wasn't part of it). The ABS rarely ever kicks in now, before it kicked in at least 4 times on a commute in the wet, general driving. When turning out of work I go up a fairly steep hill, the old tyres would just sit and spin in the wet, you'd have to ease it at walking pace up the hill. I can't stress how bad they were, it was literally like driving on a fresh snowfall as soon as it rained. They got changed when both fronts started to disintigrate internally, forming bubbles in the tread and delaminating the tread in one journey on the motorway, sat at 60mph at the correct tyre pressure.

Cheap tyres are a deathtrap waiting to be fallen into, it makes me angry that there are people out there cheap enough to risk my life for the sake of £20 per corner.

On my own car – I've generally gone with mr averages way of choosing tyres, choose one/two up from the cheapest – that will do for pottering around town

For my company car that does a lot of high speed motorway miles I'l usually go with the cheapest branded tyre.

However the local tyre company pursaded me to go with some Hankook tyres this time on my A3 – fine in the dry but so poor in the wet and damp they are practically dangerous – never again.

The midget is currently running on firestone F-590, why?

Because the logo's look good when painted white 😀

In the dry the backs spin up in 1st,2nd,3rd if I'm being silly, in the wet it understears horribly untill you give it a squirt of the noisy pedal.*

I'd say its more important to know your tyres limits and look after your car than to spend a fortune on tyres and put blind faith in them.

*I'm not a driving god, driving irresponsibly is irresponsible, and I must appologies to the guy in the megan convertible who got stuck behind us on the A329 in wokingham when we decided it would be fun to spin our wheels and generaly make a lot of noise 😀 He must have thought he was back in the 70's when an Anglia and a Midget pulled out of the pub car park engines screeming, exhausts poping, and tyres squeeling 😀

I'd say its more important to know your tyres limits and look after your car than to spend a fortune on tyres and put blind faith in them.

I'd say it was more sense to buy good tyres and know them, rather than compromise on either!

The only problem with 'Good/branded' tyres seem to be people are saying some of them are not good.

Indeed, branded!=good.

Summary
There is a huge difference in the price from different retailers: when you finally decide which make and model to go for, check the internet and ring round local depots: one that is convenient for you might be expensive but offer to price-match other depots in the area. Don't forget main dealers: some can be competitive on tyres.
To decide between makes and models of tyre: generally you get what you pay for, with diminishing returns towards the top of the price range. The difficult bit is finding a mid-price brand that gives mid-price performance, not budget: that is why I would look at some reviews.

Reviews
Might be worth reading some reviews by qualified indepedent testers.
If you wander into a library, you should be able to check out Which? magazines, which frequently have tyre tests. You can view their results online:
http://www.which.co.uk/
but only if you sign up with them (it is a one-month free trial, but the faff of signing up and cancelling may be more trouble than going to the library.
Some car magazines do reviews which should be independent:
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/
might be worth a look.

Other options
To be controversial, if you are not in a tearing hurry, have you considered part-worn tyres? There are depots selling them, and loads on ebay. I was wary of them until the bloke in a part-worn tyre shop asked me if I always put new tyres on every second-hand car I bought. There is no way of knowing the history of a second-hand tyre (whether it has been run under-inflated or been in a crash), but plenty of people happily buy second-hand tyres on second-hand cars without knowing much more, and seem to survive. I figure that any severe damage will show. If you are thinking of this option, it might be worth checking a local tyre depot will fit and balance them, and the cost. You should check the tyres, or if you are not confident, get somone you trust.

My experience
I bought a set of wheels and tyres for my car on ebay: two tyres were Michelin with around 7mm tread (new is 8mm, legal limit is 1.6mm, recommendation is replace at 2mm, or 3mm to maintain wet weather performance). Cost was £62 plus a 50 mile round drive to collect. New price for the two would have been £218.

I bought a pair of Michelin from a scrap yard on ebay: they claimed 7mm tread, I was slightly miffed to find 6mm. Cost was £105 posted. Took to a local tyre depot with a pair of wheels with worn-out tyres, left with them for fit and balance when they could fit it in, no hurry. Collected two days later for £10 in the coffee fund. New price for the two would now have been £240.

Just in case you get the impression that cost is my only consideration, during the research I read that winter tyres give safer performance below 7C, and much better than normal UK tyres (which many countries call Summer tyres) on snow and ice. With the cold snap this winter, I bought a set: most local depots couldn't get, but my local Toyota dealer matched the best price on the internet: £582.

This kind of thing is nonsensical if taken to extremes – buying car tyres will always be about compromise. Some tyres are fantastic at wet braking, but poorer than others in the dry or vice versa. Some of the tyres that perform great will wear out in a few thousand miles or be incredibly noisy. Some tyres manage to be great at wet braking but poor in aquaplane conditions.

What's a "good" tyre for most people will be one that achieves a balance between these, at reasonable cost and tyre life.

If a tyre at twice the cost of a mid-range tyre took 5m off your stopping distance at 60, would/should you buy it instead? What if there was another tyre at double the cost of that which took another 5m off?

(and out of interest, how many people switch from summer to all-season or winter tyres once it gets cold?)

If a tyre at twice the cost of a mid-range tyre took 5m off your stopping distance at 60, would/should you buy it instead? What if there was another tyre at double the cost of that which took another 5m off?

Depends which car it was on and how I intended to drive, of course, but I'd consider it. I've considered semi-slicks for my toy car and they're not cheap!

and out of interest, how many people switch from summer to all-season or winter tyres once it gets cold?

I chose a tyre that's all-season and performs well in all but the extremes (deep snow).

I'd say it was more sense to buy good tyres and know them, rather than compromise on either!

The chasis flexes so much it'd be rather pointless fitting grippier tires!

The rear axel is located by two big elastic bands, leaf springs and telelever dampers, give the noisy pedal a jab and it imediately trys to go sideways!

Might as well stick metal discs on then, they'll last longer 😀

(and out of interest, how many people switch from summer to all-season or winter tyres once it gets cold?)

I have considered it,a nd probably would if I had a place to store 8 wheels.

i've just put the cheapest possible tyres i could find on my car as i'm selling it in a few months. Got them from black circles and they were only £50 each fitted for 225/45/17. (£36 unfitted!!!)

Anyway after a few hundred miles on them i can honestly say i cant tell any difference at all between them and the Pirelli P6000 things i had on before. They corner fine, stop ok in wet and dry and are no noisier. Only time will tell about how long they last but i'd definately buy budget tyres again!

Should add though i dont really drive like a loony. My car is pretty quick when you want it to be (2.0 TDI 140bhp golf) but i dont rag it around all the time so maybe if i did then i'd notice some difference but i gave up dirving like a loon a long time ago! But i reckon if you've got a fairly normal powered car and drive normally then budget tyres are fine.

i've just put the cheapest possible tyres i could find on my car as i'm selling it in a few months

That's a bit crappy. Risk someone else's safety? At least if you put crap on your car you KNOW it's crap. A buyer might not.

Bad show.

Pirelli P6000

Pirelli P6000's are well known in the car-enthusiast arena as "ditch hunters", so not a great review of your cheap tyres 🙂

Pirelli P6000's are well known in the car-enthusiast arena as "ditch hunters", so not a great review of your cheap tyres

What about (branded=good) statement then

molegrips – not at all, 1) i didnt think they were any crappier, and 2) the buyer can see the tyres that are on it before they buy.

Coffeeking – ahh well that shows that cheapo budget tyres can be just as good as big branded ones…admittedly crap big branded ones!

Anyway i'm no car enthusiast as i said above, but i think for normal driving my budget ones are fine and i'd get them again. Actually they got 4 stars out of 5 on the black cirles site i think. 🙂

"As above, you wouldn't even think about cheap tyres on the bike so why on a car, i won't skimp on such a crucial part"

I've just gone and brought some reasonably expensive goodyears for my car.
But the reason I buy expensive tyres for my bike is I want to push the bike as far as possible, well as least as far as my skills allow and the tyres really are a limiting factor in some cases.

However I get the feeling SOME car tyres are only going to be limiting factor when pushing the car on a race course. Im not going to be doing that sort of driving and I would imagine if most people drove to the sensibly and to the speed limit you never would really push the tyres so why buy expensive ones ?

Many people buy cheapish tyres for their commuter bikes and frankly thats what my car is a commuter/passenger vehicle not a performance vehicle.

What about (branded=good) statement then

Sorry, you missed the !, I said branded!=good. Meaning "does not equal" to programmery types.

lakesrider – indeed some big branded tyres are aweful too, get on the review sites. There are a few cheaper ones that get good reviews, but I always wonder who's reviewing them – at the end of the day a "car enthusiast" will push tyres to the limit, which is a better test than a gran going to the shops, but who says they can actually provide decent cmoparable evidence? On average they tend to work out though!

Im not going to be doing that sort of driving and I would imagine if most people drove to the sensibly and to the speed limit you never would really push the tyres so why buy expensive ones ?

While some people do push their tyres on the road (I do at times, but that's another argument) it's not always when you're expecting to push the tyres that you need it. It's generally when you're least expecting it that you need the most grip. No-one is suggesting buying top-end tyres for a shopping trolley, they're suggesting not buying tat for any car. Anything with "budget" is going to be tat, and some without, so be aware when buying would be my message. You'll be glad when you stop before the kid that rides out in front of you.

It's good to get to know your local tyre place, many of your kwikfit type places will have batches of tat tyres that they try to palm off on people who just want cheap tyres. Local independant tyre places seem to invest more time into it, my local one refused to order in some tyres (from a manufacturer he stocked) for my missus when she wanted a barum tyre (to match the other) as he insisted that he wouldn't sell her a tyre that he wouldn't put on his wifes car, and he was willing to tell her where else to go to buy them instead.

IME yes – but pick carefully. I'm happy to spend money on tyres that will generally pull me up in a shorter distance in the wet. My wife's car came with some budget tyres on and they are noticably poorer than the more exepensive variety – not so in the dry but when you really need them in the wet.

I think the common stereotype of a non-premium name tyre being of significantly poorer quality than a premium name tyre is gone now. That might of been the case about 5 to 10 years ago, but manufacturing of tyres has significantly improved in the medium range makes now. Just looking at the moulding of them, the detail and quality now is much better compared to those a number of years ago.

At the moment, for my 4×4 i cant see past Kumho's at the moment. I previously had a set of Dunlop's on the car, and they wore out in no time, and I never really felt they handled well in the wet. They also cost £240 a corner. I've had the named brands such as Pirelli's , Continentals and GoodYears and never really felt that the name got me any noticable performance increase for the price versus a mid-range brand such as Kumho. The only big name I would be prepared to shell out for, but they dont do tyres in the size I need, would be BF Goodrich.

So a good bit of research, some experience of treads that worked well for me, and phoning around i found the exact Kumho tyre I was looking for £110 a corner. Instantly quieter, smoother and most importantly handle considerably better in the wet. Very pleased.

On my old Passat, i bought a set of 18" alloys with a set of tyres. The tyres turned out to be Accelera tyres from india. Never heard of them before, but I have to say that they performed miles and miles better than the named brand tyres I had on the car before. Lots more grip, and much better performance in the wet both in cornering and braking, and they lasted really well. 10k miles later, and there is still a ton of tread left. In fact the rears looked barely worn.

Aside all that name stuff, its worth doing a little research into what your needing from the tyre. There are different tread designs and patterns which are designed to different things. For the 4×4, I wanted a water clearing pattern that would clear water out very well from the tread as I drive in a wet area hitting puddles at speed. Previous tyres which didn't have the V-style tread would often aqua plane and lose grip. Now I'm back on a V-style tread, the issue has gone.

Another thing to look at is the wear rating of a tyre. Its not an exact science, but tyre makers typically attach a wear rating to their tyres, and a number from one brand doesn't exactly equate to that of another. However, for car tyres, when I looked around, they seemed to fall into the camp of:

200ish – a low to mid rating, realistically expect a lower mileage life
400ish – a higher rating – expect a better mileage.

There are so many different types, but i would recommend a mid-range tyre these days. I really dont subscribe to the idea that a premium name brand is worth twice the price of a mid range brand.

Our Focus C-Max is currently running Maxxis tyres on all four corners. I can't say that I have noticed any difference at all between them and the bigger branded tyres tyres previously fitted. The were new as the snow came so they worked very well then, but i'm sure any new tyre would have done the same.
The guys at the tyre place use them too, which I think adds a certain amount of confidence. £50 each on plastic or £45 cash. Castle Tyres, Castlefields, Bingley.

They're not really a budget tyre but Vredestein Ultrac Sessantas have served me extremely well. At £100 a corner they are great value for money, plenty of grip in the dry, brilliant in the wet, nice and predictable.

Budget tyres can be known as:

Ditchfinder
Ditchwitches

Stick to better known brands but shop around for prices.

You wouldnt put cheap Chinese etc copies on your mountain bike.

I had 4 budgets (south african brand) on my old MX5- the car managed to get under&oversteer and a vicious and unpredictable rear end-snap.

IMO 'Branded tyres' is not the same as 'Branded clothing'.

Car tyres are just like bike tyres. You get what you pay for.
And there small contact patches are all thats keeping you on the road.

Like Kenda? They used to be cheap nasty copies, now they're a good manufacturer…

At £100 a corner they are great value for money

😯

Molgrips its all relative. I got them Summer 2008, they came second outright in a fairly comprehensive test in Evo in 2007, against the Pirelli P Zero, Michelin PS2, Goodyear Eagle F1 etc. They have lasted twice as long as the OEM tyres they replaced and given much better performance, so I feel like they were good value for money.

I think that there is just too much choice for the consumer in this market.
In the past it was pre-used tyres,remould,budget,big-name,Michelin

And each type needed about 5 sizes to cover every common vehicle.
Now the choice is extreme, there are 108 options for my current tyre size.
Thats 215/55/16 at the Event tyres website .

The cheapest tyres are currently the unknown brands , linglong etc
At this end of the market you take a gamble , they might be OK , but
unless you are a skilled driver "enthusiast" you may not realise
either what you are missing or when you are reaching the limits of the tyres capabilities , there are bad times to find out.

So skilled enthusiasts can buy bad tyres and cope with them.(might be upset though)
Bad for "users"

Top end – branded/marketed tyres = you are paying for that marketing ,
and for some brands price more or less fixed. In many cases you are getting optimised tyres for specific uses or the best of the compromise tyres- ie good at everything. Good for "users" and unskilled "enthusiasts"

Mid-price – less marketing budget – generally compromise tyres – performance everywhere between the top end and the decent cheapest tyres.
Bit of a lottery unless you do some research or get good advice.
Becoming much more popular during the downturn and you can definitly save
50% and not loose out over the top end.

Me, I fitted Falken tyres – mid range – very competitive price/performance, growing reputation.

Kumho come out ok if you really are on a budget.

There is no way I would pay £100 for a tyre. No way. Shop around and haggle.

You really need a tyre that is consistent in wet and Cold weather performance. Budgets can't offer consistency.

The worst thing though is that on say blackcircles.com the reviews vary enormously. With any tyre some people say they are rubbish and some say they are great.

I cant be arsed to read all the above but has anyone said anything about just putting the correct psi in your tyres..
it will make a so called good tyre feel bad if they are not at the correct psi,and the the correct psi in a budget tyre will seem a lot better that the under or over inflated "good tyre"

I always but the best tyres and brake pads i can afford on my car…its your contact with the road at the end of the day…

And better does not always have to be most expensive…

The worst thing though is that on say blackcircles.com the reviews vary enormously. With any tyre some people say they are rubbish and some say they are great.

True, but it's usually fairly easy to sort the wheat from the chaff, review-wise – look for the people who can bearly string a sentence together and take their review with a pinch of salt 🙂

Event mobile tyre fitters came in with some good prices recently for a pair of Pirrelli for our Nissan X-trail, might be worth the OP looking at them.

Event mobile tyre fitters

They also offer a discount if you pop into their depot.

But then there are some eloquent but pompous fools who skidded on some diesel once and then go to great lengths about how everyone at Michelin/Pirelli/Goodyear etc is a cretin of the very worst kind and must immediately be put to the sword.

sharkbait

You could spend ages on this, but I would recommend reading independent reviews, and thinking about what compromise between dry braking, wet braking, dry cornering, wet cornering, aquaplaning straight, aquaplaning on bends, noise, comfort and wear you want. If you can find reviews of the size, speed and load rating you need plus the make and tread pattern you are considering, even better.

As well as Which? magazine and Autoexpress website recommended above, another good review site is the German magazine ADAC
http://www.adac.de/
Babelfish makes a fair job of translating if you use a bit of common sense (some German words aren't translated, and lower numbers are better). The Nexen you mentioned are not reviewed, but there do seem to be some surprises. For example; in the test of 155/70 R13T summer tyres, the Mayloya Crono (never heard of 'em, seem cheap on Google shopping) scored "Recommendable", whilst the BFGoodrich Touring (I would have expected BFGoodrich to know what they are doing) scored "Not recommendable".

Depends how long you want to spend researching against how much money you will save or performance you will gain.