77 quid versus 139 for our old people carrier. Same rating. My local shop reckons they are just as good on braking and wear, but not if you Are a boy racer, which i’m not. He’s a good lad in the shop and i’d normally take his recommendation. Are there any catches? other than when i come to sell the car- I may get someone who likes a brand name, who’ll knock me down on price.

£77 😀 , I have used 2nd hand for years on both my vehicles and rarely pay more than £15, before that i always used budget tyres.

Nobody will EVER EVER EVER notice the tyres and try to knock the price down for the brand. EVER.

Wear, yes, but not brand.

I’d say cheaper tyres do wear faster, yes. Less grip too, especially in the wet. YMMV.

(See what I did there? 😉 )

I’ve got one budget tyre on my car (old banger so matching tyres arent quite as important, due to everything being a bit wonky!). I noticed braking distances increase and cornering it would be slightly more prone to understeer. If you take the braking distances into consideration and drive accordingly then the longer it takes to stop doesnt matter so much. And slightly less grip in corners means its more of a handful at its limit. If you never go anywhere near the limit of traction then not a problem. But you doo need to be aware that in an emergency you are likely to need slightly more space to stop.

(STW disclaimer – This is an opinion that I have formed, may not relate to all budget tyres, and I am still confident I can stop quickly in the event of an incident hence I feel they are safe to drive, the only thing being if somebody say pulled out on me, in which case not much I can do even with eagle f1s on the car).

Edit: oh and seconded on the wet – less grip at its most noticeable

Never ever ever would I fit really cheap tyres to a car. My experience of two Nanchook (or something similar) rears on a Saab 9000 I bought secondhand was that it became a genuine drift-monster on damp roundabouts. Surf-Mat would have been amazed at the sheer oversteer available, easily beating his BMW, and all without the need to spend more than £20 per corner. Spinning the car would have been easily possibly, though I managed to quell that with a nonchalant dab of opposite lock.**

They were essentially dangerous; I changed them for some cheap-ish Dunlops and all the excitement dissipated, fittingly so for a portly Swedish cruiser.

**Sorry, I meant to say, I narrowly avoided crashing by winding on as much lock as I could and accelerating hard to correct the spin. Luckily the seats were easy-wipe leather.

my tires are not the linmits on my braking power …. my brakes feel like blocks of wood (and thats with real peugeot disks and pads put on ) – they always have and its a trait of the vehicle …..

i use cheapos – i drive a van and thus drive no where near the vehicles limits as i barely have the power to pull skin off rice pudding ….

if i had a fun car id buy good uns – mates got an m3 – its a grand and a bit for 4 corners but it brings a big smile when i get a lift from him

there are two things i will never Scrimp on for the cars and they are Tyres and Wiper blades,
In the wet cheap versions of both can and quite often will let you down!

that said, the price difference is HUGE! have a nose on blackcircles and a coupl eof the other tyre places on line and see what prices are like, (check the local places for fittingand balancing cost)

my theory on tyres is that If the tyre is MAde by said manufacturer and they dont put their brand name on it then they are obviously not happy enough to be assosiated with it!!!

I wouldn’t call £77 a “budget” tyre. You can get a Conti Sport Contact 2 in 205/55 R16 for that – good tyres, decent value. £139 a corner on a people carrier? Daft.

there are two things i will never Scrimp on for the cars and they are Tyres and Wiper blades,

Well, I’ve spent lots of money on wiper blades that still juddered and squeeked on the windscreen, until I found that cheap Tesco blades are FAR superior. Your loss…… 🙂

And the Conti’s that came on our Focus must have been made of cheese. Less than 16,000 miles they lasted, which is really crap.

Nope, I’ll never go the budget route again. Even just for around town. No grip in the wet, cornering was terrible. I’ve never had the backend step out on me except on cheap tires, and that was in a focus which will understear if pushed.

Tyres are the most important safety component on the car. I replaced 4 brand new triangle tyres on my car when I bought it, its a different car now, it goes round corners and stops. If I was strapped I’d rather put good part worns on rather the cheap ones.

I’m lucky to live next to a very good and cheap tyre place but I still check I’m getting a good deal and camskill.co.UK are good (even with delivery and paying someone to fit them). I’ve found blackcircles to be 10-20% more expensive but it depends on the tyre I think.
Ps- you can’t compare price without size. I was buying bridgestone potenzas and eagle F1s for 55 quid fitted now the F1a’s are 99 quid (Kwickfit charge 165 for the same tyre). Also some of the sportier ones wear quicker so they may not be 125 quid but you need twice as many.

I wouldn’t buy cheap tyres again.

I was too tight to buy some £140 conti’s for my car and so bought cheaper tyres at £80. Event or something

In the dry they’re fine but in the wet the back of the car is unnervingly twitchy. Not nice. I can’t wait until I’ve worn them out.

£139?!! What is the people carrier, some kind of racing MPV?!

Two new Conti Sport Contact 3s going on the Bimmer tomorrow – £105 each. Not bad I reckon as they are “high load” and Y rated.

People carriers don’t always take standard tyres. Speed rating is one thing, there is also the load rating. Galaxys and the like take a heavy duty tyre for the weight. Make sure it’s right or you may not live to regret it.

I always use punctured repaired . Got two dunlop sport for thirty quid fitted like new

Kumho and Falken are cheap and good. I’d be happy with either. Around 65 quid on my car compared to 120 for Dunlops. I’ve always liked Yokohama they cost more but are better than others I’ve tried in the wet.

My experience is that cheap tyres vary a lot. some have been ok, others fine in the dry, and seemingly with ice-making equipment installed which deploys when there is a whiff of dampness about!

day-to-day, in the dry, you prob wont notice much difference. However, it’s in those very few times when you *really* need the tyres to work that you’ll be glad you’ve got decent rubber on.

I’ve got Michelin Premacy HP on my Subaru Legacy – and (ok it’s 4 wheel drive) but traction everywhere is superb. Except feeling the ABS kick in over metal grids and man hole covers, they have never slipped. Wear rate is brilliant as well – 30,000 miles so far and half the tread left.

EIGHTY QUID Luxury! I used Han Kook tyres on my old Arsestra once. They gripped really well, extremely sticky; they lasted a year, £29 each. That’s budget tyres.
What put me off was the fact that every time I got out of the car, I got an electric shock off the door or the sill. ZAP ow!

When I got my car, the bloke had just replaced the front tyres with the cheapest he could find as I’d moaned about the fact that they were illegal when I viewed it.

They were Formula (might have been Fortuna) 2000’s and were absolutely terrible. They would wheelspin in 3rd off a wet roundabout while accelerating at a normal rate.
I’ve used Kumho KU31’s on 2 cars and they are pretty good. Also worth a look are Vredestein Hi-Tracs.

With regard to paying more for decent tyres – the standard fitment for my car are Bridgestone Turanzas and they are not particularly good. Not particularly bad either, but very expensive for what they are.

I’m with PeterPoddy on the wiperblades. Last set I bought were some pricey Bosch ones and they’ve squealed and juddered their way across the screen from new.

Bridgestone are a rip off – they don’t make a single tyre I’d choose.

IMO tyres are a safety item – not something to skimp on.

Agree about bridgestone they came as standard on my Type R and were good in the dry but very iffy in the rain. Very expensive too.

I use Kumho and Falken who these days have great tyres in their ranges just at cheaper prices than the Bridgestone/Goodyear/Pirelli type brands.

Not sure I’d fit the cheapest Linglong or Nankangs or the like though simply to save a few quid – those things seem to be made of bakelite.

If all you do is drive 5 miles to the office each day, and go to the supermarket at weekend, I would say cheap tyres are fine.
They are one of the factors that have an impact on the all-round handling abilities of the car, as long as you drive well with sensible parameters it only comes down to wear.

I bought an MX5 from a Hyundia dealer (px) and they’d fitted 4 budget new tyres. Those tyres were LETHAL. Snapped out viscously etc etc. Swapped out for Proxes and it was night and day (even though the Proxes squirmed abit).

NOT A CHANCE would I EVER buy budget tyres. EVER.

If all you do is drive 5 miles to the office each day, and go to the supermarket at weekend, I would say cheap tyres are fine

No because once, just once in 365 days on a very wet and greasy day on a trip hundreds of miles away will decent tyres save you. You’ll never know this as you wont be up a kerb, into a barrier or around a lamp post off a roundabout like you would with evil ditchfinders.

No because once, just once in 365 days on a very wet and greasy day on a trip hundreds of miles away will decent tyres save you. You’ll never know this as you wont be up a kerb, into a barrier or around a lamp post off a roundabout like you would with evil ditchfinders.

+1

some mid price brands are good like kuhmo and falken, but anything less is a waste of time and in the:

TDS class….. Taiwanese Ditch Finders…

An example of good tyres saving our bacon:

Driving up the looong hill on the M5 just Southbound of j19 (Bristol) in our Conti Sport Contact 3 equipped Astra, my missus kept her speed very low as it was sheeting it down. A Ford Ka passed us a little quickly on the outside lane then suddenly spun – clearly aquaplaned. It slammed into the central reservation then bounced back out in front of us.

Our car held complete control and Mrs Matt swerved out of the way and we didn’t hit a thing.

If we’d had cheapo tyres that weren’t so amazing in super wet conditions, we would have hit that car and/or spun.

Good tyres enable you to keep control more easily to prevent an accident – however slowly or carefully you drive, that’s worth paying extra for IMO. Goodyear, Continental and a few other “premium” brands make very decent tyres for not a huge outlay.

Aye and then your paying massively more either in insurance premiums, time off work etc.

Tyres are the things that put you in touch with the road. Great examples are winter tyres. They aren’t compulsory in the UK but should be.

The amount of people struggling/stuck etc this winter was ridiculous. All it takes is the best tyres for the situation. Like oil changes, good tyres are good car preventative maintenance.

Just don’t put oil on your tyres…

Hankooks and Nankangs have a bit of a ‘ditchfinder’ reputation but are getting better. Kumho, not so sure.

I’ve got Yokohamas on the missus’ car. Supposedly a premium brand, yet they are tragic.

Best of both worlds: Vredestein Sportrac 3. Cheap(ish) and phenomenal grip in all conditions but especially in the wet. Check the reviews. They don’t come in all sizes though.

Vredestein Sportrac 3

Very very very noisy though. I’ve got 4 on my Subaru and the noise in the cabin is abit high. They’ll be coming off soon for some Michelin Alpins though 🙂

Nope, I’ll never go the budget route again. Even just for around town. No grip in the wet, cornering was terrible. I’ve never had the backend step out on me except on cheap tires, and that was in a focus which will understear if pushed.

Instead of driving like a ****, why not drive your car within the limits of the tires?

Cheap tires are fine unless you drive like a ****

Thing is the limit-level is vastly dropped on budgets AND unpredictable so you’ve really no idea what the limit can be.

On decent tyres you can lean fast into a tight bend and feel the tyres smudge slightly. On budgets I imagine you’d be fighting the wheel or visiting the kerb.

Very very very noisy though

Not something I can say I ever noticed. My car was slightly more vocal than most though. Anyway, that’s what the stereo’s for.

What do you drive?

Its coming up to winter and you are buying new tyres for a car that you drive…
tough one..
lets think….
are you keeping the car for a while, planning to do lots of miles, want to live, want try to avoid running that pedestrian down, avoid points on licence for having bald tyres (yes officer I did have cheap tyres fitted not long ago, I can’t understand how they could have worn out so quickly)?

http://www.which.co.uk/cars/driving/sat-navs-tyres-and-accessories/best-car-tyres

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/total_tyre_guide/213186/tyre_guide.html

+ Stunning wet road performance
– Needs to work on noise reduction

I must admit I went into the same S-bend on the Sportrac’s with no dramas whereas the Forester on winter tyres had three tail-outs 😆

Always used to buy Bridgestones for my vectra at around £200 a tyre & was lucky if i got 15k out of them.Now I buy some Quick Fit brand not the cheapest one but a middle of the road one (did you see what I did there).
The plus’s are –
1)nearly a 3rd of the price
2)loads better in the snow
3)lot harder wearing

Only real lthing against them is they are not quite as grippy in the dry.

Buy cheap tyres, be prepared to drive slower and leave bigger gaps on the road… Simple as that really.

They’re perfectly legal, will do the job, but don’t expect them to grip as well as more premium brands.

That said, I’ve found exceptions to the rules for definite… In the wet, I’ve always found the Pirelli P6000 (a premium tyre) as bad, if not worse than many budget tyres. Similarly I’ve had a couple of surprisingly good cheap tyres before, one of which was called an “Accelera Alpha” (these shocked me just how good they were, came on some wheels I bought 2nd hand), and I had some Hankook’s on the front of my old Saxo that were just as good as the Michelins they replaced.

Terrible budget tyres that I’ve owned have come from the likes of Fullrun, Nankang, Federal (noisiest tyres in the world!), Sava etc.

As others have pointed out, decent relatively budget tyres come from the likes of Falken and Kumho, spend a few quid more and I’ve found Fulda and Firestone pretty good too.

Best tyres I’ve had were a set of Goodyear F1’s, closely followed by some Yokohama A520’s. The Goodyears even lasted a while, the Yoko’s not so long but were mega grippy!