Of course, they are the most important bits on the car, A4 sized contact with the road, you need the best grip you can get.

BUT are £65 cheap specials going to be THAT different from £100 a corner Michelin / Dunlop / Continental equivalents?

Tales of horror, wo, or saving a few quid please.

Had wan-li tyres on the car for a while. 65 quid a corner, seriously noisy. Replaced witj 80 quid a corner UniRoyal Rain Experts. much better

I wouldnt worry…. I dont actually

Cheaper tires can be noisier as well as less grippy

My engine drowns that out.

Worst tires i ever had were expensive pirellis that was direct replacemen for wht was on the car

Best gripping were a set of hankooks – lasted less that 12k though

Vans running on some franks fast fit 45 quid specials van weight rated. Neer found the grip limit as i know im not colin mcrae…… They have done 35k without issue so far and look to have plenty life in em conti Van contacts that came on it did 45k.

Id be more worried about a tires age than its brand!

Running remoulds on the jeep. Mainly because i trash more tires with rock slashes than road damageand 47quid is much more managable than bfg 150 quid….. Bfgs came on the truck and didnt fair much better

Mohawks on tbe front of the Doblo are fine, as are the Landsails on the back.

Not had an issue with cheaper tyres for a few years – miles better than they used to be.

Aren’t all new tyres marked with a rating for wear, grip and noise these days?

Price isn’t a good judge of quality I think. My Kumhos were cheap but good. But the ditchfinders that came on my car were orrible, very little grip in the wet. Autogrips, and can’t remember the other brand. I’m not going to say “dangerous” because you can always drive to the capability of the vehicle, but even then, emergency stops/evasions weren’t going to happen. Me, I won’t have that on my cars but lots of people are happy with it (previous owner obviously was, then, my car came to me covered in dents)

Yep i had to ditch the pirellis for tht reason northwind.
Was like driving on marbles. Iirc was p6000s

A lot of mid range tyres are alright. The likes of Uniroyal etc. make decent tyres.

Some of the proper budget tyres are horrendous. I remember having a dirt cheap tyre stuck on years ago when I was stuck after a puncture, and within a month I’d had it changed for the usual brand. If you’re getting 4, then four horrendous tyres is a bit of a risk.

That said, these days the EU tyre labelling scheme makes buying cheap tyres much less of a risk – you can at least tell if they’re going to stop you and go around corners.

A set of Maxxis is looking like the midrange tyre of choice at the moment!

http://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-details/maxxis-pro-r1-225-45-r17-94-w#60161038

I’ve normally used Hankook but my fitter suggested Maxxis last time round and I don’t notice any difference. Looks like they might last a bit longer as well

I have some Westlake thingys ony.vrs and I will buy them again.

From my experience of trying to make various hot hatches fly I would say that nearly all the “premium” tyres are a waste of money. Perellis, contis and mitchelins especially. They just wear very quickly but don’t grip particually well/predictably. These days I’m on either Hankooks or Dunlops. They last longer, grip just as well and cost about 40% less

The only premium tyre I would recommend is Yokohamas. They stick like glue. But a souped up mini or an Evo will go through them in about 4000 miles.

If you’re driving fast enough for grip to be an issue on a road, then my guess is you’re driving too fast. Unless you’re on the very cheap, £30 a corner tyres. Which are rubbish. Avoid.

@trailrat

I was wondering if you might be talking about P6000s, woeful tyres, I dumped a set with probably half their life left.

Of late I’ve used goodyear hydragrips and excellence. Currently using Continental premium contact 5, all very good in wet and dry.

We put tyres on our car that I had actually heard of.
The car was smoother and just felt all round so much nicer. Money well spent.

You have to be careful with some. I bought a car with a virtually brand new set of Wanlis on once. Thing was lethal in the wet. I’m not one for spending money when I don’t have to, but they were scary. Replaced with mid-range Falkens which made a massive improvement.

+1 for Falkens. I’ve found them difficult to get hold of. I’ve only had one set to date, but I was very impressed with them on my old Golf. It almost went round corners with them on!

Kuhmo, fulda, falken. Lots of good mid range tires to be had without resorting to bargain basement stuff.

If they’re still to pricey look at lassa – Turkish company – but investment / technology share with Bridgestone, reputed to be very good vfm.

Was the name on the side of the tire obecalp ?

Hankooks were OE on the mighty Mondeo I thought I’d be torque steering off into the nearest hedge but they were Actually Quite Good. Fronts were toast after 15k but the rears lasted 40k although they were tramlining a lot by then. Have replaced them with Kumho’s finest again good tyres no real problems other than feeling quite squirrely when substantially worn but still legal.

Yeah, that’s my only complaint about my hankooks, fronts are wearing fast. But then they’re on a heavy car with about 100lb/ft of torque more than it knows what to do with, driven by a man with a breezeblock for a foot. So fair dos really!

BUT are £65 cheap specials going to be THAT different from £100 a corner Michelin / Dunlop / Continental equivalents?

If £65 is the cheap one I don’t think you’d get a Michelin for £100.

And yes, cheap tyres can be crap, and dangerous.

The last car I bought had a pair of no-names on the rear, they would breakaway in the dry and in the wet they were lethal. Previous owner obviously slung them on to sell the car. Replaced with Avons, £142 a corner as opposed to the old ones at £60 (I googled them)…

So we have come to the conclusion that cheap tires can be dangerous and expensive tires can be dangerous

And cheap tires can be good and expensive tires can be goood.

I think the real thing to note would be that a torquey heavy monster with 200bhp and colin mcrae type behind wheel is going to need good grip. My 69bhp bean can van driven sensibly – not so

I tend to use one up from bottom of the range. I do high millage, but all motorway at around 60mph and barely go above 2000 revs.

I have not found the “limit” of these tires, they have stopped me adequately well during a couple of emergency stops. Perfectly happy with them.

Your experience & driving style may vary.

My favourite are Nokian. Grip well, incredibly quiet, and they’ve done 40k miles on the Passat and aren’t even half gone. And gained about 5mpg over the Dunlops too.

Always go for a branded tyre these days after I had an insurance claim refused due to them blaming poor quality tyres for the reason I didn’t stop in time. 3 week old Road Champ tyres from ATS, eventually claimed off them for the damage.

I bought budget last time (cant even remember what they are) and they’ve already outlasted the expensive Avons I had before. Grip feels the same to me but tbh I doubt I’d notice the difference anyway.

Always ran with middle of the road tyres, not the cheapest and nothing branded. Never really had any problems and always got good life out of them.

I generally go with the suggestion from the local tyre dealer based on what they have in.

Yup. Been threre, done it and then had to get new fronts about after a month following scary understeer on a slightly wet roundabout.
Thought I was saving money but they were shit in anything other than bone dry conditions..

Fulda, Khumho are great. My old mx5 came with 4xnew budget tyres. It oversteered/under all it seemed at once. Crazy hard things.

Be tight on everything except engine oil and tyres.

We generally get our tyres from Camskill. Cheaper than everywhere else, next day delivery and they’ve always got what we’re after. I’ve had Falken FK452, Toyo T1R, Yokohama Neova, Federal RS595R and Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta from them. All superb tyres, all well under the £100 mark (except the Federal). There are plenty of cheap cheap tyres there too.
Fitted at the local garage for £12 a corner and they’re cheaper than the likes of black circles, etyres, etc.

Be tight on everything except engine oil and tyres

That one.

I’ve been almost universally scared by £35/40 tyres. Most recent family experience is my dad who (does very few miles, most of those local trips at low speed) bought a set of cheapskaters to get through MOT, which after a year have started to delaminate.

Tyres I’ve liked, all midpriced £70 a corner ish;

hankook ventus prime 2
dunlop bluresponse
goodyear efficientgrip

OTOH a car with really cheesy tyres can be a lot of fun to drive if you like going sideways at 20mph.

The P6000s I didn’t hate as much as some people. I found them reasonably predictable on our old MX5, only ever broke grip in the wet and then seemed to be quite a gradual thing.

BTW, anyone got any experience of Maxxis?

P6000s on our MX-5 are grippier than the Yokohamas it had before. To be fair though I changed to slightly larger rims at the same time and the MX-5 is quickish not quick.

Be tight on everything except engine oil and tyres

But there is a point where you just start wasting your money on advertising and performance you don’t need.

Left it too late to get “reputable” winter tyres a couple of years ago, ended up with some £65 Chinese “Goodride” tyres. They were great in the ice and snow that year, have been great in the damp and soggy winter last year. No noticeable difference in fuel.

Could maybe have paid more for something quieter but they have been great for the money.

Avon are my mid-range brand of choice – never had any issues with them.

The new EU tyre labelling takes some of the guesswork out of it. What they don’t show is wear life though.

Cheaper grippy tyres tend wear out a bit faster, that’s been my experience with the likes of Falken’s and Kuhmos.

For the sake of an extra £10-20 I just put Goodyear Eagle F1’s on.

Spending money is no guarantee of good performance though. When I bought the car it had Pirelli P-Zero Rossos which are around £130 a corner. They are easily the worst tyre I’ve ever had. I got rid of them with about with half their life left

When I bought the car it had Pirelli P-Zero Rossos which are around £130 a corner. They are easily the worst tyre I’ve ever had.

Something I’ve learned recently:

The tyres manufacturers put on their cars when you buy them ARE NOT THE SAME as the tyres of the same name you buy on the open market. They are always crap.

This is partly why there is so much confusion about what tyres are good. Someone says ‘oh Pirelly whatnots are awful’ and someone else will swear by them. It’s because one person got them on their new car, and the manufacturers put crap versions on. That’s why many people think energy saver tyres are bad, because manufacturers ship crap ones on cars.

I have absolutely no idea why they do this – it’s barking.

The tyres manufacturers put on their cars when you buy them ARE NOT THE SAME as the tyres of the same name you buy on the open market. They are always crap.

I did wonder if there were lower OE spec tyres (a bit like the shiny plastic Kendas you get on some new bikes).

As you say its mad though, I’m now totally convinced Pirelli make rubbish tyres and I would never buy a set

And because the major manufacturers all supply the major car manufacturers, there are groups of people who now hate at least one of the major brands. So if you search for opinions and reviews, you will always find bad reviews regardless of who you search for.

Except the smaller players who don’t supply car makers, like Nokian.