What Tyres?

[gumby6371]

It really depends on your car and style of driving, other than a short commute to work I usually have a car full of kids so I stick roughly to the speed John Q Law tells me to and avoid chucking it into bends in the wet.
If you do that kind of driving all the time budget tyres are fine.

I've put part worns, budgets, mid range and premium tyres on and never really noticed much difference in the handling as long as tyre pressures are good.

Driving a 1.9td through the snow on part worns I never got stuck, no wheel spin and only the occasional small slide using lots of lock on car parks etc... it felt planted to the road when others were facing the wrong way wondering what had just happened.

If I had more power under my right foot and more importantly opportunities to use it I'd go for better tyres.

[lozz]

ican see odins point, but that came over abit harsh to me,

atm idont know what the tyres are like on mine, they apear to be new but, unsure (Never heard of that make, )
but if they are shite they will be getting replaced with Budget ones,

I do not mean to be harsh, sorry, sometimes the language barrier means I cannot expess me as I'd like to.
My point is this: two things are keeping you from crashing: brakes and tyres. I never save on those. Having tested on my own skin what a cheap tyre can cause (3300€s of damage to my mum's new clio, luckily no one got hurt... chinese tyres on the wet, you know) I always suggest to use good tyres.
That's what my relatively small experience tells me, only that!

Most people are on a Tight budget over here mate,

Hard times, with the cost of motor insurance, car tax etc.
cost of living is high, hence why many including myself will just buy the best the money allows them to do for tyres etc,

afew year back alot of people where rollin on Re-molds

your point on the safety of tyres is a very good one tho,

[OdinEidolon]

ican see odins point, but that came over abit harsh to me,

atm idont know what the tyres are like on mine, they apear to be new but, unsure (Never heard of that make, )
but if they are shite they will be getting replaced with Budget ones,

I do not mean to be harsh, sorry, sometimes the language barrier means I cannot expess me as I'd like to.
My point is this: two things are keeping you from crashing: brakes and tyres. I never save on those. Having tested on my own skin what a cheap tyre can cause (3300€s of damage to my mum's new clio, luckily no one got hurt... chinese tyres on the wet, you know) I always suggest to use good tyres.
That's what my relatively small experience tells me, only that!

Most of us are on a Tight budget over here mate,

Hard times, with the cost of motor insurance, car tax etc.
cost of living is high, hence why many including myself will just buy the best the money allows them to do for tyres etc,

afew year back alot of people where rollin on Re-molds

your point on the safety of tyres is a very good one tho,

Well here we are on even tighter budget, you know Italy's situation, if we don't behave well we will be the next Greece. Me and my gf are students and we have a 15 months old daughter, however since we need to travel a lot I get good tyres. But I'd get good tyres even if I only had to commute 10 miles, the unknown is behind the bend.

The feeling I have is that in UK general car safety is a topic much less important than it is in Italy, and I wonder why, since it is usually the other way around (we italians do not usually give a damn on a lot of important stuff imho). For example on many motorways and cities winter tyres (or chains on board) are compulsory from november to april.

At the moment I'm needing to buy summer tyres. I have 3 under my eye (205/55/16):
- Pirelli CINTURATO P7 (87€ each, very comfy, not so sporty, very good reviews all around)
- Bridgestone Turanza T001 (92€ each, a new tyre so no reviews but should be better than the already good ER300, I trust Bridgestone a lot, they make good rubbers)
- Bridgestone Potenza RE002 (92€ each, seems very good and sporty but I have no reviews since it's a new tyre, do not know how long it may last)

[lozz]

its not a case of wanting to buy cheap tyres mate,
its a case of having too,

seriously anything over £60 for a tyre for me, is not an option, The Goverment as shafted us all,

at one time iwas driving about in high performance cars, ihave to make do with half decent bangers now,
Wife and kids bleed me dry

[grasmere59]

Those Evergreen tyres i bought worked out at £37.50 a corner as opposed to £65 from Camskill and they have only done 50 miles and have a late 2011 DOT code on them so they'll do for me,i fitted them and balanced them myself at my mates garage so that saved me a few quid aswell,they feel fine on the car wet or dry.I just had 2 new Bridgestones on the front of my company Peugeot Boxer and they are absolutely sh**te,they oversteer into corners at the slightest speed and in the wet there frightening,probably the worst tyre i have ever driven on

[Turbo7379]

Good Year have changed the tread pattern on their Eagle F1 to an asymetric design and they are selling out stocks of the old patten at a reduced price. I checked recently & I could buy 205/55 R16 for £75 fitted, last ones I bought were over £100! They are probably the best tyre out there for wet grip, though wear rate isn't the best.

[grasmere59]

I've got the Goodyear asymetrical ones one my BMW and there the best tyre i've had on it so far but with 265/35/18's on the back and 235/40/18's on the front i hope there gonna last as it nearly broke the bank when i bought them.

[Gary406]

Buy decent tyres guys... not cheap ones. With tyres, you get what you pay for, sadly.

there is nothing wrong with brand new budget tyres . i always have and probably always will use cheap budget tyres (not remolds)

i've done my fair share of motorway driving as well covering about 30k in 3 years on budget tyres. never had a problem with them.

i also know a lot of people with cars that also use budget tyres. my uncle works 50 miles from home and has done for the past 20 years. he uses the M62 and M6 everyday and he uses budget tyres

never had a problem.

[Turbo7379]

I don't rate budget tyres at all. They're cheap for a reason, they don't grip as well as quality branded tyres. Remember you are driving around in your relatively expensive car & all that keeps you on the road is 4 small patches of rubber the size of your hand.

Budget tyres can often wear out fairly quickly. My Dad usually put cheap tyres on his car. One day he got a flat at home & I fitted on the brand new original spare on the car. The spare was a Michelin & it outlasted 3 sets of budget tyres on the other 3 wheels! He now fits good branded tyres like hankook, bridgestone, etc.

[lozz]

Ive tested mines, they stick to the road like s*it to a blanket so theyl do me,
very good in the wet, (Mabor 'sport jet' tyres)

shame about the road noise off them tho,

[Gary406]

I don't rate budget tyres at all. They're cheap for a reason, they don't grip as well as quality branded tyres. Remember you are driving around in your relatively expensive car & all that keeps you on the road is 4 small patches of rubber the size of your hand.

Budget tyres can often wear out fairly quickly. My Dad usually put cheap tyres on his car. One day he got a flat at home & I fitted on the brand new original spare on the car. The spare was a Michelin & it outlasted 3 sets of budget tyres on the other 3 wheels! He now fits good branded tyres like hankook, bridgestone, etc.

i completely disagree with that sorry. ive had dunlop sp sports on my vulcans which are around £100 a corner (they came with the wheels when i bought them last year)
they grip no better than the triangle budget tyres i use on them now.
and as for tread wear. the dunlops didnt last as long as i expected them too.

ive had the triangle sports now a good few thousand miles and they still look brand new tread.

and for road noise. the triangles are a whole heap quieter than the dunlops were. i found the dunlops really hard and noisey. didnt like them at all. certainly would not pay full price for them

[lozz]

igona have to ask me Mum to get me some decent tyres

'shes very good at shoplifting,

[Archangel]

thats why i personally go for Michelins , as i trust them in the wet , plus they do wear well

[OdinEidolon]

I honestly think, no offence, that the people that say a budget tyre can be as good as a high quality one are completely wrong, probably because it is very difficult to quantify if a tyre's better or worse only on sensations. I do not trust myself, nor my memory, I may be able to modify my memories just to convince myself I made a good buy.

That's why I trust ADAC, TCS and such tests (not all of them): they are performed in a very scientific way under the control of several journalists. They prove budget tyres are just worse than good ones. For example I'd never buy a tyre that I know takes 10 meters more to stop on a wet surface from 62mph than a premium tyre.
Also when changing tyres I like to test scientifically what are the differences with the previous tyre.
I do know very well what's the space the old tyre takes to stop from 100km/h on a certain (private) road.
For example my old and crappy Michelin Energys E3A took about 8 meters more to stop then my actual Goodyear Ultragrip 8 (winter tyres) on my 406.
When I had the 106 the chinese summer tyres my mum had used to stop near a certain tree, I fitted winter Hankook Icebears and suddenly dry braking improved by a car's lenght and wet by almost three.
I'll never get tyred ot saying it: with tyres, you get what you pay for. Independent tests prove it, have a look eg. at TCS's charts, they are impressive!

[grasmere59]

Well i've had the Evergreen eu72 tyres on the car for a while now and i have to say they are excellent,very quiet on the move and the grip is good and they seem to be wearing well,they have stuck like glue in all this rain we have been having,so far i would say there on par with any premium brands of tyres i've used over the years