My father in law was shocked to find I paid £77 for a tyre the other day. He couldn't work out if I'd been ripped off or was being unnecessarily extravagant.

He only ever buys the cheapest tyres he can get, on the basis that they meet the legal requirements so they can't be that bad.

So long as you're not tearing around on the limit all the time, is there a grain of truth to this? I'd imagine the wear rate is one issue. And I've glanced at Auto Express reports on how the cheap tyres take X metres longer to stop in the wet than the premium tyres.

Anyone here ever stuck with using cheapo budget tyres?

Edited 1 March, 201115 yr by 2SkodaFamily

I had budget tyres on the front of my mk1 vrs & they were fine,they still had lots of tread left 20k later & were fine in all weather conditions. I paid around £110 for the pair.In my experience the more expensive tyres dont always last twice as long as a budget but do cost twice as much.I dont have a problem with budget tyres,most of my friends & family have them on their cars.The front tyres on my mk2 are getting low so i will be replacing them soon & i wont be spending £77 a tyre on them.

So long as you're not tearing around on the limit all the time, is there a grain of truth to this?

I think so. You can adjust your driving style to compensate for less grip being available from the tyre, just like you'd adjust your driving style if it was raining or icy.

I've never found cost to be a particularly good barometer - I've had expensive tyres which wore quickly and/or didn't provide much grip, likewise I've had cheap tyres that wore well and/or gripped superbly.

And to think that for all these years I'd stuck with the "cheap tyres are a false economy" mantra. Maybe it was true 20 years ago but doesn't seem to be the case now?

No matter what people say about cheap tyres being okay, there's still a part of me that thinks you get what you pay for.

I had Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetrics on and relace them for Hankook Evo 12s. There is a huge difference in handling feel, wet grip and confidence to push the car a bit further. The Hankooks are okay, in the way that any budget priced product does the same thing, but then there's the last 10% of 'feeling' that you get from a more expensive product. Maybe it's the Skoda vs Audi thing. Essentially they are very similar, but at the end of the day, an Audi feels like a better product.

Also, a set of Linglong tyres for £120 cannot be as good as a set of £120 per tyre from a premium manufacturer. Can they? :S

I bought super cheap tyres when I was a student. As cheap as you could get without them being remoulds.

They were very economical. Made from rubber so hard I think they'd have lasted about 100k. Grip was possible in theory but I became very adept at judging how to understeer the car through roundabouts.

The cheapest tyres may be legal but like ^ their actual performance might be pretty awful. I think further up the range it gets a bit greyer. I've got Maxxis on my car which are broadly the same price as the popular Falkens. I've noticed not difference from the previous Avons or Conties I've had on the car. I'd actually say they're better than the conties and only worse than the Avons in terms of road noise.

Edited 1 March, 201115 yr by Aspman

I had budget tyres on the front of my mk1 vrs & they were fine,they still had lots of tread left 20k later & were fine in all weather conditions. I paid around £110 for the pair.In my experience the more expensive tyres dont always last twice as long as a budget but do cost twice as much.I dont have a problem with budget tyres,most of my friends & family have them on their cars.The front tyres on my mk2 are getting low so i will be replacing them soon & i wont be spending £77 a tyre on them.

[decides to avoid N Yorks until it is confirmed that Mikey has understeered into someone else]

Look at the sole of your shoe. 4 patches like that are the only contact that 1.5t of metal you claim to be in control of has with the road. Still think that cheap rubber is a good idea? The last tyre test I saw, the difference in stopping distance between the best and cheapest (note difference in terms used advisedly) tyres from 70mph was equivalent to the car fitted with cheap tyres and braking at the same point hitting an obstruciton that the good tyred car had just avoided at 30mph. How about now?

It's been proven stopping distances with budget tyres are woeful. You can adjust your driving to suit, but not the driving of others. Say a £200 difference for four decent tyres, do you value your life to the tune of £200?

Taking all these comments into account, has anyone seen any reviews of Riken Maystorm 2? These are retailing for £38 at ATS.

http://www.tyretest.com/summercar_tyres/riken/maystorm/index.html

Knowing the roads you travel each day, I wouldn’t skimp on tyres. The road from Driffield to Scarborough is probably one of the most muddy, wet slippy roads around. Mix that in with the weather over the Wolds and you’ve got a real variety of drivng conditions.

Factor in tractors, animals, and other hazards on that stretch and it’s even more perilous. I’d buy the best you can afford and tell the father in law that you paid £20 each. That way you’re a bit safer and he thinks you listened to his advice.

Everyone’s a winner!

[decides to avoid N Yorks until it is confirmed that Mikey has understeered into someone else]

Look at the sole of your shoe. 4 patches like that are the only contact that 1.5t of metal you claim to be in control of has with the road. Still think that cheap rubber is a good idea? The last tyre test I saw, the difference in stopping distance between the best and cheapest (note difference in terms used advisedly) tyres from 70mph was equivalent to the car fitted with cheap tyres and braking at the same point hitting an obstruciton that the good tyred car had just avoided at 30mph. How about now?

Im not talking about cheap china imported remoulds ken! i have been driving & repairing cars long enough to know what is safe thanks.......my best friend owns his tyre centre & repair bussiness & has done for the last 30+ years so what he doesnt know about tyres isnt worth knowing....not once has one of his recomendations for a quality "budget" tyre had me or any car that i have fitted them to "understeered into somebody" You get what you pay for with tyres,you can buy a expensive michelin that will last for ages due to its compound but a budget tyre with a softer compound will grip better.A the end of the day its a personal & sometimes finacial decision what tyres people fit to there cars,i agree remoulds thankfully arent around much now,however i wont have any problems fitting a quality budget tyre recomended to me to my octy vrs.

@ skinnyman

Edited 1 March, 201115 yr by 2SkodaFamily

I really wish it was as clear cut as spend loads and the tyres are great. But it isnt, which is the annoying thing. As someone else said, i`v had expensive tyres that have been ****, and cheap tyres that have been pretty good. Get as good as you can afford or a make/model that you know is good

Matt

The current fronts are Kleber Dynaxer which are now about £60 each. They've been good and have coped well with the snow this year and last winter, plus they've done about 26k miles so far. No complaints at all so might get more this time round.z

Nothing at all wrong with budget tyres. I have used them for years. Fronts getting 20 - 25k miles on various cars I have owned. Driving style is the a key component. If the driver is car "sympathetic" , then budget is a good option.

I've had some budgets (like autogrip tyres) that have frightened me so much, they ruined the car and I took them off to sell them on ebay.... some are ok though.... Nangkang NS 2's are fine, not up to premium brands, but certainly not dangerous

personally I would tend to go for a "mid-range" like maxiss mxv-1's or BFGoodrich http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/BFGoodrich/gForce-Profiler-2.htm or toyo's... something like that.

Im not talking about cheap china imported remoulds ken! i have been driving & repairing cars long enough to know what is safe thanks.......my best friend owns his tyre centre & repair bussiness & has done for the last 30+ years so what he doesnt know about tyres isnt worth knowing....not once has one of his recomendations for a quality "budget" tyre had me or any car that i have fitted them to "understeered into somebody" You get what you pay for with tyres,you can buy a expensive michelin that will last for ages due to its compound but a budget tyre with a softer compound will grip better.A the end of the day its a personal & sometimes finacial decision what tyres people fit to there cars,i agree remoulds thankfully arent around much now,however i wont have any problems fitting a quality budget tyre recomended to me to my octy vrs.

Well congratulations; you've just proved that you know even less about tyres than I thought. If you'd tried actually reading my post, you'd have seen that I didn't mention re-treads. But since you bring the subject up; several of my mates used to stage rally on Colways, and one ran his Porsche 944 on them.

Also, there's more to compounding and grip than just "hardness" as you seem to believe. If there wasn't, I wouldn't get better wear and grip from Toyos than from Dunlops.

Well congratulations; you've just proved that you know even less about tyres than I thought. If you'd tried actually reading my post, you'd have seen that I didn't mention re-treads. But since you bring the subject up; several of my mates used to stage rally on Colways, and one ran his Porsche 944 on them.

Also, there's more to compounding and grip than just "hardness" as you seem to believe. If there wasn't, I wouldn't get better wear and grip from Toyos than from Dunlops.

I mentioned re treads as your post was suggesting that i was using a cheap budget tyre on my understeering car! Having been a mechanic & vehicle examiner for the last 20+ years i can assure you i know about tyres thanks!On the subject of colway remoulds,having built 2 rally cars & spent 10 years ralling i know about them too! Before this thread gets out of hand i think we will have to agree that we have different opinions when it comes to budget tyres.I was giving 2skodafamily my experiance of budget tyres,people will always agree or disagree with peoples opinions. Thanks mike.

I've got some nankang tyres on the front of mine, I want to replace them for something better but they just won't wear out! They don't inspire confidence in the wet.

I mentioned re treads as your post was suggesting that i was using a cheap budget tyre on my understeering car! Having been a mechanic & vehicle examiner for the last 20+ years i can assure you i know about tyres thanks!On the subject of colway remoulds,having built 2 rally cars & spent 10 years ralling i know about them too! Before this thread gets out of hand i think we will have to agree that we have different opinions when it comes to budget tyres.I was giving 2skodafamily my experiance of budget tyres,people will always agree or disagree with peoples opinions. Thanks mike.

Ok, deal.

I would never go super-cheapest-budget but mid-range budget is fine. I had some Barums fitted after an inusrance repair, I was sceptical at first coming from Rainsport 2's but to be honest I really can't tell the difference!

I don't remember what generic Chinese brandname was on the tyres fitted to mine when I bought it, but despite having a very legal 5mm+ of tread, the lack of grip when the roads were anything more than vaguely moist was verging on the frightening. I replaced them pretty quickly with 4 new Continental EcoContact 3s at ~£55 a corner fitted and the difference is night and day (not to mention how much quieter they are on the motorway - that's worth something in itself). Besides, in my view the cost of sliding off the road or taking too long to stop is going to be a lot more than what you might save by buying bargain-basement tyres.

I used Sava and Debrica (budget tyres) on my old Metro, but I didn't have much choice in that size (135 x 12). They were both awful in the wet. I can remember getting understeer @ 45 mph on a long very wet corner (I think using Debricas). On the plus side I could buy 2 or even 3 for £50. :yes:

If they was still in business I would consider buying Colway/C-Tyres Remolds again. My dad used Colways with soft Avon rubber on for his MG Maestro, Winter/all-season tyres on Mum's AX and I had Colways on my old Metro. I actually found they had better wet grip than cheap budgets. They were even cheaper than them as well. The Colways were the best tyres I bought for my Metro.

Colways were produced in the UK (Langley Moor, Durham) and I have spoken to the distributor, Fred Henderson, many times. They use Michelin tread patterns and I believe Avon Rubber. They were used in Racing in a class or Porsches and several classes of Ralling & Rallycross.

Edited 2 March, 201115 yr by Jim H

I had a bad experiance with remoulds, was driving to scotland in my dad's renault 25 with brand new remoulds from kwick fit on. Just after newcastle I started to hear a funny noise from the rear at 70mph so started slowing down, asked my dad if he could hear it and he said yes when it became louder and the car started shaking. Just as i was pulling over and was at about 30mph the tyre blew out. Turned out half the remould thread had become detached. Drove at 40mph for the rest of the way and went to a kwick fit branch in scotland, they took one look at the tyre and phoned head office resulting in a recall of all the tyres. They replaced the tyres with goodyear ones free of charge and had a letter of apology aswell.

Remoulds are proberly perfectly safe these days but due to that experiance i would never trust them, if i had the radio on louder and didn't hear it at first or was going faster when it blew out..............