I'm sure glad that my 1.6 TDI is limited to 197 kph (reminds me that I should complain to the remapper about not removing that), and that premium brand tyres in 195/65-15 cost less than £50 a piece.

 

Racing through roundabouts is not possible with such narrow tyres, and other drivers probably appreciate that.

no? have you seen how tyres from "the far east" are packed?? never mind what constitutes their  rubber content !    and of course all the tyres from second hand dealers are 100%  arn't they that's why they're all still in business

 but no tyre sold could possibly be branded as "suicide brands" as suggested above. ALL tyres sold in the UK have to meet minimum safety standards which would far exceed the standard suggested.

 

Mike

I've had several sets of Nexen N1000's on different cars, and I would say they are very good for the money. Quiet good wet grip, no problems with balancing. Not given me any problems at all. My tyre dealer always says they are very highly regarded from the feedback he gets.

I find no matter what the price of the tyre, you get more informative information by word of mouth and your own experience. I remember in the past buying a car with Pirrelli P6000 tyres all round. A good make you would think, but they were bloomin deadly, especially with the lack of grip in the wet. They were so bad, I replaced all of them and 2 of them still had 6mm of tread left. Guys on the Honda site, as that was the car at the time, described them as ditch finders, as that is usually where you ended up with those tyres fitted. I have found that some of the cheaper tyres are excellent for purpose, so why pay more.

I've had several cheap Chineese tyres fitted to Citroens in the past Mike and trust me they where leathal ... Wanli's fitted to the front of a Xantia 1.9TD where like pushing an ice cube on ice and that was in the dry so god knows what they'd have been like in the wet .. I got them taken off after 2 days and replaced with something else...

When I bought my last car, a C5 2.0 HDI, it had brand new Triangle branded tyres on the back that caused the cars rear end to spin out 3 times in under a week on mildly damp roads when negotiating a roundabout and on none of the occasions was I doing more than 30mph... the 3rd time the car spun through 360 degrees.facing the way I'd come and only by the Grace of God I never hit anyone or got hit ... the tyres came off later that day on the way home from work ... some of these cheap tyres are leathal and I'd argue that in a court of law if need be....

Mike, I usually enjoy reading your posts but you are totally wrong here. "Budget tyres are lethal" is not just a bandwagon thing from the internet. How some of these tyres pass the relevant tests to even be allowed to be put on cars in the UK is completely beyond me. 

 

Woeful handling, braking distance and performance in wet weather (which we get a lot of in this country) all leaves a lot to be desired. 

 

Also people buying cars and finding they have crap tyres on just to drive straight to the tyre shop and get a decent or midrange performing tyre is not unusual. I did the exact same with my Golf, I had it two days before it was in the shop getting the budget crap removed and a full set of Eagle F1's fitted. Cost £350+ but it drove 100 times better and I had the peace of mind of knowing that the tiny bit of rubber in contact with the road was a good bit!

 

As a car/driving enthusiast there is no way I would condone scrimping on tyres for any car and anyone considering buying tyres and asking for advice gets the same from me every time. 

Edited 30 December, 201510 yr by Vegasphil

Bottom line dont whine when you end up facing backwards in a hedge when the car is shod with some cheap tyres it is crazy to think any different. Alot of people out there buy the cheapest tyres and dont have any regard for speed or other road users and push the tyres beyond what they were ever intended for. Either spend the money get decent rubber and drive appropriately as having the best tyres doesnt mean you can drive like a lunatic and get away with it. It may mean seem you can get away abit longer before your driving skills arent as good as you thought you were.

Bottom line for me is that I don't drive either like an idiot or pushing the boundaries of the vehicle I'm driving. I am a professional driver driving coaches with up to 70 folks on board, and a qualified driving instructor for cars, HGVs and PCVs. So I'm pretty confident in my driving skills thanks.............

 

You have hit the nail on the head when you say that folks push the design and performance limit of the tyres they fit, and I say once again that the budget tyres may well be perfectly adequate for those who do not want to drive for performance

Makes note to avoid North Yorkshire.

What about people who can't afford premium tyres. I have been there. When you buy the best you can afford.

Surely they are better than bald illegal tyres? ?

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A lot of budget tyres come from premium manufacturers. So they will be the old compounds and patterns under a different name. Just but wisely and do your research.

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Don't get confused and compare Chinese tyres with Nexens. Nexens are Korean mid price tyres not Chinese. In Korea are similar in market stature to Hankook and Kumho. Indeed I've had a new Hyundia supplied with OEM Nexen and Hankook tyres.

Edited 31 December, 201510 yr by paddypaws

It's laughable to say that just because all tyres sold are legal means they are safe.

 

It's also perfectly legal to drive on snow and ice with 1.6mm tread summer tyres.

 

It's also perfectly legal to have a directional winter on the same axle as a asymmetrical summer. With one being brand new and another nearly worn out.

 

The law is just some words. Use common sense, use logic and remember that the only thing keeping your car on the road in our wet climate is four small patches of rubber. Reasonable tyres are not much more expensive than ditch finders. Noone is forcing Michellins on everyone, there are plenty of good tyres that are not very expensive.

Bottom line for me is that I don't drive either like an idiot or pushing the boundaries of the vehicle I'm driving. I am a professional driver driving coaches with up to 70 folks on board, and a qualified driving instructor for cars, HGVs and PCVs. So I'm pretty confident in my driving skills thanks.............

 

You have hit the nail on the head when you say that folks push the design and performance limit of the tyres they fit, and I say once again that the budget tyres may well be perfectly adequate for those who do not want to drive for performance

 

So you hold back other road users, by driving slower, because you can't be bothered to spend £100 more for 4 decent tyres?

I bought 4 chinese "Sunny" winter tyres for wifey's Peugeot 106, and they were leathal on anything than gravel and mud, so I had to buy 4 "sava" winter tires, which costed £30 more in total, but had an ok score in tire tests. The tire tests might be biased, but often premium brands like Michelin score low, while less known brands might come in in 2. or 3. place.

Since most of the European tyre production has moved to Russia, tyres are actually the same price now as 15 years ago.

OK, fair point. Just read that the Falkens were fitted by the dealer as in the first post. 

 

VRStdi's comment that the dealer was penny-pinching when they didn't change the Arrowspeed is totally unjustified if that tyre had plenty of life left on it. Nobody can expect any dealer to change perfectly servicable tyres simply because they are not top branded. Let's face it -- yes some tyres are better than others, but no tyre sold could possibly be branded as "suicide brands" as suggested above. ALL tyres sold in the UK have to meet minimum safety standards which would far exceed the standard suggested.

 

Mike

I think this begs the question on the type of dealership of which the car was purchased from, (unless I missed this info).

 

If it was a main dealer and the op paid full retail price, then I would be inclined to agree with VRStdi's comment and would have expected them to have replaced all four tyres with the same. I'm sure they could have used the odd tyre for something else.

 

However, if it was purchased at a car supermarket or other second hand car dealership, then I would probably agree with you Mike, and not expect this similar level of service.

Hi guys. Thank you all for your comments. I realised that I did miss some information. I purchased the car as an approved used car from a Skoda dealership (West end skoda).

If they put 3 W rated tyres on when the car is specified to have Y, I can understand why they only put on 3. I will need to contact skoda UK customer services as this is completely unacceptable.

Can anyone help with giving me contact details for skoda UK. I have looked online but the number does not seem to work.

Thanks.

Jon.

 

 

Drive any car within the limits set by UK law, and there isn't any need whatsoever to spend over the odds. Performance driving should not be a feature of the public roads, sorry.

 

Mike

 

I'm not interested in performance driving on the road.

 

I'm interested in performance accident avoidance and performance braking especially while my family is on board.

 

That's why our three cars have premium summer tyres fitted in summer and premium winter tyres in winter.

 

Our old Fabia 1.9TDi had cheap Chinese tyres on it when we bought it. It would flash the traction control light on in third gear in the wet and even gentle braking had the ABS engaging. Tyres like that should not be on sale. I had them swapped within two weeks of buying the car and it transformed the cars grip. 

 

Lee

I disagree with you Mike about all tyres being adequate for normal driving as the ones I replaced on my Xantia and C5 where bloody lethal and I was driving well within speed limits and doing nothing extreme... the Wanlis would spin pulling away from traffic lights, junctions anything at all and that was in the bone dry .... God only knows what they'd be like in the wet ... remember these manufacturers rate their own tyres for fuel economy and wet weather handling they're not put through any sort of consumer test

Edited 1 January, 201610 yr by labman1001

I wouldnt typically buy budget tyres as they often prove a false economy....trading cost for generally worse grip (wet and dry), noise and wear.

That said I had a set of Kenda Komets fitted (not by choice) on a several year old Vauxhall Astra we bought, fitted as part of its NetworkQ check and was quite impressed...car wasnt sporty and worked perfectly well, werent noisy and wore very well.

Likewise Ive had cars with Bridgestone Potenza, Conti Sport Contact 2's and Dunlop Sport Maxx tyres and none have particularly impressed.

Currently running my Mk3 Octavia on a set of Hankook Ventus V12 Evo 2's and have to say bang per buck they are the best tyre my money has ever purchased...excellent all weather grip, quiet, seemingly wearing well, good economy and foe what they were (ZR rated XL's) v cheap indeed.

Best expensive tyres Ive experienced are Goodyear Eagle F1's and Michelin Pilot Sport 3's.

Edited 1 January, 201610 yr by pipsypreturns

Think everyone's getting a bit het up saying they prefer a mars bar to a snickers to a kit kat here!!

 

I run Barum Bravuris' cos they're relatively cheap from National and in the 3-5 years I've probably been going back to get them I've never had the car step out of line once or had any issue with their ability or function. I've also had a supercharger Golf shod in Yokohama A539's which wore like they were made from butter, Eagle F1's which were superb and probably my choice back then, and the wonderfully expensive Continental's that come from the Skoda factory which were one of the worst tyres I've ever had the displeasure of driving on. BUT I also know people who've had those same tyres and thought the polar opposite, so it's pointless getting all riled up over what tyres do what and how they perform when we all drive completely differently, and have cars set up in a spectrum of ways with different loads.

 

Yes, we've all had or known people with what we reckon are killer tyres, either the good OR the bad definition, but surely we're better off just giving opinions and taking them as that and not facts and then not having a go at one another simply cos two people have had different experiences??

 

My mate like wasabi & horse-radish with his food. I do not. I don't think he's a **** though!

I'm not interested in performance driving on the road.

 

I'm interested in performance accident avoidance and performance braking especially while my family is on board.

 

That's why our three cars have premium summer tyres fitted in summer and premium winter tyres in winter.

 

Our old Fabia 1.9TDi had cheap Chinese tyres on it when we bought it. It would flash the traction control light on in third gear in the wet and even gentle braking had the ABS engaging. Tyres like that should not be on sale. I had them swapped within two weeks of buying the car and it transformed the cars grip. 

 

Lee

Exactly, after which my next interest becomes "the guy behind me also having performance braking".

the main problem with B-B's is finding them sometimes   but being a div' of Conti at least you know you have the makings of a sound tyre  I found little difference with Uniroyal in type for type (also Conti') 

I've used Barum's on my Previous Citroen Xantia and C5 and have a pair on the rear of my current Octavia and are in my humble opinion one of the best budget tyres money can buy

Edited 4 January, 201610 yr by labman1001

I always thought barum tyres were a mid range. Everytime I have bought they have been sold as a mid range tyre and about £20 each more expensive than a budget from the same garage.

Mike how about braking ability wet and dry from 70,50,30 mph within 15% off the best performing tyre in wet and dry conditions, within 15% on a constant radius test wet and dry

I am sure I can think of some more.

Obviously comparing like with like, summer tyres, winter tyres, road legal semi slicks in different categories

Had Sava intensa on the rear of our car at purchase, within 2 weeks had the car step out on a bend. our mondeo diesel on skinnier tyres had happily gone round at the same speed. Needless to say the tyres were changed within days

Surely this boils down to what is budget and what isn't.

Some would consider vredestein to be budget but I've used them for years and, whilst they have been cheaper than, say Dunlop, Goodyear and Michelin they have performed better in terms of wet and dry grip etc. in my experience and have got better reviews in historic tests. In fact some of the worst tyres I've had have been premium Goodyear Eagles and Dunlop SP01.

The only real answer is do your research and don't just buy a brand or a price...

Edited 7 January, 201610 yr by skomaz