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.

 

Hmmm, I guess it's like this thread: whoever you speak to will have varying opinions on the specifics of tyres! I asked for some equivalent prices from a fitter who I take mine to if I need the tracking done as they're very good, and I was a little taken back when he replied with 'oh, I didn't realise you were looking for a cheap as chips, budget tyre', basically I think because he didn't stock them and thought down of them, although I thought he should have been more professional and not so opinionated. Each to their own.

 

On the other hand, I've thought Vredestein weren't particularly cheap, but they tend to get good reviews on www.tyrereviews.co.uk so I put them as mid to high end.

 

Shows what I know!

I have contacted skoda UK customer services and they are in talks with the dealer to get the tyres changed as the dealer put tyres on my car which are of a lower specification than skoda state the car should have.

If they had changed all 4 I would of been none the wiser as they all would be matching. Only discovered the difference when looking to remove the budget arrowspeed.

Will keep you posted

A little update. The dealer have finally changed the 3 falken 92w tyres they fitted for 3 falken azenis fk453 92y, with some gentle persuasion from Skoda UK customer services.

I opted to pay the extra to get the budget arrowspeed changed at the same time so I have 4 matching tyres. Time will tell how good the tyres are. Cost me £98 for the 4th tyre, which I think is reasonable from a main dealer.

Ouch - £98 for a Falken, guess if you wanted them all to match you had no choice.

I've just ordered Good Year Asymm 3 tyres for £99

I could have (and probably should have) shopped around for a matching tyre, but then I would have the inconvenience of going to another fitter to get it fitted.

Blackcircles have the same tyre for 71.29. Factor in 15 to get it fitted (not sure of postage price). I will have saved about a tenner by waiting.

Was easier just to get it done there and then.

Next stop 4 wheel alignment just to be sure all is good.

I am not brand conscious per se. But I have used budget tyres on much less powerful and lighter cars in the past and lucky if I got 6 months 6k out of them. They were fitted as a pair. My main concern is a budget and mid range on the same axel. They also have different speed ratings.

Does anyone know what the correct speed rating for my cars tyres should be.

H or v rated tyres would be ok

I believe the only time a H rated tyre would be acceptable is if the tyres are specifically winter tyres with the "three peak snowflake symbol"

Any other time it could invalidate my insurance policy.

As you say,  it's boiling down to what you want yourself.  Which refers me back to the unanswered questions I asked in post 44 above.  What really defines budget,  midrange and premium tyres? There are posts on here praising budgets and others slating premiums,  so what the hell are the right,  no,  definitive,  answers please???

 

Mike 

 

Surely what defines this is solely the price, isn't it?

Nearly everyone seems to agree that there good, bad and indifferent within each price bracket. I had ran all sort of rubber on my Alfa 155, with differing experiences. I recall that Pirelli's were fabulous for the first few K miles then dropped off rapidly, driving style needs to account for this. Some other cheaper tyre outperformed them over the longer term.

Edited 26 January, 201610 yr by nickgpfc

yes...   but different people will have different  opinions of price and different interpretations of 'budget' and 'premium' as well I'd wager...

At current I'm running a pair of LandSail LS tyres, I'm a big fan, the ratings are better than the £70 Hankooks that have been on it, the Land Sails are £29 seem good so far

I have also had good experiences with budget (otherwise known as cheap) tyres.

 

I went through two full sets of Evergreen tyres on my old vRS.

 

You could be running a set of cheap tyres, not crash and claim they were great.

 

Likewise you could fit a set of the most expensive tyres, crash, and then blame the tyres.

 

Unless you are able to run two different types of tyres on the same car, with the same driver, in the same climate, on the same road surface on the same day back-to-back then it is impossible to accurately say if one performs differently to the other.

Surely the only reason any standard family car is fitted with a "Y" rated tyre is that in the desire to fit larger wheels with lower profiles tyes is that these tyres only come in these speed ratings and not because it needs it ...

The standard wheel and tyre size for the Octavia used to 195/65/15 H but you could increase it to 205/60/16 V .. why the V was it because the tyre size didn't come in an H.. my own car has 225/45/17 W fitted and again why a W because you can't really get it in a lower speed rating but if I can run one quite happily on an H which is a higher speed than my car can attain why do I need to a fit V, W or Y if I go to a bigger size ....

If you take 3 tyres with 3 identical tread patterns surely they all handle and behave the exact same at speeds up to it's maximum rated speed , so sitting on the motorway at 70mph there will be no difference in how the tyre behaves .... the speed rating only means the tyre can cope with the higher speed nothing else.

You're joking aren't you? Struggling to get 6k out of a set of tyres? Just how heavy is your right foot? 

As said, I've just bought a couple of Nexens, but years ago I bought a couple of real budgets for my 54 plate. 25k later they are still on the rear of the car -- can't comment on time, because they are summers and come off during winter.

 

Mike, some of the budget stuff is really soft and wears quite quickly.  IMO better than the ones that appear to have been made from concrete (& grip accordingly).

 

I had a set of the original Goodyear NCTs on a RWD sedan with less power / torque than a 1.8tsi Octavia and wore the set of tyres out in 3 months - maybe 8000km.  I also had a 5.9L Chrysler that would get a set of 50% worn rear tyres (the tyre fitter would save them for me) every Friday afternoon - yep rear tyres replaced weekly.  Maybe I drove a bit silly at the time :-)