[Closed] Car tyre longevity- cheap and nasty or pricey branded?

The cheap tyres I have had in the past have lasted donkeys years at the expense of poorer grip. I normally go for something mid range as a balance between the two..

Thats my 2 pence worth anyway.

The cheap tyres I have had in the past have lasted donkeys years at the expense of poorer grip.

The ones i've had were the opposite, but they were low profile (40 or 45) which might explain the difference.

I take the view that my tyres are the only things in contact with the road. So unless I am really unable to buy more expensive tyres then I spend the money.
Cheap tyres are cheap for a reason.

I dont drive like a nun but i'm no boy racer. My last mondeo came with cheap "energy saving" tyres. Drove like they were made of wood. They were pretty bad in the dry and in the wet they were scary!
For the difference of £20 quid per tyre i'd stick with what you know.

as I do a lot of miles for work

It would matter less if you were a Nun shopping at Tescos once a week 🙂

Get 'premium budget' such as Kleber, Falken or Kumho. Avoid the cheapies!

Go for something mid range. I got some Falken ones from black circles or etyres which are ok.
I cant justify spending a small fortune on mega bucks name branded ones and for the mileage our car does (<6k a year) its not worth it.

*Awaits someone to start preaching that cheap tyres are a waste of money and you may as well drive off a cliff, as thats what'll happen anyway.

AS above.....Cheaper tyres generally last longer but at the sacrifice of a bit of grip...
I.E. My old Vectra's tyres were £200 a time,was lucky to get a year(25,000 miles) out of them,even when swopping them from front to back.Swopped to a cheaper National Tyre's own branded tyre & got the 4 for less than £400 & doubled their mileage with only a small amount of grip lost,they were much better in the snow too....

Yeah, Kumho do perfectly decent, good value tyres. Cheap doesn't have to mean terrible, but at the same time low grip doesn't always mean long-lasting.

My mondeo came with 2 Autogrips and 2 something else awfuls, they might have lasted a million miles but I'll never know as I threw them in the bin after discovering how terrible they were. Fine for good conditions, slow driving when nothing goes wrong but throw in cold rain, or an emergency stop or maneuvre... Nah, won't have that on my car. Though, wheelspin in 4th was fun

Dont assume just cause they are branded and cost lots they are good.

Many "eco" tires are frankly dangerous to drive.

To stick the car amongst the pigeons i just stuck 4 remoulds on my car.

That should get the safety sams out going mad.

I am running low profile tyres if that makes a difference.

I don't feel that the 20k I've got out of them is too bad so I'm not sure if expecting more from something harder is a hit much.

Perhaps cheaper tyres get a better economy rating because they have less grip therefore less resistance on the road...which is not necessarily a good thing.

So far on my present car I have had
Bridgestones good grip but were noisy & wore quick
Conti Sport contacts quieter gripped well but also wore quick
Kuhmo's reasonable grip slightly loud wore ok
Yokahama good grip quiet & lasting well so far

worst milage 10,000 best 19,000 and rising

Car Mazda 6 TD estate 185bhp

Its not the longevity that you need to wary of on cheaper tyres - its their ability in the wet that can be of concern.

Not all, but certainly some, low cost tyres are truly shocking when it comes to aquaplaning. Having aquaplaned at around 70mph joining the M25 once I can tell you it is truly terrifying and not something I am in a rush to do again.

I don't go mad on tyres but I don't skimp either.

Look at www.tyre-shopper.co.uk - I have used them loads and tyres are fitted at a local tyre fitting place. Seem to have excellent pricing and a good range of tyres from cheap to very expensive.

That reminds me, I must check what's on the hire car I have ATM as they were just plain scary in the wet this morning. 3rd gear wheelspin should not be possible on a boggo rep/family car.

Having aquaplaned at around 70mph joining the M25 once I can tell you it is truly terrifying and not something I am in a rush to do again.

Just the once,it was part of the driving experience when I first passed my test,that & drifting.....Oh & before ABS was standard, pumping the brakes to stop in the wet was second nature too........

at this time of year......top quality snow tyres every time. My vredesteins have been on the van along time and got loads of tread left.

Your front tyres do most of the breaking, all of the turning, and If your car is fwd puts all the power down... Get the best tyres you can afford for the fronts... You can economise on the rear..

It could be the difference between stopping before you hit something or not, then they will seam a bargain
The thing you hit could be a child jumping out on you, not you going too quick!

WHY WON'T YOU THINK OF THE CHILDREN

Kumho make some decent tyres, but for some reason the Ecsta Sport (KU31) that I used to use, wear unevenly on the rear of my car.

So I have swapped to Matador on the advice of a local tyre place. I think they are MP46's - Hectorra Sport. Have had MP44's in the past too.
They are sister company to Continental apparently, and the tyres are brilliant. Ooodles of grip in the wet & dry, better in snow/ice than the Kumho's and they last a decent amount of time. I don't really know how long, but I do about 23k miles/yr and replace the tyres less than once a year.
Camskill do them for about £110/pair delivered for my wheel size (205/45/16) and my local garage fit them for a tenner a corner.

Marangoni verso is the answer, very scary tyres.

😯 What size contis are you getting for £60 a corner? I'd snap their hand off

I learned the cheap tyres thing years ago. The thing to do is: Avoid avoid avoid.

They wear out quicker, don't grip nearly as well when slightly worn, are often noisier and their behavior on the limit is rarely consistent.

Buy the very best you can afford from a proper brand: Michelin, Continental, Nokian, Vredstein, Dunlop, Bridgestone, Avon. I'd even avoid the sub-brands like cooper. I have a special place in my soul for the loathing I covet for Pirelli - they're: overated, noisy, have fantastic grip which then suddenly trails off to nothing and wear characteristics that can only make their shareholders happy. I consider them to be a calendar manufacturer that happen to make tyres, really really badly.

My current fave brand is Michelin: the Pilot Sports fitted to the abarth are amazing, loads of feedback, stunning grip in both wet and dry, seemingly indestructible (27k of redline hot-hatch hooliganism on a set before they approached the wear bars & the outer edges are bearly dulled). We've just swaped the contis fitted to the Superb to the Michelin PS3s & found that road rumble has all but disappeared. Very impressed indeed.

Again, really: £60 per wheel???

daveh - Member
Marangoni verso is the answer, very scary tyres.

I had some Marangoni Zeta Linea's that I got mainly due to their reasonable price and I like the look of the tread pattern.... 😳

They were OK in terms of grip, but were very noisy (tread pattern) and wore quickly. Not bothered with them since.

I buy top-quality tyres but as excellent fully-inspected etc. part-worns. Currently have Pirelli Cinturato P7s all round for less than £200 fitted. (I decided on these tyres as being the best on the new euro tyre eco-certification thing)
I save about 70% on new price and get at least 2 years out of them. I also don't get enraged when I totally mince a tyre on some kerb or other street furniture! Imagine trashing a brand new £150 tyre within 2 weeks of fitting - gutted x 10! I just buy another matching part worn and get it fitted all for about £50. More cash available for bike bits!

I bought the car secondhand with a full set of budget tyres fitted - after having almost NO grip in the wet I binned them all!

Energy saving tyres aka silica compound. They last well over twice as long as normal tyres.

All Nokian tyres have silica. I've got about 20k miles on my Passat ones and they are 1/4 worn 😯 Michelin energy savers on the Prius have 40k miles on and the rears (recently switched to the front) are under half gone. The old fronts are just under half.

Silica makes tyres last longer - same as for bikes.

Many "eco" tires are frankly dangerous to drive.

Not my Nokians or Michelins. I've never skidded or aquaplaned, even that time when I came around a 50mph corner straight into a flood, and I really thought I was going to.

The cheap tyres I have had in the past have lasted donkeys years at the expense of poorer grip. I normally go for something mid range as a balance between the two..

True indeed. I've Kumho Solus at the mo (£120 for a pair) and they're infinitely better than the Kingstars I had on before to the point the Kingstars fealt dangerous in anything other than fully-dry conditions.

Ditto on the contisport for £60! They were my favourite tyre, but are £180ish each for my car now!

On Blackcircles you can get the Auto Express 'Tyre of the year' fully fitted for about £75 each, think its a Goodyear / Dunlop efficient grip. Thats a premium tyre for not much money. Worth it IMO as it has B rated efficency, A rated wet grip and quiet.

Assuming they last 4 years they're cheap as its only £40 an end more expensive than budget tyres.

And you can't put nasty cheap tyres on a fancy looking new car.

I went with conti eco tyres, on the basis they had the same/better rateing on the new stickers than a lot of more expensive normal tyres, and were 4db quieter than the michelins.

Had cheep ass Prestivo tyres before though they were fine, never skidded or aquaplaned. But fitted uniroyals after that and they did this the first time a corner caught me by supprise after about 500miles (i.e. they should have scrubbed off any release compound etc)

[img] [/img]

I always try & get the best I can afford & use [url=tyretest.com] tyretest.com [/url] to check out those I've no personal experience of.

As has already been pointed out, it's the tyres that are the only point of contact your car has with the road so I don't want to take chances, especially when I see the odd accident investigation report at work. It's surprising how many times tyres have come up as an issue in serious crashes - if you've ever seen skid marks left by a car with ABS etc then you'll understand how dangerous some cheapies can be in an emergency situation.

On Blackcircles you can get the Auto Express 'Tyre of the year' fully fitted for about £75 each, think its a Goodyear / Dunlop efficient grip.

[edit] mundaneo oil-burner doing about 20k per year [/edit]

Aye but your cars broken and the other is a prius molgrips, i shouldmt imagine its very taxing for tires either way.

Gmmie winters in summer over all of the ecos ive tried. Still hard to see past the hancook 4 seasons i ran on the golf, golf handled shie but they cut out most of the wandering front end it had.

My broken car still drives just as fast. That 20k miles included lots of autobahn and caravan towing too.

What ecos have you tried?

I wouldn't use winters in summer - too squirmy.

Yokohama Blue Earth are proving to be a good set of tyres.

In the balmy south west maybe

In the north east on a 1.9 van they work just fine.

The all terrains winter tires i just stuck on the 4x4 now they are squirmy 🙂

Various - all on hire cars , mostly michelins and contis - the contis were by far the scariest , eco contacts i think not going fast at all in a 1.6 insignia - came to a round about on a wet day in holland from a standing start at the entrance and there was just no grip - but they werent spinning just not steering the car thought i was going in the drink.... Great for motorway milesi think- bit like the old van contacts- designed for big miles in straight lines economically

Well I must say after 60k miles on eco tyres I've never had an issue like you describe, in similar cars. I've never tried the Contis, but my Michelins aren't bad at all. Bear in mind they revamped them a few years ago - earlier ones were less good in the wet.

The Nokians are superb though.

look at stopping distances. Van tyres, theres less of them to choose from, and even cheap ones are £80+, are scary.

Worst tyre is still doing 29 mph when the best has stopped. 😯

http://www.motorcaravanning.com/vehicles/tyre_test.htm

Some of the cheap ones are OK in the dry but absolutely awful for the sopping wet conditions we have in the UK. For the sake of an extra few quid...

Pirelli P-Zero Assimetrico's on the golf. Amazing grip in the wet & dry.

I had Kuhmo's on before that and were quiet enough but couldn't be pushed as hard the Pirelli's

Your front tyres do most of the breaking, all of the turning, and If your car is fwd puts all the power down... Get the best tyres you can afford for the fronts... You can economise on the rear..

If you can't afford to fit decent tyres and have low profile tyres on there, then sell the wheels that you have and fit a smaller size wheel: decent tyres are cheaper and you get an improvement on ride quality, really don't see the point of big alloys on a daily, it's purely a vanity thing.

OP, get the good ones, and at £60/corner, get a full set!

The michelin energy savers on my golf were appaling in the wet, very little grip and an unbelievable ability to aquaplane. I drive a lot (25k/yr, almost all on b-roads) and like to drive fast, but these had me crawling along in the wet. The plus side was they slid really nicely, with great squealy noisy in the dry going down the cheddar gorge on my way to work!
The continentals that I've replaced them with seem to stick like shit to a blanket, are no noisier but I cant comment on wear as they are too new to tell (about 3k miles).
I wouldn't buy cheap tyres again, and would sacrifice economy for grip, after all, it's all that attaches you to the road at 100mph...

The michelin energy savers on my golf were appaling in the wet, very little grip and an unbelievable ability to aquaplane

When was that? They cannot be the same as the ones I have.

I'm a bit concerned now though.. just looking around, ADAC seem to like them, but there's also some evidence to suggest that they've changed them a lot over the years. Having said that mine are from 2009 or something.

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2012-European-Summer-Tyre-Test-165-70-R14.htm

Mine are August 2012 on a brand new car, can't tell you the model as I swapped them a couple of weeks ago.

Hoping the new Golf GT that's arriving next week comes with something a little better!

really depends how long you want to keep yor car. If you don't drive like a Chav, then the budget tyres are fine, they last for ages and they don't leave a sillybugger dent in your pocket.
don't listen to the tyre snobs, thats a lesson I learnt a few years ago.
Typical pish is:
"your only contact with the road is the tyre"
"buy the best you can afford"
Tyres nowadays are a hell of a lot better than they used to be, especially budget brands. 😉

Compared to fuel, and other running cost, the difference between a cheap tyre and a decent tyre is not very much.

Something to not skimp on, imo.

Michelin every time

You're worrying about £60/tyre for your car? How much do your mtb tyres cost?
How fast do you and your family/friends go in the car?
stick with a good quality branded make and look at the wet weather performance

Or just drive to conditions. I find it laughable that folk will advocate the use of expensive tires yet not fit winters when the temperature drops.

2 medeocre tires - 1 summer and 1 winter would be far better investment for anyone north of watford gap than 1 expensive tire.

Dnt need to drive at mach 1 everywhere.

Other than in hire cars which seem to run on tires made of wood ive havnt found the limits of a tire since i was about 17.

Conti's at £60 a corner whats not to like. My cars got silly big wheels £200 a corner ouch but worth the cost for the predictable grip. Had cheaper bridgstone eco hard wearing tyres on when i bought it and they were awfull in the wet hard not to spin wheels at junctions.

Neil F - Member

really depends how long you want to keep yor car. If you don't drive like a Chav, then the budget tyres are fine

Until you have to do something unplanned- a mechanical issue, or an emergency avoidance. Then, just at the time you most want good tyres, you still have crap tyres.

fingerbike - Member

Bad idea.
Best tyres to the rear always, a front wheel slide is easier to control than a rear.

Except that on many cars, a front wheel slide is more likely to happen, so it is not that simple. I understand the logic obviously but I've tried it both ways round on mine and better tyres on the front for me much better.

Just add my two pennith, you can see ratings on all tyres which give three ratings, economy, wet braking and noise levels. You'll see the wet braking is the one that varies the most and affects the cost most.

I always put good tyres on my cars, as I do drive quite fast occasionally but also like to know my wife is safe when she's driving. Also a friend just put some Coopers on his car and said everything felt so much better than when he had Pirrellis on previously.