Car Tyres - Premium vs Budget, but the part no where seems to address.
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Thanks for all your comments, it's nice to hear a civilised debate online for once.
In case anyone wondered, the tyres on my car that are cracking after 4 years are continentals. But the car has been kept outside, as reeac already spoke of.
It would be nice if the people who review tyres would perform more relevant tests instead of pitting the worst budget tyre up against the best premium tyre. The conclusions of which come as no surprise. I'd like to see what I've mentioned here, a reasonable budget tyre vs reasonable premium, BOTH wet grip rated C.0 -
NoThanks for all your comments, it's nice to hear a civilised debate online for once.
In case anyone wondered, the tyres on my car that are cracking after 4 years are continentals. But the car has been kept outside, as reeac already spoke of.
It would be nice if the people who review tyres would perform more relevant tests instead of pitting the worst budget tyre up against the best premium tyre. The conclusions of which come as no surprise. I'd like to see what I've mentioned here, a reasonable budget tyre vs reasonable premium, BOTH wet grip rated C.
Interesting - not the first time I've head complaints about Contis prematurely cracking.0 -
It's more complicated than thatI use two review sites, tyrereviews.co.uk and tyretest.com.
Both feature public user reviews and both need to viewed with an open mind, because while most reviews are reasonable and fair you sometimes spot a trend of several favourable reviews in quite short order on the latter which is heavily used.
I usually buy Uniroyal or Vredestein car tyres, good products reasonable price.
They may not last as along as some premium tyres but if they do half the mileage and cost half as much and stick to the road like the proverbial they'll do me fine.
Uniroyal Rainsports and RainExperts usually come with a A for wet grip and that A means what it says.
As said above its all very well having a tyre that lasts for 50k miles but if those 50k miles have you sweating in anticipation of the next wet slide then why bother.
With the number of far eastern makes claiming better wet grip than premiums 3 times the price the scoring system is fast losing its credibility.0 -
BeenThroughItAll wrote: »Interesting - not the first time I've head complaints about Contis prematurely cracking.
You beat me to it. My four year old Continentals are cracking prematurely and a Mercedes mechanic told me he has noticed this a lot. I won't be replacing them with more Contis, that's for sure.
Interesting thread, by the way.0 -
NoFrom my experience budget tyres do tend to crack a lot earlier than their premium/midrange counterparts. so weirdly if you're millage is low you're better off going for the better brands, as you wont use up the tread before they crack on the cheaper stuff. I can only go off personal experience though.
I once had a pair of Champiro tyres on my car and they lasted a year until cracking, not impressed.
Tyre brands I tend to go for which strike a nice balance between quality and price are Falken, Avon and Kumho0 -
NoA good tyre will provide you progressive feedback i.e. gradually you'll feel that you might lose control, whereas in a budget tyre it might just come suddenly. Bit of generic statement but overall that's what separate good and bad tyres.
On dry road, even bald tyres will work fine. Better tyres excel under wet, snow etc. It is similar to phone camera - even a cheapo one will take excellent photos in bright daylight but will struggle under low light.Happiness is buying an item and then not checking its price after a month to discover it was reduced further.0 -
Thanks for all your comments, it's nice to hear a civilised debate online for once.
In case anyone wondered, the tyres on my car that are cracking after 4 years are continentals. But the car has been kept outside, as reeac already spoke of.
It would be nice if the people who review tyres would perform more relevant tests instead of pitting the worst budget tyre up against the best premium tyre. The conclusions of which come as no surprise. I'd like to see what I've mentioned here, a reasonable budget tyre vs reasonable premium, BOTH wet grip rated C.
You might want to check the date of manufacture that is printed in a code on the side of the tyre, something like ww/yy for week/year of manufacture IIRC. Many tyre sellers are quite happy to sell tyres that are a good few years old before they are fitted to your car, so worth checking before you get new ones fitted, if you want to maximise the life of the tyre.0 -
NoI doubt they are all the same, how can they be?
Assuming the ratings are from A to E that would mean all A tyres are identical, Bs the same etc, hardly possible.
But I would say a C rated budget tyre performs roughly the same as a C rated premium tyre.
I've used a mix of premium and budget tyres during my driving life (not at the same time!) and haven't ever really noticed a huge amount of difference, but I am not pushing my car to the limit.
Driving style is far more important, no tyre is going to save you if you drive like a d*ck.
Equally if you drive carefully and defensively you will be OK using budget tyres, most of the time!
One thing I do notice is premium tyres tend to lsat longer so I tend to buy those anyway. they do seem to be quieter at least.Make £2018 in 2018 Challenge - Total to date £2,1080 -
It's more complicated than thatscaredofdebt wrote: »I doubt they are all the same, how can they be?
Assuming the ratings are from A to E that would mean all A tyres are identical, Bs the same etc, hardly possible.
But I would say a C rated budget tyre performs roughly the same as a C rated premium tyre.
Certainly within the same bands of performance, if not quite identically.
BUT... The tests are standardised, and should be performed to the same conditions and environment by everybody every time. However, the tests are not performed independently. They are performed by the manufacturers. I'm sure the large manufacturers take the testing standards seriously, and they are eminently repeatable and accurate. Some of the AliBaba-by-the-container-what-brand-name-you-want? budgets, on the other hand...I've used a mix of premium and budget tyres during my driving life (not at the same time!) and haven't ever really noticed a huge amount of difference, but I am not pushing my car to the limit.
The difference comes in the times you don't intend to push it to the limit, but have to anyway. So when you need to brake VERY hard to avoid an impact, because somebody else has done something REALLY silly. Or if ever you totally misjudge a bend. Or...Driving style is far more important, no tyre is going to save you if you drive like a d*ck.
Absolutely.Equally if you drive carefully and defensively you will be OK using budget tyres, most of the time!
Mmm. Is "most" of the time good enough, given that the other times are the times that may well REALLY matter?One thing I do notice is premium tyres tend to lsat longer so I tend to buy those anyway. they do seem to be quieter at least.
Yep. Budgets are often a false economy, simply from a pence-per-mile standpoint.0 -
NoThere was a TV program a few years ago where they compared the wet stopping distance of a Continental vs a copy brand that appeared the same, ie same tread pattern, etc.
Where the Continental came to a stop from 70 mph they placed polystyrene blocks... The same car with the copy brand hit the blocks at 30 mph.
Having had to hit the anchors in pouring rain due to an idiot joining a dual carriageway without looking, I was glad of my Continentals and wouldn't consider budget tyres.
The local tyre company I use says nearly all their customers buy the cheapest budget tyres with few opting for premium brands, I guess they aren't concerned about their safety or that of others.0
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