Tyres - Budget or known brand?

waggys

Got my Pirelli 6000's from Blackcircles.com through topcashback for half the price of ATS and got them fitted locally.

Have tried budget tyres on our 2nd car and not worth it and have gone back to buying branded tyres via blackcircles.

Lee_Howden

Quite a few have mentioned black circles as the place to go for tyres. How have people found the service from them/their fitters?

How were they at dealing with any problems? I only ask because previously I have had to go back to a local firm (more than once!!) as the wheels weren't balanced correctly. In the end I went somewhere else and got them rebalanced properly!

Can anyone else suggest any other online tyre places besides black circles and ebay?

pingu

i paid £80 for 2 fitted last week budget ones size 205/55/R16 from Oldham tyres

Conor_3

I paid £180 for four Continental Eco 3's last year which is only £20 more than your budgets cost you...

khizman

I never skimp on tyres, if you read motoring magazines, they test tyres on the same conditions and report the facts of emergency performance etc, the big names always come out on top.

I always buy goodyear eagle f1 tyres, as they always are top, you never know when you might need the extra performance, when you need to stop suddenly on any road the better tyres will stop you quicker.

I would rather spend an extra £20 (£80 in my case) on a pair of decent tyres than £400 on my insurance excess.

It simply isn't worth it.

tomstickland

I'm a big fan of F1s. I recently tried some Kuhmo Ecstas instead. Fine in the wet and everyday driving, but a trip to the Nuburgring soon showed up their shortcomings compared with the mighty F1's.

banger9365

cheapo tyres not worth the risk,tyres are the last thing you have before you hit the car in front
i wish my tyres where less than £100 each

vikingaero

If you want ultimate mileage on a set of tyres I would recommend Michelin Energys. I had a pair on my company car and it took me 30k before I could get something grippier.

In my experience cheapo tyres are a deathtrap. We have a 15 year old Honda Accord in our family that is the runabout mule. It's driven by a dozen different people. One time we saw an offer at Kwik-Fit for cheap tyres 4 for £80 for 185/70/14. So we bought 4 and they were branded Debica. A few months later Auto Express did a test of premium brands with Debica added as the budget brand. It did appalling in wet tests and in wet braking braked a good 20m worse than the premium brands. The key factor though was that everyone who drove the car with the Debicas commented on how poor the handling and braking grip was and a few people had scary stories at what they would term normal speeds when they drove the car on the previous Continentals.

I only run our cars on premium brands. Michelins on the high-mileage company car and Goodyear Eagle F1s on the MPV and small hatch. The Goodyears never last longer than 12k per set but they perform the best in wet handling and braking which is what is needed in our climate.

AdrianHi

Michelin has just brought out a new version of their energy saver tyre which has been independantly tested and shown to match or beat the best of the premium touring tyre bunc for grip etc. as well as having a long life.
If you expect to do 25K-30K miles or more with the current car I think these would be a good choice.
Ordinarily I don't buy budget tyres, I needed to replace all 4 on my previous car for MOT before trading it in for a new car. I put on the cheapest tyres I could and found traction, wet grip and road noise all much worse than the Pirelli P6000 I had on before. The P6000's aren't bad but there are better options than this, so shows you how bad a cheap tyre can be.

Falken 452's are good, popular with BMW owners including M3 owners. They are budget price but premium performance rating more or less as well as Goodyear F1's and Michelins PS2's. On the continent Falkens (a Japanese make) are now a well known and established brand with a price to match the Goodyears etc.

DCFC79

I ned to change my tyres soon, can anyone recommend a brand to get from black circles