Car tyres - where is best/cheapest?

[Deleted User]

Anyone know if Barum Brillantis tyres are any good? 175/65 T 14 for a Pug 206.

anewman

Deleted_User wrote: »

Anyone know if Barum Brillantis tyres are any good? 175/65 T 14 for a Pug 206.

Better than the absolute cheapest. I would call them low to mid range. Apparently Barum is a Czech company owned by Continental (so the usual thing of buying out the bottom end of the market to prop up your premium brand and justify higher prices).

waynedance

We are a fitting centre for Blackcircles.com but our tyres are either the same price or cheaper, internet is not always cheaper.

Please remember folks that tyres are the only things the only thing that keep your car on the road. Buying cheap budget tyres made out of old elastic bands (ha ha) is not always a good choice.

Buy the best you can afford.

Alt

mrs_T wrote: »

Just bought 2 michelin energy saver 205/55 vr16 size at costco @ 85.76 each (includes vat) including rotation, fitting and tracking. 91.80 each for the same thing on etyres.

Are you sure about the tracking bit?

anewman

Alt wrote: »

Are you sure about the tracking bit?

Think they must have meant wheel balancing.

No doubt blackcircles gets their "cut" but I am sure most tyre places get business out of ignorance. I.e. charge more to the person coming in off the street if they can.

One good thing about blackcircles is you can specify the exact tyres you want, these are sent to the fitting centre so you know they'll have them for you when you go to the appointment. The tyre centre's only interest is in selling you tyres so they'll try sell you tyres you might be not be so happy with because they happen to have them in stock.

Kilty_2

My local tyre place undercut blackcircles by about £15 a corner for my last tyre purchase :eek:

longtimelurker54

Thanks everyone for some very useful replies. Most of the companies mentioned I'd never heard of so will look at them all and then go with the cheapest price to a local supplier from Thomson Local and see what they can do.

Re tracking - we haven't noticed the car pulling but the two front tyres are wearing away on the inside part and Kwik Fit said that means we need to get tracking done - does this sound right?

Just out of interest I tried a quote from VW yesterday expecting them to be miles more expensive and sure enough they were! They said they don't do tracking but to "four wheel alignmnent" and want to charge around £87 for this!

Confused now as to whether we need tracking or this 4-wheel alignment thing? Clearly need to get the inside wearing sorted out as otherwise we'll be replacing tyres more often than we need to so might be worth the spend now to save later? What do people think pls?

ailuro2

As the other poster said, the size of the palm of your hand is the area of the tyre that is in contact with the road. You also say you do a lot of motorway driving. Unless you're really really skint I'd not go for a cheap tyre ever.

I say this because I work in a tyre manufacturing plant, and I know what it takes to make a tyre, it's not a simple as bunging some rubber granules in a mould (well that's what I used to think before I knew how it was done:o)

If you can afford to, buy a decent brand's energy saver tyres, they will cut down your fuel bill by around 5%, so this will pay for the extra initial cost before long if you're doing high mileages.

If your current tyres show signs of wear that is uneven then it does show your wheels need tracked, no point in shelling out for tyres only to wear them away in half the time because your wheels aren't properly aligned. It's a similar thign to running under or over inflated, that will wear your tyre unevenly too.;)

http://www.michelin.co.uk/michelinuk/en/car-4x4-van/monitoring-maintenance-your-tyres/20070314172078.html

mollycat

ailuro2 wrote: »

Unless you're really really skint I'd not go for a cheap tyre ever.

I say this because I work in a tyre manufacturing plant, and I know what it takes to make a tyre, it's not a simple as bunging some rubber granules in a mould (well that's what I used to think before I knew how it was done:o)

Sorry, but ive got to jump in here and correct this advice.

I USED to work in a Michelin tyre factory and know how tyres are made.

A budget tyre is made EXACTLY the same way as a premium tyre.

I always buy budget tyres, sometimes second hand tyres too.

Buy a premium tyre if it makes you feel safer, but dont buy one because you think you will skite off the road with budget tyres....you wont!!

Wig

OP,

Need to telephone around asking for the cheapest (all inclusive) they do in your size, then ask what the make is. This may be a "made in Romania" or similar, but the bottom dollar is that it will be perfectly good for you and last just as long. You will always get the doom and gloomers on here saying the only point of contact with the road is your 4 tyres, and 'there have been studies done on braking distance bla bla bla

Bottom line is I always go for cheapest and I always have no problems.

BTW I got some RIKENs (made by Michelin factory) a while ago 2 years and 4 months to be exact, they are on the front of a Punto and still have good 4mm or so tread on them dunno what miles they have done, I might try to find out.