Tyres - What is the Truth?

rodenal

Not by a long shot, but then you're crossing the premium/sub premium smeared curvy dotted line again.

bigjl

The Toyo T1R and T1S tyres always percormed way better than the price of them indicated.

One reason why I had them.on several different cars over the years.

Sava Intensa HP, safe enough well priced budget, but noisey at slow speeds when turned into say a junction or around a car park.

Michelin Energy, very quiet and long lasting tyre, but a little lacking in outright grip in the wet.

Michelin Primacy HP is a very quiet long lasting tyre, very good in the wet or dry.

Michelin Primacy was better than the Good Year NCT5 tyres that were previously fitted to works Zafiras.

The above is just a few comments to show that the manufacturer of the tyre isn't the only thing to consider.

For example a NCT5 is a better tyre for outright grip than a Michelin Energy. Though the Energy will last longer.

AMO

Sue, I'm late to the discussion, but here's what I'll say:

If you have a small car like a Ford Fiesta, go with a premium brand like Mitchelin as you'll be paying around £50 / corner anyway.

I don't think remoulds exist anymore (where they re-use a tyre and add a layer of rubber). Don't go for these as they are quite dangerous if the rubber comes off.

In general, after that, the difference in cost between budget, mid-range and premium is the amount of silica mixed into the rubber. Rubber tends to be hard and so braking in the wet is a problem. Silica softens this and so premium tyres have this in so you are safer in wetter weather.

Cheap tyres generally do not have silica inside them.

In terms of energy saving and wear. The harder the tyre the longer it will wear, and the higher the load rating of the tyre. It will also not grip the road well and therefore give a high MPG (because it doesn't stick). Premium tyres grip the road well so you don't skid and safer in wetter weather but the tradeoff is that because it grips the road, your MPG goes down.

That's why with premium tyres, they try to offer better mpg (energy) tyres - which are usually tyres with less silica in them. They're usually cheaper though.

In terms of brands owning other brands. A lot of this is to do with trade blocks. The western tyre makers could not get into Eastern markets and the only way was to buy out the companies there to get a presence. Yes, they own the cheaper company, but how much that affects the way the tyres are made depend on the individual company.

In general, those driving a 2L car would consider looking at the mid-range tyres but do research on the amount of silica and user ratings of those tyres before purchasing them.

If it helps, I bought my car with premium Mitchelins on all 4 corners (new car). Always replaced them with Mitchelins. Then economic downturn and tyres which are imported became expensive (£150 / corner). So I looked into mid-range and budget range. I found out about tyre hardness and silica and decided on budget on the rear and mid-range on the front (having researched some decent Falken FK-452 tyres in the midrange. I figured budget tyres at the back aren't a problem as they are high load rated I rely less on them for braking.

What I found was that the mid-range are excellent replacements for premium Mitchelin although not quite as good.

Unexpectedly, I found budget tyres to be poor. I went around a roundabout and the rear tyres skidded so that the car's rear moved sideways. Problem is more noticeable if you take the car where they've relayed surfaces on the road. Never a problem with premium tyres.

So, in a nutshell, in a small car, I don't think there's much in it, so go premium. For larger cars, I'd avoid budget altogether unless you are a really cautious driver and you have to research mid-range tyres well before going for them but its worthwhile in the saving you can make.

AMO

mikey72

AMO wrote: »

In terms of energy saving and wear. The harder the tyre the longer it will wear, and the higher the load rating of the tyre. It will also not grip the road well and therefore give a high MPG (because it doesn't stick). Premium tyres grip the road well so you don't skid and safer in wetter weather but the tradeoff is that because it grips the road, your MPG goes down.

Rolling resistance, not super sticky tyres, equates to energy savers, (or not)

AMO

mikey72 wrote: »

Rolling resistance, not super sticky tyres, equates to energy savers, (or not)

They ultimately amount to the same thing if you think about it.

mikey72

wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_resistance

French_Knickers

Soooo much discussion here but in reality, your average commuter or school run housewife wouldn't know the difference! I've seen plenty of people driving down the road who don't even know they have a tyre thats either partially or fully flat!

jase1

French_Knickers wrote: »

Soooo much discussion here but in reality, your average commuter or school run housewife wouldn't know the difference! I've seen plenty of people driving down the road who don't even know they have a tyre thats either partially or fully flat!

Well you've changed your tune

One other thing I will say is this; regardless of what you buy, please make sure you have matching tyres on each axle. IME the worst-handling and gripping car is the one with four different makes of tyre, regardless of what they are.

In other words, I'd expect a car with four semi-reasonable budget tyres of the same make, tread and batch to be more predictable and therefore safer than one with four different premium tyres on each corner.

I've felt the consequences of the latter -- if they let go on a roundabout they're a right bloomin' handful and I don't want to go there again :rotfl:

FineBoneChina_2

Q. Someone mentioned to me that supposedly "Kleber" are in fact "Continental" tyres. Is this correct, or is this a load of old cobblers?

Thanks

Lum

jase1 wrote: »

Well you've changed your tune

One other thing I will say is this; regardless of what you buy, please make sure you have matching tyres on each axle. IME the worst-handling and gripping car is the one with four different makes of tyre, regardless of what they are.

Ahahaha, those Nissan alloy wheels, which someone in another thread pointed me to, came with 4 different brands of tyre, none of which I'd heard of.. AKR, Solus and two others I forgot. All with different levels of wear and two of them with uneven wear.

21 quid for a set of cheap winter wheels is great, and he was a really nice guy, but I'm so glad I'm not going to be running on these tyres, or buying the car they came off!