'Budget tyres' as opposed to pricier ones?

GolfBravo

RugbyPete81 wrote: »

Use Mytyres.net - they have tyre reviews... no jargon, no false advertising, no bull. I DONT go for brands... why should I show such loyalty... how is their equipement better than other countries. No, I go for Nankang NS2's which lasted ages, 160mph tyre and £44 per corner yet the others were quoting me £140+ per corner for rip off brands. Do your research and buy any brand fit fo purpose after real world testing.

mytyres.net don't have tyre reviews, they have meaningless tyre ratings copied from tyrereviews.co.uk. They are meaningless for two simple reasons:
1. your average consumer has no way of objectively assessing/comparing tyres on their daily commute. And anyway freshly fitted new tyres would perform better than old worn out tyres, so most of their ratings are overly optimistic.
2. premium tyre buyers are more discerning and critical than typical budget tyre buyers. Your typical budget tyre review sounds like this: "OMG, my new Chinese ShooShoo Fungus 5000 tyres are the best - on my 2 mile trip to Tescos I went around a corner at 10mph and I the car didn't spin!"

The most thorough and professional tyre test is performed twice a year by German ADAC - I highly recommend to search youtube for "ADAC reifentest". There is a very good video of high speed emergency braking - two Audi A3s, one with premium and the other with budget tyres.
You can find most of their recent test results by going to tyrereviews.co.uk, clicking on Tyres and then selecting a particular tyre - apart from customer reviews there should be a link to ADAC, AutoBild/Autoexpress, Autozeitung tests. Here is their 2010 summer tyre test for example.

And BTW, ADAC tested your ultra high performance Nankang NS2 back in 2007 and it was one of the worst performing tyres (very weak in wet conditions, relatively weak in dry, and very high wear). Even customers give them only 66%. The tyre speed rating simply means that the tyre will not disintegrate at that particular speed (brand new tyre, under test lab conditions). There is much more to a tyre performance than speed rating.

If most of your driving consists of only 30mph short shopping trips, then you're perfectly fine with budget tyres. However, if you drive mostly at motorway speeds with your wife and kids in the car you just can't afford to go budget.

boatman

Just remember advertising is a wonderful thing.. Many of the so called 'budget' tyres are quite possibly perfectly good brands in other countries, don't be so quick to dismiss them, just a thought. Also remember that taking your tyres down to the 1.6mm limit is not a great idea, there is a reason they change their tyres in Germany at 3mm. See the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jHmZcYACtI

mikey72

GolfBravo wrote: »

mytyres.net don't have tyre reviews, they have meaningless tyre ratings copied from tyrereviews.co.uk. They are meaningless for two simple reasons:
1. your average consumer has no way of objectively assessing/comparing tyres on their daily commute. And anyway freshly fitted new tyres would perform better than old worn out tyres, so most of their ratings are overly optimistic.
2. premium tyre buyers are more discerning and critical than typical budget tyre buyers. Your typical budget tyre review sounds like this: "OMG, my new Chinese ShooShoo Fungus 5000 tyres are the best - on my 2 mile trip to Tescos I went around a corner at 10mph and I the car didn't spin!"

The most thorough and professional tyre test is performed twice a year by German ADAC - I highly recommend to search youtube for "ADAC reifentest". There is a very good video of high speed emergency braking - two Audi A3s, one with premium and the other with budget tyres.
You can find most of their recent test results by going to tyrereviews.co.uk, clicking on Tyres and then selecting a particular tyre - apart from customer reviews there should be a link to ADAC, AutoBild/Autoexpress, Autozeitung tests. Here is their 2010 summer tyre test for example.

And BTW, ADAC tested your ultra high performance Nankang NS2 back in 2007 and it was one of the worst performing tyres (very weak in wet conditions, relatively weak in dry, and very high wear). Even customers give them only 66%. The tyre speed rating simply means that the tyre will not disintegrate at that particular speed (brand new tyre, under test lab conditions). There is much more to a tyre performance than speed rating.

If most of your driving consists of only 30mph short shopping trips, then you're perfectly fine with budget tyres. However, if you drive mostly at motorway speeds with your wife and kids in the car you just can't afford to go budget.

And indeed, when recently made tyres are tested, not those of half a decade ago,

http://www.adac.de/infotestrat/tests/reifen/sommerreifen/2012_Sommerreifen_Test_165_70_R14.aspx?ComponentId=113488&SourcePageId=31821

when you test like for like, and look at the shopping tyres, the budgets are in there with the brands, and the Kumho wipes the floor with the continentals in the wet.

Only the infinity comes off poorly.

It's safe to say modern budgets have caught up from those results.
(Look at the Nexan now)
http://www.adac.de/infotestrat/tests/reifen/sommerreifen/2012_Sommerreifen_Test_205_55_R16.aspx?ComponentId=113497&SourcePageId=31821

jase1

mikey72 wrote: »

It's safe to say modern budgets have caught up from those results.
(Look at the Nexan now)
http://www.adac.de/infotestrat/tests/reifen/sommerreifen/2012_Sommerreifen_Test_205_55_R16.aspx?ComponentId=113497&SourcePageId=31821

Better than the Pirelli P7 in the wet -- a tyre that Ford fit to the Focus in the factory. Indeed, better than all the other tyres bar the Conti Contact 5.

TBH there isn't a single tyre on that list that I'd have any real worries about. Maybe the Fulda is a bit down on wet grip but it's no horror story compared to some.

Just because a tyre is made by someone other than the big five doesn't make it a budget ditchfinder. The like of Falken, Toyo, Uniroyal, Maxxis, Nankang, Avon/Cooper, BFG, Nexen, Marangoni, Kleber, Barum and so on are just fine.

And conversely the big brands make some tyres that are not up to the standards of the best either. That said, such tyres, like the Pirelli P6000 or Michelin Energy, are still not going to land you in a ditch or see you in the back of the car in front.

The only ones that are potentially dangerous are a few private import brands which are manufactured for warmer climates. And even this isn't the fault of the manufacturer -- these hard-compound tyres are doubtless just fine in temperatures of 40C, where your typical European-spec tyre would just wear to nothing in a few thousand miles.

mikey72

jase1 wrote: »

Better than the Pirelli P7 in the wet -- a tyre that Ford fit to the Focus in the factory. Indeed, better than all the other tyres bar the Conti Contact 5.

TBH there isn't a single tyre on that list that I'd have any real worries about. Maybe the Fulda is a bit down on wet grip but it's no horror story compared to some.

Just because a tyre is made by someone other than the big five doesn't make it a budget ditchfinder. The like of Falken, Toyo, Uniroyal, Maxxis, Nankang, Avon/Cooper, BFG, Nexen, Marangoni, Kleber, Barum and so on are just fine.

And conversely the big brands make some tyres that are not up to the standards of the best either. That said, such tyres, like the Pirelli P6000 or Michelin Energy, are still not going to land you in a ditch or see you in the back of the car in front.

The only ones that are potentially dangerous are a few private import brands which are manufactured for warmer climates. And even this isn't the fault of the manufacturer -- these hard-compound tyres are doubtless just fine in temperatures of 40C, where your typical European-spec tyre would just wear to nothing in a few thousand miles.

Energy's on the front of mine, and Heros on the back in summer, and not a single ditch yet.

mikey72

I don't know how much to make of these tests though, if you look at the Uniroyal Rainexpert, a popular wet tyre

very mediocre in 205/55 R16V
http://www.adac.de/infotestrat/tests/reifen/sommerreifen/2012_Sommerreifen_Test_205_55_R16.aspx?ComponentId=113497&SourcePageId=31821

fair as 185/65 R 15 H
http://www.adac.de/infotestrat/tests/reifen/sommerreifen/2010_Sommerreifen_Test_185_65_R15.aspx?ComponentId=29770&SourcePageId=31821

really good as 175/65 R 14 T
http://www.adac.de/infotestrat/tests/reifen/sommerreifen/2011_Sommerreifen_Test_175_65_R14.aspx?ComponentId=63365&SourcePageId=31821

down at the bottom as 225/45 R 17 W,Y as a RainSport 2
http://www.adac.de/infotestrat/tests/reifen/sommerreifen/2010_Sommerreifen_Test_225_45_R17.aspx?ComponentId=29784&SourcePageId=31821

You wouldn't buy it based on the last test, the Hankook and Kumho outperform it.
I would have no problems if it came on a car I bought though.

Joe_Horner

jase1 wrote: »

That said, such tyres, like the Pirelli P6000 or Michelin Energy, are still not going to land you in a ditch or see you in the back of the car in front.

No (road legal) tyre is going to see you in a ditch or the back of someone's car. Only driving standards can do that

jase1

mikey72 wrote: »

Energy's on the front of mine, and Heros on the back in summer, and not a single ditch yet.

I consider wet grip and only wet grip when I am looking at these tyre reviews. Dry grip isn't something I see as a problem with any tyre, and noise/comfort/wear rate etc are subjective.

I don't have a problem with Energys but by the narrow criteria I set, they fall behind the best in the price range.

I didn't mean this to imply that they're ditchfinders

jase1

Joe_Horner wrote: »

No (road legal) tyre is going to see you in a ditch or the back of someone's car. Only driving standards can do that

Agreed. The car you drive can have much more of an impact on stopping distances than the tyres it wears, yet no-one ever considers a car to be a "ditchfinder"

mikey72

jase1 wrote: »

I consider wet grip and only wet grip when I am looking at these tyre reviews. Dry grip isn't something I see as a problem with any tyre, and noise/comfort/wear rate etc are subjective.

I don't have a problem with Energys but by the narrow criteria I set, they fall behind the best in the price range.

I didn't mean this to imply that they're ditchfinders

I've used energys for years, and never noticed any problem in the wet.

I can't read that much german, so the how the rating on the link is achieved is beyond me, but when you consider the best is 2.0, for a Pirelli in the wet, and the Michelin is 2.8, a Ceat is 3.1 (and they have been slated before) and they still beat a Goodyear at 3.2.
Barum has been mentioned and that scores a 2.8 same as the Michelin, and a ESA Tecar(?) is actually second with 2.1.

So name appears to mean absolutely nothing at all here,
and benchmarking the Energy from personal experience puts anything that comes out as 2.8 or better as easily good enough.

Barums, ESA, Semperit, (and even Fulda, Ceat, and Lassa appear to be more than a match for Goodyears), and I'd happily use them.