"Rapid" brand budget tyres - anyone use them?

tygar2

Hello everyone

I have a 2007 mini one with runflat tyres and am looking to replace them with ordinary tyres. The size is 205/45/17. Runflats are uncomfortable and expensive.

My local tyre shop offered me budget "Rapid" tyres at £45 each. They say they are good tyres. I have done as much research as I can and found out they are chinese made. Researching chinese made budget tyres I find alarming comments like "ditchfinders", "death trap" but they seem based more on fear mongering rather than experience.

The car is used by the missus and spends Monday - Friday parked in the local train station car park only 1 mile from home with most use being on weekends.
No wheel spinning or track days here but the missus has been known to hit 80-90 mph on the motorway on occassion.

Has anyone actually bought and used this brand of tyre or similarly priced budget ones?

If so I would appreciate your insight.


Thanks

motorguy

You're buying the absolute cheapest of the cheap there in terms of price.

I'd be extremely wary. Wet grip most likely wont be as good, and they might not wear particularly well.

Those few inches of rubber are all that connects your car to the road.

Personally i'd pay more for decent brand that has ratings you can check.

Try https://www.blackcircles.com

neilmcl

tygar2 wrote: »

The car is used by the missus and spends Monday - Friday parked in the local train station car park only 1 mile from home with most use being on weekends

Get a decent set of tyres and save money on petrol by walking to the train station. 1 mile, jeez

tygar2

neilmcl wrote: »

Get a decent set of tyres and save money on petrol by walking to the train station. 1 mile, jeez

That's what I said....even threw in the "you'll have done your exercise for the day so win-win" argument...no joy.

Oddly, she also drives to the gym 10 minutes walk away...:wall::wall:

khcomp

I have a pair fitted on one of my cars at the moment: They're round, black, pretty quiet, seem fine in our recent very wet weather with 'spirited' driving, didn't explode & kill me after a day on the motorway yesterday - I have done quite a bit of towing with them on, including a rather large caravan & several cars on my car transporter trailer - they were £80 all in fitted for a pair. I had the other two tyres changed about a month later for equally obscure Chinese tyres, again £80 a pair. Can't see the problem, although I'd think twice about fitting them to a 'performance' car. You'll also have to tell your insurer about the change from run flats to standard tyres.
I bought a car yesterday which had four new tyres fitted by the previous owner last year, similar size to mine, with a bill for over £500.... still round, black & doing the same job.

tygar2

motorguy wrote: »

You're buying the absolute cheapest of the cheap there in terms of price.

I'd be extremely wary. Wet grip most likely wont be as good, and they might not wear particularly well.

Those few inches of rubber are all that connects your car to the road.

Personally i'd pay more for decent brand that has ratings you can check.

Try www.blackcircles.com

I have been on black circles and ASDA tyres. From browsing them, the question that arises is does higher price automatically equate to better tyre when in the budget to mid range segment?
A lot of the names up to about the £75 mark are unknown to me - that could be down to advertising budgets really and not a reflection of quality...no? Even some of the top brand models have terrible reviews. Problem with the budget ones is that information (good or bad) seems limited or unavailable - surely someone is buying them.

Do you reccommend or use any particular low/mid cost brand?

Norman_Castle

tygar2 wrote: »

Researching chinese made budget tyres I find alarming comments like "ditchfinders", "death trap" but they seem based more on fear mongering rather than experience.

I've used various Chinese tyres and am neither dead or in a ditch.

khcomp

tygar2 wrote: »

I have been on black circles and ASDA tyres. From browsing them, the question that arises is does higher price automatically equate to better tyre when in the budget to mid range segment?
A lot of the names up to about the £75 mark are unknown to me - that could be down to advertising budgets really and not a reflection of quality...no? Even some of the top brand models have terrible reviews. Problem with the budget ones is that information (good or bad) seems limited or unavailable - surely someone is buying them.

Do you reccommend or use any particular low/mid cost brand?

Exactly: I've bought alarmingly expensive Pirelli tyres on various cars for road & track use, and always found them pretty poor in comparison to anything else at any price. The only bad experience I've had with cheap tyres was excessive road noise on a set I bought several years ago, but they were fitted to a VERY quiet car which probably made them seem worse. Fine otherwise though, and were on the car for the three years I owned it without issue. New tyres now have a noise rating, so at least you should be able to avoid that issue - in fact, many cheaper tyres score better than their dearer competitors in this aspect.

tygar2

khcomp wrote: »

I have a pair fitted on one of my cars at the moment:

Is that the Rapids you have fitted? What size are they and on what vehicle? How many miles have you done with them?

khcomp wrote: »

You'll also have to tell your insurer about the change from run flats to standard tyres.

That is what the guy at Kwik Fit said when I called for a quote. I called my insurer (Admiral) this morning and the agent said are I kept pressing the point (and I quote) "..they are talking nonsense. As long as the tyre is the same size as what was on there before then there is no need to inform us because that is not classed as a modification."

Might vary with different insurers. My car handbook seems to have information accomodating non runflats so they manufacturer seems fine with it too.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the info. Hope you get back to me with the details.

khcomp

'Is that the Rapids you have fitted? What size are they and on what vehicle? How many miles have you done with them?'
Yes, I have a pair of 205/55/16s on a Mondeo diesel estate, and a pair of Alpha tyres on the same car - they're about three months old, probably done about 4,000 miles on them so far.

If your insurer's happy, and you've asked, then that's all you need to know.

tygar2

khcomp wrote: »

'Is that the Rapids you have fitted? What size are they and on what vehicle? How many miles have you done with them?'
Yes, I have a pair of 205/55/16s on a Mondeo diesel estate, and a pair of Alpha tyres on the same car - they're about three months old, probably done about 4,000 miles on them so far.

If your insurer's happy, and you've asked, then that's all you need to know.

Thanks very much. Exactly the kind of real world user experience info I am looking for.:beer: