Car Tyres - Premium vs Budget, but the part no where seems to address.

AdrianC

It's more complicated than that

EdGasketTheSecond wrote: »

Anyone know if Formula1 Autocentre's budget tyres are any good? They are about £28 for my car and the nearest branded is more like £50.

And that doesn't answer your question...?

Tell us what size tyres, and we'll look at the choices.

EdGasketTheSecond

RAC have started selling tyres; good choice and price:

https://www.ractyres.co.uk/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=drive_newsletter&utm_campaign=drive_newsletter

There's a few on there for me under £50

Ref. "And that doesn't answer your question...?" ...well no not entirely because I had some blackcircles budget ones that were actually very good - Chinese make: Infinity

vikingaero

Look at tests and you will find the best tyres will generally be a premium tyres.

In the dry there is very little difference between a premium tyre and a budget tyre. If the best tyre is rated at an index of 100.0 then the index of a budget tyre will be 94.0. Most of the difference will be subjective opinions that say the premium tyres lets go more predictably than the budget tyre.

In the wet it is a whole difference kettle of fish. With the premium tyre rated at 100.0 the budget tyre may only post an index of 78.0. That's a huge margin in the wet and could translate into 50m+ of stopping distance. Obviously silicas and expensive compounds help in premium tyres.

Look at older designs transferred to other companies. For example, Barum is now owned by Continental who generally make a Top 3 tyre.

Are unknown brands bad? Yes and No. Some ditchfinders have a spike where they perform really well. They might be poor in wet straight line braking yet have a brilliant wet cornering score. In general I think ditchfinders are OK but wear significantly faster. I can get 30k out of a set of Michelins and will struggle with 15k with Ditchfinders on my banger.

EdGasketTheSecond

The Chinese 'Infinity' ones I had lasted longer than the Toyo's I had on previously and I never had an issue with braking or cornering on them.

oscarward

Joe_Horner wrote: »

Couldn't comment how my budget rubber would cope in an emergency because in 30+ years I can honestly say I've never had to brake that hard except for once on my driving test when some old guy hit the windscreen with a folder.

Just lucky I guess.

A couple of years back I had a PUG 406 estate which the garage I bought it from fitted new tyres. So I was in a queue of traffic on a greasy road slight downhill slope. Rolling forward about 5mph car in front stopped but when I applied my brakes the ABS came on and I slid gently in to the car on front. Luckily no damage but it proves the point that the cheap tyres the garage had fitted had zero grip in those circumstances. I changed them shortly afterwards and it never happened again.


Similarly I had a Rover 420 company car with Pirelli 1000 (?) tyres fitted from new. It went back to the garage 3 times for brake vibration until they pointed out it was the ABS working. Fitted Pirelli 6000 and again problem went away.

oscarward

facade wrote: »

Me too, the Continentals on my car started cracking badly at around 3 years old, but not a problem as they are so soft that they don't last much beyond that anyway. (Which wouldn't be a problem if I did more than 6000 a year......)

More seriously, the Continentals on my pushbike cracked and split after a couple of seasons too. I use schwalbe tyres now on the pushbike, and Chinese ditchfinders on the car, in both cases they show no signs of cracking, and much less signs of wear too.

It's not only continentals that have a problem. Dunlop had a problem a year or so ago with inner sidewall cracking on a batch of 20x 35 profile tyres. Bad enough for Jaguar to do a recall and replace under warranty. I was about to replace mine when the garage told me they would do it FOC. Thanks jaguar

BananaRepublic

No

MattyDee wrote: »

So having researched various websites there's tonnes of generic information on the topic of budget vs premium tyres and invariably someone comes along and says something like 'you're putting your life in the hands of 4 small contact points, buy the best you can afford'. I think this is a valid point but also from someone who isn't looking into individual circumstances.

So to start with, tyres ratings. I'm looking at budget tyres rated C and C for efficiency and wet grip but I can also find premium tyres rated C and C also. So if these ratings are correct which I'd hope they are regulated then both tyres should perform equally well. My assumption is that the budget tyre will wear out perhaps twice as fast. Sound reasonable?

From there, I'm thinking about my annual mileage which is less than 5000 miles a year. If a premium tyre can last an average of 30,000 miles or more then the budget should go 15,000 miles. So 3 years for the budget or 6+ for the premium.

Now I'm thinking about tyre degradation, all tyres will degrade and crack over time, so if I spent twice as much on premium tyres, I may have to replace them with good tread left because they're cracking and perhaps out of shape over time. The current tyres on my car are middle of the range, 4 years old and need replacing soon due to degradation. Therefore for my circumstances and limited mileage I'm thinking I'd be better off buying cheaper more often.

Of course there's also the fact of punctures and damage, replacing a new or fairly new premium tyre due to damage would hurt the wallet considerably.

I guess I'm just looking for other's opinion on my logic. Am I understanding the C and C ratings correctly?

Never ever buy budget tyres. Here's why:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cinw90htgYI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdhTijcF6BM

In the first video I lost control when the back wheels lost grip. I could have written off several cars or been seriously injured. Somehow I survived with nothing but a bit of mud and grass on the bodywork and wheels. They tyres were ~4 weeks old. I assumed there was oil or some other slippy substance on the road. In the second video recorded a few weeks later the rear tyres again lost grip and the back end of the car starts sliding sideways. I'd read about skid control and managed to recover from the skid. Notice how slowly I was going in the second video. These tyres had a good EU rating and yet they were very dangerous.

The EU tyre ratings are complete nonsense. Firstly the grip is straight line grip and does not account for transverse grip. In other words, it tells you nothing about how it handles a corner. And the noise rating is the noise level as recorded from outside the car, while the car drives past. Even worse, it is measured by the tyre manufacturer, using whatever vehicle they choose, and doubtless the car makes a big difference. I beleive EU ratings were originally intended for fuel consumption but ended up covering a range of attributes.

Joe_Horner

Yes

You could always try taking damp roundabouts a little more gently?

AdrianC

It's more complicated than that

Joe_Horner wrote: »

You could always try taking damp roundabouts a little more gently?

Those videos hardly show excessive heroics.

arcon5

Billy_Bullocks wrote: »

Make sure you factor regular oil changes in your budget.

Ok..

Why would op budget oil changes in to his tyre budget?