Car Tyres - Question

cambsno

cambsno

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Looking to use etyres for fitting of a couple of tyres. Nexen, Kumho and Maxxis are cheaper than Bridgstone but never heard of them, worth getting? Had budget tyres in the past and not a fan of those.
 
A lot of budget tyres perform badly in the wet. Not worth saving a few quid for. My insurance excess is far more than the cost difference.

Falken are a reasonable but cheaper brand. Also uniroyal (continental budget brand). I think there are some other brands that are budget versions of main stream manufacturers that are ok. Nexen might be one of those but I'm not sure.
 
I have had Kuhmo's before and they were fine but it was on lowish yearly millage. If you do a significant amount of miles or motorway kid of stuff I would personally have a 'Known Brand' but that is my opinion.
 
how the tyre performs in the wet in tread related.... low tread= bad handling whether the tyre is cheap or not....

if you tracking the car then optimum spec tyres would be advantage as will wear and tear slower, and withstand abuse..... there is no harm driving round on the cheaper branded tyres if your just using the car for road use.... just make sure the same sized tyre is fitted and you'l be perfectly fine!!
 
Something like the falken ze912 would be a good choice but I wouldn't go for anything cheaper.
 
tezmed said:
how the tyre performs in the wet in tread related.... low tread= bad handling whether the tyre is cheap or not....

if you tracking the car then optimum spec tyres would be advantage as will wear and tear slower, and withstand abuse..... there is no harm driving round on the cheaper branded tyres if your just using the car for road use.... just make sure the same sized tyre is fitted and you'l be perfectly fine!!
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Not actually true, the compound has a huge influence. I'd never ever buy cheap rubbish tyres, they are the only contact the vehicle has with the road and can be life savers or bannana skins, I know which I'd prefer. Some cheaper tyres tend to wear quicker but have fine road holding (Dunlop were like this a few years ago) wet or dry.
 
Going with uniroyal as that's what Kwik fit have and they are convenient and close. Dont want to risk budget tyres.
 
cambsno said:
Going with uniroyal as that's what Kwik fit have and they are convenient and close. Dont want to risk budget tyres.
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I got a better price at Kwik Fit by pre buying and making a fixed appointment on their website than by going direct to the shop, weird.

Matt
 
Jaguar fit either Pirelli or Dunlop as standard to their cars. When my XF needed new boots recently I asked the main dealer for some prices and recommendations. They quoted me for Pirelli, Dunlop & Nexen. They said that Nexen was the only budget tyre they would recommend. My local tyre dealer, whose prices were significantly cheaper, also recommended Nexen as a good budget choice but would not recommend them for my vehicle. The tyre dealers price for the Nexen was half the price of the Dunlop and about 40% of the price of the Pirelli. They said Nexen were good for around town but would not recommend them for high speed motorway use particularly in the wet.
 
srichards said:
Also uniroyal (continental budget brand).
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Not true - Uniroyal are a Continental Group brand but should be regarded as a 'premium' brand. Not budget. Barum are a Conti Group Mid Range Tyre. Gislaved are another Conti Group Tyre and are brilliant - only available from an approved stockist. Viking are another brand from Conti Group.

MatBin said:
Not actually true, the compound has a huge influence. I'd never ever buy cheap rubbish tyres, they are the only contact the vehicle has with the road and can be life savers or bannana skins, I know which I'd prefer. Some cheaper tyres tend to wear quicker but have fine road holding (Dunlop were like this a few years ago) wet or dry.
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Compound is an often misquoted phrase - the 'cheaper' brand tyres often have a denser tread layer. Many of the far eastern brands can be like this. What you have to think about is where are the tyres designed to be used?
If it's Korea or similar the needs of the user and road conditions are vastly different from Europe.


g7swz said:
Jaguar fit either Pirelli or Dunlop as standard to their cars. When my XF needed new boots recently I asked the main dealer for some prices and recommendations. They quoted me for Pirelli, Dunlop & Nexen. They said that Nexen was the only budget tyre they would recommend. My local tyre dealer, whose prices were significantly cheaper, also recommended Nexen as a good budget choice but would not recommend them for my vehicle. The tyre dealers price for the Nexen was half the price of the Dunlop and about 40% of the price of the Pirelli. They said Nexen were good for around town but would not recommend them for high speed motorway use particularly in the wet.
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Motorway use puts the least load onto tyres/cars - fast straight lines? Provided the tyre is of the correct load and speed index you have no problem.

If I had an XF or any performance car I would want to put the best tyres I could afford on it. :thumbs:

There are many far eastern tyres (not Japanese), which are fitted as OE to main stream vehicles. Do you think Ford et al would fit rubbish?

Kumho are a widely available brand in the UK with many stockists.
 
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Yves Geza said:
The greatest heat build-up, though, in road use!
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Cornering can actually generate more.

Providing the tyres are correctly maintained and are of the correct type for the vehicle you will have no problem:thumbs:

Tyres are one of the least well maintained parts of a car - and yet have a vastly underestimated bearing on performance/ fuel consumption / motoring costs.
 
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Yves Geza said:
The greatest heat build-up, though, in road use!
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I'd disagree, tyres work harder going around bends and would generate more heat. This is why race car drivers weave from side to side to generate more heat into their tyres as opposed to just driving round fast in straight lines apart from the bends.

Steer clear of Kwik-fit, they are well over priced, on a previous car, I once had to buy budget tyres from them as they were the only place open on a bank holiday when I needed tyres. If my normal tyre supplier had been open, I could have bought branded tyres much cheaper. The budget tyres (some unknown make) didn't grip as well and wore out in around 8k miles as opposed to the 15-18k I normally got out of the branded tyres.
For my current car I will only buy Continental Contact Sport 3 tyres. The car was originally developed on those and Michelin Pilot by Ford and were the two brands the cars were supplied with from the factory. Grip is fantastic in all conditions, never lose confidence in their performance and they last at least 20k on the front backs have been on for around 25k and were the tyres that were originally on the front when I bought the car so probably have done a hell of alot more.
 
A few misconceptions here, I fear - unless everyone else drives round and round and round roundabouts for minutes on end!

I have however raced on slicks and [depending on the car's power] you get far more heat into the tyres with acceleration and breaking then by weaving. It's one of the secret things you sometimes hear Martin Brundle mention in his F1 commentaries.

Incidentally you could never warm up treaded racing tyres in any effective way by weaving. It was a good giggle to watch Formula Ford drivers affect to be Formula One heroes!

Either way, I think I can remeber having a good few tyres let go over the years in one way or another and I've only ever had road tyres delaminate in long constant 'motorway' high speed use.
 
cambsno said:
Going with uniroyal as that's what Kwik fit have and they are convenient and close. Dont want to risk budget tyres.
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Pretty strange you are asking good value for money tyres and then buying them from Kwik fit!
Why not save some money and buy a premium tyre from somewhere like mytyres and getting a mobile tyre fitter to fit hem for you.

Joking aside Kwik fit are horribly overpriced. I was quoted £150 for a tyre I normally bought for £75 and paid £10 to have fitted.
They also tried telling me I needed a new exhaust because he outer skin of a double skinned exhaust was rusty. It passed the next 3 years of MOTs before I got rid of the car.
 
I've had Maxxis and Kumho on two cars.

The Maxxis were the fronts on my Volvo and I put 16K on top of what had already been put on them, although they looked nearly new when I got the car. They wore heavily on the edge after 12K or so, but I put that down to the heavy lump up front on my D5. Grip-wise they were fine, although they probably don't stack up with the best in the wet. I don't drive like a loon but I'm not slow. I probably have a 60/40 split between motorways and A/B roads.

The Kumhos (Excsta) I had fitted to my Leon Cupra R. It came with P-Zero Rossos, which were sticky as anything but wore far too quickly. The Kumhos again did fine, with very little difference in grip in dry conditions. The traction control did a good job in the wet, not really losing me much grip and speed TBH. I paid about £95 per tyre for 40/18/225 from a very reputable local fitter. Big tyres and a darn sight cheaper than Pirellis an other 'big name' brands.

Probably the best cheaper brand I've had Vredstiens - had them on my old Primera GT and they were like glue in dry and wet but wore quickly (but evenly).

Just had some Kormorans fitted to the fronts on my Volvo. Apparently, it's a Michelin under another name and so far, 2000 miles down the track they are performing very well. £85 a tyre and very quiet with more than enough grip for me.
 
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I'd get them from etyres personally. Mobile fitting and lifetime free puncture repair.

Fast fit places always tell you a load of rubbish about what needs replacing. If they say brakes need doing I ask them how many mm of pad is left, what the original thickness was and whether they've worn anywhere near the final wear marks. Generally they scuttle away and change their mind about how worn they are.
 
Kwik fit appear to be no more expensive, plus far more convenient too.
 
srichards said:
I'd get them from etyres personally. Mobile fitting and lifetime free puncture repair.

Fast fit places always tell you a load of rubbish about what needs replacing. If they say brakes need doing I ask them how many mm of pad is left, what the original thickness was and whether they've worn anywhere near the final wear marks. Generally they scuttle away and change their mind about how worn they are.
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Before going into the pub trade, I worked for a number of years in the fast-fit trade. I worked for Mann Egerton Tyres in Suffolk, and were very honest and on the side of the customer. When they started to close their tyre & exhasut centres, I found myself working for a National fast-fit company, not Kwik-Fit, but one that now makes me suspicious of all large national companies. The things they did to up-sale and to sell what gave them the best profit were just wrong, and probably illegal.

I was so uncomfortable working for this National company, I found a job with a good Independant where, everything was fine and honest again.
The boss did get a free holiday each year from Semperit Tyres if he reached his given target, so all staff were insructed to sell this brand whenever possible. We were never told to lie though, and always said they are a great mid-range tyre, a subsidery of Michelin and there were better tyres and worse tyres on the market.

As a side note, Dunlop, although at one time, seem to have some of the best treads for wet roads etc had the most comebacks for faults, the main one being: 'Going Out Of Round;' if that makes sense to anyone. This was 25 years ago, not sure what they are like today.
 
cambsno said:
Kwik fit appear to be no more expensive, plus far more convenient too.
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Really The tyres I have on my car
Continental Contact Sport 3 225/40x18 92Y
Kwik-Fit standard price £206.00 each, Kwik-Fit Book and Pay online £143.00
Elite Direct. £140.40 fitted (immediate fitting just drive in) (tyres restocked Monday to Saturday), £128.40 delivered.
Tyre savings.com £133.82 fitted but prebooked for Weds fitting at earliest.

Elite Direct fitted prices will only suit people in the localised Essex area as they only have the one single premises. But I've used them since they first opened, about 30 years ago, in a small shop local to me with two lifts in the workshop, they now have a large showroom, with 12 lifts and an MOT station in one workshop on one side of the showroom and a further 4 lifts in the other workshop for 4 wheel realignment. Their only downfall is they don't open on Sundays or Bank Holidays. I'd trust them completely with my car, would I trust Kwik-fit.:nono:
 
Forbiddenbiker said:
I buy low mileage, second hand quality tyres, like Michelin or Continental.. I think that although the price is similar to a cheap new tyre. Over all I still get better grip both wet and dry and better mileages than the cheap new tyre.
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:eek: I did that while I was a poor student and did have one problem when a tyre failed and produced a large bulge when coming off the motorway. If I had still been on the motorway at the time and it had blown it could have been nasty.
I would never buy second hand tyres now. You don't know what damage they might have had.
 
When you buy a second hand car you get a set of second hand tyres. I'm always mindful of that and often change them before they're really needed just for peace of mind.
 
That may be a little excessive. Buying second hand means they are coming off a car being scrapped either because it failed its mot or was in an accident. The tyre may have hit a kerb at high speed but not showing signs of damage. I doubt all scrapyards are honest enough to only resell tyres from mot failures.
 
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned http://www.blackcircles.com/?

I recently fitted six news tyres to two cars. The first was with etyres who fitted at home and I was quite happy with the price. Then my son recommended blackcircles for the other five. E-tyres couldn't get anywhere near the price.

Personally, I'd avoid kwik-fit even if they were the cheapest - which is highly unlikely.
 
I love the notion that if you haven't got a sporty car and only usually drive short distances/low mileage that you can get away with buying cheap tyres........

Let's just say you venture out on to the motorway just once, you're little 1.0l engine eventually gets you up to 50-60MPH on a wet motorway and suddenly you find yourself in a situation where you need to brake and try to avoid the accident/obstruction rapidly getting closer to you...... Best of luck on those cheap tyres.

Less dramatically this could apply doing 30MPH on a residential street when a kid runs out in front of you.

The area of contact between tyre and road is about the size of you hand, for that reason surely it makes sense to spend as much as you can on reasonable tyres rather than "they're cheap, they'll do"?
 
gblades said:
:eek: I did that while I was a poor student and did have one problem when a tyre failed and produced a large bulge when coming off the motorway. If I had still been on the motorway at the time and it had blown it could have been nasty.
I would never buy second hand tyres now. You don't know what damage they might have had.
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srichards said:
When you buy a second hand car you get a set of second hand tyres. I'm always mindful of that and often change them before they're really needed just for peace of mind.
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gblades said:
That may be a little excessive. Buying second hand means they are coming off a car being scrapped either because it failed its mot or was in an accident. The tyre may have hit a kerb at high speed but not showing signs of damage. I doubt all scrapyards are honest enough to only resell tyres from mot failures.
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Yes sorry you're all right to worry. Its a bit easier for me I guess, as a mechanic (motorcycles) I feel I have enough knowledge about tyres to make an informed choice. So I use a commercial tyre company I trust called Farm Tyres in Chigwell Essex, they rate second use tyres for safety and only sell on the good stuff, its quite normal practice to sell on good quality second user tyres I think. just a few millimetres of ware, otherwise pretty much the same as new. ...but only if you know you can trust your source.

No good for motorcycles though, as they ware differently.
 
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Forbiddenbiker said:
So I use a commercial tyre company I trust called Farm Tyres in Chigwell Essex, they rate second use tyres for safety and only sell on the good stuff, its quite normal practice to sell on good quality second user tyres I think. just a few millimetres of ware, otherwise pretty much the same as new. ...but only if you know you can trust your source.
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Are they still going?

You're right, it has become 'normal' practice to sell second hand tyres. Most of these come in from europe where they have the sense to regard tyres as one of the most important parts of a car.
Unlike the UK where we save a few bob if we can:cuckoo:

20 years in tyres here :lol:

Glad to be out of it now though
 
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Yves Geza said:
Either way, I think I can remeber having a good few tyres let go over the years in one way or another and I've only ever had road tyres delaminate in long constant 'motorway' high speed use.
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Must have been really good tyres then.:thinking:
 
I had a Nissan 350z for a couple of years, and it originally had Bridgestones on it, and I took the advice of some internet forums about cheaper tires, and I wish I hadn't.

They were fine in perfect weather, but at speed or in the wet, they were horribly unpredictable.
 
London Headshots said:
I had a Nissan 350z for a couple of years, and it originally had Bridgestones on it, and I took the advice of some internet forums about cheaper tires, and I wish I hadn't.

They were fine in perfect weather, but at speed or in the wet, they were horribly unpredictable.
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Had a similar experience on a humble 1.8 Focus......

Replaces the original tyres with tyres that cost £35 each (size 195/60/15) :cuckoo:

As you said, fine in the dry but in the wet downright dangerous even when taking it REALLY easy.

The fronts scrubbed out after around 13K miles so I replaced all four with Goodyears at £50 each. Not only were they infinitely better in wet & dry conditions, the fronts lasted around 25K miles so they worked out cheaper than the "cheap" tyres without factoring in the safety aspect!

Incidentally, I'm now running Uniroyal Rainsport 2s on my 2.0 TDCi Focus Estate (225/40/18) and they are probably the best tyre I've ever used, the grip in the wet is remarkable!
 
Definitely, when you get a decent tyre it can almost feel like you've changed the suspension. False economy, like you say, they never last as long as a decent brand.
 
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