Friends Tyres

poker_999 said:
Your not driving it.
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True, but on the other hand you may be on the other side of the road when he comes round a corner and hits a unseen puddle ;). People who put cheap, poor quality tyres on their car (especially high performance cars) really need to be educated about how important it is to choose a good tyre (Although, to be honest, it should be self explanatory).
 
I work in a garage and we probably fit about a dozen tyres a day (not our main business), and i'd say the vast majority of those were what we'd consider "budgets" as thats what 9/10 customers ask for. It's rare now that someone comes in saying they want "X" tyre fitted, so not only is the country skint, the roads are becoming more dangerous.
It's not just tyres, we've seen a drop in servicing, drops in general wear and tear jobs, and an almost doubling of MOT failure rates over the last 3 years, probably caused by people just putting up with rattles and bumps till the next mot.
 
Janesy B said:
I will never understand the logic of buying a hot hatch, or any other performance car for that matter (there's an S2000 that parks in my local Asda with Triangle tyres!), and then ruining them with cheap rubber.
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because people love to show off with a flash motor they cant really afford.
 
I made the mistake of putting cheap tires on the golf even with a massive 55bhp on tap a little too much throttle input in the wet on a bend it will light up the inside wheel and understeer horrifically. it's safe to say I'll be replacing them with another pair of uniroyal rain experts way before they're anywhere near the legal limit
 
I have 2 mismatched part worn budget brand tyres on my rear axle that came with the car and just won't seem to wear down, they both have tons of tread left and I hate them because tyre gel doesn't seem to work on them.

I've got 2 kuhmo ku31s (I think) on the front so its not too bad but I'd love to change all 4 to something decent when the time comes, they just don't get ridden very hard anymore since being at uni. Ahh well.
 
SB118 said:
You're new here aren't you :p
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Yes it would appear he is, so he's yet to be caught up in the whole 'If a tyre isn't made by Michelin, Continental or Pirelli and costs less than £100 a corner then it's rubbish' claptrap that permeates OCUK motors.

If your friend doesn't drive as some of us do and is happy to pootle along not stressing, not putting his foot down and slowing down when conditions deteriorate, then let him use whatever tyres he likes. I'm sure if he start to press on and starts 'making progress' or driving faster then, sure, those tyres will likely be exposed as not the best in the world, but many people are happy with cheaper tyres, knowing thier performance envelope is well outside their own abilities or desires. It's just some of the posters on this forum don't seem to realise that.
 
Op's sig is rather fitting.

Also to the above, people don't buy hot hatches to just "pootle along not stressing", they just want max rag @ min cost.
 
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Tbh, cheap tyres should be illegal when used on performance cars, after all in bad conditions they are dangerous. And when driving it is never a matter of, oh he'll hurt himself leave him to it. I got a taxi to Newcastle the otherday, a car lost control coming off the sliproad, went across 3 lanes and almost hit 3 cars including the one I was in. There where also lorries directly behind us. Looking at an atleast 4/5 car pileup then including a lorry or two and when your looking at it being a 60/70mph road. If it wasn't for the taxi being a jaguar with good tyres that rain would have probably caused an awful mess that day.
 
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When i bought my Evo it had an almost brand new set of cheap budget tires on, i have been very reluctant to change these with so much life left in them but, as of next month they will be gone!
the performance on dry is nothing to write home about, but niether is it particularly bad, don't unexpectedly break away under acceleration and heavy braking etc push on a bit on hard cornering but nothing alarming, however its the wet where they turn dangerous, grip just falls off completely, and aquaplaning is a nightmare, its really alarming, not confidence inspiring at all.
 
A friend had cheap tyres on an old fiesta he owned, went around a corner just a little to fast in the rain and lost control, hit the curb, flipped 5 times through a fence into a field. Not really worth it, and I imagine good tyres would last longer than the cheap once so are worth a little more due to this?
 
Antony101 said:
A friend had cheap tyres on an old fiesta he owned, went around a corner just a little to fast in the rain and lost control, hit the curb, flipped 5 times through a fence into a field. Not really worth it, and I imagine good tyres would last longer than the cheap once so are worth a little more due to this?
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Cheaper tires generally last longer as they're a harder compound this is what makes them so awful iirc
 
MissChief said:
but many people are happy with cheaper tyres, knowing thier performance envelope is well outside their own abilities or desires. It's just some of the posters on this forum don't seem to realise that.
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Thing is though, there are plenty of cheap-ish tyres that are up to the job. Hankook, Kumho, Falken all do mid range tyres that are usually substantially cheaper per corner but offer very good performance levels. Usually the trade off is that these tyres wear a bit quicker but they are still a valid choice for most cars. You then have el cheapos that are frankly shocking in the rain and anywhere from poor to decent in the dry at half the price again.

There comes a point where you need to question why these tyres are the price they are - the answer is that generally they are very poor, some quite frankly dangerous. It's fairly unlikely that they will ever be needed to save your life, but then again it's unlikely that your car will need to use anything like the stopping power that can be generated by its braking system - would you prefer the manufacturer removed the abs system and halved the size of the discs? They will still work just fine for every day driving

Buying a performance orientated car, then running through the list of tyres and seeing £130 per corner, £110 per corner then suddenly one at £55 per corner and picking this just screams either a complete lack of knowledge or a complete lack of finances to run the car in the first place.
 
MissChief said:
but many people are happy with cheaper tyres, knowing thier performance envelope is well outside their own abilities or desires.
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And far more don't even put that level of thought into it, happy to drive along the M1, in the rain, 1 foot from the car in front at 85mph on Lingling ditchfinders. This is becoming more and more of an issue as cars with bigger wheels become more popular. The average car 5-10 years ago had 14-15 inch wheels so even a decent tyre was only 40 quid. Now everything, even if it has less power than a lawnmower, is on 18-19 inch wheels where tyres cost a lot. So people buy these cars without checking the cost of owning them and then think 'arghghg' when its tyre time before opting for the cheapest they can possibly find.

Besides, the car in question is a hot hatchback, not the choice of potterers everywhere really, is it?

Yes it would appear he is, so he's yet to be caught up in the whole 'If a tyre isn't made by Michelin, Continental or Pirelli and costs less than £100 a corner then it's rubbish' claptrap that permeates OCUK motors.
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For the average Focus or whatever, decent tyres don't cost this. For a Focus on 14 inch wheels a set of Conti's or Goodyears can be had for as little as 50 quid a corner, fitted. So if you dont want big money tyre costs its easy to avoid them - choose a car which doesn't have enormous bling wheels.
 
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