Ok...but you did do your research when it comes to tyres? At £250 per corner how cheap is a cheap golf?
Not sure where you're getting £250 from? You can get cheapo ones for about £65 or branded (pirelli, continetal etc) for around £115. So a fair bit more than the old car but that was to be expected, these are not much more than the tyres i used to get on my Alfa 156.
Any yes it was cheap, we gave them our old 2006 clio in fair condition with 65k miles on the clock and 2k, this only has just under 55k on the clock