Tyres - premium brands? Are they worth the money?

[HDi fun]

Up until the middle of last year I always fitted my cars with premium brand tyres - Michelin, Conti, Pirelli, Goodyear, Dunlop etc.

Recently I fitted Viking Protech II's all round. It's a new pattern, assymetric and with performance as the key design initiative. So I'm told.

Know what? I really like 'em. They're grippy and sticky and quiet. It'll take a few more thousand miles to assess the rate of tread wear but it looks good so far.

What do you do?..............

Fit the cheapest?
Fit the best?
Fit the most expensive??

What are your thoughts on tyres?

 

[Prince]

I haven't had to change a tyre on my Civic yet, but when/if I need to, I'll put premium tyres on. When I can afford rims, I'll use premium, top of the range tyres. But when I needed tyre changes on my old Corsa, I fitted the cheapest ones I could get hold of, my spare was even illegal (because of the tread)! It also depends on what you use for your car for, personally I think run-flats are worth the investment.

 

[Freddie]

I used Kumho Ecsta's on my Saxo which cost me around £47 a corner all in. I thought these were okay. I bought some Bridgestone Potenza RE720's from the internet, they cost £45 each delivered, then £10 fitting charge, and these tyres were so, so much better! Worth buying online if you can find a garage to fit the tyres. Also check the online sellers for independent reviews, a company like mytyres.com is great.

 

[obi_waynne]

Eagle F1s gave me the best grip and handling characteristics but they wore extremely quickly. Michelins seem to last for ages - especially the fuel economy versions. At the moment I'm using Dunlop SP sports which although not a budget brand are still pretty cheap.

 

[Doughnutter]

I tend to stay at the cheapest end of the range for Drifting. Its more about the quantity than quality when your practicing although you find the remolds tend to come apart in chunks, delaminate and split a lot easier than better makes. In a ideal world you want a pretty hard tyre but not to expensive. Capitol tyres are a nice choice if you got the cash otherwise scrapyard for a search about (old tyres tend to go harder through age + scrap prices!) although sat I used brand new Pirrelli Drago's and found them to be excellent in the dry. The drift was harder to start due to higher grip levels but very predictable once starting and you could safely carry a lot more speed through. They lasted a good couple of hours before I was onto the cords. A real nice even wear patern too, no clumps or chunks coming off!! I use Yoko's up front, lovely tyres, plenty of grip and very reliable.
I bought a set of 3 17's off ebay (no.4 was destroyed in an accident) for 9 quid with Yokos on. I use 2 of these on the front of the Drift car with the 3rd as a spare and 15's on the rear (usually with crappy ford / pug alloys) If you check the scrap yards many of the alloys have good quality tyres on + when you have destroyed the tyres u can weigh the ally in!!
In my road, track and rally cars over the years I've tryed plenty of different types over the years and for daily driving (spirited!) I always prefered a brand Techinks. They do em at spondon tyres in Derby and for a RS turbo they fit 4 for a 100 quid! not bad at all, they as good in the wet as the dry, never let me down!! ****e for drifting, bit to soft, clump apart.
Yoko's and pirellis were my tyre of choice for many years before using the technics. I suppose they just edge it over the cheaper tyres but when you buy 4 for the price of 1 I think the difference is so small and the saving so big i wouldn't bother unless I was running more than 200 BHP or regually punching 140+.
Will post some photo's on the different wear patterns after drifting this week so you can see what the difference is.
The top of the line tyres are on the whole, better than cheap tyres , some being heads and shoulders better, but theres often no need to put these on your car unless you are competing at top level, and it's a better feeling when u see that 6 inch nail hanging out your new technic tyre than a brand new Michellin!!!

 

[HDi fun]

Agree with Freddie on the Bridgestone RE-720's. I had them all round a couple of years ago and they were simply superb. Sadly, I destroyed the front pair in about 5000 miles so I had to go for something a little harder wearing and wind my right toe in a bit.

 

[pgarner]

that makes me fell good ive just not long put 4 bridgestone re 040 hope they last longer than 5k miles at the price they were.
used to run cheap yokos on the civic 175/65/14 at £35 a shot and they only lasted 3 months being nice with them. ran with 195/50/15 Kumho Ecsta and they lasted nearly 20k before i had to change them the michelins which still had plenty when i sold it 10k later
now going with more preformance based directional tyres they cost slightly more than the budgets but are worth it

 

[WRXASH]

i work in the tyre trade etc and dont really like "budget" tyres, the cheaper tyres (they can be alright but depends on driving conditions etc) if your running something powerfull or decent ya want good tyres on its the only thing that makes contact with the road while your hurtling along down motorway. plus with the cheaper options ya can get alot of complains of vibration threw steering (even tho there properly balanced) some can even be noisier. i had bridgestone on my impreza to start with (they originally come on them) and i found they was too soft and wore really quickly so i fit myself couple Pirelli P-Zero Nero's couple month back and am impressed with them, there really good and stick to the road like glue when ya cornering etc and dont seem to have worn much at all recently. The only premium tyres i dont really like are Continentals really - the tread seems to crack alot on them and they are obviously up there as been one of the expensive tyres aswell so ya dont want tread cracking and folking out for more tyres (actually had tyres with like 5mm of tread left but they was really dangerous because of the cracks)

 

[HDi fun]

i work in the tyre trade etc and dont really like "budget" tyres, the cheaper tyres (they can be alright but depends on driving conditions etc) if your running something powerfull or decent ya want good tyres on its the only thing that makes contact with the road while your hurtling along down motorway. plus with the cheaper options ya can get alot of complains of vibration threw steering (even tho there properly balanced) some can even be noisier. i had bridgestone on my impreza to start with (they originally come on them) and i found they was too soft and wore really quickly so i fit myself couple Pirelli P-Zero Nero's couple month back and am impressed with them, there really good and stick to the road like glue when ya cornering etc and dont seem to have worn much at all recently. The only premium tyres i dont really like are Continentals really - the tread seems to crack alot on them and they are obviously up there as been one of the expensive tyres aswell so ya dont want tread cracking and folking out for more tyres (actually had tyres with like 5mm of tread left but they was really dangerous because of the cracks)

Are the cracks in the tread/sidewall a result of ageing rubber? It's common to see low mileage drivers with virtually new tread depth on their cars' tyres but the sidewall starts to perish becuase of the age of the tyre.


I agree that bottom basement budget tyres are a liability. As such I never fit them.

Your comment about Conti's surprises me slightly - I found them to be very linear performers, although I agree they don't shift surface water especially well. They also seem to need constant re-balancing throughout their life.

Hence my current torrid affair with the Viking Protech II's. Time will tell - they're grippy and shift water well, track straight but I think the front end is slightly looser than I remember it when shod with Bridgestone RE720's. If the tread life is even and not too rapid then I MIGHT, and only might, fit another set.

THe problem with my car is that it's a FWD with an extremely torquey diesel engine. Diesel engines are heavy and do put a lot of load on the front tyres. Perhaps I should start a regieme of swapping f/r every few months?

 

[pgarner]

swapping wheels front rear every 3 months is good idea as it generally means all 4 tyres wear more evenly so grip is constant all round.
its something ive always been advised to do from when i bought my first car.

it obviously doesnt work with high performance rear wheel drives where the rears are wider / larger than the fronts example porsche some have 19's with 245s on front with 20' running 265 on the rear

 

[HDi fun]

I'm going to start swapping 'em f/r every few months for the same reason ie. even up the wear a bit. Means I'll have to replace all four at once (but then I've replaced far too many last year due to unrepairable punctures close to the sidewall).

Buying four together should enable me to strike a bit of a discount deal from my local tyre specialist.

 

[pgarner]

yeah thats the thing most garages do deals on 4 tyres. but when you think about it you might replace the front 2twice as often as the rears especially with the heavy diesel engine up front. so it may work out cheaper

 

[HDi fun]

That's what I'm thinking, too. Even with my current fling with Viking's Protech II's I'm happy to save a quid or two. Especially at the moment - monetary income is at an all time low. Once I've paid all the bills, fed my (hungry) kids, and ourselves, saving a few quid on rubber will be a result.

Cheers,

Rgds,

Paul.

 

[pgarner]

Dont go on about it christmas aint a good time having to go for 6 weeks between pay aint good for the pocket and thats without having kids

how much are the vikings working out at? you seem to know your stuff and if they can cope with you high torque engine then they should last a bit with the lower power / torque of mine just if the bridgestones are only going to be lasting 5k miles ( im hoping for at least 10k with rotation although 1 alloy came with 5mm tread and the rest got brand new)

 

[HDi fun]

Not just Xmas during last year - 2007 that is. I think everyone's winding in the spending with the general mess this country is in.

The Viking's are pretty impressive - that's from me as a fussy driver. As said before the Protech II's are a new design and that's what led me to try them.

I get good deals from my local tyre specialist (he's also a customer to my business, which helps a bit), but the last fitment cost me £54.00 inc valve, balance and VAT per corner. For clarity they're 205/60 R15 V. Nothing particularly special but the Viking PT2's are assymetric pattern and seem well set up for British roads.

They struggle with the FWD torque but then so do Bridgestone's RE-720s. It's quite easy to spin an inside front wheel during damp road conditions in third gear; even in fourth you have to be, err, considerate with the pedal. That's not the tyres fault, however. It's down to basically more torque than is sensible for a FWD car.

I recomend you try the viking protech II's (avoid the Protech 500's, they're ****e) when you need new rubber.


As for wear rate - that's yet to be determined - if they're all bald in a couple of months then I'll change my tune. They are, however, wearing evenly and gently up until now.

Rgds..

 

[pgarner]

aye let me know how they turn out the bridgestones re 040's are costing me £107 a corner, best price i could get on the internet for local fitting was £104 but would have to travel a 20mile twisty back road to get to the garage so wasnt worth the hassle. best one was the other tyre garage in lockerbie said that they were no longer made and had been replaced by the 050's and they wanted £157 each for them not including valves balancing and disposal of the old ones got told where to go for that.

only reason i went with the bridgestones was i got the alloys off a woman that works with the wife her partner just bought a new TT (old shape but next to no millage on it had been bought by the garage) and didnt like the alloys. as it happened one alloy already had a tyre on it the others had been used on new alloys and rather than have 2 different sets of tyres just decided to go for the same all round.

 

[HDi fun]

Agreed, same tyre pattern and compound at all four corners is a good approach. ABS, brake dist and traction control stability things can all get confused by different rolling diameters, friction co-efficients etc. Maybe I should get four punctures simultaneously - that'll help.