I'll save my money for the Merc's tyres 285 35R 18 rear 255 40R 18 front.
When to put on your winter tyres?
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When to put on your winter tyres?
It's more likely no one uses 13 inch wheels anymore so fewer are made and the ones that are cost more..if I wanted cheap toss then budgets were 45 quid last year and they are 45 quid this year in 205/55 16.
I have no idea what the tires are on a juke, on my golf which are 225/40/R18Y which i always buy Bridgestones (Oem tires) current price on black circles is about £90 a corner. Our Mini Countryman actually had the same Oem tires as my golf 225/50/18, but because they’re run flats they can be £188ish a corner at the moment for the same tire (Bridgestone Turanza)
I don’t know if your juke is something fancy but having a look they seem to tend to be 16 inch wheels? (205/60/16) and these are generally all under £100, so Nearly £200 a tire seems way over priced.
I always think budget tires are fine on budget cars, you don’t need some top of the range tire for a car that’s never often going much over 40 - 50mph especially if you’re just using it around town.
I once bought a car in the early 2000s that was fitted by the previous owner with some very fancy road going racing tyres, yokohama something or another. They were absolutely terrible in the wet, I couldn’t say they were all that good in the dry, probably because they needed a certain amount of heat in the tires to grip well and I used it like a normal daily driver. And the worst part was they were new on the car when I got it, and worn out within the year, all 4 then got replaced with budget tires that lasted years and I never skidded in front of any trucks.
also no point in paying a premium if they tires are used so little theyre more likely to need replacement through cracking and deterioration than wear.
Me too. I usually go for mid-range ones. If you do a bit of research, many of the European mid-priced brands are owned by the big names. So probably just last years technology (or a little older), but still newer than the car. (Kleber and Tigar are owned by Michelin, Semperit and Uniroyal by Continental)
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Tyre prices have climbed ridiculously over the years.
However, I still think the best advice on tyres is to buy the best you can afford.
However, I still think the best advice on tyres is to buy the best you can afford.
I totally agree. I don't use the car that much and when I do it's not on motorways. Just to the odd shop or the tip etc.
If I go anywhere of distance I use the Merc or the wife's car.
The last point you make is exactly what the tyre fitter said.
Tyres are tested and you can find out how they preform
I buy the best wet weather grip, lowest decibels at the cheapest price
This could change if say I was doing 100,000 miles a year then wear would become more important than decibels
You can normally buy a budget tyre that will match or beat most premium brands.
Once I decided what I want I start ringing around.
Now 10 years ago it wasn’t a problem. You would find a few quotes online write them down. Phone a few local independents and you could find one to beat an online price quite easy and they would order your preferred tyre in, normally next day
Thing have changed over the last few years. They just don’t seem to want to do business. Often rude, often only pushing there own budget brands with the highest commission. A lot of the independent garages are still trading as the were but are
Now in fact owned by one of the big few and are now only an umbrella company.
No doubt it’s even worse now. Again and again I see garages since the pandemic try to charge for fictitious repairs. such as a Piccanto headlight slow to come on. Want to charge for a new alternator instead of replacing the blown side light.
I buy the best wet weather grip, lowest decibels at the cheapest price
This could change if say I was doing 100,000 miles a year then wear would become more important than decibels
You can normally buy a budget tyre that will match or beat most premium brands.
Once I decided what I want I start ringing around.
Now 10 years ago it wasn’t a problem. You would find a few quotes online write them down. Phone a few local independents and you could find one to beat an online price quite easy and they would order your preferred tyre in, normally next day
Thing have changed over the last few years. They just don’t seem to want to do business. Often rude, often only pushing there own budget brands with the highest commission. A lot of the independent garages are still trading as the were but are
Now in fact owned by one of the big few and are now only an umbrella company.
No doubt it’s even worse now. Again and again I see garages since the pandemic try to charge for fictitious repairs. such as a Piccanto headlight slow to come on. Want to charge for a new alternator instead of replacing the blown side light.
vexorg
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The joy of 19" wheels, look great, expensive tyres, about double that of 18". And both my cars have 19" wheels!!
I'm of the opinion tyres make up a tiny part of the costs of a car however stopping 3 feet longer can have massive implications in the correct circumstances.I totally agree. I don't use the car that much and when I do it's not on motorways. Just to the odd shop or the tip etc.
If I go anywhere of distance I use the Merc or the wife's car.
The last point you make is exactly what the tyre fitter said.
If we take 44 quid a tyre...assume an annual mileage of 1400 miles and that you throw them away at 4 years as they've aged out..that's 3p a mile. So 80 quid a tyre would only be 6p a mile. Petrol alone is currently more like 15-20p.
Not paying your insurance or knocking a pedestrian over in wet weather because they stepped out and you've stopped long..I'm not sure what that's worth.
In general these situations are rare but in terms of is it worth saving pennies?..hmm.
Obviously easy for me to say given at my annual mileage my 81 quid tyres on course to last 40k will be less than a penny a mile..
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The point to say on that is that people don't buy tires by the mile but by what's in their bank account and what they can afford at the time they need tires.
The Flip side of this is that if you did 20,000 miles on expensive tires it would make it 0.4p per mile per tire. which makes it massively cheaper to buy a more expensive tire for a car that does a higher mileage.
3p per mile on a car that maybe costs 16 - 17p a mile in fuel, is a very expensive tire, so I can understand wanting to keep that cost down. 6p per mile would be a third of your running costs*.
*excluding other things like insurance, tax and servicing, this is just based on tire and fuel use.
Indeed..to be fair if we're going to play maths games we could say, put 80 quid tyres on the Panda, drive it more to get your moneys worth say 3k miles a year and the fuel savings over the Merc will mean the more expensive tyres are cheaper
.Especially given RFL and servicing remain a constant...
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Getting way off topic sorry
Expensive does not mean better
Also as a side note the energy rating only makes a difference if you do a lot of slow driving
This isn’t a recommendation I just put in 155 65 R13 in to a site and picked 3 tyres
But I would save the £20 per corner from these three
And the Goodyear would would have worse wet weather braking
Expensive does not mean better
Also as a side note the energy rating only makes a difference if you do a lot of slow driving
This isn’t a recommendation I just put in 155 65 R13 in to a site and picked 3 tyres
But I would save the £20 per corner from these three
And the Goodyear would would have worse wet weather braking
There's all sorts of reasons the labelling can be misleading.
But looking at this I'd wonder why you'd fit a gutter seeker when 4 Toyos would be just over 20 quid more that's literally fractions of a penny over the tyre life.
I pulled £80 out of the sky...as I imagined it would about where the ceiling was in 13 inch wheels.
vexorg
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Slow or town driving does not mean it cant be dangerous. Budget tyres are so dangerous that in my view should not be legal. I've bought cars that had cheap tyres on them, almost full tread, in date. They'd wheelspin in the wet when pulling away normally, slide in wet roundabouts at normal speeds.
I'm always amazed by the logic of scrimping £100 or so on tyres for a car that can cost several thousand. Then hurting people factor makes it a no brainer. My view has been that if you can look after your car properly then it should not be on the road, get the bus!
I'm always amazed by the logic of scrimping £100 or so on tyres for a car that can cost several thousand. Then hurting people factor makes it a no brainer. My view has been that if you can look after your car properly then it should not be on the road, get the bus!
Most expensive does not generally = best in tyres... especially once you into things like 19 inch UHP tyres that can be very specialised for summer dry weather performance.
Bringing it vaguely closer to topic!
For those considering ditching a winter for an all-season. Comparison of both...
TL: DW.. Summer is better in summer, winter is better in winter. If you wanted to run either year round then they'd either disintergrate or attempt to kill you in snow.
I'm not entirely convinced the measurements are 100% representative though...as in tyre testing things need to be fair and repeatable so you'd not cover the surface in mud from a building site or dead leaves then run braking tests. Those tended to be the times I found summers to be lacking..other than when they were going full Bambi in snow. Also I don't drive on billiard table smooth specially laid high grip tarmac..finest local authority chippings are not a surface they test.
All season Peak grip is lower...but more consistent in more conditions.
Bringing it vaguely closer to topic!
For those considering ditching a winter for an all-season. Comparison of both...
TL: DW.. Summer is better in summer, winter is better in winter. If you wanted to run either year round then they'd either disintergrate or attempt to kill you in snow.
I'm not entirely convinced the measurements are 100% representative though...as in tyre testing things need to be fair and repeatable so you'd not cover the surface in mud from a building site or dead leaves then run braking tests. Those tended to be the times I found summers to be lacking..other than when they were going full Bambi in snow. Also I don't drive on billiard table smooth specially laid high grip tarmac..finest local authority chippings are not a surface they test.
All season Peak grip is lower...but more consistent in more conditions.
There is a time and a place for everything.
if I had a Ferrari, I might be inclined to put the best tyres on it.
if I had a normal every day car (oh wait i do) I am happy to put good quality tires on but not necessarily spend a fortune on something that is more reputation than substance.
the current cars we have both had Bridgestones from the factory so I am happy to keep using those.
on a cheap car that does very little miles I would have no concern over using a budget tire. I’ve driven on budget tires for years without any problem.
there are some 30M cars on UKs roads I dare say a good few of those drive around on budget tires rather than driving into a hedge. I’d also much rather someone had new budget tires than old bald premium tires because they can’t afford to buy new expensive tires
if I had a Ferrari, I might be inclined to put the best tyres on it.
if I had a normal every day car (oh wait i do) I am happy to put good quality tires on but not necessarily spend a fortune on something that is more reputation than substance.
the current cars we have both had Bridgestones from the factory so I am happy to keep using those.
on a cheap car that does very little miles I would have no concern over using a budget tire. I’ve driven on budget tires for years without any problem.
there are some 30M cars on UKs roads I dare say a good few of those drive around on budget tires rather than driving into a hedge. I’d also much rather someone had new budget tires than old bald premium tires because they can’t afford to buy new expensive tires
Horses for courses obviously applies..it's just that some of the horses at the bottom of the market while cheap are mainly fit for glue.
You don't have to spend much more than budget money to get a decent tyre. It's a bit penny-wise but pound stupid when the difference between a happy-gallop and something not terrible isn't much in the grand scheme of ownership.
Point taken that a lot of people fit crap tyres to nice cars, and crap tyres to crap cars and get round perfectly happily. But all of the single car "oh ****!" moments I have ever had have involved a car on either cheap or old tyres. Be it going sideways at 30mph or nearly understeering off the road in a light rain shower. Most of the time you're fine it's just the limits are closer and occasionally they closer than you think.
I did the have the privilege of driving C3 on the most expensive tyres you could get at the time (170 quid .. Michelin e-primacy..I know the price as I ran one over a nail it wasn't my car and it had no spare
). It was subjectively worse than the all season on the basis it was stiffer lending the car a slightly crunchy low speed ride and the additional cornering performance was absolutely not needed. Obviously if I'd taken to a tyre testing track it would have knocked my tyres sideways..but I placed the OEM Michelins in the bin on the basis they couldn't move on a 3 degree upslope in snow and it didn't matter how careful you were as you were a passenger if you ever did get moving. The record was it took me 25 minutes to attempt a U-turn on a flat piece of road...fail and then park back up facing the same way as I had been.But that's horses for courses...
