A Porsche Boxter?

No doubt you were on the verge of emailing your head honcho, then?

Cat

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(,,,)=^_^=(,,,)

Michelin are well known to be noisy tyres but they are a long lasting compound, my mate runs Nankang on his Mitsubishi evolution and he swears by them, so maybe next time I will give them a try.

Peugeot 504? That brings back fond memories of my youth; wish I was young once more :).

Back to the subject of tyres, to be honest I haven't noticed any difference with regards to Premium tyres and Others I have bought in the past. I guess one reason can be due to the fact that I do a lot of research into anything before I buy it. 

Catastrophica:

A Porsche Boxter?

No doubt you were on the verge of emailing your head honcho, then?

Cat

 

No no. He drives a 911 Turbo :-P

Cutchie:

Peugeot 504? That brings back fond memories of my youth; wish I was young once more :).

Back to the subject of tyres, to be honest I haven't noticed any difference with regards to Premium tyres and Others I have bought in the past. I guess one reason can be due to the fact that I do a lot of research into anything before I buy it. 

 Well as I said before if you're going from a worn out pair of good tyres to a brand new pair of not so good ones you will notice an improvement :-)But when you come towards the end of the life of the tyre you will notice a difference believe me.

I miss my 504. Even though it was 6 years older than me it was still a great car. Had so much more charm than new cars these days.

Just came across this thread and thought I would add my opinion,Manufacturers of cars never fit budget brands on their cars when new,which would indicate to me that you get what you pay for,Major tyre manufacturers spend millions of pounds (or Dollars) on research and development to make the safest tyres they can,and what is a suitable tyre for one model is not always going to be correct for another model. I would suggest that as long as you stick to the rating of tyre that was originally fitted to your car you wont go far wrong which make you fit subject to your budget.One tyre that I personally would never use is a remould,{seen too many treads peeled off along the motorways) Stick to the recommended tyre pressures and tread depths and check the tyre walls for damage (both sides of the wheel) and you should,nt go far wrong,

I doubt if major manufacturers worry too much about which brand they use - the quantity they buy will give them enormous discounts. And they still insist on fitting very low profile tyres that give an awful ride, even if the alloy wheels look cool!

I support the net purchasers - find a local dealer who will fit and balance for you at around £10/wheel and the price is very competitive. 

And don't forget that most tyres sold in this country are 'summer' tyres. In parts of Europe 'winter' tyres are  compulsory in the season, and 'all season' tyres that are a compromise are available,  especially on the net, offering improved traction/braking in winter.
 

absentfriends:Costco has a very good brand and with balancing etc price is very competitive. I think anyone can join and there's a double figure annual fee.

absentfriends:Costco has a very good brand and with balancing etc price is very competitive. I think anyone can join and there's a double figure annual fee.

I'm now a Costco member and the only tyres they supply are Michelin's and they generally well priced.

I used to work for Pirelli and I can tell you that the 'original equipment' tyres are the very best off the production-line, usually better than the full-price equivalents. Car manufacturers won't hesitate to send an entire batch back if even one tyre is sub-standard and some tyre manufacturers will even do special production runs for big manufacturers. So you do get really premium tyres on that new car. A lot of cheaper brands are significantly poorer, especially on braking distance - something you don't find out until you crunch into the back of that dopey driver who decided to stop at the roundabout, even when there was obviously nothing coming for miles. That's ths problem with tyres: it's when you're on the edge that you want that extra 20% better handling/braking, not in normal motoring.

I think someone mentioned winter tyres earlier? Same principle - below about 7C/8C the difference in braking distance on winter tyres vs summer becomes significant and once you're at -C winter tyres can make up to 25% difference in braking distance. Although they also work better in snow, it's actually this difference in compound and resultant braking/handling that explains why so many Europeans swap to winter around November. In theory, of course, it only costs the price of the change-over, as the summer tyre remain unused (obviously) over the winter. But abroad, it's much more common for your local garage/tyre firm to store your other set for you - something we don't have here in the UK.

Thank you for your supportig comments,Manufacturers of cars vans and lorries test different tyres on their vehicles for different driving conditions in different countries,remember the same model car can be sold in dozens of countries so fitting the correct tyres is very important to them,and in my own experience original equipment tyres supplied with new vehicles are generally over specified,for example a lot of standard family cars are fitted with tyres rated at over 150 mph even though the car cannot go at that speed,so in theory manufacturers could cut costs by suppling lower rated tyres-but they dont because I believe they like to have a larger margin of safety as standard.As for low profile tyres I understand that although they do give a firmer ride they do hold the road better and the profile is determined by the size of the alloy wheels fitted.I also think that you will find that winter tyres are deemed as not required on mainland Britain as our weather rarely reaches the extremes that some european countries experience.

msej449:I used to work for Pirelli and I can tell you that the 'original equipment' tyres are the very best off the production-line, usually better than the full-price equivalents. Car manufacturers won't hesitate to send an entire batch back if even one tyre is sub-standard and some tyre manufacturers will even do special production runs for big manufacturers. So you do get really premium tyres on that new car. A lot of cheaper brands are significantly poorer, especially on braking distance - something you don't find out until you crunch into the back of that dopey driver who decided to stop at the roundabout, even when there was obviously nothing coming for miles. That's ths problem with tyres: it's when you're on the edge that you want that extra 20% better handling/braking, not in normal motoring. I think someone mentioned winter tyres earlier? Same principle - below about 7C/8C the difference in braking distance on winter tyres vs summer becomes significant and once you're at -C winter tyres can make up to 25% difference in braking distance. Although they also work better in snow, it's actually this difference in compound and resultant braking/handling that explains why so many Europeans swap to winter around November. In theory, of course, it only costs the price of the change-over, as the summer tyre remain unused (obviously) over the winter. But abroad, it's much more common for your local garage/tyre firm to store your other set for you - something we don't have here in the UK.

I agree it's rubbish to say that manufacturers put crap tyres on their cars. Citroen for instance If I'm not very much mistaken only ever fits Michelin's to their cars and we all know Michelin make decent tyres.

A friend of mine who works for Continental testing tyres pretty much said the same in regards to winter tyres as you. As I said earlier in this thread I would never buy a tyre that wasn't made by one of the big companies. It's just not worth the hassle to save just a little bit on tyres. When I first got my 406 it had Tigar tyres all round and I got a nice bit of violent understeer going up a hill in the dry while not going all that fast and then when I tried to get going again from a stop I got horrendous amounts of wheelspin which is pretty scary considering my car isn't exactly that powerful and I wasn't going particularly fast. 

After reading all these answers to to your thread my thoughts remain the same. Whether you can afford or not good quality tyres, its how you look after them is what counts. I dont walk round a car every day when I use it to check tyre pressure. I am too busy!!  I rarely use the same car two days in a row! (I have three cars) What I do is check the tyre pressure once a week without fail on all the cars. (and I'm the wife!!!.....and we know nothing about cars, do we!)  

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Just food for thought!

Mr big:After reading all these answers to to your thread my thoughts remain the same. Whether you can afford or not good quality tyres, its how you look after them is what counts. I dont walk round a car every day when I use it to check tyre pressure. I am too busy!!  I rarely use the same car two days in a row! (I have three cars) What I do is check the tyre pressure once a week without fail on all the cars. (and I'm the wife!!!.....and we know nothing about cars, do we!)  

 Even if you keep the pressures constant in budget tyres they'll still not be as good as a proper set of premium brand tyres. Treadblock design, compound and carcass construction have a huge amount to do with how the tyre peforms. If you can afford to put new tyres on you can afford premium brand tyres. they're usually only 10-15 pounds cheaper and you'll probably save that in fuel due to the fact that most good tyres have a low rolling resistance and therefore are better on fuel.