Budget tyres - yay or nay?

[Déesse trois]

Had my DSport just over and year and have done nearly 24000 miles. The front tyres (Michelins) are low but still legal, reckon I've got about 3-5k miles left.

I have never bought a tyre costing more than about £50 in all my life so I was a bit shocked to discover that new branded tyres can be anything up to £200 each - I've bought complete cars for less than that!

I have, however, seen budget tyres for about £60 online (eTyres) and a local supplier reckons they can do me some for about £53 each.

In 50 years of motoring I've used remoulds and budget tyres almost exclusively and have never had a problem. It might have been false economy because of potential reduced mileage, though.

Any thoughts, anyone?

DST

[Clarky]

Wow 24000 miles on first set of tyres obviously you havn't got a heavy right foot....Replaced my tyres on my dsport Thp at 11000 miles with budgets & to be honest i think the budget tyres will out perform the Michelins lol...Like you i have the same view of spending cheap when it comes to tyres the only thing i would say is make sure the tyre rating is the same or better.

Clarky.

[ZACK]

I Usually buy budget and the fronts last me approx 3,000 miles, I've recently bought Toyo Proxes T1-R's and they lasted for over 16,000 !

So lets go through the maths...

Budgets = £120 = 3,000 Miles.
Proxes = £250 = 16,000 Miles.

Yeah they might be double the price but they last more than 5 times longer !

*Prices above are for 2 tyres (fronts) and are based on 225/40/18.

I have new wheels coming soon with Proxes on them so we'll see how long they last

[gar074]

I have new wheels coming soon with Proxes on them so we'll see how long they last

Not long with a V6 under the bonnet, I reckon.

Must admit that I admired your cute tyre-saving tip of only running on 3 wheels a while back...


(No Zack, you'll never live it down)

[Jimbob]

Original Michelins still going strong at 32000 miles (and still legal!)

Jimbob

[Bigfeet]

Tyres are the only thing I would never scrimp on, the reason being that all the traction controls, abs brakes, anti skid, eba systems in the world are useless if your tyres are not up to the job. Remember that your entire contact patch with the tarmac can be put on a piece of A4 paper, so why not make sure that contact patch has the best chance to stop and grip you.

[Arlow]

Have to agree with Bigfeet on this. I don't even like having different tyre brands/models on my car, I have in the past had all 4 tyres changed when only 2 were worn because I couldn't get the tyres that I already had fitted. I kept the 2 good ones and fitted them back later.

[joshaspinall]

Also agreed with Bigfeet. Minus the brakes, the tyres are the only thing stopping you hitting a wall. If you're buying budget, you essentially get any old rubber moulded together and called a tyre. You don't have to spend much more to get some decent branded rubber, which has been properly designed to grip, disperse water etc.

[cyclone]

What I think, go back and read Arlow and Bigfeet's posts.

[fatwomble]

Depends what you call budget tyres. I ran Kumho KU31 on my Lotus for years, on road and track. I had no issues on the road, on the track you could tell the difference though. It's made me re think what I would be happy with. I'll be running decent tyres from now on. I wouldn't go for TR-1s though. R1-Rs are much better, most people I know find the Kumhos better than the TR-1s