406oc.co.uk

Alright guys, we all know the only part of a car in contact with the road is the tyres.

I'm amazed at the amount of people that use budget tyres, i had 4 four on my on 406, but this weekend i had four new michelin energy savers from ats for £268 and with £40 of fuel vouchers makes the tyres just £55 each.

So who puts good tyres on the cars? and who puts rubbish on there cars?? fess up guys.

Oh that old debate again. I only ever use"good" tyres since a couple of dodgy experiences with cheap rubber in the distant past. I currently like goodyear and pirelli, and get them for 55 a corner.

I've always gone for budget brands as I've previously found them to be grippier & quieter than premium brands. Not too sure about longevity though as I've never had to change a set on a car more than once.

When I left school I worked for a tyre wholesaler & we used to specialise more in the budget brands. Most of these budget brands were just using the old moulds from the premium brands (& some were even still made by premium brands under different names). Main example that springs to mind are Nankang, which at the time were simply old Yokohama moulds, but our director had a BMW 318is in 94 & it had terrible grip in the dry & the road noise was terrible from the standard fit Michelins. Set of Nankangs fitted & the noise was gone & it stuck like poo to a blanket!

its easy to say buy the best if you can afford it but what do you call the best?
is a big name the best? or is it like buying a 100per cent white cotten shirt, one from tesco will cost a fiver but one with ben sherman on it will cost 30 pounds but is it better?
now you could argue that michelin energy savers are a poor choice of tyres for anyone who likes to drive the car and not just point it down the road as they made out of a hard rubber[to give less rolling resistance so more mpg] and dont grip very well because of this.

budget tyres and part worns myself, whatever is the chepeast at the time and available,

dont care what name is on it

I've got four Khumos on.

They're definitely better than four bald Michelin energy savers.

They seem to wear relatively quickly though.

Had Goodyear Excellence on previously - nice to drive, but the fronts lasted 9000 miles.
That was without any silly driving or any tracking / suspension problems. Was also before the remap....
Got Kuhmos on the front now & trying to be nice to them, (accelerating gently back up to speed before re-engaging cruise for example).

Goodyear GT2 on mine, cracking tyre, good wear and sticks well enough for a barge too.

Used to do the partworn / unbranded chinese plastic sh*t a few years ago, but now i'm sensible.

I'm currently up for 4 tyres on my Volvo and it has Pirelli P7's all round at the moment and they are terrifying a horrible, noisy, tramliney tyre which lets go in the wet. Autoexpress's tyre test had nothing good to say about them, at all

I've been doing a lot of research because premium tyres for my car are £140.00 each (£560.00 per set ) so spending wisely is a must. I've come to the conclusion that Kumho KU31's are the way to go after reading all the reviews and the fact that they have become so popular on Mitsi Evo's, BMW's and such and at £83.00 each it gives me £228.00 to spend on my Anti-Sway bar

Welly, what size?

205 x 50 x 17 W(93) rated

W - 168mph. Take it on the track much do you?

That's what's on it top speed is 150mph. As usual, you can bet what happens to the price as you pop over into the W range.. they mostly come badged as 'reinforced' at that speed rating

Could you put tyres on it of a lower rating or would that have insurance issues?

That's a no-no you can go up a rating but not down. Let's face it insurers don't need much of an excuse not to cough up in a claim