Car Tyres

[Coco]

Try McConnachies. Always had good service from them, although haven't had to pay for the tyres recently (wife's company car) so can't vouch for prices.

 

[Mr Pig]

Take some website prices if you like and see if they'll beat them.

I looked to the web deals but you should find that a local fitter will be just as cheap. I used to always do a price check but there are two fitters near me who always give the lowest price so now I don't bother, I just phone up and order the tyres.

There are other benefits of shopping locally. I've had little bits of welding done and exhaust repairs done free of charge because they get to know you. Also, if there are any issues with the tyres it's easy to go back and get it sorted out.

 

[D4VOW]

£275 is steep. I would recommend either these or these. Both are very good tyres and once you've had them fitted will work out over £100 cheaper than what you've been offered.

 

[bauldbairn]

I also think that too many people assume that the tyres that came fitted to the car are the best tyres for it. That's not the case at all. Price, availability, national loyalty all play a far bigger part in which tyres get fitted in the factory than performance.

Although it's mostly the case that a car manufacturer has a national, price, availability, loyalty to a tyre manufacturer(e.g.Honda/Bridgestone/Japan) it's not always the case.

It's a little known fact that some high perfomance / track oriented cars are developed around a particular tyre. My case in point is the DC5 Integra Type R - a car developed around a particular manufacturers "specific" tyre. The tyre in question was the Yokohama A046 which the cars suspension and chassis were fine tuned to use. Any deviation away from these particular OEM tyres compromised performance of what is arguably considered to be the best front wheel drive car ever(2 BTCC wins).
Just walking into a tyre supplier and asking for a Yoko A046 isn't enough as tyre manu's regularilly upgrade / change compounds / structure etc. It had to be one ordered as an OEM part number direct from Yokohama, through Honda manufactured to the OEM spec. The match was so good that a major Japanese aftermarket tuner - Spoon - held their hands up and announced that none of their products could improve on the original handling.

 

[Mr Pig]

It's a little known fact that some high perfomance cars are developed around a particular tyre.

Yes, but we're talking bog standard family cars here.

 

[bauldbairn]

Yes, but we're talking bog standard family cars here.

Sorry!

 

[Mr Pig]

Sorry!

So you should be! ;0)

 

[GrasB]

In my opinion most people underestimate how important this is. I also think that too many people assume that the tyres that came fitted to the car are the best tyres for it. That's not the case at all. Price, availability, national loyalty all play a far bigger part in which tyres get fitted in the factory than performance.

IMO most people don't understand that break away is a progressive thing which if felt can be corrected or used to overcome inadequacies the cars handling envelope.

It's a little known fact that some high perfomance / track oriented cars are developed around a particular tyre. My case in point is the DC5 Integra Type R - a car developed around a particular manufacturers "specific" tyre. The tyre in question was the Yokohama A046 which the cars suspension and chassis were fine tuned to use. Any deviation away from these particular OEM tyres compromised performance of what is arguably considered to be the best front wheel drive car ever(2 BTCC wins).

I'm sorry but you've just waked into trap of your own making... The Honda OE speced A046 will provide great performance over a reasonable range of conditions, dry to medium wet conditions anywhere above 4C. However, & here's the trap, when you get to low temps road surface temps, very wet conditions or roads with mud/snow the A046s will get absolutely murdered by decent winter M&S tyre. Now shall we talk about surface ice ?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I must say, I've used cheap tyres for years and never noticed the smallest difference between those and the odd set of expensive tyres I've used. (Normally because they were on the car when I bought it.) Unless you're planning to use your Citroen C4 like Sebastian Loeb uses his, I can't see that it'll make much difference.

 

[gbb]

Better quality tyres are worth every penny. I had some cheapies fitted a few years ago. They only had half the life of better tyres.

Do you have a Formula 1 anywhere near. They had a special offer on when i needed some, i got two 205/55/16 Pirelli P6000 tyres for less than £90...awesome value at the time. Highly unlikely they'll have an offer on, but you never know.

 

[Mr Pig]

I binned a set of Pirelli P6000 because they were so bad! It was those that convinced me that not all tyres are equal. Their lateral wet grip was frightening, they would snap away at low speed really easily, even my wife had a scare with them.

[quote[I've used cheap tyres for years and never noticed the smallest difference between those and expensive tyres[/quote]

If you drive sedately with good anticipation I guess you might not. However in an emergency the differences could be very real, the difference between life and death, literally. What you suggest doesn't make sense. What you're saying is that it doesn't matter what the tread pattern is, what kind of rubber is used or how the structure of the tyre is constructed, all tyres will behave exactly the same. Even you must see how illogical that sounds?

 

[GrasB]

If you drive sedately with good anticipation I guess you might not. However in an emergency the differences could be very real, the difference between life and death, literally.

+1... most people don't push their cars to the limit until they actually are confronted with a dangerous & problematic situation... it's a little to late to learn about the performance envelope of your tyres when you get hard on the brakes plus steer trying to avoid the idiot who just pulled across the road without looking properly. I mean, if I hadn't pushed the car to the limit how would I know that you can turn a Cinq sporting on Conti sports contacts really hard under heavyish braking if you ignore inside front lockup & floor the throttle?

 

[Night Train]

I tend to be a sedate but high mileage driver. I have pushed my tyres to their limit and so know where that limit is. I have also found that the limit drops off very suddenly as the tyre gets near the wear bars so I change them when they are close.

The bulk of the tyre abuse is scrabbling for traction when I am towing a trailer.

If winters carry on being like this one I would probably get a set of winter tyres on a spare set of rims.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

If you drive sedately with good anticipation I guess you might not. However in an emergency the differences could be very real, the difference between life and death, literally. What you suggest doesn't make sense. What you're saying is that it doesn't matter what the tread pattern is, what kind of rubber is used or how the structure of the tyre is constructed, all tyres will behave exactly the same. Even you must see how illogical that sounds?

But that's not what I said. In fact, what I said was much the same as what you've just said I didn't say: that unless you're on the limit, you won't notice a difference. Cheap tyres will be absolutely fine almost all the time, and if you haven't got much spare money, it's difficult to persuade yourself that you need anything else.

 

[Mr Pig]

Cheap tyres will be absolutely fine almost all the time.

That is true. It is also true of lifeboats that don't float!