Cheap tyres - update

[jberks]

Story so far. I bought the car with nearly new bridgestones on the front and brand new continentals on the rear. 16,000 miles of 75% motorway use later, I was down to the bars on all of them and the lot needed changing. At 28,000 miles per year and £150 a corner this was going to be an expensive concern.
So, I thought I'd experiment with something a little more reasonable. I bought 4 federal -595s (245/45/17). These cost me £85 each inc fitting.
So, how did I go on ?
Well grip wise I couldn't tell the difference. Noise wise, possibly a bit quieter and in terms of ride, not much in it, possibly a tad poorer.

Well, from the MB sevice sheet, after 13,500 50% town miles (I changed offices) the results were
FL FR RL RR
outer 2 3 3 3
centre 5 5 4 4
inner 1.6 2 3 3

I'm now another 1000 miles down the track and the fronts need changing. The centres and outer edges are fine for a while yet, but the inner edges are shot. (I'll get the tracking checked).
So good value?
Well 14,500 as against 16,000 and to be fair, the federals have probably had to work harder. Also, had I rotated them 3,000 miles ago and had the tracking checked, I'd probably have eeked out another 2k or so. So, in terms of wear, IMO there is nothing in it or if there is, you could argue that the cheaper tyres actually beat the expensive ones as the rears have a good bit of life in them at 14,500 wheras the Continentals were on their way to the dump at 16k.
Mytyres are doing the federals at £60 each. A Bridgestone Potenza would cost me almost double at £112.20.
I must admit, its a big shiny 3 year old Merc so there is a big part of me that resents putting 'cheap' tyres on so I think, well, I only need 2 so perhaps I'll spend a little more this time. But a quick trawl through tyretest.com and even spending another £40 per tyre on for example Goodyear Eagle NCTs, the federal wins on every category.
So, the conclusion?
My view is that with tyres, there is an enourmous amount of snobbery (I'm as guilty as anyone - I still want to buy 4 contis!) but if we're really honest about it, you don't get what you pay for.
So, I'm off to order 2 more Feredals.

 

[grpar]

Interesting jberks,

One nagging thing that gets me is .... are the cheaper tyres just as safe at higher speed (?) I'm sure we all do our motorway miles at speeds above the national limit ... so I just wonder if these cheaper tyres are well enough made not to blow out during excursions towards the ton mark ... ??

Thoughts ?

 

[Rory]

FL FR RL RR
outer 2 3 3 3
centre 5 5 4 4
inner 1.6 2 3 3

My tyres wore on the edges at the front and the centres at the rear (normal with powerful RWD cars apparently) so I've played around with pressures a bit - putting a couple of lbs in the front and a couple of lbs less in the rears. Bit difficult to tell but they appear to wearing evenly now.

Of course you'd never know accurate the pressure gauge was anyway - there's an old fashioned racing idea of rubbing chalk across the tread and adjusting the presure until is wears evenly but I've never got around to trying it!

 

[jberks]

My tyres wore on the edges at the front and the centres at the rear (normal with powerful RWD cars apparently) so I've played around with pressures a bit - putting a couple of lbs in the front and a couple of lbs less in the rears. Bit difficult to tell but they appear to wearing evenly now.

Of course you'd never know accurate the pressure gauge was anyway - there's an old fashioned racing idea of rubbing chalk across the tread and adjusting the presure until is wears evenly but I've never got around to trying it!

Absolutely - from the above figures and given that I run it around 29/32 I think I'll be upping it to 32/34

 

[jberks]

Interesting jberks,

One nagging thing that gets me is .... are the cheaper tyres just as safe at higher speed (?) I'm sure we all do our motorway miles at speeds above the national limit ... so I just wonder if these cheaper tyres are well enough made not to blow out during excursions towards the ton mark ... ??

Thoughts ?

Ther're rated to V (149mph). I admit I do tend to drift above the limit but I doubt many of us get near those figures this side of tha autobahn. In any case, that's higher than the top speed on my car. I rarely get above 90 - mostly sitting 70-85 where I'm safe from the lunatics and coppers. MPG is better and I won't get there any quicker if I did boot it. I've had (very short) bursts at 110-120 with no ill effects, She was certainly perfectly stable at that rate anyway.
They're also popular with the driftting crowd in Japan (which I thought odd as drifting involves skidding - not a great ad for tyre manufacturers surely) but it also puts strain on the carcass so if they were shoddily made, they wouldn't make the grade.

They pass EU checks anyway so I'd say they're as safe as any other V rated tyre in this regard and i have no complaints.
I believe the price merely reflects their lack of reputation in this region of the world, rather than any issue with quality. There are cheaper makes, but there are limits!

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

JB, it will be interesting to see how the federals perform when the temperature drops to below 7 degs, if it ever does again, lol. The NCT's on the front of mine seem to loose some directional stability at those temperatures. Can't comment on the Michelins as they are on the back (and have been exemplary) but I will be moving them to the front this winter so should be interesting.

 

[jberks]

Malcolm, I've lived through a winter with them and I can't say I've really noticed much difference. Admittedly I do tend to take it a bit easier if I'm concerned about road conditions and I suspect, as you say, pushed they're not going to be as good as on a hot sunny day but I've not slipped off the road either.

 

[television]

I too adjust pressures to compensate for where the wear takes place, and have this week lowered the rears by 2lbs.

Re the USA tires, they all carry a min miles certificate, the weight is no problem either, I can assure you that the conti's do not do very well regarding many test in Sweden, wet braking and the elk test they performed poorly

 

[David Nock]

I want to keep my Alloys out of the tyre bay as much as possible. This stems from a concern that the wheels wil get 'scrawked' on the tyre machines or worse that the car will get rough treatment on the jacks. Also it's my background as a company car driver since the early 1970's. A car in the workshop isn't doing anything useful (even like just being available for emergencies). So best tyres for me so that the change interval is longest.

 

[television]

I give the guy changing them a £5 to fit a new rim protector before he starts

 

[David Nock]

I give the guy changing them a £5 to fit a new rim protector before he starts

Not heard of that - I'll ask about it when I finally go in. Being a Yorkshireman I'll offer a £2 coin!

 

[wireman]

I havent used contis for about 18 years, they advertised that the law men had them on their cars and I got mugged by the advert (for all 5 wheels).
They were on a Cavalier CD and were the worst high price tyres I have ever bought, No wet grip, squeaky squaly noisey and short lived.
May be they have an improved product range now but I shan't be spending any cash on any thing with their name on it ever again.

 

[MIW615]

Not heard of that - I'll ask about it when I finally go in. Being a Yorkshireman I'll offer a £2 coin!

It's a small hard nylon type of sleeve that fits over the machine's guide that runs around the circumference of the wheel.

 

[jberks]

I want to keep my Alloys out of the tyre bay as much as possible. This stems from a concern that the wheels wil get 'scrawked' on the tyre machines or worse that the car will get rough treatment on the jacks. Also it's my background as a company car driver since the early 1970's. A car in the workshop isn't doing anything useful (even like just being available for emergencies). So best tyres for me so that the change interval is longest.

Me too, though more for the traditional yorkshire reason that I don't want to be spending my hard earned on any more tyres than necessary. But thats the point. Traditionally I've always been told that budget tyres fall behind the mainstream when it comes to grip and longevity. I fully expected to be replacing the lot at around 9k. But it hasn't turned out that way. Instead, I've had to replace them at exactly the same time as I would had I spent twice as much.

 

[Rory]

This stems from a concern that the wheels wil get 'scrawked' on the tyre machines

I've come to the conclusion that it must be mandatory to damage the wheels - I must admit that it didn't worry me on company cars and for last few years I drove Peugeot's which were always difficult to get balanced as the wheels didn;t have a centre hole.

I took my MB to a well recommended independant almost an hours drive away in Warrington where they "guarantee" not to damage your alloys. They broke the surface on both rims they worked on and gouged the face of one of them.

After the usual 'they were like that when they came in' they told me to get them refurbed and they'd pay. But I don't want that - the wheels were original & unmarked and only new ones would satisfy me. Realistically that was never going to happen so I've just left them. The gouge is quite obvious and everyone who notices it gets told about the place that did it.

 

[grpar]

Absolutely - from the above figures and given that I run it around 29/32 I think I'll be upping it to 32/34

I never run my C-class below 30/33 (F/R), as the car does behave noticeably worse. The bizarre thing is that a low pressure at the front (<30) creates a harder ride (!), whilst a low pressure at the back (<33) makes the ride more bouncy. Most odd.

That said, I do run Conti SP2's all round, and cannot wait for an excuse to replace all 4 with Michelin Pilot Exalto 2's instead.

 

[mjtray]

I've run non premium brands for years now and can't justify the price difference to jump back to the likes of Michelin etc....I think its like Jeans...you pay a lot for a name and then find something down the road for half the price, that looks the same and is just as good.

Currently running on some unknown Argentinian brand that cost very little and are doing a fine job and have not made me think "OMG" when I went around the first roundabout in the wet!!!!!

 

[ennio]

Conti PremiumContact on front 31,500 miles; Conti EcoContact rear 33,500 miles. Swapped front-back at approx. 17,00 miles. Mainly motorway miles.

I think that is really good going. I have experienced no problems (noise, skidding, et c) with these tyres.

andrew
1998 E300 TD Estate

 

[MarkF]

Guys,

Has anybody any experiance of the Kumo brand tyre, looking on My-Tyres on the net for replacement rear tyres for the ML size 285 50 R18 and the two that popped up were Kumho ECSTA SPT KU31 and ContiCrossContact UHP
Any comments would be appriciated.

Mark

 

[BeeJay]

Mark

I have just had Kumho tyres fitted all round, this week. So, obviously far too early to make any significant comment. Initial impression is they are much quieter than the Pirelli tyres which came off - but it may be that worn tyres create more noise than ones with a nice deep tread.

I bought them for £45 each - http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.php?plid=m4b0s425p9930 and it is either that I have perhaps saved £300+ or it may be a case of you get what you pay for. Time will tell.

Kumho tyres seem to get a good press eg http://www.kumhotyre.co.uk/news/news070503.html

Once I have notched up a few miles, and experienced a variety of driving conditions I'll post back.