Tyres- budget or not

[Big Pimp]

Ive said it before, but I'll say it again. I will never put a budget tyre on the likes of my sport again.

put a set of budgets on my last one (£100 a corner compared to £300 per corner for 22's) and they were great in the dry, but dire in the wet. Understeered something shocking, and aquaplaned over any puddle which was more than a few mm deep

which is why now I'm changing my continentals on my new sport which have been a great tyre, i'm likely to stick with them as @Neil Kirkpatrick has suggested.

Also had hankooks on the BMW when I had it, and I thought they were a really good tyre for a lot less £ than the Pirellis which came off it.

 

[Neil_M]

So I called into a tyre place in bangor today and the guy tells me that the brand of tyre on my car is specifically made for Audi and putting anything else on it will affect the handling, is this bull**** or is there any truth in it

Just as @gcon45 says the Tyre guy is correct.

If you can't match an Audi approved tyre, at least match the load and speed rating, in the correct size of course.

These details are on the inside of your driver door.

Magowan Tyres were advertising the OE Dunlop's for ~ £160 a corner. Whether they are still available at that price is another matter...

 

[SMcP114]

It's true.

How much it will affect the handling, well that's open to interpretation!

I do know that if you have an accident in a Porsche and don't have 'N' rated tyres fitted that your insurer will pay out £0.

Right, well that's not true.

Should any insurer in their right mind even attempt to void a policy due to the rating of a tyre, it would immediately be overturned by the insurance ombudsman.

If the tyre is legal, the insurer will pay out.

I genuinely can't believe anyone has attempted to pass that off as a fact. Porsche approved specialists only recommend an N rated tyre, nothing in law states one is to be fitted.

Unless you were joking, in which case I apologise.

 

[gcon45]

No 100% serious!

Friend of my brother has a 997 and had a bit of a prang and after a lengthly legal debacle his insurer won and he got nothing due to not having N rated tyres fitted.

He made the most of the bad situation though and had a full neon green respray

Obviously I'm only going by what he told me but he doesn't seem the type to make stuff up.

 

[SMcP114]

There's more to that story.

Under no circumstances can an insurer not pay out because N rated tyres aren't fitted on a Porsche. The ombudsman would overturn that in seconds.

 

[gcon45]

Only thing I can think of is that the load index or speed rating of the tyre(s) fitted at the time didn't meet / exceed that of the equivalent N1/2/3/4 tyre that is specified on the fuel cap sticker.

He's adamant that the claim was refused specifically due to the missing 'N' rating though.

 

[SMcP114]

He's on glue lol

Regardless of what's on the fuel cap, the insurer cannot legally refuse to pay out if all 4 tyres are legal. There's plenty of info about it on the Porsche specific forums. A lot of owners don't use N rated tyres preferring their own rather than what Porsche recommend.

 

[weeloaney]

Possible that they could if the load rating is lower than what the car should be on as this is a safety thing?

Car/van etc can fail mot for not having tyres with the correct/high enough load rating?

Both kinda statements but I'm also asking as I'm not 100% sure

 

[gcon45]

Car/van etc can fail mot for not having tyres with the correct/high enough load rating?

Yes - lower load index and speed ratings than what is stated on the sticker is a straight MOT fail.

Depends on how thorough / miserable your tester is though as a lot get away with it.

You could always argue that you don't intend on carrying 4 passengers at 149mph!

They seem to enforce this more stringently on vans / people carriers though where a higher load rating than normal is used.

 

[KeithRobinson]

Middle of the road tyres like Kumho, Altenzo etc will be a good compromise, should save you a few £ whilst still performing well.

 

[chris_b]

Middle of the road tyres like Kumho, Altenzo etc will be a good compromise, should save you a few £ whilst still performing well.

Altenzo middle of the road Keith? More like through the fence at the end of the road !

 

[Ricky302]

Get the cheapest tyre you can get and learn how to drive, just picked up 4x 255/35/20 for under £200

 

[weeloaney]

Yeah cause learning how to drive helps you when you can't stop or swerve in an emergency.

Doesn't matter how good of a driver you are sh*t tyres are going to make the car have sh*t handling.
Don't come crying if your car is stuck in a hedge(which I hope doesn't happen)





I'm not usually one for saying things like this but

@Ricky302 that has to be the ******* stupidest statement I've ever read on a car forum

And that includes one for a fella asking in his cars in trouble and safe to drive cause a few snowflakes got into through fuel filler at the pumps. And he was serious, i hope your not.

 

[Ricky302]

I guess I must be the luckiest driver ever with 100000+ miles on ling langs.

 

['96dc2]

I guess I must be the luckiest driver ever with 100000+ miles on ling langs.

Well your certainly not the smartest..

 

[weeloaney]

I guess I must be the luckiest driver ever with 100000+ miles on ling langs.

I'm not saying you can't drive that distance on them, I've driven on tyres till they were nearly bald, I've driven with s**t tyres, you just have to driven accordingly to the grip you have.

But there may come a day when you have to stop suddenly or swerve to avoid a crash, avoid hitting a pedestrian etc and your cheap s**t won't be up to the task of saving your or someone else's life.

If you don't want to pay big money for tyres then run 16inch wheels and get decent tyres for the same money as your s**t ones.

I dont understand people who pay thousands even over £10,000 for a car, then get huge rims that can cost anywhere between £500-£1000 and then spend as little as possible on the only thing that grips the car to the road.


I don't spend a lot on tyres, but not do I go for the cheapest s**t possible, try and go for the best I can afford at the time, It's just worth the risk

 

[Ricky302]

Should clarify, learn how to drive with the cheap tyre.

 

[C4L]

Despite the RMS Racing Drivers Club having their own personal preferences if you are anyway competent behind the wheel (& especially if going on an a5 quattro) go and buy some brand new budget tyres or even ask for something slightly above budget and aslong as you have basic ability and awareness behind the wheel unlike 90% of the egits on the road you will be fine - just don't buy remoulds or part worns that have been sitting around for ages.

Some of the comments in here are laughable, most people can't drive their f1nger up their hole the quality of their tyres is the least of their worries haha

 

[Ricky302]

We'll your certainly not the smartest..

Nice, do you want to insult my religion or colour of skin next?

 

[Ricky302]

I'm not saying you can't drive that distance on them, I've driven on tyres till they were nearly balled, I've driven with s**t tyres, you just have to driven accordingly to the grip you have.

This is my work van I'm talking about, that's not on one set I've been on a few in that time but all budget.

But there mat come a day when you have to stop suddenly or swerve to avoid a crash, avoid hitting a pedestrian etc and your cheap s**t won't be up to the task of saving your or someone else's life.

Haven't you seen my incar videos?

http://www.youtube.com/user/ricky302v8/videos

 

[Ian A]

I dont understand people who pay thousands even over £10,000 for a car, then get huge rims that can cost anywhere between £500-£1000 and then spend as little as possible on the only thing that grips the car to the road.

Because nobody looks at tyres. All for appearances.

 

[AIRFORCE1]

I dont understand people who pay thousands even over £10,000 for a car, then get huge rims that can cost anywhere between £500-£1000 and then spend as little as possible on the only thing that grips the car to the road.

Yup totally baffles me too.

 

[Coog]

Despite the RMS Racing Drivers Club having their own personal preferences if you are anyway competent behind the wheel (& especially if going on an a5 quattro) go and buy some brand new budget tyres or even ask for something slightly above budget and aslong as you have basic ability and awareness behind the wheel unlike 90% of the egits on the road you will be fine - just don't buy remoulds or part worns that have been sitting around for ages.

Some of the comments in here are laughable, most people can't drive their f1nger up their hole the quality of their tyres is the least of their worries haha

Haha just because its quattro doesn't mean it has some sort of super duper braking system! Give yourself the best chance possible IMO (even if we all reckon we're absolute pilots).

 

[Chris100]

In retrospect budget was the wrong term, going by what I have been looking at and price wise "mid range" seems to be more accurate.

Something around £130 per tyre would be ideal, just for clarity I would never put some cheap Chinese or Korean rubbish on the car.

Coming from the days of driving BMWs with 19" runflats anything is going to seem cheap in comparison.

Thanks for the input everyone

 

[pablo]

Altenzo middle of the road Keith? More like through the fence at the end of the road !

Had mine on the saab since march chris. no drama yet.

Depends on the car tough I find. I had an ST220 with nankangs on it and they were dead on. Then had a 330 with same nankangs on the back and they were lethal, couldnt get them off quick enough. I cant explain it but geometry/weight etc must play a role in which tyres work.

I also had a set of BCTs on my S3 for about a week on spare wheels and they were actually ok.

bit pot luck really I think.