Dave1980

Morning All

Just curious, been looking for a set of tyres for the saab lately. Ended up with some mid range firestones.

Is there really a massive difference between the two in normal day to day driving?.

Who uses them on here?. Always tend to go for middle of the road tyres unless its on something i intend to drive hard now and again.

urban

iTrader: (1)

Wrong section

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Won't matter x 2.

Basically, unless you are doing a lot of hard driving, budgets are fine.

I like Dayton D300 or equivalent, available from Kingsway, they give a lifetime guarantee on them, replace if unable to repair.

davyboy

This could be another 10 page thread!

Matteeboy

Many factors to look at; not just on price alone.

Some cheap brands are making good rubber, some expensive ones make cr4p tyres.

I'm keen on Continental Sport Contacts; very good in the wet, wear quite well, not too pricey.

rob 666

iTrader: (1)

Gone for bridgestones on scooby and golf gt tdi (170) they seem good enough and at £90 a corner not to badly priced, golf had some budgets on it before, under steer aplenty and dire in the wet when accelerating, defo worth that little bit more in my opinion

David Lock

Middle of the road for regular driving.

dl

P1Fanatic

Not in 235/35/19 they are not - almost £200 a corner.

Matteeboy

That's not bad for that size.

hodgy0_2

you sure that's safe dave

r32

You can save quite a bit of money on cheap oil and Chinese brake pads too.

David Lock

Yes.

I bought tyres recently.

Cheapos

Regular

Performance

Regular are well made household names and fine for normal driving.

dl

corradoboy

In my experience....

Nankang - Cheapest you can get - WORST you can get
Fulda - Subsidiary of Goodyear, pretty good for the money
Hankook - Had 2-3 sets, no problems at all
Toyo - OK, but nothing special
Uniroyal - Excellent in wet, OK in dry, wear fairly quick
Bridgestone - RE070 on the Scoob were AWESOME !!!!!
Yokohama - OK
ATR Sport - Expected them to be awful, surprisingly good

Scooby Jo

Goodyear Eagle F1, not budget, but having spent last hour driving in thick snow I would highly recommend them

urban

iTrader: (1)

Guys
Vredestein - no comparison

Worlasshasansti

I've not had them on a scooby ( not got a scooby yet being the reason ) but I always used kuhmo ecstas on my last two GT4 st205's they were excellent in all weather in 225/55/16 iirc and quite cheap for the performance and lifespan.

Mick

c_maguire

I put a set of Sportrac3s on my last van (Berlingo, so gutless and lots of bodyroll) and after less than 1000 miles the outer sidewall on the nearside front tyre had a bulge in it. They were 185/60/15 H and XL, although I've had a few tyres claiming to be XL and like these were single ply sidewall and didn't feel particularly stiff to the touch.

I think the Hankook V12 Evo Ventus is hard to beat, you're paying for a normal tyre and getting premium tyre performance.

nyscooby

iTrader: (12)

Vredesteins..... good.

Luan Pra bang

Hankook seem to be well rated for a budget tyre, compare well to the premium brands, like most things the top brands may be good but a good percentage of the price of each tyre can be advertising and marketing budget.

DYK

I got Kuhmo ecsta le sport,225/40/18,find them to be good so far and good in the wet,only had them a few months though so can't say about wear.
A mate of mine spent about £500.00 on some Dunlop and didn't like them at all..

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

I like my current falken 452, i have heard mixed reviews but they seem a good all rounder, and at £280 a set fitted i can't grumble, work well in the wet and dry once scrubbed in, but i never push my car in the wet and 99% of my driving is pootling about with family in the car, so don't really need a high performance tyre and when i do have a blast it's on the road so don't go mental.

I'm getting old.

Just to add as i have said before, tyre performance really changes with the size of the tyre and car it's fitted to, in my experience.

sparkykev

After reading positive reviews i went for Kuhmo ecsta sports on the Vectra and they've been great in wet and dry, i'd definitely recommend them. My old Citroen c2 came with some Fulrun - Goodyear Eagle F1 lookalikes and they were lethal in the wet, the rubber was just too hard for our climate, i thought i would wear them out then replace, but they were indestructable. I sold the car and warned the buyer to take care.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Its a minefield.

Most budgets are rubbish, I would not use them on any car be it a a little shopping car for pottering round or a sports car. It is nothing to do with the performance of the car, because if I need to stop or do an emergency manouever, the type of car or driving style is irrelevant IMO - I would want the best there is.

But there are exceptions, in minority. For example I some Hankook Ventus in the past..not bad in the dry, although very average in the wet and I wore them out in 6000miles.

Much like there are some woeful branded tyres...personally I wouldn't touch anything made by Pirelli, Yokohama, Avon, Firestone, and be highly cynical of anything Bridgestone or Dunlop.

I also wouldn't touch any "eco" tyre designed for low fuel consumption...eco contact, premium contact, energy saver etc.

As such the only three tyres I trust on my cars which I know will grip well in the wet are Conti sport contact 3, Primacy HP and Pilot Sport 3. And thats the only summer tyres I'll ever buy for myself from now on.

Sometimes I think the Asians are mocking us with their branding of tyres...some recent brands I've seen: Forceum (f**k-em?). Sailun (Sail-on, which is what happens when you try to brake in the wet), Goodride (What? like the school bike?), Triangle (erm, they should be round ), Tyfoon (seriously, would you buy a tyre with Typhoon spelt incorrectly? ).

corradoboy

Vredestein Ultrac and Sessanta are awesome, the Sportrac are average at best.

c_maguire

My decision was made at the time on the basis that they were AutoExpress tyre of the year previously and MyTyres price was cheap.

Much better than what was on before but noisy, especially round corners, and then that bulge in the sidewall. The crappy Nokian all-seasons I took off had a bulge in the tyre too.

DYK

Had Yokohama in the past and found them terrible in the wet,also BF Goodrich didn't like them either,felt like the car was gonna slide in bends.
Michelin pilot i had before the kuhmo,and found them to be prity good lasted quite well.

Dave1980

this is truely a minefield. glad i just played it safe and went middle of the road.

when i bought my scooby years ago the garage whacked 4 new champiros on the car, they seemed ok as it was my first 4wd car so thought grip was good. first track day it understeered in the dry big time at castle combe. put some toyos on and the difference was unbelievable. squealed like a pig on the track with those champiros on too.

urban

iTrader: (1)

Ultrac sessanta is what I should have wrote.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Good post and about sums it up for me.

Michelin Pilot Sports on my Merc and Scoob and currently got Vredestein Wintrac 3's on the Volvo. Will put Contis on in March.

Budget tyres could well cost a lot more in the long run if you get my drift!

urban

iTrader: (1)

I ran Michelin PS2's once.

They were ruined within 7K on the STI.