Can Cheap Tyres be Reliable?

There are hundreds of tyre choices for every type of car including all-season tyres and winter tyres. A simple online search for tyres to fit a Ford Escort yielded dozens of results ranging from £34 a tyre to almost £70. These price variations can be significantly more depending on the vehicle you drive. You’ll also find hundreds of options at Tyres Guru.

Due to these huge price differences, motorists usually purchase tyres based on price, brand loyalty and retailer recommendations. Little attention is paid to labelling which explains information on wet grip levels or fuel economy ratings. However, these seemingly simple pieces of rubber are critical to the performance and safety of your car. Therefore, can you rely on a cheap brand or is it better to pay more for high quality tyres?

Do Budget Tyres Meet Safety Standards?

The short answer is ‘yes’. Remember, every single tyre sold in the UK must meet certain safety standards and manufacturers will get in big trouble if flawed cheap tyres are responsible for causing accidents, injuries or worse.

Obviously, you should not expect a great deal from them other than to get you from Point A to B in okay weather on reasonable roads, as they are not all-weather tyres. Cheaper tyres are generally suited to slower speeds and higher quality roads so you can ‘go budget’ if the vast majority of your driving takes place in and around urban areas.

Cheap vs. High Quality Tyres: What is the Difference?

When you think of ‘premium’ tyres, brands such as Pirelli, Michelin, Goodyear and Continental spring to mind. As you might expect, a wide range of tests have been carried out to compare cheap and high quality tyres.

For example, Continental tested its Premium Contact 2 model against a budget Triangle CNNT GLS tyre on a wet surface[1]. With the cheap tyres, the car had much less grip, vague steering and no real feedback on whether the tyre was sliding or gripping. This was always the likely conclusion since they are not all-weather tyres nor are they winter tyres.

Conclusion

High quality tyres always perform better in terms of grip and fuel efficiency. If you are planning to drive in inclement weather or plan to clock up the miles on the motorway, it is better to spend a little more on all-weather tyres which you can find at http://tyres-guru.co.uk/. Cheap tyres can be reliable but only in certain conditions such as if you:

• Won’t have much mileage.
• Will be travelling on dry roads.
• Will drive at slower speeds.

[1] http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/Premium-VS-Budget-Tyres-Real-World-Performance.htm