Budget Tyres – Are They Worth The Risk?
A report from What Car? has outed a few budget tyre brands following various performance tests, warning that these types of tyres could kill. They tested dry braking, wet braking, lateral grip and noise tests. They chose three premium tyres and three budget tyres.
It wasn’t the simple result you might expect of the premium tyres outperforming the budget tyres in every category. They all had their better points and their worse. In fact, when it came to stopping, whether in the dry or the wet, the premium tyres were best; they are the tyres that will keep you safe.
As for the budget tyres – two out of three of the budget brands outperformed the premium tyres in the noise test. In fact, the worst tyre in the noise test was a premium tyre while the best was a budget one. So cheaper tyres are quieter…well, I’d prefer a noisy tyre that stopped me before I had an accident!
When you’re shopping for tyres, you are better off shopping around for cheaper prices on the better tyres than heading straight for the budget brands.