Infinity tyres

[sierraman]

Been quoted for a pair of these £50, just wondering people's thoughts on them. I don't drive like a lunatic, has anyone had any experience of them?

[dollywobbler]

I think I'd rather have part-worn good brand than brand new cheapo-shite when it comes to tyres. The 2mm-left Bridgestones the Rover was wearing when I got it were still fabulously grippy.

[Jazoli]

What do you think? At £50 a pair they are going to be utterly shite, the missus had some put on the back of her 306, it would snap oversteer at 15mph, they were that bad, I took them back and had some nexen's put on, which were brilliant in comparison

 

Pick one of the following, you might get lucky.

 

Good dry grip

Good wet grip

Nice and quiet

Last over 10k miles

Have good braking distance

None of the above.

[philsford]

I go for Event when buying budget.I find them a decent all around cheap tyre.

[Parky]

I assume these are for a Sierra - what size do you need??

[sierraman]

No, these are for mondeo 54 2.0. Might be worth spending a few more bucks and getting some mid range? I've had budgets in the past and they have been fine but its always a gamble.

[Parky]

Blackcircles are normally pretty good on things like Kumho, Yokohama and Falken. All bloody good tyres.

 

As winter approaches it would make sense getting good wet tyres as it will probably rain 2 out of 3 days between now and April.....

[trigger]

Don't buy Infinity, they are fucking shit to put it nicely.

 

I made the massive mistake of fitting a pair to my Focus and i can't wait until they are bald now, in the dry they are ok but in the wet they are deadly, I can't unrecommend them more.

[Jim Bell]

Infinity refers to the braking distance in the wet.

[dollywobbler]

This is the thing. A cheap tyre might be fine, and you may think you drive steadily enough that good grip isn't worth it. But it's when you find yourself on a wet road, having to take evasive action to avoid some idiot that you discover just how limited cheap rubber can be.

[sierraman]

Managed to bag a Nankang for a fiver a tyre more. At least I've heard of them...

 

As you would expect consensus on PH was unless you bought a pair of Continental Sport Contacts, you would probably crash and be awfully disfigured.

[Mike D]

I have run Nankang NS2s on every vehicle I've owned since about 2004 - they are ace for the money, and that's on 200+ bhp rwd 155 mph capable stuff as well, I've driven them hard and they are great. No brainer for me!

[Sigmund Fraud]

In the true spirit of Autoshite, one of my DAFs runs on part-worn Infinitis. I expected the outcome to be INSTANT DEATH, but their performance seems to exceed that of the car by quite some margin.

 

For the reasons mentioned above, it makes sense to always buy the best tyres you can afford. However, it's all a matter of how much risk one is willing to take. A £80 Michelin is a safer tyre than a £25 ditchfinder. In the same way, a £60K Mercedes is a safer car than a £300 shitter.

 

I've driven many thousands of miles in £300 shitters, shod with ditchfinders, and am still alive.

[sierraman]

Nankang £55 a corner from believe it or not Asda Tyres! Fitted at local Halfrauds autocentre

[dugong]

Buzz Lightyear tyres must rival Kamas (fitted only to second-hand Volvo 400s) as the worst tyres available new.

[PiperCub]

Never heard of them but at £50 a pair I'd avoid like the plague personally. As others have said, go for a decent brand of part-worn or give e-tyres a try, that's who I tend to use, they come to your home or work and fit them. Had excellent service out of them the four times I've used them, prices tend to be cheaper than BlackCircles who I used to use (supply only - fitted locally).

Some cheaper brands are remarkably good, had a set of Nexens on my 406 TD estate, good grip, lowish noise and lasted pretty well. The car had 16" rims on it (for some reason!) and the boots were still cheaper than I thought. Don't know what they cost now though.

 

Word of warning for cheapo tyres: While fitting them to old-tech stuff is not the end of the world, doing it to moderns can be a receipe for pain as the newer the car, the less tolerant the suspension setup/design is to inferior rubber. Older & less sophisticated cars are less fussy so aren't affected in the same marked way.

This comes from a mate who used to work in that industry, he used to constantly hear the designers of new cars moaning that their hard work and development was being utterly bolloxed up by owners fitting cheap/inferior & unmatched tyres.

[HH-R]

I have an Infinity on the front driver's side of my 58 BHP POWAHOUSE that the garage fitted without consulting me (I was livid at the time).

 

Paid £35 for that piece of shit, OK on the dry but it sounds like the wheel bearing is knackered, it's so noisy. Trying to pull away in the wet or slightly damp very carefully just results in wheelspin. The Conti on the other side seems just as bad TBH. Driving on a wet motorway/dual carriageway at 50 feels like the front is floating.

 

They're getting put in the bin soon even though they have plenty of tread left.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

New low budget tyres are phayle. The cars we run are all part worn, so........

I bought a pair of 225/45x17 Michelins of Ebay for 75 fitted, 1 year old and 5.5mm. Why the fuck would you buy 6mm of certain death?

[New POD]

I have Mitchelins on the Accord, all the same, £290 from Cost co for 4

 

Given the miles I drive and the speed I travel, I'm happy that the 20K plus they last, does not compromise the wet weather grip.

[Bren]

I remember my brother having a remould on his R5 GT turbo - colway I think.

 

The tread never wore down, but in the wet it had no grip - dangerous is an understatement.

 

By the way, have you considered remoulds?

[gordonbennet]

I've just got the answer to my own experiment this very week.

 

The best wet grip tyres i've had on the old MB were Toyo T1R's, stuck like shit to a blanket, you could not unstick the buggers, unfortunately noisy as fook and bloody harsh ride.

 

So during my poke nosing i discovered and was recommended to try Federal Formoza FD2, indeed they even have 'silent' stamped on the sidewall, so i duly bought a set as an experiment to see if my admitted anti ditchfinder prejudices were unfounded...my own first ever trial in budget tyres.

 

Yep, really quiet and smooth riding, and for the first summer, last year, seemed ok.

 

Last week i'm going to work in the rain early morning, not driving any more twattish than normal, full fookin broadside on a wet corner, kinell, then accelerating away quite normally from a roundabout she develops a good wheelspin, fookin sideways again, leaving work wheelspin again.

 

They've still got about 5/6mm on 'em...so i'll run them bloody gently till October, switch a month early onto me winter set and then flog the crap on.

 

Long time prejudices confirmed as right after all.

[Parcgwyn]

I remember using Colway red spot remoulds on Imps in the 80's found them to be pretty good.

[gordonbennet]

Ah bollocks, don't know why i was even considering running those crappers for another month, just ordered 4 Uniroyal Rainsport 3's from Camskills....don't need to be crapping mesen @ 3.30am on the way to work on a wet morn.

[sierraman]

Can you even buy remoulds for cars these days? I know buses etc use them but cars?

[skattrd]

Can you even buy remoulds for cars these days? I know buses etc use them but cars?

 

Yes, mytyres sell them quite cheaply. I got some winter remoulds for the boring last year, very noisy, but ok.

EU standards mean remoulds have to be well made/safe.

[Stanky]

There is an outfit in Southampton that does them too, they advertise with pictures of lamborghinis and ferraris which causes me to smile at the concept of a 500+ BHP car running on remoulds.

 

That said, I've had some other info in the past that confirms Skattrd's post that they do have to meet certain criteria to be able to be sold in the EU, so possibly less dangerous than Chinese deathmasters or somesuch. I reckon I'd get some to go on a trailer or similar, but I'd be a bit wary of fitting them to the car I schlep up and down the M3 at 70mph in on a daily basis. I might just be a tyre fascist though. 

 

I had some Pirelli P6000s that were fitted to a second-hand set of alloys I bought many years ago, they looked OK and gripped fine on a dry road, but were absolutely lethal in the wet. One wet night I was coming home from Mrs_Stanky's (though she was GF_Stanky at the time) and totally lost it on a roundabout, doing all of 20mph. the back end just slid out and I became a passenger. I hit the kerb in the centre of the roundabout and stopped, sideways, blocking the thing. Luckily it was about midnight and no-one else was around because they'd have been whacked by it! The very next day I fitted 4 new Avon ZV3's to the car and it was transformed. Tyres are one of the things I will not skimp on - shelling out £200 on 4 half decent mid-range tyres like Yokohamas or Falkens or Avons is money very well spent IMHO. 

 

I wrung 27,000 miles out of the Yoko Blue Earth AE01's I fitted last time, and got 4 Kumho KH17's this time around for almost the same amount. The Yoko's were very slightly (as in a few 10's of pence each) cheaper but I thought I'd try the Kumhos to see what they were like. They are about the same in most respects, impossible to unstick, even on a wet roundabout from a standing start with all 85 horse power deployed from Nissan's finest. 

 

I use Blackcircles and have them fitted by a local place which I've found to be superb in all respects. 

[Vince70]

I have 4 on one of my old Audi's (actually on the car when I bought it 4 years ago) and I can't get the bloody things to wear out and the back tyres still look like new.

 

I wouldn't say it would be my tyre of choice as in the wet the things don't feel that sure footed, but I've used them in deep snow and I live on a horrible concrete road and during the winter months the cars have trouble getting up the hill in the bad weather but my old car seems to get up the road ok on infinity tyres.

 

So if your on a budget I would say you can't really go wrong unless your really are a speed demon then otherwise go for a midrange.

 

Ps don't post this thread on pistonheads as you will be treated like a mass murderer or a kiddy fiddler for running on budgets.

 

First experience wanted with the A4 now Infinity tyres I'm on a roll today lol

[trigger]

Colway Twattys are the *best.

 

[forddeliveryboy]

Mytyres does a good retreaded winter tyre, supposedly only using Michelin, Conti or other decent* make carcasses. I've used them for the last few years and found them definitely better than cheapo new. Tread is on the soft side, so if you're going to cover 15,000 miles on asphalt through winter then probably better with some all-weather thing.

 

 

The price includes courier from Germany, you have to buy them in pairs for free postage.

[Rusty_Rocket]

I had an Astra with Infinity tyres on the front. They went out of shape for no apparent reason with half of the tread lifting which made the tyre resemble a fifty-pence piece on one 'side'. This was annoying as they were only 5k miles old and still had 5mm+ tread. I think it was either a manufacturing fault or general Chinese quality* control*.