Real life ditchfinder appraisal

[95 quid Peugeot]

Having just purchased the Ex HMC, and Chris667  BMW 330ci it's been shod with 4 of China's new death rings. 

Current mileage  146k

Front 225x40x18 Aptany

Rear 255x35x18 Aoteli

Bottle of wine for closest mileage before it's through a hedge backwards

 

[sierraman]

I’ve driven on budgets for years and on the right car they’re absolutely fine.  Very few people will go out and shod a car of that age on a set of Crossclimates, you’d be looking thick end of £4-500 to do that. 

I’d hazard a guess 50-70% of the cars over 5 years old out there are wearing budgets. 

[grogee]

They're everywhere. Majority of people just see black round circles which cost them money at MoT time.

Put it this way, do you buy the £35 bottle of wine at the restaurant or the £15 house red?

We made a distress purchase for Mrs Grogee's Alfa just after Xmas. The Halfords 'we come to you' service. Chose the 'premium budget' option because I knew we were selling it.

Premium budget apparently means Landsail these days. Interesting how they seem to be one rung up from LingLong now.

We drove home. Sold the car. Nobody mentioned tyres.

Her current Espace has three mismatched budgets on, they are total shit but I will put at least two if not four tyres on it in the summer. They'll be close to £100ea for name brand so it'll be 'not the worst' going on it. Toyo, Debica or whatever. 

I have been favouring Avons but another shiter mentioned cracking which I noticed on our not-very-old ones, so not Avon any more.

It's a 14 year old Espace with dents. If we do skid off into a ditch, I'm hoping the Renault airbag symphony will allow us to crash in pillowy comfort. Then I will sweep up the remains and buy something else.

Premium brands must be shitting themselves having lost all their market share, unless (as is rumoured) they own a budget brand of their own.

[Stanky]

7 minutes ago, grogee said:

Premium brands must be shitting themselves having lost all their market share, unless (as is rumoured) they own a budget brand of their own.

I think that they've realised this. You never get a brand new car fitted with Landsail's finest, the big manufacturers have the new car market sewn up, then any PCP deal with stipulate like-for-like replacements so they have that safety net for the first 3-5 years.

Then they have the budget sub-brand to mop up when it comes to the post-warranty/finance deal period so they still get money in the door.

 

[Kiltox]

Have done 7k and counting on RoadX ditchfinders on the Aldi, haven’t died. 

[95 quid Peugeot]

20 minutes ago, Kiltox said:

Have done 7k and counting on RoadX ditchfinders on the Aldi, haven’t died. 

I'm with you on that one

[grogee]

I hadn't actually appreciated the gulf in cost between budget and name brand.

CrossClimates are an extreme example, £30 clear of the nearest competitor, but still - way more than double the price of budgets.

[RoadworkUK]

Was idly browsing at E92 BMW 335is the other day, and this example showed up, the ad proudly saying "4 new tyres". 

ENHANCE

Yes, a lovely set of Massimos there. Kind of suit the kerb damage, black paint and idiot stripes on the front grille.

Bit of googling suggests that Massimo is part of the Cronus Tire group.

Lovely website: http://cronustire.com

TBH I'm pretty shit scared about unknown brand tyres. My father in law, some years ago, put a set of Riken tyres on my wife's 306, and the front two were completely written off when we had to make an emergency stop on the A38. They literally disintegrated, delaminating, bubbling up etc. 

The wheels I have on my A4 came to me on a W202 C-Class that was traded in on the scrappage scheme, and I've a strong suspcion that the Triangle tyres the front ones had on them were partially responsible for the death of that car. As soon as those wheels went on my car, it sounded like the front bearings were shot. Right old racket that disappeared when I put a pair of Kumhos on in their place.

I'll buy tyres I've never heard of on recommendation from somebody I think's worth listening to, but I'm much comfier with a brand I've had before, and Falken, Kumho, Hankook tend to be my go-tos these days.

 

[grogee]

21 minutes ago, RoadworkUK said:

Bit of googling suggests that Massimo is part of the Cronus Tire group.

Lovely website: http://cronustire.com

 

That website is well worth a visit. Faux-Continental typeface with badly written Chinglish promising 'cheap tyres'.

On a totally unrelated note, last night I watched a documentary about the Tianjin explosion(s).

[Kiltox]

47 minutes ago, grogee said:

I hadn't actually appreciated the gulf in cost between budget and name brand.

CrossClimates are an extreme example, £30 clear of the nearest competitor, but still - way more than double the price of budgets.

Try 255/35/20 - it was about £60 versus £200+  

[HMC]

I had a c900 Tii 8v that had been shod with “sime”  tyres that were not very grippy in the wet, I made a mental note to change them after playing about with lift off oversteer- fun but the lack of grip was a worry. Alas I crashed it before I could change the tyres, through a dry stone wall.

Goodbye saab! Admittely I used to drive it like a wanker, so it was a combination of poor adhesion and poor driving. But I’m still not a fan of Sime tyres; not seen any for ages.

[sierraman]

I’ve no doubt Crossclimates are bloody good tyres but most people in the real world have other priorities than putting £600 worth of tyres on a £2,000 car when the budgets will work well enough. 

[loserone]

Don't leave anyone in doubt of your opinions dude 

[RoverFolkUs]

Laufenn are pretty good, 'made by Hankook m8'

A pretty good midrange. Not expensive either

[barefoot]

For a laugh. I tried to buy an actual LingLong to use as a spare and attach it to the front of my baywindow. In 185 X 14 it was £120, more than the fucking Dunlops that I'd fitted to the four road wheels.

Edit - I forgot to mention that I once ran a set of Khumo's on my 944. They lasted about 8,000 miles before they were utterly fucked. Since then I've stuck to the specified, if rather pricey Continental ContiSports with the dedicated Porsche N0 or N1 markings & had no further problems.

[UltraWomble]

3 hours ago, Kiltox said:

Have done 7k and counting on RoadX ditchfinders on the Aldi, haven’t died. 

We have these on the Alhambraha.

They are surprisingly OK.

[Bren]

We had delinte on our vectra.

Even in the dry they didn't inspire confidence.

You get what you pay for.

[Daviemck2006]

My yeti has cross climates on the front and kormoran on the back in 235/50x18. Have been on there for about 12000 mile and have approx 4 mm on the front and 7m  on the back.  It wont lose traction in the dry or wet, will in snow but it is 4wd. On cornering it will understeer before anything else dry or wet, in snow wants to go sideways with all 4 wheels. I cant really tell the difference in them.

[junkyarddog]

1 hour ago, Daviemck2006 said:

kormoran

These are a decent enough tyre,Polish made and apparently a subsidiary of Michelin.

 

[Spurious]

The price between a Uniroyal/Nexen/Hankook/<insert mid range tyre brand> and some utter trashy cheapo tyre is often not that much and is probably the cost of a decent bottle of wine. 

 

1 minute ago, junkyarddog said:

These are a decent enough tyre,Polish made and apparently a subsidiary of Michelin.

 

They are, had Konmoran on a rental Europacar Clio in the depths of winter in Poland and they were great. 

[Spurious]

6 minutes ago, Spurious said:

The price between a Uniroyal/Nexen/Hankook/<insert mid range tyre brand> and some utter trashy cheapo tyre is often not that much and is probably the cost of a decent bottle of wine. 

For example, the Megane wears 205/55/16s, a common as muck tyre size. 

Kumhos/Avons £64-68 corner. Triangles/Runways/Livelongs etc £55-58 a corner. 

£32 in the difference. People spend more on take out coffees in a month... 

 

[jonathan_dyane]

Didn't Stomil rebrand as Kormoron in the mid 90s?

[Metal Guru]

11 hours ago, grogee said:

They're everywhere. Majority of people just see black round circles which cost them money at MoT time.

Put it this way, do you buy the £35 bottle of wine at the restaurant or the £15 house red?

We made a distress purchase for Mrs Grogee's Alfa just after Xmas. The Halfords 'we come to you' service. Chose the 'premium budget' option because I knew we were selling it.

Premium budget apparently means Landsail these days. Interesting how they seem to be one rung up from LingLong now.

We drove home. Sold the car. Nobody mentioned tyres.

Her current Espace has three mismatched budgets on, they are total shit but I will put at least two if not four tyres on it in the summer. They'll be close to £100ea for name brand so it'll be 'not the worst' going on it. Toyo, Debica or whatever. 

I have been favouring Avons but another shiter mentioned cracking which I noticed on our not-very-old ones, so not Avon any more.

It's a 14 year old Espace with dents. If we do skid off into a ditch, I'm hoping the Renault airbag symphony will allow us to crash in pillowy comfort. Then I will sweep up the remains and buy something else.

Premium brands must be shitting themselves having lost all their market share, unless (as is rumoured) they own a budget brand of their own.

Saw a Landsail van at my local tyre place. Meant to have a peak at what tyres it had but drive off before I could see.

[sutty2006]

Absolutely nothing wrong with landsail tyres. I bought 4 for the diesel Carlton years ago, £25 a corner it was a bargain and it never put a foot wrong. A few others at work use landsails. One of the workshop controllers put 4 on his wife’s Audi Q5…… which are really low profile….. mainly because she’s always kerbing it. But still, they’re an alround alright tyre. 
 

there’s no way I’d buy a set of Michelin tyres nowadays. Wife’s company car came with Michelins all round and were perished to fuck after 3 years. What’s that all about? 

[Dave_Q]

I think as @Spurious said my main problem with ditchfinders nowadays is they are just not cheap enough to bother with.

When a "Cheng-dong rubber chicken and tyre moulding concern Happy Ending" is £49 and a Kumho/Nexen/Toyo is £60 why would you.

[J-T]

17 hours ago, 95 quid Peugeot said:

Having just purchased the Ex HMC, and Chris667  BMW 330ci it's been shod with 4 of China's new death rings. 

Current mileage  146k

Front 225x40x18 Aptany

Rear 255x35x18 Aoteli

Bottle of wine for closest mileage before it's through a hedge backwards

 

I bought an e39 530d touring a few years ago that had just had a full set of Aptanys fitted. I was expecting terribleness but they were fine tbh. 

[sutty2006]

1 hour ago, Dave_Q said:

I think as @Spurious said my main problem with ditchfinders nowadays is they are just not cheap enough to bother with.

When a "Cheng-dong rubber chicken and tyre moulding concern Happy Ending" is £49 and a Kumho/Nexen/Toyo is £60 why would you.

I think your price differences between linglonggolucky ditch finders and premium tyres is a tad out. 
 

235 55 18 as an example for my Allroad. The Ditch finders are half the price of premium. That said, I wouldn’t put winrun tyres on a high performance 4wd car. 

 

[Dave_Q]

Well yes it depends on size but if you do the same search and sort by price, the absolute cheapest are £71, winrun, Hifly and Joyroad are £80-90 and Nankang, Toyo start at £91 and you can get Uniroyal Rainsport for £101.

So would you risk a Joyroad over a Rainsport to save £15 a corner? I think my point still applies 

Edited to add: I am talking about semi named-brand midrange tyres, not premium. I can't say I have ever put proper premium tyres on any of my heaps but stick to known mid range ones you can at least find a review for somewhere.

[Lacquer Peel]

I put a set of Goodyears on my shit £2k car and have no regrets. It drives far better than it did on the mix of off brand tyres it had before and is reassuring. Would new budgets have been transformative as well? Possibly

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, Dave_Q said:

Well yes it depends on size but if you do the same search and sort by price, the absolute cheapest are £71, winrun, Hifly and Joyroad are £80-90 and Nankang, Toyo start at £91 and you can get Uniroyal Rainsport for £101.

So would you risk a Joyroad over a Rainsport to save £15 a corner? I think my point still applies 

Edited to add: I am talking about semi named-brand midrange tyres, not premium. I can't say I have ever put proper premium tyres on any of my heaps but stick to known mid range ones you can at least find a review for somewhere.

Last time I bought tyres for my Impreza, 225/40 x 18, cheapest were £78, (Rotalla?) mid range £95-100,  Michelin Pilot Sports £105.  No brainer.