why would anyone want to get either-this your life and other peoples you messing with so why risk it for the sake of a few £££'s?

 

Part-worn premium tyres will perform better, because they are premium tyres... it's not rocket science.

But fitting second hand tyres can be risky, you don't know what life they've had or how old they are etc...

Tyres are an important safety feature for your car. If you can't easily afford at least a set of mid-range tyres for your car, sell it and buy a Micra :eek

 

Well they are the only four bits of rubber that hold you onto the road - so as I always say you won't live long on a linglong (brand of tyre that falls into the same category hankook, nankang and the like). So you drive a premium brand motor why anybody would ever consider sub standard tyres is beyond me to be honest.

Could not agree with you more on your last comment mikaveli - oh by the way any good indies in P'boro?

 

i dont use budget or part worns,but i was amazed how bad some of the new budget tyres were in the wet

 

Think about this too-you got decent tyres on and have to do an emergency stop but the arse in the car behind you has budget crap on-what happens?A big shunt and its something I would rather do without

 

Would you class Falken as a budget tyre? I have always used FK452 or previous to this ZE512s and they don't cost an arm and leg, so does this make them budget?

 

We sell of a lot of part worns, 95% of our part worns are premium bands and with between 5-8mm of tread. We also inspect and test each tyre to ensure we are happy with it and that any defects are immediately brought to our attention. Any bad ones we return. Good ones we then add to stock.

I have on a few occasions put part worns on my cars, admittedly they were all with between 6-8mm (some as new unused but as they have been fitted and removed from a wheel rim ,its classed as used). Never had any problems myself and we do get XJRs, Mercs, BMW, Lexus, WRX's etc all comming back for our part worns do the the quality and testing we do rather than just sell any crap.

Would I rather fit a good quality set of part-worn than a budget? YES.

Falkens are very good, they are becomming more and more expensive every quater as their name is growing and people are now used to them. They are not a budget brand, realistically a mid-range brand that holds its own and in some cases outshines the premium brands...... We have them fitted to a wide range of our vehicles and never had a dissatisfied customer thats had a set fitted upon recommendation.

Some budgets we do come across, we have refused to stock and this does have an affect as we can't always offer the 'cheapest' price on a budget tyre. Many are manufactured to very poor standards, resulting in many customer comebacks and warranty claims due to manufacturing defects which are a pain in the arse. In addition the grip levels and tread compunds are, in my opinion dangerous but realistically, should be unacceptable as they cannot provide what I would class as a 'satisfactory' level of performance. As a result we do inform our customers that we only stock certain budget/economy brands that are made by the premium brands as all others will end up giving grief.

The budgets that are worth getting should you be strapped for cash are the brands that are made by the Premium brand boys. I have a list somewhere but off the top off my head they are as follows (may also be in my tyre guide signature link);

- debica (made by Dunlop) - never had any customer complaints with this
- Corsa (made by Pirelli) - never had any customer complaints with this
- Semperit (made by Continental I think) - never had any experience with these
- Kleber (made by Michelin) - never had any issues with these

There are a cople more but can't think of them

The other 2 Budget brands that we do with which we have never had issues with are;

- Federal
- Maxxis

 

Are Courier still going ? They used to be a Michelin sub brand IIRC ?
ATS used to do them when Michelin had a big interest in them.

 

dsk, thanks for your input,its nice to hear this sort of stuff from someone with first hand experience

 

I'm about to bid on these... but it says Budget tyres... im unsure now?!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=230337664397

My current ones are Pirelli but the rears are on the limit now. Any opinions? I've emailed the bloke he hasn't replied with brand name

 

I would go the extra mile and go for something like this instead

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GENUINE-18-BMW-MV-1-2-M-SPORT-ALLOY-WHEELS-WITH-TYRES_W0QQitemZ180377853433QQcategoryZ9888QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m215QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%252BS%252BIA%26itu%3DUS-BWR%252BUCI%252BUCC%252BIT%252BUA%26otn%3D12%26ps%3D33

 

are hankook really that bad? i always saw them as a reasonably good brand compared too.. tires named as viking etc.

 

Just had a part worn place open up down the road from me, i'll be giving them a look when i need my next lot of tyres (a while yet though!). Had 4 Nankangs on my old Golf and never had any issues with them, they stopped, went and handled fine wet or dry.

Not sure i'd put them on my 323 though due to the extra power

 

Suffolk Mike - GW Tyres in Ipswich is good for part-worns :thumbsup

 

When i bought my 320ci it had budget tyres all round but they was brand new so i left them. Only prob was wenever it was damp/ greasy or wet on the road every other corner the dsc light would flash :shifty:. Think they was clear pass or something .When i changed my wheels and put the Avons on the difference in handling was shocking. Even on the 330 the Avons perform very well wet or dry

 

good site for tyres...falkens are very cheap
http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.php?plid=m4b0s0p0

 

hankook are a subsiduary of yokohama which are decent budget tyres.......I would deffo buy part worn tyres from germany as their tyre legal limits are much stricter than here in the uk. iirc there legal tread limit is 4mm.
My personal choice would be to buy some 4-5mm branded part worns over a set of brand new recycled condoms and plastic.