uheenada

Well, I'm not trying to pick on you(not at all!!) but what you described is more of non tire related issues.

1. Although it's not 100% unrelated but, for braking, it's more down to your pads and rotor combo than how great tire is.
Unless it's bald tires, what kind of tires you have won't make life or death. Back in 2003 when I purchased infiniti g35 coupe, it had Michelin pilot
sport came stock and g35 sedan got all season tires. If I remember correctly, g35 sedan got better results than coupes.
They share same brakes, suspension but sedan is little lighter(about 100lbs). So superior tires couldn't even make up
for 100lbs deficit.

2. As for swerving, like #1, tires do influence but not to a degree where you see miracles. It's more down to
how good your suspension set up is. And we are talking about 80mph+ swerving right? At that kind of speed,
your suspension determines if your car will going to abruptly swerve or it won't respond to your input. If we are talking about
20mph agility test, then tires will make a good impression as it sorely depends on tire traction/width of tires to turn better.
Great example is Lexus vehicles. My parents drive LS and at highway speeds, the steering is very lazy and it won't respond well to my inputs.
It's because their suspension is set up that way so passengers won't feel every input to steering wheel. Would ditch all season my parents have
and put Michelin pilot sport would see improvements?

3. wet/icy that I agree with you 100%

Again I'm not saying tires won't do jack, but people believe tires will make miracles. But it won't. It's far more effective to
spend $2000 on suspension to lower,stiffen up springs and shocks/control roll to handle better in every condition.
And change brake pads to better ones to see improved brake performance rather than tires.
Top of the line tires are way too pricey IMO. There are tires fraction of cost and perform just well.

I'm done with this thread

Techno79

I wouldn't have thought you were picking on me at all. We're just discussing and I'm expanding my knowledge. Yes you raise some very valid points, better brake pads would definitely make a bigger difference than tyres. I guess tyres, brake pads and other things like that are worth doing because getting good quality brands in those do not generally need to be declared to insurance companies. Changing suspension will probably make a big difference to performance but so will it to the insurance premium

Anyway, each to their own

uheenada

Dandle

Saying brake pads make a bigger difference to the car than tyres is a load of rubbish, they are very important but only while braking not for the rest of the time the car is driving and holding the road. The tyre is the only thing in contact with the ground while your driving, Its the only contact point when you brake the car it doesnt matter how good the pads are if the tyre has less grip you will take longer to stop. BMWs standard pads arent bad and arent prone to fade unless the car is tracked(the car is well over braked compared to Audis and Mercs), the suspension is setup to give a sporty driver orientated ride including good handling putting bad tyres on doesnt do the car any favours. At the end of the day budget tyres are budget for a reason, if they were as good as the best premium tyres and had the same development costs and rubber development they wouldn't be so budget.

Its up to the individual what they put on their car but as I said above its not a budget car why treat it like one.

uheenada

I really beg to differ. While tires are only contact patch to the roads, we are not talking about economy tires without ABS.
With today's tech, all the sensors detect how much traction is available to stop without skidding which makes what kind of tires less imortant.
Then can you kind enough to explain to me why 2003 Infiniti G35 coupe with summer tires(Michelin Pilot Sport) couldn't stop better
than 2003 Infiniti G35 sedan with same brakes, suspension but with all season tires(magazine test results I'm talking about)? Sedan did weight about 100lbs lighter. But
why can't summer tires overcome 100lbs deficit? Because tires are less important nowadays due to all the brake techs.

And you said holding the road? Unless it's at track, it's more important what road surface you are driving than what kind of tires you have.
I don't know about London, but here in US, roads are rubbish on major highways with all the bumpiness, patches etc that tires are hardly any factor to stop better.
You gota also remember that the only thing tires contact is the road and if the road conditions are rubbish, no matter what you'll get lousy results.

Premium always costs more due to brand images, marketing etc. People believe more expensive = better product.
What exactly are you calling budget tires? Anything less than Michelin, Bstone, Goodyear?
Or are you including Dunlops, Falkens, yokohama, etc? cuz those are about 1/3 less in price so it doesn't qualify as top of the line brands.
Have you tried so called buget tires? I did, a lot of them that I can't remember everything from my younger days.
There are brands that aren't premium but make very good quality tires out there.
Everyone is free to buy what they want, but conclude a budget tire is there for a reason, I disagree.

Dandle

Autocar's latest tyre test reports on budget tyres - and how they perform compared to a premium Continental. Unsurprisingly, they don't compare well. The test focuses on wet weather handling and tests five of the leading budget brands: GT Radial, Linglong, Nankang, Triangle and Wanli.

The magazine tested wet handling and braking, dry handling and braking and aquaplaning, plus a high-speed test at the Contidrom test centre in Hannover. Senior tester Jamie Corstorphine summed up with: ?We expected the bargain tyres in this test to fall short of the Continental, but we were not prepared for just how poorly some performed.?

The results are shocking. To get the full test results you'll need to buy autocar this month, but the results from the wet braking speak for themselves:

Continental: 31.7 metres
Nankang: 33.8 metres
GT Radial: 35.8 metres
Wanli, Triangle and Linglongs: 40.2 metres

The Linglong equipped VW Golf Autocar used for its tests was still doing 27.8mph at the point where it had stopped on the Continentals. Overall the Continentals easily won, scoring top marks in all but one test. A consistent performance earned the GT Radials second place, but a wet lap time 3.4sec adrift of the Continentals indicated just how far even it falls short.

The whole test was performed on the same Golf, on the same road conditions with the same brake pads. Now show me something from a reputable source that says tyres are unimportant.

UUronL

FYI - Car and Driver just did a "budget" tire test - using a 3 series. I think a lot of people will be shocked on this forum...

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/compar...omparison_tests

joshz

Thanks for the info. I'm also in the market for a set of tires. I think I'll go with the Hankook's which came in 2nd place among 9 tires tested.