No cheapo tires on my vehicles. But when I was growing up and broke, I bought all kinds of mismatched used tires, just to keep my hooptie rolling.
Seeing a theme premium oil cheap tires
- Thread starter mco30mco
- Start date
edyvw
$50 site donor 2025
Can anyone answer here when tires become too expensive to justify minimizing death? Is is $600 for a set? $700? Like $600 is OK, but $700? Hmmm, maybe I should just increase probability of accident by adding 50ft to stopping distance in wet.
My dad had an accident where the reason he did not end up in river were four Good Year Ultra Grip 6+ tires. They were best thing after sliced bread in Europe at that time.the rock slid from a hill and hit his right/passanger side and obliterated suspension in front wheel, cutting strut like a razor. He lost brakes of course or ability to steer.
The only reason car did not go into river were tires. They three functional wheels stayed straight although they left black marks as tires were obviously struggling to stay on course.
Another instance is when I hit kid on the bike some 25yrs ago. I was driving on this small road with bunch of houses on the side. Kid just jumped on the road and I pressed brakes obviously as hard as possible. However I had set of Hankook’s that were new a ok, but at this point ready for replacement and I had Michelins on order. In the end I managed to hit him in the rear tire throwin him on a pile of sand. He just had few bruises. Me on other hand needed two years to emotionally recover from that.
After that, I might try some tires, but choice in 99% of cases end up with: Michelin, Bridgestone, Continental and Pirelli (I lost confidence in GY here in the US).
Edit: just to add, my vehicle stopped maybe 10ft after hitting bike. So, think about that. For example, braking distance between Continental Terrain Contact and BFG Trail Terrain is more than 40ft in wet.
My dad had an accident where the reason he did not end up in river were four Good Year Ultra Grip 6+ tires. They were best thing after sliced bread in Europe at that time.the rock slid from a hill and hit his right/passanger side and obliterated suspension in front wheel, cutting strut like a razor. He lost brakes of course or ability to steer.
The only reason car did not go into river were tires. They three functional wheels stayed straight although they left black marks as tires were obviously struggling to stay on course.
Another instance is when I hit kid on the bike some 25yrs ago. I was driving on this small road with bunch of houses on the side. Kid just jumped on the road and I pressed brakes obviously as hard as possible. However I had set of Hankook’s that were new a ok, but at this point ready for replacement and I had Michelins on order. In the end I managed to hit him in the rear tire throwin him on a pile of sand. He just had few bruises. Me on other hand needed two years to emotionally recover from that.
After that, I might try some tires, but choice in 99% of cases end up with: Michelin, Bridgestone, Continental and Pirelli (I lost confidence in GY here in the US).
Edit: just to add, my vehicle stopped maybe 10ft after hitting bike. So, think about that. For example, braking distance between Continental Terrain Contact and BFG Trail Terrain is more than 40ft in wet.
Last edited:
This is why I think stopping distance is the most important performance metric for the average driver. It's very unlikely that they will hit the ceiling on other metrics in their typical commute, but stopping distance can literally be life or death
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=336
This
Good value tires. Seems like Conti and Yoka does the job for the Hondas over the years
edyvw
$50 site donor 2025
I would say it is bit more complicated than that. And that is performance retention!
There are numerous tires that perform well when new, ie. tests, just to fall off the “performance cliff” after 10,000mls.
In 2012 I bought VW CC used, 22k mls. Got brand new four Kumho Ecsta LX tires on it. Still paint lines on thread. Excellent performance first 5k. Then the n wet I started to experience issues with handling and braking, but was like: ok, maybe something is up with surface etc. all excuses. By 10k, praying worked better than stepping on brake in wet. At14k 3 tires could not be balanced anymore and wet performance was absolutely dangerous.
Replaced them with Michelin PSS, and it is like I bought new car. Besides those tires defying laws of physics in dry or wet, they had exceptional performance in wet at 3/32 when I traded vehicle.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
I don't think you've spent enough time in either the PCMO or tire section, lol 
There are lots of folks rolling on cheap tires and running cheap oil and lots using expensive oil and expensive tires.
There are lots of folks rolling on cheap tires and running cheap oil and lots using expensive oil and expensive tires.
I do well enough on oil buying it as a commodity. I liked the rebates and sales section until recently when pricing in the subject line inexplicably became gauche.
Value in tires is more challenging, therefore more interesting to talk about. My most recent purchases have been several sets of various Starfires, some Kumho KU27s (WM exclusive), and a set of Armstrong Blu-Tracs, not yet mounted. The Armstrongs have the 130 MPH rating and therefore a "cap ply." They also have a 85k mileage warranty vs the more typical 40-50k. They're priced like all the cheap junk but I'm hoping to have achieved better value.
Interestingly, and this is a bit of self-introspection, I've never done a UOA, and dump my oil at 5-6k based on the tired trope of its being "cheap insurance." But since my tire wear is visible, I can run them down to an appropriate end, typcially 4/32" of tread.
Value in tires is more challenging, therefore more interesting to talk about. My most recent purchases have been several sets of various Starfires, some Kumho KU27s (WM exclusive), and a set of Armstrong Blu-Tracs, not yet mounted. The Armstrongs have the 130 MPH rating and therefore a "cap ply." They also have a 85k mileage warranty vs the more typical 40-50k. They're priced like all the cheap junk but I'm hoping to have achieved better value.
Interestingly, and this is a bit of self-introspection, I've never done a UOA, and dump my oil at 5-6k based on the tired trope of its being "cheap insurance." But since my tire wear is visible, I can run them down to an appropriate end, typcially 4/32" of tread.
Similar threads
