Its all 99% marketing bollocks under general driving conditions - Im with Egg.

Ive had a similar situation where a kid ran out from between two cars on a 30, applied a text-book emergency stop, pulled up a foot or so from breaking both her legs. If you can drive properly your tyres are going to be well down the list of things that make a difference IMO.

And if youre pushing hard enough to care about the tyres, you shouldnt be on the road doing it.

Quote from: Maldonado

Quote from: Eggtastico

Quote from: Maldonado

Quote from: Eggtasticoits a corsa.. why waste money on good tyres?

Youre incredibly unhelpful, arent you? As Jaimz says, theyre all thats keeping the car in touch with the road. If spending a little extra money on tyres would give even a small percentage chance of avoiding an accident then its worth it.

Speaking from experience when some old woman stepped out in front of me (normal queue of traffic doing 30 in a 30) some time after I had put Eagle F1s on my Focus, I stopped literally inches away from her. If I had non-premium tyres on, she would have been knocked down without question.

 

your drive a corsa. a 1.4 PoS, not as if your doing 80mph up & down the motorways 6 hours a day.

Thats entirely irrelevant, as my example shows.

And in actual fact its my girlfriend who drives the car, increasing my desire for safety.

I would have to agree with that, control is important and can save lives, put good tyres on, but not excessively expensive ones.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/total_tyre_guide/212643/braking.html

Wot Egg sai though, its only a 1.4 Corsa.

I had Kuhmo Ecstas on my old Ka, and that stuck to the road like billy-o.

FWIW

I drive 35k a year comany car, I have driven merc, saabs, volvos, fords, etc.
The only time ive had "performance" tyres is when Ive had tyre damage on vauxhalls.. they cost £200 a tyre.

I have driven these cars well below the legal spec for tyres & never ever had a problem stopping (Believe me, travelling this many miles
you push every mile you can)



on your joe average run of the mill car, just get plain tyres, there is no benefit. The worst tyres Ive ever had was the expensive ones....
nowhere near as "giving" as the price suggests & the "stock tyres" are a much better fit& drive for the car.

If all your doing is driving a 40mile round trip to work, then save your cash.

Not listed in those tests, but the NCT5s on the Veccy made it unstable.  Horrible things, and £25 more per tyre than the Carat Progresso that article does review.  If I dropped to 3rd and floored it in the wet the front wheels used to light up.  The Fuldas arent the greatest, and they can squeal a bit when you boot it form a standing start, but since then I put them on Ive had some confidence in the car.  The NCT5s resulted in me sliding through a junction in heavy rain because wanker ignore his stop line.  I slammed on the breaks and the car kept going despite the ABS working overtime.  

Im kinda in the middle on this one. I appreciate that good tyres do make a difference but I dont drive an especially fast car (its a derv) so I dont think theres much point in spending £60-70 a corner. Last time i bought some tyres they were toyo proxes, i thought that theyd be better than the ones i had on, which were klebers, who id not heard off so i instantly thought they werent as good as a more well known tyre. Anyway turned out my existing tyres were much better than the toyos, at least in the wet anyway. I had a little hiccup on a soaking wet roundabout where the fronts gripped fine (klebers) and the rears (toyos) just went and I ended up 180 degrees in the middle of the roundabout.

In summing up, branded names arent always the best option, however just getting the cheapest tyres you can find is definitely not the best option either!

I think that its a little naive to say that premium tyres will have no benefit on a standard car, but I dont think Ill be bothering with Eagle F1 price level. Ill see what Vauxhall would fit as standard, and see if its worth me sourcing my own / alternate brand.

Id be interested to hear what you decide on in the end.

Quote from: Clockd 0NeId be interested to hear what you decide on in the end.

I found out that the car has a 20k service interval, not the 12k that I was expecting, so the purchase is temporarily put off whilst I pay some overdue bills. Ill let you all know though...

I dont get it- do they actually need changed? Are they at the limit ?

Quote from: MarkI dont get it- do they actually need changed? Are they at the limit ?

The two rears are approaching the limit, one of the fronts has a (very) slow puncture so Im gonna do all four at once.