What is OzBargain's tyre brand of choice?
I currently have Pirelli P Zero run flat tyres which are on the pricey side… but I don't want to want to comprimise on safety and want longetivity.
You get what you pay for - so what's the best bang for your buck when it comes to tyres?
The wheels on the bus etc etc
Pointless open-ended question. Depends on vehicle and purpose.
BFG KO2s for 4x4 offroading.
Continental SportContact for cruising in a saloon.
Neither suitable for an economy hatchback or EV.
Fair point, although brands must be important…
Every brand has decent and poor offerings for a range of uses and budgets. It depends.
pointless thread more open ended than Shyla Stylez
Maxxis Treps or Interco's Hcore weekends
Goodyear for normal touring
Kumho on the daily driver
Wintersuns for those with an extremely tight anus who dont care about wet driving
Haha love the references. Kudos.
Thanks for the Kumho suggestion. Kumho look to be really good value tyres. I know nothing about tyres, but will eventually be needing to buy new tires.
@Wystri Warrick: I'd highly recommend Kumho too - they've continuously increased quality year on year, over the past 15 years. Their mid to higher end tyres are excellent and if you buy them from a more competitive outlet (eg Tempe Tyres), the price is incredible.
@akyeeeahdude: Thanks for the recommendation of Tempe Tyres! I would've just gotten them at my local garage or Bob Jane :)
I like the Schwalbe marathon plus. Never had a flat and they wear well.
Yes. Schwalbe are good. I don’t mind Maxxis either.
All brands you've noted there have very good tyres (in terms of a middle ground between good performance and decent treadlife) but all those brands also have poor tyres in terms of performance as well - even Continental.
After 15+ years of being interested in tyres and scouring reviews before committing to the purchase of a certain mode - my best advice is still to the brands you've noted above (being mindful to avoid the Chinese brands as they generally have quite poor performance but are very cheap) and pay a half decent amount for a model of interest. I say that as I recently picked up a set of Falken Azenis FK510 tyres - they won the Wheels Tyre Test 2018 (https://www.whichcar.com.au/features/2018-wheels-tyre-test-w…), even beating the Continental Premiumcontact 6 yet the FK510 came 7th out of 9 tyres tested in this review (https://www.tyrereviews.com/Article/2021-UUHP-Summer-Tyre-Te…). A number of tyres that beat it I've previously ruled out as they've been more low to mid-range in some reviews/tests. Go figure.
Continental Premiumcontact 6 tyres often come first or second in tyre tests of many reviews yet it came 6th of out 10 tyres tested in this review (https://www.tyrereviews.com/Article/2021-Auto-Express-Summer…). There is some truth in some tyres being slightly better suited for certain models of car but it's marginal and at the end of the day, a lot of these tyre tests are subjective but also prone to natural variations in the driver's test runs on a particular review.
Anyway - I'd recommend the Continental Premiumcontact 6. After 15 000km, it grips very well in the wet and dry as expected but tyre life is also quite good without any significant wear appearing in terms of tread depth. I've had a set of Continental Sportcontact 5 tyres on the same car before but after not even 20 000km, they needed to be replaced. Performance was great but I'm not a fan of replacing high priced tyres often. I'll be putting the Falken FK510 tyres on my other car shortly so I hope they'll live up to the Wheels Tyre Test.
My current Michelin’s are made in China, but perform just as well as French and German made ones I’ve had before. Quiet, well balanced, low wear, good in the wet. Lots of quite good stuff now made in China.
If there's one brand that I'm found to be quiet under-rated it's Hankook.
Offers almost as great quality as the bigger brand stuff, but usually more affordable if your local stocks them.
Some of the no-name Chinese brands are also good and very cheap. Really depends on your budget and requirements. I've even went the route of buying used/refurbished tyres before. Depends on how good you are at inspecting and knowing about this stuff (or have someone reliable).
I don't usually condone compromising on tyres or safety features, but it must be emphasised that there is a real point of diminishing returns. So make your own choices. Don't look at it from the logo, but the product itself.
This is so incredibly dependent on what you’re using the for. Daily driver? 4wd? Racing? Street racer rice boy?
I just picked up a set of the pirelli scorpion at plus from the latest Black Friday sale. 265/65/r17 x 4, fitted and balanced on a prado for $630 (thank you ozbargain). They seem pretty good so far (very little km), especially compared to the AT20 Dunlop that come standard. I was tossing up between the listed BFG K02 or the falken wildpeak but couldn’t pass up such a great deal.
Throwing back to the boy racer days, I couldn’t go passed the Yokohama advan AD08. My goodness what a great tyre.
I think most (definitely not all) of the manufactures nail it at one point. Do your research. Find the right tyre for your situation. Be conscious that sometimes price plays a bigger role than stated (all of my tight arses give me a thumbs up).
Good luck and happy hunting
I used to have Pirelli runflats, couldn't get the specific type anymore so switched to Continental upon tyre guy's recommendations - I wouldn't say they're the best bang for buck but they drive smoother & there's less jarring like runflats are renowned for.
What's your car?
What's your budget?
What do you deem to be ok km life?
Do you have a tyre pressure monitoring system?
IMO - runflats are not a great tyre to drive on. Hard, very hard, sidewalls. Expensive.
Atomic
Depends on the car. For performance vehicles Michelin Pilot Sport 4S are hands down the best thing I have ever experienced in a tyre. Can definitely notice an improvement over other performance tyres like Pirelli P0 or P1.
Michelin PS4S, but that'd be overkill for most cars.
Depends on application and usage!
Generally speaking…
Car - Dunlop, Michelin, Falkin, Conti's.
Push bike - Conti's, Michelin.
Motorbike - Michelin, Dunlop, Pirelli.
Sumitomo. Because it is not on the list.
Neh, I am talking about something like an actual Sumitomo branded tire. Had a set of htr z some years ago and they were good value.
For what it's worth, these are the go-to tyres for my Toyota GT86:
https://www.tyrereviews.com/Tyre/Michelin/Pilot-Sport-4.htm
Good wet & dry grip for a tyre in that price bracket & quieter than I expected
And these are what I put on my wife's Hyundai Elantra:
https://www.tyrereviews.com/Tyre/Michelin/Primacy-4.htm
Not quite as much grip as the Pilot Sports, but cheaper and longer lasting
Bridgestone Potenza RE003 are currently on a buy 3 get one free promotion and represent good value for most cars offering sporting performance (unless you require ultra high performance tyres).
I just bought my third set in a row as they are good buying in a 235/45/17.
Do not recommend Goodyear Optilife. Absolute garbage.
Polls like this seem to assume that people change tyres so often they have to have a favourite. I go several years between getting new tyres for the car, and then it’s about value for money (might be discounted). I only have favourite of things I buy regularly, like monthly or more.
You missed Cooper from the poll.
I usually get Pirelli PZeros but got talked into Pirelli Cinturato P1's on my WRX. I'm not happy with them. They grip ok but they have started to howl too loud, to the degree I thought maybe something was wrong with the car and I had it checked. Unfortunately there is still plenty of tread so I'm a fair way off replacing them. Looks like I might have to consider Michelin PS4s next time.
Whatever is the cheapest will be okay for a old daily beater. I ordered Winrun 380's a few months ago (very cheap compared to branded tyres) and they been decent till now. Ofcourse need to see there condition may be like 3-4 years later.
But i definitely Do not recommend Rapid
If only buying branded tyres, I'd probably go with the cheapest one out of Continental, Bridgestone, Goodyear, Yokohama, Kumho, Hankook,
this assumes people hold onto cars for that long …
last time i bought tyres for a car were pirelli scorpions on my landrover freelander, the head gasket blew about 3 months later … oh wait, i had an old LR discovery put a couple of 2nd hand tyres on it (40$ each fitted) - but that was because the car was dirt cheap (paid 500$, sold 1800$ 12 months later)
Get a car with descent tyres, swap car before tyres need replacing (current 2012 vw polo, will put 10,000kms on it over 24 months, then sell it and upgrade)
Tyres can easily be a 1,000$ consumable, so if you can offload a car before that expense, you're saving a lot :)
this assumes people hold onto cars for that long …
Wow. You think most people turn over a car before it needs new tyres? I’m of the other opinion, people will generally or a couple of sets of tyre on their car before selling it - but it’s still not often enough to have a favourite.
well, until i can afford to buy new, i find buying and selling cars to be quite a lucrative little income stream …
bought a falcon for 1,500, sold it for 2400
bought an ignis for 1,000, sold it for 800 (it took some damage)
bought a micra for 2,500, sold it for 6,000
bought a discovery for 500, sold it for 1,800
that's in the last 2 years … buy a car, drive it for a while, tinker with things, clean it up, sell it on
Fairly sure you’re not the average ozbargainer then!
I don't think you can decide on brand alone.
I mean for example I've run a few sets of Michelin Pilot Sports (three sets of the PS3s on a previous car, and now I'm running the PS4) on my sedans, but there's no Michelin tyres that I'd run on my 4WD. Similarly, I'm now running a set of Pirellis on my 4WD (All Terrain Plus - I had my eye on them before the Mycar deal), but I probably wouldn't rush out to buy a set of their performance tyres over the Pilot Sports for my sedan.
You are far better to decide what type of tyre you want - namely, will a 'touring' tyre suffice, or do you want a 'performance' tyre - then look at reviews from there, and compare what deals are around.
As a further example, part of the reason why I've gone through so many sets of Pilot Sports is that they're barely any more expensive than some of their rivals. I'd seriously considered Kumho KU39s, Falken FK510s, etc for my sedans but the Pilot Sports are usually only $10-20 more per tyre. Whereas if the Bridgestone 4-for-3 on the RE003s was on, I'd probably make do with them.
Whatever brand the bus company uses.