Walking to the post office this morning I noticed a very smart Saab 9-3 convertible shod with Wanlis. This made me examine the tyres on other newish "prestige" cars en route. In the 1/4 mile journey I saw a Civic R on Achilles, an MB E class on Federals and a very recent C class on Lassa. Why?
I recently replaced the tyres on my wifes Golf and the difference in cost between Bridgestones and ditch finders was about 15 pounds per tyre. So doing the complicated maths involved I worked out that it cost me about 20 pounds/annum extra to have decent tyres.
Any thoughts or explanations on why one would buy an expensive car, spend time or money on keeping it very shiny and scrimp where safety is concerned.
alfalfa
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I must confess to fitting some Wanlis when I was a bit strapped for cash. An excellent economy measure, as I dared not exceed 40mph. Truly wretched things.
"Achilles" tyres - what a wonderfully-ironic name! For the down-at-heel, no doubt :-)
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Presumably not everyone realises that the quality/performance of tyres can vary immensely from one brand to another.
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Fur coat no knickers kind of owner?
Steve.
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Of course I don't know if this is the case in any of the examples above but I do remember when a friend of mine had a company car, his fleet manager would only allow the cheapest available replacement tyres to be fitted. Maybe it's a tight wad boss scenario.....
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I see this quite a lot also. Either the owners don't care and take what they're given/sold or they're running the car on a budget I guess.
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"Fur coat no knickers kind of owner?"
I only knew one girl like that and she was anything but cheap...
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Half the people who buy tyres are probably female, and they in my experience couldn't care less what tyres they have.
As for shoes though, the roles are reversed.
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most people know that tyres are black round and should be kicked at least once a year
so its pretty easy to talk them down from a michelin at £90 to this wonderful kamaskasy at only £80.01
customer saves £9.99
retailer makes £55
luvly
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I think glowplug and bell boy have provided the best explanations.
alfalfa
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A thing that does bother me is using the correct speed rating tyre !! It is of course accepted that the speed rating on a given car is way over the speed that it will travel but my point is what attitude would a insurance company take if they wanted not to pay a claim and that the speed rating on the tyre was not as the original equipment !!
I sure I am not the only one to remember Cross Ply tyres and radial tyres and remoulds which were so bad they would get a bulge on the side walls and have to be replaced
Edited by cuthbert on 26/06/2009 at 17:11
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But would a Y-rated Wanli be any better than an H-rated Michelin?
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Perhaps these cars are just owned by poseurs who never get out of the town they live in?
I bet a lot of expensive cars - and fast bikes, for that matter - have never been out onto an open road........
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Even more amusing when the car is shod with a £1000 set of wheels and 40 quid a corner tyres around them.
Following Humph's comment about fleet manager's, i've heard that being confirmed to tyre companies querying the fitment of budget brands, wonder if they give those decisions a second thought when the accident reports come in?
Having said all that some lesser known brands are well respected and offer equivalent performance to the established names.
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Odd, as when my wife was driving her shed of a car (before we scrapped it) we got the most expensive tyres we could find - directional and they even had that funky big groove down the middle. The wet-weather performance was transformed from terrible to not too bad.
I don't understand some people and tyres.
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I wonder if when looking at the tyres fitted to these cars, the o/p thought to check not the brands but perhaps the tread depths/general condition of the tyres. I admit I am not a fan of cheap brands. However give me a well shod and well maintained Linglong over a scuffed under-inflated balding Bridgestone anyday.
There is of course an even greater danger out there that may not have been spotted as it could well have been lurking in premium brand guise. I am of course refering to the evil that is the "part worn"!!!!
Edited by craneboy on 26/06/2009 at 23:25
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I have to admit that I only looked at the brands; there is only so much poking around parked cars one can do without arousing suspicion. I take your point about the general condition of tyres being relevant and obviously there is no way of determining the "part worn". Then again when a used car is purchased the tyres are always part worn.
My point was that while I can understand a budget approach to tyres on a budget car it seems to make no sense to purchase an expensive car and use cheap tyres.
alfalfa
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"The Motor Vehicle Tyres (Safety) Regulations 1994, as amended, set out minimum safety standards for the supply of part-worn tyres. Under the Regulations, it is illegal to supply any part-worn tyre that is capable of being fitted to a motor vehicle or trailer unless certain conditions are met regarding specific markings and the general condition of the tyre.
Most importantly all types of part worn tyre must be marked ?part worn? in upper case letters at least 4mm high. Any repairs to tyres must comply with BS AU 159f:1997. It is illegal to have unsafe tyres in possession for sale."
For everything else, there is ebay........
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..replaced the tyres on my wifes Golf and the difference in cost between Bridgestones and ditch finders was about 15 pounds per tyre...
So come on, alfalfa, what did you spend the extra sixty quid on? :)
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More repairs to his Alfa? (sorry, couldn't resist it)
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the next time you have a tyre/tyres changed...have a look at the garage's discarded pile. You'll be amazed at how many Dunlop Kojak's there are in there...or even worse the ones with the canvas or metal showing
...and people were driving around on them!
I get fidgety if they're down to 2.5mm...imagine what a totally bald one must be like on a wet road
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tinyurl.com/prymnk
This means that very quickly, we'll be seeing a shortage of certain car tyres, thus driving up the price of them. It's a win win situation, for the manufacturers , something akin to the car makers who having shut down for months, are now refusing to offer any discounts because models are in short supply.
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tyre prices have been unstable for a year now mr x
they are bought from abroad in containers mostly and my wholesaler doesnt know the spot price until they arive in GB
the situation is so bad he has stopped sending out price lists which makes comparison much more difficult
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more repairs to his Alfa?
Sorry to disappoint but the money went on the Bridgestones. No longer have an Alfa but in six years of ownership of an Alfasud and then a 147 neither needed money spent on repairs.
alfalfa
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