That disparity is crazy. Even on our A6 the tyres were sub £100. The growth in tyre size is totally unnecessary.

No NO NOOOO

Read all the roadtests by spotty 26 year olds driving like nitters. I mean nutters.. or idiots. A bling wide tyre saves 0.0000001 second going round corners and "fills the wheelarches better".. (I quote from a muppet tester)

The fact that they costs more to fit, ruin the ride, ruin fuel consumption (See Prius T3 on 15 inch wheels vs T4 on 17 inch wheels - 3 mpg) and are more susceptible to rim and sidewall damage is irrelevant.

They make the tire makers more money in replacements.

Anyone as a private motorist who buys a new (to them) car without checking service costs and tyre costs is naive..

Edited by madf on 25/01/2012 at 09:59

On motoring forums, people are often scathing of those who fit cheaper, far-eastern brand tyres - "don't skimp on tyres, they're your only contact with the road". That's perfectly true, but tyres seem to be getting ridiculous these days. In 1985, yer Astra 1.3 could nevertheless top 100mph and would grip pretty strongly on a corner, yet came with 155/70x13s, which was a pretty standard size across that class of car. In 1995 a 208hp Impreza Turbo wore 205 or 215 (?) width tyres on 15" wheels. Nowadays you'll get something wider, lower profile, and bigger diameter, on something like an Astra 1.6!

How on earth were we not all falling off the road at every corner in 1985?!

When you see the cost of replacing a pair of Michelins of this size, for a bread-and-butter car, it's no wonder a private motorist frequently opts for some Nangkangs instead. And if you don't drive at ten-tenths ALL the time, they're probably perfectly adequate.

But unfortunately, when exploring the envelope, with more and more electric PAS, rather than being able to drive by feeling what the tyres are doing, it seems we will just become reliant on blind trust in the mechanical grip of the tyres. I think this is a contributory factor to the number of accidents experienced by the Playstation generation.

This is why you see high spec, luxury cars sitting in supermarket carparks with bald LingLong or Nankang tyres on them.

Parked beside a 4.4V8 X5 the other day outside Tesco. Rear tyres (factory fit Michelins) to the cords, fronts were bald Sunnys. Also seen an Insignia VXR (300hp!) with some cheap-ass Rotalla tyres wrapped around it's 20" rims.

I think I'd rather be on my 16" Hankooks on a wet motorway or a bumpy country road...

Yes you see more and more cars and 4x4`s with nearly bald tyres,but most people that buy these motors are tooo tight to buy them and plead ignorance if pulled by the law(see it on sky often enough) if they can afford a car like that they should know the maintenance costs as well