Tire question: buy pricier or more often?

It isn't quite that straightforward a tradeoff as price vs. treadwear. Tires operate in a rather more complex parameter space than most consumer goods. The one thing I can say for sure is that buying really cheap tires is likely to be a poor bargain in the long run, unless your wear bars are on the pavement and money is so tight that you can't afford better.

I've found that it's worthwhile to pay a bit extra for a better tire if you can. Just what that is, depends on your car and weather and driving style. Quite often a *lot* of tire parameters can be simultaneously improved by throwing money at the problem.

Best of luck,

--Joe

It's more complex than that. Tires that are extremely durable tend to have poorer road grip. Tires with better road grip tend to have shorter lifespans.

Not a valid analogy.

What do you drive, where, how, and in what conditions?

I like softer touring tires that are quieter but less long lasting. Would that make it a bad tire? Not to me, that's what I like baby.

But if money if no object, I wouldn't want to keep ANYTHING for 10 years, I'd be bored of it before then. Tires.... who cares, they are just 4 black blob thingys. Spend money on cool wheels.

Price has little to do with quality - no matter what the product. I always buy cheap. The four tires i have on my car right now combined cost $150 installed. That even includes the damn charge to GIVE them my old tires.

Depends on whether you value your life and the life of others.

Take that LBMHBF guy. He howls and whines every day about others driving at a reasonable pace but claims to drive an old clunker with clapped out brakes and horrid cheap tires and thus, if this was true, would risk more people's lives than someone, who speeds within reason but drives a good car with good brakes and good tires. Of course he is just a little troll, who can't afford a car, but you get the idea.

Btw, cheaper tires don't necessarily wear faster, but they usually grip much worse, and please don't insult our intelligence by claiming that you don't need good grip.

I prefer better (more expensive) tires, which wear faster, but give me the edge in dangerous situations. And where this LBMHBF critter would plow into the other car with his imaginary shrieking cheapo tires and imaginary iron grinding on iron because of missing brake pads, I can comfortably stop and watch him get out of his imaginary wrecked clunker crying the blues about how he can't afford chewing tobacco for a month, because he has to replace his $150 wreck.

Chris

: It isn't quite that straightforward a tradeoff as price vs. treadwear. : Tires operate in a rather more complex parameter space than most : consumer goods.

I realize there are different parameters but within a type and brand, I'd think a tire rated for 80,000 miles would cost more than one rated for 40,000 miles, is that not so?

Actually, not necessarily true. Many very high performance tires do not have particularly good tread ratings. Generally the higher the speed rating (tires are have speed ratings such as S, H, V, etc) the less the tread life. That is because a tires ability to run at higher speeds depends partly on using a softer tread compound that wears faster. This is very evident in motor sports racing, where a very soft, but very high performance tire will need to be changed several times during a 500 mile race.

Some people think that an S speed rated tire is sufficient because they will never exceed the 112 mph maximum speed rating for an S rated tire. However, an H, or V rated tire will almost always have superior handling, breaking, etc than a S or T rated tire (all other things being equal).

However, there are some newer tread compounds that provide a better balance between performance and tread life, but they are more costly than conventional tread compounds. But even these newer compounds will usually not last 80,000 miles in a high performance V rated tire.

What IS true is that paying a lot of money for something doesen't guarentee good quality - you still have to do you research.

BUT, it is definitely guarenteed that low price buys you low quality for every honestly gotten product.

Without the size you bought such a statement is meaningless.

Ted

I've kept two Corollas 10+ years and prefer to put better tires on them. Every time I try cheap tires I find problems.

Leonard

cost more than one rated for 40,000 miles, is that not so?

all things equal, of course. But do they cost more per x miles driven?

I've always gone by the theory that, in the long run, the cheapest tire you can buy is the most expensive. Cheapo tires are cheapo tires, if you wanna drive around on "made in taiwan" crap, thats your business. I prefer to buy the good stuff & drive safely for a long time with no broken belts or $hitty sidewalls or worn shoulders that you see on bargain stuff. Plus it's your tires, for petes sake, why comprimise here. Your wife & kids deserve the piece of mind & safety that comes with a good set of rubber.

Only a fool buys cheap (and I am not necessarily limiting the term 'cheap' to monetary price) tires.

"Plus it's your tires, for petes sake, why comprimise here. Your wife & kids deserve the piece of mind & safety that comes with a good set of rubber. "

when I hear that time tested classic sales line regurgitated by a customer I always think "what a great salemen this guy has, I wish I could hire him!"

I copied this from 2004. Today, computer designed tread patterns (tiny variations around the circumference to minimize noise) can give quality and durability at lower cost, if the casing is well made. Highly advertised name brands are going to cost more due to marketing expenses not necessarily related to tire quality. I've seen comments where people preferred Yokohama to Michelin, and I was disappointed with Pirelli. The only way you're really going to know is to try them for yourself over time. One thing I always like to do is physically examine and inspect the unmounted new tire before deciding. That way you can see and feel the weight, flexibility and general quality of construction inside and out. ===================Prior comments from others: As a former manager of a performance auto service center, . . . A good bit of the problem we had with radial and other tire faults were the brand of tires themselves. Of the major tire brands, we had many problems with Firestones, Pirellis, and Goodyear - they just always seemed to have problems with them, no matter what price tire we had. I inherited a 78 Caddy with Goodyear

tires, and two tires blew out on me because of radial belts flaws which

caused the outer rubber to separate from the belts and go out-of-round.

We never had any problems with customers who came in with tires (sold and/or installed by us or not) by Michelin, BF Goodrich, Dunlop, Yokohama, secondary brands like Hankooks and the former Western Auto store-brand tires and Sears store-brands (which, except for the Sears tires made by

Goodyear I have run on various personal family cars) which I've heard of no problems with any of those brands. However, I would not recommend the NTB stores for any work even though they are owned by Sears ========================These comments don't reflect newer tire design, but draw your own conclusions. Like I said, I like the Yokohamas overall, seem to be a very well constructed tire at excellent pricing, putting their money into the product instead of spending it to create name recognition through expensive advertising. As usual on these groups, just my opinon.

Agreed. Even the cheapest mass-market tire you can buy today is generally better than what was available even just five years ago.

Actually - how hard a rubber compound is doesn't necessarily affect how it wears. I was at a Firestone dealer getting an alignment and looked at their Indy car tire display. They had a real used sprint car tire and a new one. Those suckers were hard as a rock. I'm told they have to warm up and soften for optimum grip.

Low wearing summer car tires meant for high performance driving are often harder. I know it sounds counterintuitive. A lot of summer tires will get way too hard even in dry cold weather conditions to be safe. During summer conditions, a harder rubber compound (within reason) will grip/handle better, and won't necesaarily last either.

Better than the cheapest tyre from 5 years ago. But htere are some very, borderline dangerous tyres out there.

Actually, higher speed rated tires are usually HARDER to withstand the heat generated by sustained high speeds. Race tires are a totally different breed... my drag radials aren't speed rated at all and have a treadwear rating of ZERO and they're technially street legal... but I don't bother because they're so "squishy" I don't feel comfortable driving the car on the street... but they have a ton more grip once heated up versus any regular street tire.

Oh, but the hi-perf tires have short tread blocks for less squirm, so they still don't last 40,000 miles ... mine only made it 20,000 miles...

All of which means you can't answer the OP in absolutes. Tires are an absolute bear to comparison shop... because it's all about the tradeoff... dry traction, wet traction, tread life, even noise and ease of balancing from brand to brand....

All I'll say is this: I've decided that BF Goodrich tires for me are the way to go for my good cars. It's worth the extra $20 per tire.

Ray

true but I would guess that some of "borderline dangerous tyres out there" are those installed highly advertised $125 baby saver tires that have 2% tread left on them because the owner is postponing for as long as he can the $600+ bill that he will faced for a new set of balanced/aligned baby savers tires