Cheap vs premium tyre comparison: danger on the road!

The difference in a wet braking test at 80 km/h between a car fitted with cheap tyres and one with quality tyres can be as much as 18 metres. But there are more reasons to avoid low-cost tyres. Here they are.

When it comes to maintaining our car, we sometimes save money where we shouldn’t. And in the case of tyres, a key element for safety, this is usually due to lack of knowledge. Fitting cheap tyres can end up costing us dearly, as demonstrated by an interesting comparison carried out by RACE.

For the test, two vehicles were used: one fitted with Goodyear tyres, specifically from the EfficientGrip range, and another fitted with low-cost tyres from a brand that is not among the premium ones. And not the worst ones, if we take the tyre label into account; there are even cheaper options with a poorer rating.

The test shows that cheap tyres offer less safety when it comes to assessing precision or braking capacity, that their performance drops dramatically as they wear, and that consumption is higher. You can watch the full test in the following video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FohcY50NMm0&feature=youtu.be

Cheap tyres: lower safety

Try to picture it: 18 metres. Can’t get your head around it? Then line up four compact cars, roughly the size of a Volkswagen Golf for example, one behind the other. Those are the extra metres a car fitted with cheap or “low-cost” tyres needs to come to a complete stop when braking on wet roads from 80 km/h, compared with the same car fitted with quality tyres from a premium brand.

Now imagine that you are the one behind the wheel of the car fitted with cheap tyres. And you’re not on a track, you’re driving on an open road in traffic… and you have to perform an emergency stop. You don’t even need the 18-metre difference that can exist between a tyre rated A and one rated G on the label. Four extra metres can be decisive in avoiding a collision or a rear-end accident.

That’s when talking about dry braking, which is what the tyre label covers, the tool available to the user when comparing new tyres. But the test carried out by RACE – and what experience tells those of us who work in this field, after many kilometres driven – is that, although the difference is smaller than on wet roads, cheap tyres also show lower precision and less grip on dry surfaces. This is due not only to the difference in compounds used, but also to the fact that a premium-brand tyre uses a stiffer carcass and its construction is more complex.

Between a tyre rated A and one rated G on the label there can be up to 18 metres of difference in a wet braking test at 80 km/h

In other words, although they may appear to be the same, behind a “premium” tyre there is R&D and technology. And that shows in practice.

Cheap tyres: higher consumption

Another element covered by the tyre label, and which the RACE test confirms in practice, is consumption. As you may have seen in the video, for this test a 300 km route was driven twice, covering real traffic situations on all kinds of roads.

Between the two tyres used, the premium one rated A for energy efficiency and the “low-cost” one rated B, the measurement shows a difference of 0.5 l/100 km. That may seem little at first, but think about it more carefully.

Choosing tyres rated A for energy efficiency can mean savings of 300 euros in fuel over the life of the tyres.

This means, quite simply, that the saving from buying cheap tyres will cost you a hole in your pocket of about 5 cents per kilometre driven. No, don’t do the sums, I’ll tell you: if you drive just 10,000 km a year, with cheap tyres you will have needed 50 euros more in fuel. Multiply that by 4 if we estimate an average lifespan of 40,000 km. And that’s comparing two tyres rated A and E; the difference is even greater if we go to the extremes.

Cheap tyres: greater loss of performance with wear

We come to a very tricky aspect: durability and wear. And here we should not focus on durability in terms of the saving a cheap tyre may represent compared with an expensive one. Premium brands invest heavily in tests certified by independent bodies, which can give an idea of how long their tyres last.

Here we come to an important factor, since the label gives us no indication of how performance changes as the tyre wears. Keep in mind that the label measurements are made with new tyres, and once you fit them they are no longer new. And I can assure you that the differences shown on the label between two new tyres, especially in terms of braking, increase as the tyre wears down. Above all when we compare a quality tyre with a cheap one.

The test carried out by RACE is also significant in this respect. Given the demands of driving on track, 450 kilometres are enough to show that, halfway through the test, the degradation suffered by a cheap tyre compared with a quality one leads to a loss of grip and precision that ends up compromising safety.

More about your tyres

Choosing tyres from leading brands is therefore the best way to invest in safety. For you, and for the other road users. And to do so, checking the tyre label, which is mandatory for tyres manufactured from 1 July 2012, is essential. Although it should not be the only criterion.

It must be kept in mind that, unfortunately, many tyres imported from Asian countries – mainly Chinese tyres – continue to reach our market without going through the quality controls necessary to verify that their labelling is reliable and that their performance really matches what the label says.

Check your tyre pressures once a month, and whenever you are about to make a journey

Finally, a fact followed by a recommendation. In 2017, more than 12 per cent of the roadside assistance call-outs carried out by RACE were related to tyre problems. Many of these could be avoided simply by checking the pressures and their condition – even if it is just a quick visual inspection – once a month, and whenever you are about to undertake a long journey.

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