Cheapo Tires

[Nick1994]

When the Camry is due for tires I've thought about these Westlake 195/70-14 tires from a tire shop in town, they're $52 each with free mounting and balancing. How bad could they be? Are they unsafe or will they only last a few miles?

Here's the craigslist ad:

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/ptd/4140760888.html

 

[expat]

I have had good No Name tires and VERY bad NN tires.
You take a chance.

I might consider buying a 'brand name' tire used rather than take a chance.

How much for something with a name from DT or Tire Rack?

 

[ram_man]

I had a set a few years ago. I was doing 35mph around a corner speed limit was 45 it had been sprinkling a few minutes earlier. I slammed into a tree with the driver door and back fender and once bouncing off the tree rolled down an embankment. I had westlakes on the car had just bought them two days earlier. the store assured me they were very good for the money. I ended up with 4 broken ribs and a punctured lung. it was a Plymouth sundance that I had them on. I would never ever EVER buy there tires again!

 

[eljefino]

Look at that molding seam then another one 90 degrees around! Quality control right there.

 

[Nick1994]

Tirerack has some Kumho Sense tires for $50 each and $52 shipping for all four before tax.

Discount tire has some GT Radials for $44 each and Falkens for $59 each

 

[JHZR2]

Cooper cs4 with rebate. Otherwise check Yokohama or toyo.

 

[gregk24]

I would pass and just spend the extra to get something decent. If you buy some good tired they might last the life of the car. That would be worth it to me.

 

[AdmdeVilleneuve]

I was surprised to see the 2014 CR Buying Guide rate GT Champiro ahead of the Yoko Avid ENVigor and Bridgestone Ecopia EP422. Big hits on the GT's were ice and snow; not much of concern in PHX. They appear pretty well reviewed by DT customers. If you have a DT close by, the GT's would be a better choice, imo.

 

[binkis]

While on the subject of tires used ones work jst as good @ 1/3 the price unless yer driving a show car or its your family vehicle why waste the money?

 

[SLATRON]

don't buy those, Chinese garbage, even Douglas tires from Walmart would be better n only $10-20 more, thnk made by Goodyear.

 

[R80RS]

Your life (and the lives of your family) will be riding on those tires. Not worth saving a few dollars.

 

[OVERKILL]

The tires are the only thing between your car and the road, why would you even consider going for garbage here?

Buy a decent tire.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSearchResults.jsp?skipOver=true&width=195%2F&ratio=70&diameter=14

Kumho's for $50.00/each.
Sumitomo's for $52.00/each.
General Altimax for $60.00/each.

 

[Kuato]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
When the Camry is due for tires I've thought about these Westlake 195/70-14 tires from a tire shop in town, they're $52 each with free mounting and balancing. How bad could they be? Are they unsafe or will they only last a few miles?



I am with ram_man...only experiences I have had with cheapos have been bad ones.

 

[4D-56]

Originally Posted By: R80RS
Your life (and the lives of your family) will be riding on those tires. Not worth saving a few dollars.


exactly, and as said by OVERKILL...why??

Ive been saying this stuff here for a while. I do not know your financial position, its none of my business but tires are not something to go cheap on. Ill go without other stuff to have Michelins on my cars. 2 bad experiences in the past showed me what cheap tires are about. not good.

 

[Rolla07]

Yup dont do it

 

[Nick1994]

I usually use Michelin's on cars and BFG All Terrains on trucks, was just wondering if they were good enough for an old Camry. I'll probably buy some used Michelin's in nice shape for cheap

 

[Barkleymut]

Originally Posted By: R80RS
Your life (and the lives of your family) will be riding on those tires. Not worth saving a few dollars.


Then why not drive a f-450? What price do we all place on our family? Just don't drive like an idiot and pretty much all tires are the same. Flamesuit ON!

 

[Kuato]

Originally Posted By: Barkleymut
Originally Posted By: R80RS
Your life (and the lives of your family) will be riding on those tires. Not worth saving a few dollars.


Then why not drive a f-450? What price do we all place on our family? Just don't drive like an idiot and pretty much all tires are the same. Flamesuit ON!



No flames required but can't agree...in the past both my wife and myself have used cheapos, and their wet and snow traction were incredibly poor compared to a quality tire. Saving $30 a tire in order to wrap your vehicle around a light pole is bad trade.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Barkleymut
Originally Posted By: R80RS
Your life (and the lives of your family) will be riding on those tires. Not worth saving a few dollars.


Then why not drive a f-450? What price do we all place on our family? Just don't drive like an idiot and pretty much all tires are the same. Flamesuit ON!


I welcome you to slap on a set of Mickey Thompson ET streets and go driving in the pouring rain or in a Canadian winter.

There's a reason they make snow tires. If all tires were the same, they wouldn't be necessary. If all tires were the same I'd be running my Pilot Super Sport tires on the M5 in the winter, but I'm not, because I'm not an idiot and would rather not get killed driving on high performance summer rubber on glare ice or in a foot of snow.

There are SOME tires that are reasonably good in pretty much all weather. The Michelin LTX M/S and M/S2 come to mind, as do the BFG All-Terrain. But those are both truck tires and certainly not in the same league as what the OP is looking at.

Somebody has to pay for the engineering that goes into building a decent tire. And when we are speaking as to the el-cheapo Chinese tires the OP was considering we can bet that neither of those things apply. It isn't like we are talking about an inexpensive Goodyear, Michelin, Toyo, Yokohama....etc. No, we are talking about the equivalent of a tire from the Dollar Store.

Would you trust a Chinese bullet-proof vest from the dollar store? Why not? The same logic applies to these type of tires.

 

[BHopkins]

Phoenix is littered with Discount Tire stores. Go pick up a set of GT tires. They tend to be decent. Not as long life as you should be used to getting on a set of Michelin, but still a good tire. And it would be about the same price as what you were going to spend on the no names.