My first car, its a focus.

I've never had to buy car tyres before. Does anyone have recommendations for what to get that would suit the car and are reasonably priced. As its a focus I'm obviously not looking for anything special but equally I don't want some tat either.

Looking to spend less than £40 per tyre if possible.

Definately tubeless…….

Tyre size?

Heres a good start…
http://www.kwik-fit.com/tyre-search.asp

TBH I can't really be bothered with tubeless, I've had so much hassle on the mtb I'd rather stick with the traditional approach. And don't even think about suggesting ghetto…

Are cheap tyres worth it? Will they grip as well when its cold and wet?

I dunno TJ, what's cheap when it comes to tyres? £160 sounds like quite a lot but then again I used to £40 for two for the bike….

Ok i used that kwik fit calculator now and kwik fit tyres that are half decent start at about £50, so can probably get them cheaper if I phone about and get something local (Swansea is Wales answer to Detroit when it comes to cars).

Maybe just go for 2 nice ones on the front for the time being as they seem to be the most worn down, or is it better to shell out for all 4 at the same time?

Match the axles no need to get 4 at a time unless they're all goosed.

is this an April fool?

Tires – your only contact with the road and you want to get the cheapest possible? Mmmm.

Oi prettygreenparrot, do you have a problem with reading?

Just to go over my OP, I said: "As its a focus I'm obviously not looking for anything special but equally I don't want some tat either."

So if you think about that, it means that I don't want to spend loads on a set of tyres, but equally I don't want the cheapest and nastiest either. You know, just some half decent/safe/sensible that doesn't cost a bomb!

Are you an April fool?

and its spelt tyres not tires 😀

and i meant cheaper as in cheaper than inflated, boomboom, kwik fit prices.

Took cheap (with loads of tread) tyres off my wifes Focus as they were leathal on anything other than bone dry tarmac. Bought some of the latest Goodyear NCT's. The difference in grip was amazing. It was nothing to do with tread depth, as the tyres are nearly at their limit now, and still gripping well.

£40? each?

I assume these are budget? they will be shoddy in the wet. I span one car going past a roundabout at 20mph-probably grease on road but it was always happening. Never again.

I was lucky and found some wet grip Bridgestone on clearance from my local garage reduced from £140 to £80 each fitted. Definately noticed the difference in the wet.

Shop around, look online for mobile fit deals. Go mid range at least and stay clear of budget unless you do 3K miles a year.

What tyre size do you need? aim for £60 ish.

If the garage is worth their salt, they will move your half decent rear tyres to the front, and put the new rubber on the back. Reason for this is just about anyone can get themselves out of front understeer (slow down/take foot off accelerator) but rear oversteer on a wet corner is a whole different story.

Ask for the new rubber on the back! Move the best of the remaining tyres to the front.

And all car tyres are tubeless 🙂

blackcircles.com

ive always used near enough the cheapest tires as i view car as transport not a status symbol or a toy.

i dont need it to go round roundabouts at 20 in the wet – ill just slow down a bit

Likewise with country roads

last set of tires i bought did 25k on the car and i sold the car with em.

Get the reviews off the tyre suppliers websites. there are guys on here that do not drive giving you advice.

I use prestivo's on both of our cars we used to use Mitcheline(spelling sorry) energysavers and tbh we cannot tell the differance

The prestivos are half the price of the energysavers and we have never had any "performance issues" there again I do drive a Picasso the way it was designed

falkirk-mark…spot-on.

trail_rat…I too use my car as a form of transport, but I value my/my passengers safety too. Your cheap tyres will one day let you down when some numpty suddenly brakes too hard in front of you, or some old codger or kid runs out in front of you.
I put the best tyres I can afford on my car and mtb, and in both cases it makes the driving/riding more fun as well as safer 😉

spooky_b329 wtf !?…Put the best tyres on the front on a front wheel drive car, all your steering, power transmision and most of your braking are put through those two tyres. As far as (rear!) oversteer on a front wheel drive car is concerned. That is as much down to poor driving technique (lifting off mid bend :roll:) as tyre choice.

And I thought that mtb tyres were a bit of a minefield.

I'm on 195/60H15 , so probably looking at £50 min per wheel if I can get on good deal on something half decent…

..so assuming I don't have the time to trawl reviews of car websites, have we got any recommendations for what tyres for my focus?

good advice from falkirk and fivespot there i think

Running prestivos on my golf, just as good as the toyos and kumhos before that.

Even better they have an accidental damage warranty, picked up a screw in one last week and got a replacement tyre at 75% discount. It was less than 10% worn so quite happy with that.

Tyres and windscreen wipers the two things not worth scrimping on! in the wet they are the only things that keep you on the road and help you see!!!!

fivespot, if you look o any of the tyre manu's websites they will mostly tell you to put new tyres on the back of a Fwd car, (one or two say front but the main ones will tell you rear!) common sence sais front as its the driven wheels but lift off oversteer on old warn tyres is a Lot worse than on new rubber!

the old michelin advert is typically me when looking for tyres, 'Show me the Logo' i dont care if Michelin/continental/goodyear make them, if they arnt happy enough to put their own name on they wont be going on my car!
get the best you can afford! and shop arround, one of the best places down here is a small unit Crammed full of tyres, Low overheads means good prices, £180 for 4 yoko's (195/50/15)compared to similar money for random budget names ive never heard of from the Larger tyre shops!

To be brutally honest, it's a Focus, so you're not going to have to deliberate tyre choice as you would if you were driving a TVR.

Go somewhere like mytyres or black circles and look what they have to offer. I'd go with any of the "big three" (Dunlop, Pirelli, Michelin) or anything from Vredestein, Hankook, Toyo, Falken, Nexen, Avon. Nankangs are also getting better, although they're not known as "ditchfinders" for nothing.

Vredesteins are awesome by the way, so that's what I'd be going for.

fivespot – Member

spooky_b329 wtf !?…Put the best tyres on the front on a front wheel drive car, all your steering, power transmision and most of your braking are put through those two tyres. As far as (rear!) oversteer on a front wheel drive car is concerned. That is as much down to poor driving technique (lifting off mid bend :roll:) as tyre choice.

absolutely – best tyres on the front of any car.

trail_rat…I too use my car as a form of transport, but I value my/my passengers safety too. Your cheap tyres will one day let you down when some numpty suddenly brakes too hard in front of you, or some old codger or kid runs out in front of you.

drive further from the chap in front ? perhaps i should add that my vehicle of choice barely does the speed limit and that it accelerates to 60 in 20 seconds.

frankly i think there is more danger found in driving old cars and playing bangernomics than my choice of tires ….

as said above – if it were a focus ST or something fancy(tvr,noble , lambo , ferrari) thats going to be driven hard or a motorbike then i would spend more on tires. Like my bikes – my day to day commuter(focus alike) has basic tires – my race bike has ultra light expensive tires on

Fivespot and TJ, I always thought the same as you but tyre manufacturers and dealers don't agree.

See here

http://www.michelin.co.uk/michelinuk/en/car-van-4×4/less-worn-tyres-rear/20070314172074.html

http://www.tyreplus.co.uk/tyre-tips.asp

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/safety/car-tyres.html

All say best tyres on rear.

i use Avon ZV3's, which cost me about £50 each all in

they're budget tyres but seem to last a long time, and i have quite a long commute on country lanes. seemed to cope during the snow as well as anyone else

that said, i'm not a car buff and know diddly squat. but i don't care if they say Pirelli or Asda on the side, as long as i don't have to think about them

Anyone that needs expensive tyres to stay safe really needs to look at their driving style.

Get the reviews off the tyre suppliers websites. there are guys on here that do not drive giving you advice.

Yup and the people who post on the suppliers websites are world renowned expert drivers. 😯

A great man once told me. "For rubber, water is a lubricant,  No matter how good your tyres are you cannae beat the laws of physics."

Get the reviews off the tyre suppliers websites. there are guys on here that do not drive giving you advice.

Yup and the people who post on the suppliers websites are world renowned expert drivers.

No but they SHOULD be better placed at giving relevant comments than on a mountain bike website. 😆

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/

And have a look at the tyre test(s) on the Autoexpress web site. They tested a load of name brands and a Chinese budget tyre, there's a scary reference on the site on the braking section to the effect that the cheapo tyre would still have the car travelling at 30mph when the best braking tyre had stopped, or something along those lines.

This – 'Motorsport giants Dunlop and Bridgestone stopped in under 38 metres, with Kumho just over that mark. No prizes for guessing which brand brought up the rear: our Chinese contender took a huge 46.5 metres.

If a car fitted with Wanli tyres did an emergency stop behind one running on Continentals, it would still be travelling at 30mph at the point of collision. Scary!' – Autoexpress.

I'm by no means an expert driver btw, I just like being vaguely alive, and after all the anecdotal stuff about cheap tyres, I thought some more objective evidence was relevant.

same with most things in life.

don't buy the cheapest as they'll be shite
don't buy the most expensive as they'll be overpriced

i reckon the law of diminishing returns kicks in at about £50 a tyre.

So there is quite a good argument for not buying the best tyres because if I have to stop really quick, the person behind me might have really bad tyres?

It's easier for me to keep a good distance from the car in front, than it is to stop drivers from tailgaiting me.
😉

ok that last post was a bit trollish.

But has anyone got any ideas on how to stop people from tailgaiting you? Really gets on my nerves especially in wet weather on the motorway.

ease back on the old loud pedal – ensure your in the inside lane

9 times out of 10 they will pass you – once they are infront its much easier to control the situation

Black ones are good.

Did some one recommend kwikfit????????

http://www.kwik-fit.com/tyre-technology.asp

straight from kwikfit web site. can anyone make sense of it?
"Nitrogen is completely safe. And by using it in a mixture with oxygen to inflate your tyres the theory is that it’s possible to negate the issue of slow deflation, which is caused by oxygen slowly infusing through the tyre wall from the atmosphere. "

"From the atmosphere" ?????
what is air if its not oxygen (20.9%) and nitrogen (78%)?

Second using blackcircles and pick something from the mid range. I've just got a cracking deal on some bridgstone potenzas (quote on there and local place beat it) but falken, kumho or avons will save a few quid but still give safe performance.

Never go budget, always go for tyres that are well rated (plenty of rating sites out there). On a FWD car I always put the best tyres on the front, not the rear, but it is recommended to be the other way round and the garage wont let me leave without doing it that way. But as someone used to oversteer I'm happy dealing with that, as a new driver understeer is less scary and difficult to deal with apparently (natural instinct is to brake, dives the weight to the front which slightly improves traction).

My personal tyre of choice is uniroyal rainsports – don't have the absolute best dry weather grip, but wet-weather they grip almost like they're in the dry. Usually come in about 1/3 of the way up the price range. But beware, even top end makes make some dud tyres, like pirelli P6000s – AKA ditchhunters.