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Autocar tyre test & tyres from China & Taiwan

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bolide

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Interesting feature in Autocar this week about far East tyres and how far adrift they are of the premium European brands. Anyone contemplating buying a set of Wanlis or Ling Longs might have second thoughts after reading it

I think that with the second tier manufacturers like Falken you have very little to worry about but the really cheap tyres truly give you the worst of all worlds

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk
 
I had some Nexen and Fullrun (I think?!) tyres on my Omega and they were truly terrifying in the wet. The back end would go at little more than walking speed in tight turns.

Tyres are one area I don't mind spending bucks on. Just fitted some more Pilot Sports to our beemer yesterday and they are superb.
 
Mmmhm, i have EVENT tyres on mine after coming from Goodyear F1s, talk about either ends of the spectrum, truly shocking in the wet, learnt that lesson about rubbish tyres pretty quickly!
 
stumpy1 said:
I had some Nexen and Fullrun (I think?!) tyres on my Omega and they were truly terrifying in the wet. The back end would go at little more than walking speed in tight turns.

Tyres are one area I don't mind spending bucks on. Just fitted some more Pilot Sports to our beemer yesterday and they are superb.
Click to expand...
When I bought My SL it was shod with Nexen and Fullrun, I had never heard of these before, I just assumed that it was the power f the car making the back end twitchy!
Then I bought some new wheels, what were they shod with?.......Nexen and Fullrun!
 
grober said:
How long before some "enterprising" guys in China start producing some cheap European branded tyre knock offs. Ihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal
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Its not inconceivable that the market could be penetrated with fake knock tyres of known brand names. Even pharmacutical drugs are being faked and pharmacys are unknowingly buying fake copies from their wholesalers and selling them on to the public. The same could quite easily happen with tyres and like the pills the results could be rather serious.
 
You might want to take a look where some of the main stream brands are already produced? Tyre performance is about quality control and the compounds they are made from doesn't matter if you make them in China or Chingford if the spec is the same. Not read this survey and tests but data I have seen has been flawed and biased. We run NanKang on our race and rally cars which take some terrible punishment and never had a tyre problem yet, horses for courses and do your homework before you buy
 
Now , i'm not recommending them , but i had a set of Wanlis on the back of the Whale ...

When i bought the car , it had the Wanlis on it , when i sold it 5 years later , it had the same set on it , they just didn't wear down , seemed to handle ok , and only broke the back end away when i wanted it to ...

Admittedly , it wasn't particularly powerful , and i wouldn't have them on an E55 , but they seemed to do the job to be honest.
 
flanaia1 said:
You might want to take a look where some of the main stream brands are already produced? Tyre performance is about quality control and the compounds they are made from doesn't matter if you make them in China or Chingford if the spec is the same. Not read this survey and tests but data I have seen has been flawed and biased. We run NanKang on our race and rally cars which take some terrible punishment and never had a tyre problem yet, horses for courses and do your homework before you buy
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You are correct of course, many mainstream European branded products are made in China AND provided that's made clear on the product description fine. If tyres are made to the exacting specifications of the main stream manufacturer then I agree they should be of equivalent quality- not the same quality- that's impossible in a different manufacturing plant one reason being their raw material feedstock will probably be slightly different. Its conceivable the Chinese product may even be better than the European manufactured item but since the driving force behind moving production to China is to reduce cost that would tend mitigate against that?

The problem with China is their lack of regulation in the manufacturing arena. This lack of regulation can benefit costs of course but it also makes the manufacturing of counterfeit goods relatively easy. Having bona fide manufacturing plants in China just makes the likelihood of labeling, packaging, identifier mouldings,logos etc going astray IMHO.
 
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Got nexens on mine and can safely say they are pretty bloody good, and goes around wet corners way to fast like its on rails.

On fat amg wheels if that makes any difference but impressed for the price, grip etc.



Lynall
 
30 years ago the Japanese tyres on Japenese motorcycles were rubbish. They were not too bad in the dry, but lethal in the wet. There was nothing wrong with the quality of manufacture, the problem was with design (both tread pattern and carcass) and compounds. Today, Japanese tyres for bikes are some of the best in the world.

Tyre manufacture is still a pretty labour-intensive business - which is the primary reason why Chinese tyres are cheap - and Chinese tyres will almost certainly go through a similar evolution, but perhaps more quickly.
 
st13phil said:
30 years ago the Japanese tyres on Japenese motorcycles were rubbish. They were not too bad in the dry, but lethal in the wet.
Click to expand...

Funny thing is, they were made by firms like Bridgestone & Japanese Dunlop.
If you told me back then that F1 tyres would be made by Bridgestone, we would have never stopped laughing.

Russ
 
My last set of Goodyear F1's were made in China, and none the worse for it.
To confuse matters further, they were supplied by Dunlop Racing in Birmingham from Dunlop Racing in Germany :confused: Go figure!
I think they call it 'globalisation':(
 
Dieselman said:
He means before then..the Yokahama Slipmasters...
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Now they were truly dreadful :eek:
rf065 said:
Funny thing is, they were made by firms like Bridgestone & Japanese Dunlop.
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Indeed. And they were a bad joke (almost as bad a the Joke-a-hama's), but look at them all now: some of the most advanced tyre technology is available from these companies.
 
Fact remains pretty much consistantly true that the best tyres are amongst the most expensive, and the cheapest tyres are normally amongst the worst out there.

Of coures there are exceptions to the rule, but it's not a bad rule of thumb :)

Cheap tyres are normally made to a budget price, hence it's just not likely that they'll be made to the highest standards or from the best materials.

You pays your money and takes your choice.

Personally, I like Mercedes-Benz cars and premium brand, tried and tested tyres that I can trust :cool:

Will
 
I've recently taken a pair of Goodyear F1's off the back of the E55 - they had the best part of 4mm of tread left on them and were truly attrocious in the wet or cold. Grip was non existant and they'd break away sharply with the slightest throttle pressure. When they were removed, one had an inner sidewall that was completely mis-shapen.

I've replaced them with a pair of Falken 452s which have transformed the car.

Half the price of the Goodyears but twice the grip in normal conditions and no wheel spin when I try overtaking on anything other than bone dry roads
 
andy_k said:
I've recently taken a pair of Goodyear F1's off the back of the E55 - they had the best part of 4mm of tread left on them and were truly attrocious in the wet or cold. Grip was non existant and they'd break away sharply with the slightest throttle pressure. When they were removed, one had an inner sidewall that was completely mis-shapen.

I've replaced them with a pair of Falken 452s which have transformed the car.

Half the price of the Goodyears but twice the grip in normal conditions and no wheel spin when I try overtaking on anything other than bone dry roads
Click to expand...


The Goodyear F1's have excellent reviews & have been tested and rated as better than Conti's, Bridgestone & Michelin etc. You may find that the Falkens are even worse when down to 4mm.

Or, maybe you damaged the sidewall previously on the Goodyears & that influenced the poor handling. Having said that, the Falkens do get good reviews too.

Russ
 
Have to say Falkens are always my brand of choice.....get the quality of a premium brand, but not the prices.
 
rf065 said:
The Goodyear F1's have excellent reviews & have been tested and rated as better than Conti's, Bridgestone & Michelin etc. You may find that the Falkens are even worse when down to 4mm.

Or, maybe you damaged the sidewall previously on the Goodyears & that influenced the poor handling. Having said that, the Falkens do get good reviews too.

Russ
Click to expand...

It wasn't so much the poor handling, it was the complete lack of grip on anything less than perfect conditions that worried me.

I don't doubt that the Goodyears offer superb performance when they are thoroughly warmed up and under ideal conditions (warm dry road/track) for a very limited period (judging by what other people have said less than 6000 miles before they are worn out and nearer to 4k or 5k before there is a noticed deterioration in performance - at over £200 a tyre that's not good for day to day useage.

The Falkens have had great reviews and my initial impressions are that they are very good indeed. If they last 6k I've got a 'free set' in the bag because they are half the price of the goodyears :)
 
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