Tyre Advice

harasdublin

Hi

I need tyres for my BMW 320 cd ( thanks to colmmcm for recommending - great choice)

Anyway - a collegues boyfriend works at Advanced Pit Stop and advised against the cheapest brand tyres - he said (off the record) to buy a good quality brand name tyre second hand.

Has anyone any thoughts on this - apparently a lot of people are buying these but I'm not sure!!

New tyres are €150 each for Dunlop - I really didn't want to spend this much - I need to change all four.:mad:

All advice greatly appreciated.

Wickerman1

I would be a bit wary of second hand tyre's.
Have a look at www.eiretyres.com. I saved a packet compared to buying tyre's here. They also do reviews on the site.

Delivery is approx 3 days and fitting should be approx €60

iphone4g

I would never use second hand tyres,Hankook tyres are very good and priced well

harasdublin

I have the same thoughts but found it strange that someone in the tyre industry is recommending this option.

harasdublin

harasdublin wrote: »

I have the same thoughts but found it strange that someone in the tyre industry is recommending this option.

Bas advise he has given, surely he can get you some discount ?

bazz26

Have a look at prices on www.camskill.co.uk then ring around your local tyres centres and see if they can compete with their prices. I have found camskill alot cheaper than eiretyres and their delivery is more prompt. Just allow around €50 extra for having them fitted locally.

harasdublin

I havent asked him about discount on account of him dismissing the cheap new tyres. I suppose I 'm looking to know if anyone has had bad experiences of the cheap tyres available.

I dont want to spend a huge amount of money - i've looked at eiretyres and see that the cheapest is 54 euro which suits my budget - the problem is i'm now worried that they are complete rubbish

skywalker_208

harasdublin wrote: »

I dont want to spend a huge amount of money - i've looked at eiretyres and see that the cheapest is 54 euro which suits my budget - the problem is i'm now worried that they are complete rubbish

I wouldnt put 2nd hand tyres on my trailer.
I also wouldnt put cheap tyres on a car like that. Cheap tyres are fine for less powerful small cars that dont do much mileage.

Unfortunately if you do want to drive a car like that you are going to have to spend a few quid on tyres... U really need to put a proper branded tyre on it - Bridgestone, Dunlop etc

Cicero

You'll find some tyre reviews here: http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/

Hankook appear to have good reviews on a number of sites- especially for longevity- however, there are different types within this brand, from all weather to more specialised- I had to buy some recently at short notice and due to lack of stock at the tyre centre I went to - never heard of them up to that point so did a bit of research-
I've found them good - however, they weren't that cheap in the place I bought them...I read somewhere that "hard wearing" tyres aren't necessarily the most appropriate for high performance cars which may need a different type of tyre- some reviews stated that the back wheels spun, going around corners- others said they were delighted with them- I think for "everyday" "normal" driving, these tyres are fine, which suits the particular car they were purchased for in my case...

iphone4g

iphone4g wrote: »

I would never use second hand tyres,Hankook tyres are very good and priced well

Yep, I'll be getting Hankooks for my ZT shortly, €600 for 225 45 18s, very well priced, as far as I recall mu 2005 Mondeo had Hankooks as factory fit.

harasdublin

In an ideal world I'd be putting on Bridgestone or dunlop but circumstances have changed since I bought the car - I dont have the money:(

I think the point the guy was making is that a good quality second hand brand is a better buy than the 54 euro tyre. I'm going to get some more info from him tomorrow regarding cost and suppliers

CiniO

skywalker_208 wrote: »

I wouldnt put 2nd hand tyres on my trailer.

Why not?

I also wouldnt put cheap tyres on a car like that. Cheap tyres are fine for less powerful small cars that dont do much mileage.

I completely can't understand why? What's the difference?
Tyres performance (good grip) is needed mostly while braking and doing fast bends and turns.
You can do it pretty much with any car.

high horse

harasdublin wrote: »

Hi

I need tyres for my BMW 320 cd ( thanks to colmmcm for recommending - great choice)

Anyway - a collegues boyfriend works at Advanced Pit Stop and advised against the cheapest brand tyres - he said (off the record) to buy a good quality brand name tyre second hand.

Has anyone any thoughts on this - apparently a lot of people are buying these but I'm not sure!!

New tyres are €150 each for Dunlop - I really didn't want to spend this much - I need to change all four.:mad:

All advice greatly appreciated.

A lot of BMW's have staggered wheels (ie the rears are larger than the fronts) so expect to pay more for a rear tyre than a front.

A lot of the guys on BMW-driver.net recommend Vredstein Sessantas and I took this advice when buying tyres about 3 months ago and am very happy with them. Good grip in the wet and dry and quiet tyres on the road. I got mine from camskill.co.uk at £100 each for the front and £115 each for the rears delivered to my door

Esel

www.tyreland.ie (no connection)

Wibbs

iphone4g wrote: »

I would never use second hand tyres,

Why not? After all unless you've just driven out of a quikfit centre you drive second hand tyres every day. So long as they're checked and come with a guarantee I'd have no great issue with them TBH. If my choice was limited by my pocket(and these days...) and I had the choice between second hand (insert quality name here) and 54 euro tyres from The People's Republic of China, I know which way I'd go.

Esel

^ +1. Also, how many people go out and replace the tyres immediately when they buy a used vehicle? No-one is saying to buy used tyres in a breaker's yard.

baaaa

Wibbs wrote: »

Why not? After all unless you've just driven out of a quikfit centre you drive second hand tyres every day. So long as they're checked and come with a guarantee I'd have no great issue with them TBH. If my choice was limited by my pocket(and these days...) and I had the choice between second hand (insert quality name here) and 54 euro tyres from The People's Republic of China, I know which way I'd go.

+1
Walkinstown tyres do used tyres also.Apparently they're from germany,they prefer fresh tyres for their winters or something.

R.O.R

Steer well clear of the likes of Wanlai and Triangle tyres. I've driven cars with these on and it's not a pleasant experience. I'd prefer a Conti with 2mm rather than a Triangle with 10mm.

If you know someone who works in Advance, he should be able to get a good deal on Barum tyres. These are made by Continental, but are a more budget offering. Grip isn't spectacluar, but is no where near as dangerous as the chinese offerings, and they should last a good while.

iphone4g

Wibbs wrote: »

Why not? After all unless you've just driven out of a quikfit centre you drive second hand tyres every day. So long as they're checked and come with a guarantee I'd have no great issue with them TBH. If my choice was limited by my pocket(and these days...) and I had the choice between second hand (insert quality name here) and 54 euro tyres from The People's Republic of China, I know which way I'd go.

Because I know where my tyres have been and they have done.
Who would check the tyres the guy selling them?
It would be a bit to late for me to have to call on the guarantee.

langdang

R.O.R wrote: »

Steer well clear of the likes of Wanlai and Triangle tyres.

Who actually fits these? I see them on plenty of passats - is it a fleet thing (obviously not yours) or did the actual owners really spend a huge wad on a new or nearly new passat, then fit the cheapest tyres they could when the chance arose?

Rick Deckard

There's a lad in Santry importing part used tyres by the trailer load from Germany. I got Dunlops of him for €35 a corner including fitting/balancing.. I've put up a large amount of mileage since.. no probs. I've also recommended him to others.. no issue.

pm me if you want contact details. (he's no connection to me)

Wibbs

iphone4g wrote: »

Because I know where my tyres have been and they have done.
Who would check the tyres the guy selling them?
It would be a bit to late for me to have to call on the guarantee.

It depends on the outfit involved. The crowd esel linked to appear to have a pretty stringent safety test with their tyres. And like esel also said, how many buy a second hand car and change the tyres immediately. Now you say you know where your tyres have been and that's a point, but objectively how much of a difference does that actually make? Do you inspect your tyres on a weekly basis? Rotate them around the car? Very very few do. Hell way too many even check pressures.

R.O.R

langdang wrote: »

Who actually fits these? I see them on plenty of passats - is it a fleet thing (obviously not yours) or did the actual owners really spend a huge wad on a new or nearly new passat, then fit the cheapest tyres they could when the chance arose?

Before I ended up in a car with Triangles, we had fitted some cheap chinese brands where a car was due off fleet in the next month or so, but we don' do that anymore.

I suppose the thinking of a few people is that it's a piece of rubber that goes on the car, and they don't consider much else apart from cost, so throw on the cheapest, road legal tyre they can buy.


I'm currently approaching 60,000km on my Conti Premium Contacts, with still over 4mm of tread left. Sometimes it works out cheaper in the long run to go for a more expensive tyre

harasdublin

Hi
Thanks for all the advice - I've heard of tyreland three different times this morning!!
I've searched other threads on boards.ie and the feedback looks good.
Phoned them and four michelen tyres are 232 euro - I'm going to call in this afternoon.

R.O.R

R.O.R wrote: »

I'm currently approaching 60,000km on my Conti Premium Contacts, with still over 4mm of tread left. Sometimes it works out cheaper in the long run to go for a more expensive tyre

They've done 40 thousand miles ?? I've never got more than 15K out of a set of fronts

R.O.R

RoverJames wrote: »

They've done 40 thousand miles ?? I've never got more than 15K out of a set of fronts

I do 124km a day and about 115km of that is done in 5th gear without touching the brakes, or coming to anything like a corner.

dekbhoy

all used tyres are pressure tested and must have a minimum 4mm thread depth..... i have previously purchased from tyreland and found them very reasonable , in fact tyres where like new .

harasdublin

I was told a minimum of 6mm - maybe not as googd a deal as first though - will still go down and investigate!!

harasdublin

Hi there

Finally got to Tyreland this afternoon. It was quite difficult to find but worth looking for!
Really helpful staff and not pushy - I asked for four tyres but the guy told me I only needed two tyres:)
He explained all about the testing (every tyre tested individually) and then showed me the Michelen tyres - he measured them and they were both over 6mm - they looked like new - 58 euros each. Dekbhoy - they also have 4mm tyres but these are cheaper I think he said 40 euro?

They told me I'd have to wait about thirty minutes before getting them fitted since it was quite busy (a few taxi drivers said it was much quicker in the morning)

I couldn't recommend tyreland enough - I'll definitely being going back for the other two when I need them!!

skywalker_208

CiniO wrote: »

Why not?

Because the chances of something wrong with them it too high. yes they say they are "checked" as someone already mentioned here in another post but it is difficult to find a problem with a tyre that is not mounted or inflated.

They have no way of telling what structural damage have been done to a tyre from pothole damage etc.

It is simply not worth it to save a few quid.

skywalker_208

dekbhoy wrote: »

all used tyres are pressure tested and must have a minimum 4mm thread depth..... i have previously purchased from .

"pressure tested"?
You mean they mount them on a rim and stick 30psi in them and if they dont blow up they are grand?
Thats hardly "testing" them.

Bottom line is you can not see what damage has been done to a tyre. Wire could be broken twisted, canvas could be damaged. Could be a split in it somewhere that will become worse when tyre heats up/hits a pothole.

Not worth the risk

Esel

skywalker_208 wrote: »

"pressure tested"?
You mean they mount them on a rim and stick 30psi in them and if they dont blow up they are grand?
Thats hardly "testing" them.

Bottom line is you can not see what damage has been done to a tyre. Wire could be broken twisted, canvas could be damaged. Could be a split in it somewhere that will become worse when tyre heats up/hits a pothole.

Not worth the risk

I think you're stirring it now, tbh. The last post before this on the thread was also yours - looks like you trawled the thread again? Now you're poo-pooing "pressure testing", whereas earlier in this thread you said :

skywalker_208 wrote: »

....it is difficult to find a problem with a tyre that is not mounted or inflated.....

A bit of a contradiction there, imo. Could you please enlighten us on what you would consider adequate testing of a tyre then? Do you work in the tyre trade?

At least iphone4g expanded on his reasons for not buying secondhand (but didn't state his position on tyres already fitted to a used car when purchased):

iphone4g wrote: »

Because I know where my tyres have been and they have done.

So far, you have not given any valid reason why third party used tyres should not be used. Do you buy all your cars new? If not, on a used car that is 'new' to you, do you either immediately replace all the existing tyres or else have them professionally tested? If you rent a car, do you insist on either new tyres or a recent, certified inspection/pressure testing report? Do you advise we should all do the same in similar circumstances?

Because, imo, the vast majority of used car purchasers or renters probably just give the tyres a quick check for tread depth and obvious bulges (on the outside). Are they all unwittingly playing russian roulette every time they get behind the wheel?


For my part, I hope the OP posts here again to expand on what he was told about the 'individual tyre testing' in Tyreland. See below:

harasdublin wrote: »

Finally got to Tyreland this afternoon. ..
He explained all about the testing (every tyre tested individually).....

skywalker_208

esel wrote: »

I think you're stirring it now, tbh. The last post before this on the thread was also yours - looks like you trawled the thread again? Now you're poo-pooing "pressure testing", whereas earlier in this thread you said :A bit of a contradiction there, imo. Could you please enlighten us on what you would consider adequate testing of a tyre then? Do you work in the tyre trade?

Trawled the thread again? I was simply responding to 2 seperate posts in 2 seperate posts. I responded to the first one and then decided I had an opinion to offer on a later post.

I have seen this done in many threads before and do not remember reading anything in the charter to say this is not allowed.

There was no contradiction as I was answering 2 different posts. Both replies were unrelated.

I would'nt consider any testing of a tyre that used to belong to another vehicle as adequate to be honest. Its one thing buying a 2nd hand car that has tyres on it that is being driven presently but quite another to take 2nd hand tyres that have been lying in a garage in a pile of "tested" tyres. You have no idea how they came to be 2nd hand. Were they on a crashed car? Did they owner cast them away to purchase new tyres etc?

esel wrote: »

Do you work in the tyre trade?

Used to - for many years for more than 1 company.

esel wrote: »

For my part, I hope the OP posts here again to expand on what he was told about the 'individual tyre testing' in Tyreland. See below:

Yes I would be interested to see this also.
At the end of the day if you cant afford to run a BMW properly you shouldnt buy one.

mathepac

Lads get a grip (no pun intended) This is a poxy 320d with a coupe body, not a Bugatti Veyron. On its best day it did 0-60 in 9+ secs (when new) and had a top speed of 125mph. Unless that diesel engine has been remapped off the clock the horses and torques will have escaped out the exhaust pipe long ago.

Its a nice comfortable German tourer. Stick some decent middle of the road rubber on the fecken thing and go shopping in it. "Staggered wheels", "performance car", FFS get over yereselves.

Cyrus

mathepac wrote: »

Lads get a grip (no pun intended) This is a poxy 320d with a coupe body, not a Bugatti Veyron. On its best day it did 0-60 in 9+ secs (when new) and had a top speed of 125mph. Unless that diesel engine has been remapped off the clock the horses and torques will have escaped out the exhaust pipe long ago.

Its a nice comfortable German tourer. Stick some decent middle of the road rubber on the fecken thing and go shopping in it. "Staggered wheels", "performance car", FFS get over yereselves.

while i agree with some of what you are saying,

the wheels most likely are staggered, they are on most bmws, ie rears are wider, take different size tyres

also, i wouldnt put triangle or wanli tyres on any car

no matter what car you are in stopping quickly from 60mph will take far longer in crappy rubber and that may well be the difference between an accident or not

b318isp

the wheels most likely are staggered, they are on most bmws, ie rears are wider, take different size tyres

What evidance is there of this? In my experience, this is not the norm for BMWs.

For the OP, keep an eye out for Falken 912 and Toyo Proxes T1R for good value and good performance.

Cyrus

ok, in my personal experience, having owned an e46 323ci, an e39 530i, a bmw z4 coupe and two e46 m3 this has been the case, however all were sports kitted versions.

maybe on se models the wheels arent staggered? i dont know

b318isp

b318isp wrote: »

What evidance is there of this? In my experience, this is not the norm for BMWs.

.

On decent BMWs the wheels are bigger on the back, on low powered rep mobile versions they aren't.

b318isp

Cyrus wrote: »

ok, in my personal experience, having owned an e46 323ci, an e39 530i, a bmw z4 coupe and two e46 m3 this has been the case, however all were sports kitted versions.

maybe on se models the wheels arent staggered? i dont know

That's interesting, as I haven't seen a 323i with different sized tyres.

PaulKK

Most E46s with Msport trim had staggered wheels.

I have 18" staggered MV2s on my E46 320d.

mathepac

Cyrus wrote: »

... the wheels most likely are staggered, they are on most bmws, ie rears are wider, take different size tyres ...

They're not on OP's car, by all accounts.

Cyrus wrote: »

... also, i wouldnt put triangle or wanli tyres on any car ...

I never suggested those or any of the ditch-finders available in large quantities out there. What I suggested was "... some decent middle of the road rubber ... ", and these suggestions from a very sensible poster, should fit the bill nicely -

b318isp wrote: »

... keep an eye out for Falken 912 and Toyo Proxes T1R for good value and good performance.

Cyrus

b318isp wrote: »

That's interesting, as I haven't seen a 323i with different sized tyres.

well im not sure what the context is, i.e. who are you? a tyre fitter or a regular joe like me

in any event i had 18" mv2s on my 323ci and they were 1" wider on the rear

harasdublin

skywalker_208 wrote: »

At the end of the day if you cant afford to run a BMW properly you shouldnt buy one.

Who are you to tell me what I should and shouldn't buy? Do you have an insight into my finances? I hope your circumstances don't change as mine(and many others) have over the past 3-4 months.


We're all not as lucky as you and able to spend large amounts of money when the need arises - some of us have to look for other options.

It's rare to see successful businesses today - all we hear about is companies making people redundant - businesses that offer value for money and customer service should be recommended to others - hopefully they will grow and create employment. I visited Tyreland (as recommended to me by someone on this site) - my experience there was great and I was happy to recommend the business to other users.

Finally, I spoke to several of the taxi drivers who were also getting tyres fitted. They told me that lots of the drivers are getting their tyres there - does this mean that you will never get into a taxi again skywalker_208 ??

skywalker_208

harasdublin wrote: »

Who are you to tell me what I should and shouldn't buy? Do you have an insight into my finances? I hope your circumstances don't change as mine(and many others) have over the past 3-4 months.

Dont know what this personal attack is in aid of. You came on here to a public internet forum looking for advice from the public on 2nd hand tyres.
I gave my opinion on this - which was the same as the first 5 or 6 replies to your thread I might add. You took other advice - which is your right of course.

harasdublin wrote: »

We're all not as lucky as you and able to spend large amounts of money when the need arises - some of us have to look for other options.

I never mentioned anything about me spending large amounts of money. I drive a vehicle which I can run within my budget. IF i had a new/bigger car and my circumstances changed - I would probably seriously consider changing it for something smaller/cheaper to run etc. I probably would not settle for sticking spurious/2nd hand/used parts in it - expect maybe if it was something non important/mechanical like wiper arms/pumps etc.

But hey - like I said thats my opinion. The choice is yours.