The risks you take when buying cheap Chinese tyres: Test reveals extent of longer braking distances with budget rubber

With the cost of driving spiralling due to higher fuel prices, rising vehicle taxes and sky-high insurance premiums, the last thing you as a driver want to hear is that you have to buy new tyres.

Due to the poor condition of the country’s roads and the presence of potholes everywhere, many motorists are faced with the inevitable costs of fitting replacement tyres due to punctures.

While it may be tempting to save money and opt for budget products, experts have shown that drivers are taking risks when they choose to fit cheap Chinese tyres, as the extra braking distance is about the same as that of a double-decker bus and the risk of a collision is greater.

What Car? recently tested the latest summer tyres. It showed that if you opt for cheaper products, your car can take almost 10 metres longer to come to a stop from 100 km/h on dry roads.

Controlled tests showed that the same car, a VW Tiguan, fitted with the top-performing tyre, the Continental PremiumContact 7, made in France and costing £143 including fitting, could come to a stop from 60mph in 111 feet (34.5 metres) in dry conditions.

In contrast, the worst tyre, a Chinese GT Radial costing £121, took almost 147 feet to come to a complete stop.

The Continental tires scored the highest overall score of 86 percent and topped the rankings for both braking and handling under all conditions.

The car performed best in braking tests on wet and dry roads. Even at a speed of 80 km/h in wet conditions, the test vehicle could come to a stop in just 33.5 meters.

The GT Radial also performed worst on wet roads, taking 147 feet to come to a stop from a slower speed of 50 mph.

“Again, that’s about the length of a double-decker bus and could make the difference between avoiding a collision or a serious accident in an emergency,” the report said.

The £126 Hankook Ventus S1 evo3 SUV tyre was the second highest rated product (85 per cent), ahead of the £165 Michelin Primacy 4+ (71 per cent).

The What Car? test consisted of six on-track tests carried out under controlled conditions: braking and handling on wet and dry roads, aquaplaning and noise measurement, plus a rolling resistance test to determine the impact on fuel consumption and a price assessment.

The scores were weighted so that the crucial braking and handling tests accounted for 80 percent of the overall score, with rolling resistance and price making up the remaining 20 percent.

Despite the GT Radial having the longest braking distance, its 55 percent score was not the lowest when considering all test parameters.

That unwanted award went to the cheapest tyre of them all, the £113 Landsail LS588 SUV, a Chinese brand produced in Thailand that scored just 47 per cent.

The cheapest of the eight tyres tested, the Chinese-made Triangle EffexSport TH202, cost £93 and came in third with an overall score of 57 per cent.

This tire was second worst for both wet braking (stopping in 133 feet from 50 mph) and dry braking (stopping in 125 feet from 62 mph). This means that the car, with the Triangle tires, was still traveling at 13 mph when the same vehicle with Continental tires was brought to a complete stop.

Only the GT Radial performed worse.

This tire also proved to offer the least grip in wet conditions.

Claire Evans, consumer editor at What Car?, said: ‘Tyres may seem like an expensive purchase, with some costing more than £150 each, but buying the best tyres can give you significantly improved handling and braking performance, potentially helping to prevent road accidents.’

The test car was a Volkswagen Tiguan, one of the best-selling family SUVs, and used a common tire size for this segment: 235/55 R18.

You can read the full What Car? summer tyre test results here: https://www.whatcar.com/news/best-tyres/n27065.