Comparative test slams budget all-season tyres

All-season tyres are growing in popularity, and suppliers of budget brands from the Far East account for a good share of sales within this segment. This trend has led some to ask whether budget all-season tyres are a good choice for motoring throughout the entire year.

German testing specialist KÜS has compared six strong-selling budget brands against a premium European reference tyre, the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-3. The six candidates were the Apollo Alnac 4G, Berlin Tires All Season 1, Blacklion 4Seasons Eco BL54, Imperial All Season Driver, Ovation VI-782 AS and Superia EcoBlue. All size 205/55 R16 tyres were mounted on two identical, bog-standard VW Golfs for testing, which took place at a Goodyear facility.

KÜS calls the qualities of the six budget brands “sobering”. When braking hard on a wet surface from 80 km/h, the VW fitted with the worst-performer of the six required 41.6 metres to come to a stop, almost ten metres longer than the reference tyre’s 31.7 metres. The testing specialist found it “no less frightening” that the budget tyre-shod Golf was still travelling at up to 39 km/h when reaching the point where it had stopped completely when fitted with the reference tyres.

The difference when braking from 100 to 0 km/h is even more pronounced. The Golf fitted with the worst performer from the six budget all-season tyres was still moving at almost 49 km/h when its Goodyear-shod counterpart came to a complete stop.

On to the aquaplaning test, and whereas the Goodyear tyre retained its grip on the road even at 80 km/h, the budget tyres floated. This resulted in massive understeer. KÜS reports that the six low-cost candidates similarly displayed poor performance on the handling course. All lacked traction when initially accelerating as well as poor levels of grip, lateral control and traction during the test itself. Load changes caused the car to respond in ways that would push novice drivers beyond their limits.

KÜS concludes that the results of its testing show budget all-season tyres can sometimes be “life-threatening” in critical situations. “Whoever only looks at the price when buying tyres makes a false economy. As when it comes to safety, a tyre’s properties play a decisive role.” The testing specialist’s advice to all safety-conscious drivers is to give budget tyres a wide berth.