Dunlop

Here and Now with John Bowe

Cheap rubber might be easy on the wallet, but is it really worth the saving? I was reading an article the other day on the internet about a tyre test by What Car?, who claimed to be Britain’s biggest and best car buyers guide. The titled of the article was “why budget tyres can kill” due to the results they found.

They put six tyres through four tests, including dry braking, wet braking, lateral grip and noise, to see how they reacted, and this is what they said:
“We pitted three premium tyres against three budget alternatives in a series of braking tests, and the results were shocking. In the wet, the budget tyres took an average of 14 metres – the length of an articulated lorry – longer than the premium tyres to pull up from 70mph.

”In the dry the differences weren’t as vast, but the worst budget tyre still took up to five metres longer to stop than the top premium brand. That could easily be the difference between a nasty accident and escaping with just sweaty palms.”

Last year, Goodyear & DunlopTyres’ expert tyre testers conducted similar rigorous stopping distance tests on 16 different equivalent types of tyres in Australia from many leading brands, in both wet and dry conditions.They found comparable results to What Car?, with premium branded tyres stopping up to seven metres earlier in wet conditions than the other tyres 80km/h (what’s more, Goodyear and Dunlop products were also the best performing in both the wet and the dry!).

Leading tyre companies such Goodyear and Dunlop spend millions of dollars each year on research and development, so although a premium tyre might look almost identical to a budget alternative, there are usually big differences which both of these tyre tests clearly show.

Vehicle stopping distance depends on a range of factors such as reaction times, speed, driving conditions, and the condition of the tyres and brakes. While drivers cannot control the weather and the physical driving conditions, they can control how fast they are travelling and whether their fitted tyres and brakes lend themselves to providing the best possible chance to avoid an accident.
Until next time, drive safely.