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The true cost of cheap tyres
Tyre purchases can sometimes come at a bad time, whether it’s a puncture, a badly torn or chipped sidewall from impact with a curb, pothole or road debris, or even just an unevenly worn tyre due to poor vehicle alignment.
While it may be tempting to opt for a cheap tyre to get you back on the road, the fact of the matter is that while a budget tyre may meet Australian Standards, a premium tyre will often exceed expectations and perform much better, for not much more up front cost.
Australia Design Regulations allow for tyres following the DOT (US), E3 (European) or JIS (Japanese) standards, which ensure a tyre is fit for purpose and safe for use on Australian roads. All of the tyres available from Donnellans will have a certification from one or more of these standards bodies regardless of what option you choose.
Why buy a premium tyre?
While it is tempting to go for the cheapest option available for your car, the fact is you can be leaving a whole lot of performance and safety on the table when you do so.
Often a premium tyre will have spent longer being developed and fine tuned to provide wet weather grip, and feature advanced tread compounds and patterns that allow a tyre to resist aquaplaning while providing a quieter ride.
Companies investing money into tyre compound design can design a tyre that performs exceptionally in wet weather while not making compromises when it comes to braking performance and tyre noise.
Extra features like reinforced sidewalls with in-built rim protector strips that can minimise and prevent gutter rash are often found on higher-end tyres. This can be especially important on vehicles with expensive alloy wheels that often find themselves squeezing into tight parking spaces.
Typically, a premium off-road tyre will feature extra sidewall plies that allow the tyre to travel over harsh terrain while minimising punctures from rocks and other features while out on the trail.
Tyres without certification
After reading the above, you’d be forgiven for thinking that if a tyre does not have one of the mentioned certifications listed, it’s likely to be a low quality, inferior design that is unsafe for use.
That is not necessarily the case, with tyres being designed strictly for off-road or competition use, or tyres not designed for use on public roads often not being submitted for the very costly process of certification.
A good example of a high-quality tyre that is not legal for street use is the Mickey Thompson ET Pro Drag Radials. Since they are designed for off-road (drag strip) use only, they aren’t required to be certified. Most of the time, tyres like these are only available through specialty performance and racing shops.
Talk to the experts at Donnellans
Whatever type of vehicle you drive or your driving style, you’ll find a range of tyres to suit you at Donnellans the Tyremen. Ranging from cheap, budget friendly tyres through to ultra performance hardcore rubber for your modified vehicle, we can recommend, supply and fit tyres that will meet your expectations.
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