Vredstein, Toyo or Falken?

[crofty1984]

Hello All,
A can of worms, but I've found 3 similar looking tyres for about £50 each I was wondering if anyone's had any experience with them, or one's known to be better/worse than the others?

All 205/50/15 size
Toyo TR1 Proxes
Vresdtein Sportrac5
Falken Ecorun


http://www.camskill.co.uk/m53b0s93p9774 ... se%3A_70dB

http://www.camskill.co.uk/m53b0s93p1111 ... se%3A_70dB

http://www.blackcircles.com/catalogue/t ... e=10943592

Thanks,
Dan

[mkelite]

a number of users have told me the Falkens are actually quite bad quality - ive used Toyos on a few cars and they seem very good for their price. but recently had a mature tyre fitter told me '' tbh you dont actually get a real quality safe tyre till youve spent around £200 each !!!'' - he was saying ( and i had the experience to agree with him) that where most 'cheaper' tyres fail is on carcass strength and particular in low profile walls.

that is his opinion of course but i do know the guy very well - he has been in the trade for well over 40 years and seen a few tyres............

when i started driving (yep all them years ago lol)..... you could just but a Goodyear or Avon tyre for example and you knew they were good. today there seems to be names ive never heard of. maybe im just too old now. lol.


regards all.

DC.

[amarshall]

You'll get nearly as many opinions as there are owners who post on here

I use Avon ZV5s as a nice compromise between price, availability and performance. I've never had any problems with them for grip (even on track, though I'm not particularly aggressive) in dry or wet. Durability is "average" - the rears need done after about 6k miles, but the fronts seem to last forever.

My only "off-road" event happened on winters which were about due to come off, and they were chosen purely on availability as we had had a sudden cold snap when I wanted them put on.

Ultimately, it depends how you plan to use the car, and how often you plan to use it.

[Simpatico]

Vredesteins are my tyre of choice for price/ability.

Ran Toyos for a while on the family Volvo, never again, the sidewalls used to give out way ahead of the tread, found blebs on the inner sidewalls regularly. A cheap disposal grippy tyre for trackdays methinks.

Ran Falkens on the Elite, just as the best of limited choice, nothing amazing but then an old Elite is never going to test their mettle really

[MrCoolA]

Toyo".......... I love them ........I thrash the shit out of mine snd never have any issues. Sticky and good lasting.

[Lotus-e-Clan]

Bridgestone Potenzas nice soft rubber and round shouldered...

Toyos are impressive when new, but they are a little too square shouldered (and T1Rs have stiff sidewalls meant for heavy moderns) so they wore unevenly on the tread adjacent to the sidewalls - but that's with my driving style -and the ones on the front are so old now the rubber has lost its grip in any case ...will be replaced with matching Potenzas in due course.

We have Vreds on the roadster and I quite like them.

[fueltheburn]

Bridestone potenzas are around 50 odd per corner. Nankang NS2 are also in the same bracket (made under license by yokohama), I have used Nankangs on several cars to good effect.
Dunlop sp9000 only cost me 65 a corner fitted but dons experience was not quite what I would class as positive.
Yokohama AD08rs are my personal choice right now but are summer only and have particularly stiff sidewalls.