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Budget VS Premium Tyres: A Sobering Reality Check

For the record, I am NOT standing here wagging my finger at everyone saying you should all buy expensive tires. Trust me, when I’m standing in an America’s Tire looking for replacements for my Kia Rio’s tires, and I’m looking at $40 ones vs $80 ones, you can bet your butt there’s a 99% chance I’m getting the $40 tires.

Regardless, as expected, there’s a pretty big difference in quality between cheap and expensive tires, and Jonathan Benson of Tyre Reviews is here to show us exactly what that looks like when applied to an actual moving car. Honestly the information provided here shouldn’t come as a huge shock to anyone, but it’s pretty interesting to see the different factors at work.

For the test, Benson used a set of Continental Sports Contact 6s vs a set of Rotalla RU01 S-Paces (the budget tire):

The results pretty much speak for thsemselves. Not only is the car harder to control while drifting with the bidget tires (not an everyday occurance on the roads, I hope), but the braking distance on the cheaper set is, well…not ideal.

Benson admits that the two sets of tires are not as different as he initially thought, but with a price difference of $325, that extra braking distance could be the difference between “Whew!” and “Oh no.” Of course, this information isn’t exactly shocking; you get what you pay for, and that’s no different in the world of automobile tires.

Or, you know, people can just get off their phones and actually pay attention to the road while driving, but all snarkiness aside, I understand that accidents happen regardless of attention, and having the right equipment can make all the difference in the world!

Tony Hsieh

Cars, the Buffalo Bills, video games, comics, sandwiches, jelly beans, and the shooting star press; these are the things that Tony loves (in addition to his family, of course). When he's not spending his time writing tech reviews for theslanted.com, Tony puts his lifetime love of muscle cars to use on his 2015 Mustang GT. Tony's top three favorite cars are the 1973 Mustang Mach 1, Ferrari 458, and Aston Martin DBS.

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