You can always cheat the system using cheap tires, but the one time they fail could result in death or serious injury to you your family or another driver. Brakes and tires are 2 components that are not worth saving a few bucks on, its been proven many times....

 

"Cheap" tires are usually that way because there is no long warranty on them, and no advertising figured into their price. They still have to be DOT certified. No tire manufacturer regardless of the tire's selling price will leave himself open to a wrongfull death lawsuit by intentionally selling an unsafe tire.

There's no reason to worry about a failure because they cost less, unless you drive them after the minimum safe tread thickness.

 

I would be more worried about the what if's. That last second panic brake or swerve that you would have made it with a good set of tires but didn't because these tires were "within specification". You can buy many things in life that are within specification, you know aluminum foil, zip lock bags etc. For some things you want the best, Oncologists (or any doc for that matter) financial advisors, lawyers, and yes TIRES.

The tires are cheap for a reason. Some of it is no marketing budget and no brand premium, some of it is cost cutting on R&D and materials. I can absolutely guarantee they will not perform as well as a good set of premium tires.

The hard part is chances are you will never know. Some one might jump out in front you and you try to swerve only to hit him. In the end you probably will call it unavoidable, that you didn't have enough time to make it. Maybe with the best tires you can buy you could have made it, you'll never know. At the end of the day I like the deck stacked in my favor.

After all the difference between life and death on the road can be a matter of inches...

 

For that it called reaction time, and it got nothing to do with the tire. I don't care what kind of tire it is. If you one dump enough to jump in front of a moving vehicle deserved to get hit.

And for the tire, the main purpose is to provide ride comfort, handling, and traction.

 

i've seen "cheap" tires with 80,000 mile warranties, usually the will last longer then expensive tires because the compound is much harder, which means longer wear, but less grip. When i said unsafe and failure its because the tire is not being used within the contraints to which it was designed. Example: using a tire rated at 100mph on a vehicle capable of speeds much higher. You take a corner at 120 mph on that tire and your pressing your luck big time

 

It's more to this then just reaction time, how about just a simple peace of mind knowing that your tires will not fail you when you need them most.

 

The original poster posed the question back in 1/06. 2 years and 17K miles later:

His specific example provides proof that in his case, his decision was cost and performance effective. He states they handle better than the Contis, but are noisier. My OE staggered 18's are also noisy - so?

Locomercedes also contributed to this post, and he too seems happy with the tires, and he researched the net and heard positive news about them.

Good for you both to break the stereotype. U got a better performing product for less cost. That makes financial, and performance sense.

Taken from wikipedia:

"GenCorp sold General Tire to German tire maker Continental AG in 1987. General Tire still exists today as part of Continental's American operations."

 

There are many tires on the market and many will buy tires on price and how they look on the rack. For the E500 I will only use Michelins with Conti' factory tires as a close second. IF someone wants a bargin tire buy the Conti tire that came from the factory on the car Conti's are a good choice. The Conti is a lower price tire over the Michelin's pilots I currently use. The quality of a tire includes many things of which one variable is price. So what we are discussing is how to get a quality tire. Meeting MB specs is one way,, this allows MB to determine the minimum specifications for a tire and there may actually be better tires at lower cost. However I chose not to throw $$ on tires to be a research lab for tires. I have bought enough "good as michelin's" to know they aren't. So I will pay the $$ for Michelins on the Mercedes. I run Firestones on my corvette and for the last 7 years they have performed well. IF they aren't available I will put Michelin Pilots on the Corvette. Granted the Corvette came with Goodyears. I could not hear the radio for the tire noise,, so noise was one quality attribute I consider important for both the MB and Corvette. I will pay more for a quiet tire because it is worth it to me. There may be others who don't mind the "tire noise/feel the road experience".. but for me I want tires meet the manf. specs and be quiet. This why I no longer use the GY's on my corvette,, not that they were bad tires,, just noisy. So anyone may buy the tire they put the $$ on and their experience will add value to everyone else after they have used them for a while so we will all learn more about tires.

 

Tell me when was the last time you or someone you know you took a corner at 120 mph Very few people drive their cars at more than 100 mph. Anyways, the lesser rated tires generally sold for passenger cars are speed rated S , capable up to 112 mph.

In this thread there are a lot of ill-informed posts based on misinformation/lack of information, anecdotal evidence and marketing hype. Do your research and then talk intelligently.

 

I agree with the peace of mind but also would like to prefer back to what Barry45RPM said"They still have to be DOT certified. No tire manufacturer regardless of the tire's selling price will leave himself open to a wrongfull death lawsuit by intentionally selling an unsafe tire.

Looking back in the day, I remember I was driving 1991 Acura Legend. I've used the best tire on that car because I was wanting a peace of mind. I have come to realized, why I'm am putting such an expensive tire(Michelin) on such of car. I when to Discount Tire and bought good old cheapo Yokohama Y420 or something like that can't remember. During the time, I was driving 30 miles to work and 30 miles back from work. Average of doing was 80miles and above. The cheapo Yokohama held up really well for years now. Until this day, I still have that car and the same Yokohama tire on. I'm still here replying to you. The only thing I had to do for that tire to lasted me that long was just take it to Discount Tire and let them Balanced and Rotation every 3000 miles. Hey, they did it for free and why not right.

My whole point is, just like what Barry45RPM have said. The tires are still DOT certified before the manufacturer will release the tire to the public. Many reasons why they are cheap b/c no adversting cost, brand new embroiled, etc...

 

I'm not talking about reaction time, I'm talking about the stopping distance and roadholding ability of the tire. Ever magazine test of tires I have ever seen has the better 'costlier' models at the top of the performance characteristics while the cheaper tires fall off sometimes dramatically in lateral acceleration, emergency manuvers and braking distance. Adding 10 feet to a braking distance can be the difference of driving home with no accident or hitting someing.

 

I understand if that not what you meant. But according to the post that you've posted earlier. "Some one might jump out in front you and you try to swerve only to hit him. In the end you probably will call it unavoidable, that you didn't have enough time to make it." My understanding if you someone jump out in front of you. I will hit that person just because of their stupidity for jumping out in front of a moving vehicle. Call me mean but that will teach them a lesson not to repeat their mistake. That's just IMO...

 

I was speaking of a car, nosing his way out to far, something that often happens here on LI. Sorry for the confusion...

 

Oh...ok, in that case. Yes the tire does make a little different.

 

With tires, you almost get what you pay for but you can pay too much and get less. Case in point is the OEM tires for my 2003 E320. Michelin Energy MXV4 Plus. They are just ordinary tires with the Michelin extra price. I'd rather get similar inferior tires for less or get better tires for the same price.

Tire Rack has Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 which are supposed to be good tires. I have the Eagle F1 Asymmetric on a different car, a newer design that is better than the GS-D3 except slightly less wet weather performance according to the press reports. If you choose either tire, consider getting snow tires (for the original poster in Seattle). Even with the mild weather in Seattle, summer tires aren't too good below 40 degrees. Since you have a Mercedes, don't skim on tires. Either that or get all-season tires which are really compromise tires. All seasons tires are much safer than summer tires in the Seattle winters, not safe enough in heavy snow, not as quite as good in the summer. All season tires are safe enough in my book and good for the lazy.

General is made by Continental.

If you are really into saving money, I've heard (but not driven) the Sumitomo HTR ZIII which is only $99 at tirerack. They are supposed to be reasonably good summer tires (but you'd still need snow tires even in Seattle) and priced very cheap. They get a government rating of AA A, which is the highest for traction (straight line) and temperature.

Oh, I have Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetrics (summer) and Bridgestone Blizzak WS60 (winter) on one car and OEM Michelin Energy MXV4 Plus (summer) and Blizzak WS50 on the E320. The Michelin's are going to be replaced by Eagle F1 GS-D3's very shortly. We have about 2 light snowfalls a year but I choose dedicated snow tires instead of all seasons.

 

Yokohama YK520s. Highly rated by Consumer Reports and I concur. They handle as well or better than my OEM Pirellis, and at their first rotation (7800 miles on them) they still have more than 90% of their original tread. Excellent mid-price tire.

 

I installed these on my car a couple of months ago. A little harder feel than the OEM Michelins, but well worth the price difference IMHO.