bean438

As we all know there are a lot of choices out there and an even greater variety of prices.
Are you really getting what you pay for with tires?
I have noticed that 2 different tires can have the same UTQG rating but can differ in price by 100%.
How can a tire be twice as expensive than one with the same rating?
Is there more to a tire than than the UTQG?
Every tire shop will tell you why their product is better than the others and then give you the babble to bach up the statement.
I was always under the assumption that the UTQG determined what was the better tire.
That being said I have always trusted apa.ca's recommendation of tires, winter and summer. I simply pick the category of driving I will be doing, get a list of tires that are suggested, and then I pick one that I can reasonably afford.
Does brand loyalty play a big role here?
I keep hearing how "this tire is stiffer/hugs the road/lasts longer than........
Again wouldnt the UTQG cover this?
My 95 protege tires were always whatever Canadian tire had on sale. I noticed no difference whatsoever between tires.
Yes its only a Protege, not an RX8.
It just boggled my mind that a 225/45/18 tire from company a is 179.99 and a tire from company b (one that says there is alot riding on your tires) is 409.00!
Both have the same rating.

Bottom line: Are you getting what you paid for, when you paid more for "the same"?

Fanman

I think that is why on Tire Rack ALL the ratings are impotant. Two tires might have the same treadwear rating, but there are other factors such as dry traction, wet traction, road noise, etc. Even if both tires have an AA rating one still might be better than the other one. There are big variations with each rating (B, A, AA). Also beware when you are on the Tire Rack website, some tires that are very high priced are run flat tires (the only mention of that are 2 words below the name of the tire), which are more than the standard tires.