Avon, Vredestein, Wanli among 'don't buy' tyre choices from UK consumer magazine

ERJ staff report (DS)

London -- The UK Consumer Association, through its publication, Which?, has published test results on 119 car tyres. A spokesman for the Association said the results were

first published in March 2009, following tests by an international consortium of

organisations led by the German motoring organisation, ADAC. The

spokesman said Which? staff had checked to see if the tyres were still

available and given a price, so it was not misleading to present old

data in this way. He said the data had not been updated and no new tyres had been tested since the original data was generated in early 2009.

The spokesman said he was aware that legislation on tyre sales had changed in the interval between the tests being carried out and this latest publication, but felt that this would not affect the relevance of the results, saying he did not think tyre dealers would take any notice of the law in any case.

Which? put its 'Don't Buy' rating on two Avon brand tyres (from 5 tested); one Falken tyre (the only one tested); one Kenda (one tested); One Maloya (one tested); one Matador (from two tested); one Nankang (one tested); one Tigar (one tested); one Trayal (one tested) and two Wanli tyres (from two tested).

In addition, the company tested four Vredestein brand tyres. One was rated Don't Buy, but two were rated as Best Buys. BF Goodrich also rated one Best Buy and one Don't Buy among three tyres tested.

Most of the tyres rated 'Don't Buy' performed poorly on wet braking. The organisation tested this parameter by measuring the distance required to brake from 80 kph to 20 kph on a track covered in 7mm of water.

Of the worst Avon tyre, Which? said, "The 195/65 R15H Avon ZR3 doesn't look a bad tyre if you only drive in dry weather. But its poor wet handling and rolling resistance, and simply woeful wet braking performance mean that, even though, like all the tyres we've tested, it passes all the minimum legal performance requirements, we recommend you Don't Buy it."

The cheapest tyre on test to win the 'Best Buy' rating was Hankook's Optimo. Which? said of this tyre, "The Best Buy 155/70R13 T Hankook Optimo K715 offers balanced performance, gripping well in wet and dry conditions. Its rolling resistance is class leading in this size, so fuel economy should be good, and this tyre wears the longest of any of the 155/70 R13 T tyres tested. Availability is poor so you're unlikely to find it without a search."

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Test report from UK Consumers' Association (may require login to Which?)

Press release from UK Consumers' Association