Worst Tire Brands to Avoid Purchasing in 2020

Tires are just like your cat’s feet.

They have the important responsibility of supporting the entire vehicle’s structure and of helping the car grip the road.

If you have low-quality tires, your vehicle may lose handling and you will experience a lot of road noise. To top that off, you will have to buy new tires every few thousand miles as the old ones will wear out quicker.

There are hundreds of tire-manufacturing brands out there but not every brand makes good tires. Some tires are cheap but their cheap price means they are not reliable.

The only thing between the road and the car – Therefore it’s wise to invest in a good pair of tires for your own safety.

That’s why it’s important no to get fooled by flashy tire deals and attractive prices. Invest in well-known manufacturers only. If you are still adamant on buying OEM tires, go through our list of tires you should avoid purchasing.

Worst Tire Brands to Avoid Purchasing:

Cheap Chinese Tires

China exports 65 million tires out to the world each year. Therefore, most of the cheap tires you will find on markets will be Chinese made and these are the worst overall.

Without good safety-checks and bad materials before leaving the factory, it’s already set up for a disaster. 

Take a look at them and you won’t be able to differentiate them from more expensive branded tires made by Michelin or Dunlop. But that’s the thing. These tires do look good to an untrained eye but are not good in terms of quality, safety, and durability.

However, there are certainly some reliable Chinese tire manufacturers out there. But the majority do not perform well.

If you are investing in a set of Chinese tires, you have to question your own safety before the price. Is it really worth saving $100 instead of driving around in a safe car? The brake distance and the grip between good and bad tires differ a lot, and this can be the difference between life and death. 

Another aspect to look for is quality when it comes to durability. Cheaper tires will most likely have a much shorter life. If you buy cheap tires, you will have to replace them more often and you may not save as much money as you think.

A lot of Chinese manufacturers are developing a lot of different brand names for almost the same tires. One of these big manufacturers from China are Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Company. They are selling a lot of cheaper tires without good safety-checks or tests before they leave the factory.

Here is a list of some of the brands they sell:

1. Chaoyang
2. Goodride
3. Westlake
4. AKS Tires
5. Telluride
6. Compass Tires

Therefore, it’s strongly recommended not to purchase any of these tires.

Tire Buying Tips

There are certain things you should keep in mind before you buy a tire for your car. An investment in tires is as important as investing in your dream car. If you mess up with your tire purchase, then your vehicle will not perform up to standard.

Here are a few tips to help you to choose the best tire for your vehicle.

1. Find the Correct Tire Size

Before you find a tire for your car, you need to confirm the size of your wheel. Depending on the size of your wheels, you can make the perfect choice. Thankfully, every tire has its rating, its size and all important information written on it. Buy a tire that matches the rating on your old tire.

Things to look for are the size, load index, and the speed rate. The size looks something like this: 195/50 R19 and the speed-rate is followed by 2 digits and a character like 87S, for example.

The speed rate is a character between the tire size. It can look something like this: 225/50SR16. In this case, the S is the speed rate and it means that the tire is made for 180km/h. There are several different characters for different speed rates.

2. Check Manufacturing Date

You might think that tires once made would last a lifetime. However, that is not the case. Tires that are not put on cars also deteriorate over time especially due to exposure to heat. This is why you should check the manufacturing date of every tire before you finalize your purchace.

The manufacturing date is in 4-digits and it is followed by alphabets. It is advisable to change your tires after every 6 years even if they are relatively new. After 6 years, the tires lose their integrity and they do not last as long as they should.

3. Check the Warranty

Tires are covered with a warranty. Yes, that is surprising yet true. Usually, manufacturers will give you a 50,000-mile warranty for the car but it is possible that the tire you get with your car will not last long. It might be that your vehicle is heavy or that you forget to rotate your tires.

In any case, you have to make sure that the terms of the warranty are not based on mileage. If they are, you should check the terms and conditions in detail to understand the warranty. When you go to claim new tires, the manufacturer might not give you a new set of tires for free.

They will charge you a marginal amount for the exchange and even then, they will ask you in detail about the care you took. Whether you rotated your tires on time and if you inflated the tires to the recommended pressure. If anything is amiss, you might not even get the partial coverage for tires.

Magnus Sellén

Hello I'm Magnus, the owner and the writer of this website. I have been working with cars since I was 16 and I'm specialized with in-depth Automotive diagnostics. Also been driving drifting for the last 6 years. I'm here to give you answers to all your automotive questions and I hope that you enjoy our content.