CONTINENTAL TYRES / Go premium, or you might not go home

OR YOU MIGHT NOT GO HOME

One of the upsides to buying a premium car is that we expect that car to behave predictably well in all conditions, under all circumstances. When it comes to fitting new tyres, that expectation persists regardless of the quality or price of our new tyres. Here’s why fitting anything but premium replacement tyres to your premium ride is a bad idea all around…

Considering the most recently available statistics from eNatis, the average age of South Africa’s overall passenger vehicle parc of nearly 7.5 million cars, ranges between three and ten years, with this average age dropping to a maximum of six years for mid- to higher-priced premium and luxury vehicles.

Combined with an average annual distance of approximately 20,000 km covered by cars in this category, it is a simple mathematical certainty that most premium vehicle owners would have to replace at least one set of tyres during the ownership period.

All too often, for multiple economic reasons that we can touch on another time, replacing a set of tyres is usually a grudge purchase, or a surprise purchase, or both. This often leads to the temptation of buying down on tyre quality. Surely a tyre, is a tyre, is a tyre, right?

Not so, according to Continental South Africa, who has been manufacturing premium quality tyres at their Port Elizabeth plant since 1947, and to prove it, the company invited Driven to participate in a series of innovative back-to-back tests of their premium tyres versus unnamed budget tyres, using two popular vehicles: the rear-wheel-drive BMW 3-Series and front-wheel-drive Ford Fiesta.

REAL-WORLD PERFORMANCE

In the case of the BMW, Continental fitted its ContiSportContact 5 – a high-performance tyre that provides outstanding performance, handling and control. It relies on Continental’s advanced Black Chili compound and macro-block tread pattern, which are designed to deliver short braking distances and excellent grip in both wet and dry conditions.

The ContiPremiumContact 5 was fitted to the Ford Fiesta, providing notable all-round performance and safety thanks to the macro-block tread design, optimised shoulder flexibility and rigid sidewall. This results in sure-footed handling, reduced rolling resistance and higher mileage.

An identical set of cars were fitted with budget tyres to provide real-world, direct comparisons to the premium Continental offerings.

“The purpose of this event was to test the capabilities of different types of tyres, including the tread design, compound, and construction, to see what the differences are in terms of performance and safety,” says Ryan Visagie, Product Communications Manager, Continental Tyre SA.

Conducting a series of tests – in both wet and dry conditions – at Aldo Scribante raceway, the relative performance of the budget tyres versus the premium offerings from Continental was thoroughly tested and the result, while not surprising, brought these real-world differences into sharp focus.

The situation was even worse when the driving aids such as Electronic Stability Control (ESC) were switched off for demonstration purposes. The cars shod with Continental tyres were still very predictable and controllable with sure-footed handling and stopping performance. In contrast, the cars with budget tyres were significantly more challenging to control – particularly in the wet, where the loss of grip happened much earlier, was far more dramatic and a lot less predictable.

WHY THE DIFFERENCE?

A visit to the Continental plant provided some answers to why premium tyres perform substantially better than budget tyres in extreme conditions.

On face value, all tyres may look the same, yet, where Continental spends hundreds of millions of Euros, and tests around 140,000 tyres over the equivalent of 200 million kilometres each year in all types of conditions, budget tyre manufacturers do not necessarily adhere to similar rigorous development and testing protocols.

The result of this intensive research and development by Continental is a range of tyres that deliver consistent and safe performance, where budget tyres, which may seem acceptable in normal driving in the dry, fail to provide similar results when pushed to their limits or encountering wet conditions.

LAST WORD

A tough economic climate may tempt some buyers to fit cheaper alternatives when replacing their premium car’s original manufacturer-specified tyres. While this short-term relief may make financial sense, compromised quality is a real and present risk to both the car’s performance capabilities and your family’s safety. Our advice is simple: buy the best tyres that you can afford, as your safety depends on it.