Written on: 29/07/2012 by MarkCeed (1 review written)
Normally I always buy premium tyres and don't mind spending money on them. I needed to buy two new tyres to sell my 1.6 diesel Kia Ceed - not a performance car. For the first time in my life I decided to buy budget tyres to save some money. Mistake.
I bought two Mowhawk tyres, which are described as a mid-range budget tyre, costing £125 fitted for a 225 45 17 inch tyre. Obviously, I didn't expect the same performance as the usual type of tyres I buy (Continental, Dunlop, Goodyear etc.) but nor did I expect the extremely poor performance and dangerous handling these tyres offer.
The first corner I took at normal speed was terrifying. I thought the tyre was going to come off the rim, whilst at the same time I thought the back of the car was going to spin out. After checking the tyre pressures I tried again, but the result was the same.
Just prior to selling the car, I had the unfortunate pleasure of driving the car after it had been parked outside on a very warm day. Even in a straight line, the car felt sloppy and unbalanced on the warm Mowhawks.
These tyres will be worse still in the wet and cold. Please avoid these tyres. For another £15 per tyre, I could have had two Kumhos, which I know from experience are in a different league. Thankfully I only had to use the car for a week with these tyres before selling it on.