Cheap Tire Brands to Avoid: Worst Tire Brands 2024

Your tires are one of the most important features of your vehicle, and picking the right ones means a lot for safety, performance, and longevity. As much as the temptations to stick with cheaper tire brands can easily be there due to their lower price tags, most of them come with serious drawbacks.

If you don’t know which cheap tire brands to avoid, it’ll be a waste of time and money. The worst brands of cheaper tires often use poor materials and avoid serious testing, as reputable brands do. These can become less durable, have inadequate traction, and increase the threat of blowouts, reducing handling.

Now, let’s take an overview of some of the worst budget tire brands available in the market today, using recent data sourced from various automotive forums, reviews, and popular blogs.

What Defines a Tire Brand as Cheap?

The tires for your vehicle should be chosen with safety, performance, and durability taken into consideration. In turn, purchasing tires can lure you with their friendly prices, while most of such tires have big downsides.

Very cheap tires enable you to save some money in the very beginning; however, such a poor-quality tire definitely results in sacrificed safety and performance and is to be changed sooner.

Being aware of the common features of low-quality tire brands helps people make true-to-life decisions and avoid various hazards while driving.

Predisposing Features of Low-Budget Tire Brands:

• Inferior Raw Materials: The low-quality rubber offers lower grip and lower wear performance.
• No Warranty: Very often, there is no adequate warranty against defects and flaws.
• Inadequate Testing: Much lesser emphasis on safety and performance tests.
• Unpredictable Performance: Highly variable performance across various driving conditions.
• Short Life: Wear out faster, hence the frequency of replacement is higher.
• Safety Hazard: More prone to sidewall blowouts and spongy performance.

Low-quality tires will compromise not only your safety and performance but also durability.

Risks of Using Cheap Tire Brands

The quality of tires makes all the difference in the safety and performance of your vehicle. Using cheaper tire brands seems initially like a cost-effective plan but actually brings in potential risks.

These tires are made of inferior materials and undergo less rigorous testing, which may cost your vehicle’s handling, safety, and longevity.

To enlighten your decision, let’s go through five of the most serious risks of using cheap tire brands, as uncovered by automotive experts:

1. Lower Traction and Handling

Most cheap tires are made from low-quality rubber compounds that result in very poor grip on the road. The poor handling could worsen when on wet or icy roads, making the possibilities of accidents very high.

2. Shorter Life

Low-quality materials used in making them ensure that cheap tires wear out very quickly compared to premium brands. This will see you replacing them now and then, which eventually costs you more than estimated.

3. Higher Chance of Blowouts

Poor and inconsistent construction of sidewalls in cheap tires can easily result in blowouts, particularly at high speeds. This puts not only the driver in danger but also other users of the road.

4. Poor Wet Weather Performances

Cheap tires lack the advanced tread patterns and sophisticated rubber compounds that provide for effective water dispersion. In effect, this provides for longer braking distances and reduced control on wet roads.

5. Lack of Warranty and Support

The majority of cheap tire brands lack comprehensive warranties or decent customer support. One may be left high and dry in case of problems, and sorting out problems or replacements may be a challenge.

Cheap Tire Brands to Avoid By All Means

The selection of tires can be considered most important for vehicle safety and performance. Although cheap alternatives may tempt you, some of those low-cost tire brands had gathered negative input from many automotive forums, reviews, and blogs.

A glance at ten such brands carrying particular customer feedback and price ranges that one should approach with caution include:

1. Accelera Tires

This is an Indonesia-based brand and has complaints regarding their grip being quite insufficient with longer braking distances, particularly on wet pavement. Sudden loss of traction while accelerating and braking was common, which has questioned their safety as well.

Price: $60-$120 per tire, depending on the size/model.

Response on Customer’s Side: Accelera tires had mixed responses on Amazon majorly. As for many satisfied customers, who liked the price being low of this tyre, others were very displeased with durability, noise, and general tread life.

2. Chaoyang Tires

A large Chinese brand, Chaoyang tires often show rapid and uneven wear. Sidewall cracks and poor wet performance are common, signaling inconsistent quality control.

Price Range: $40 to $80 per tire.

Customer Feedback: Chaoyang tires are also on Amazon and eBay. Reviews vary, but some people say they are okay for the money, while others claim they have issues with longevity and traction.

3. Triangle Tires

Recognized worldwide, Triangle tires are synonymous with early wear and blowouts. To minimize cost, the company uses cheaper materials that have threatened their durability.

Price Range: $50 to 100 dollars per tire.

Customer Feedback: Triangle tires rarely attract in-depth reviews on mainstream review websites. However, at numerous automotive forums, their longevity and variable performances are recurring subjects of debate.

4. Westlake Tires

Part of China’s ZC Rubber Group, Westlake tires are critiqued for quality and safety. Some claim that the tire noise is high, customers complain about traction, and durability is another factor in question.

Price Range: $50 to $90 per tire.

Customer Feedback: Westlake tires are found on Amazon and Walmart, among other places. There is mixed feedback while some users find them to be affordable, others complain about excessive noise and uneven tread wear. The most complaints regarding noise and uneven tread wear on some models have been with the Westlake RP18.

5. Autogreen Tires

Since Autogreen tires are sold as budget tires, such tires have just about zero traction on either wet or dry pavement and vibrate at higher speeds frequently; all signs of low quality and pretty mediocre performance.

Price Range: $45 – $85 per tire.

Customer Response: Autogreen tires are hardly reviewed on large review websites, but automotive forums point to grip and performance characteristics, particularly on wet pavement, as major concerns.

6. Goodride Tires

Despite the name, Goodride tires are notorious for excessive noise and vibration, together with related traction problems that could put one’s life in danger.

Price Range: From $50 to $100 per tire.

Customer Feedback: Goodride tires are available at Amazon and eBay. Comments on Goodride tires are mixed. Several customers say the product has been a relatively economical choice, but one customer reported that the tires were noisy and too fast in wearing off the treads.

7. Firestone Destination Tires

Though once reputable, some Firestone Destination tires have been criticized because of their poor traction in snow or ice. It is not appropriate for winter conditions since some are used on SUVs and light trucks.

Price Range: From $100 to $150 per tire.

Customer Feedback: Firestone Destination tires are generally well reviewed, but some owners report potential traction issues in winter conditions, available at Walmart, and Costco.

8. Falken Ziex Tires

Watch out for the Falken Ziex ZE310 EcoRun model, which has been flagged for short tread life. The initial traction might be pretty good, but the rapid wear reduces performance over time.

Price Range: $80 – $120 per tire.

Customer Response: On Amazon and Walmart, the Falken Ziex tires receive favorable reviews regarding their performance on a dry road while receiving mixed feedback regarding their performance in regard to tread life and wet traction.

9. GeoStar Tires

In general, GeoStar tires-in particular, the model called the RX-615-have a rough ride compared to other brands and a tendency to let loose when cornering.

Price Range: $50 to $90 per tire.

Customer Feedback: Lack of availability on major platforms limits the reviews, but quite often, forums discuss discomfort during rides and issues with grip.

10. AKS Tires

AKS tires are notorious for their short life, and their grip is not reliable on either dry or wet roads; they degrade very fast.

Price Range: $40 to $80 per tire.

Customer Feedback: AKS tires have hardly any reviews on major e-commerce portals, and community discussions raise concerns over tread wear issues and performance that are not reliable.

Brand	Durability Rating (out of 10)	Noise Level (out of 10)	Wet Traction Rating (out of 10)
Accelera	4	7	5
Chaoyang	5	6	4
Triangle	3	8	4
Westlake	6	8	6
Autogreen	4	6	5
Goodride	5	7	6
Firestone Destination	7	5	7
Falken Ziex	6	6	6
GeoStar	5	8	4
AKS	3	8	3

What to Look for in Quality Tires

The quality over price factor on tires makes quite some difference regarding safety, durability, and general driving comfort. Keeping off the cheapest or lowly rated brands entails knowing some of the key determinants of quality tires.

Here are key aspects of consideration that make a tire great:

Tread pattern and depth:

A good pattern offers great traction, especially on wet roads. Deeper treads add to the improvement in grip and prolong the life of such tires. The tires should have well-defined and deep grooves that could channel water away to avoid hydroplaning.

Material Quality:

A high-quality rubber compound contributes to a much better performance of the tire, regarding toughness and grip. Most high-performance tires boast the latest rubber technology suited to different temperatures and road conditions for a smooth and safe ride.

Brand Reputation:

Renowned brands invest heavily in research and development so that their products can keep pace with or surpass the highest benchmarks in the industry in terms of safety and performance. Go through reviews, ratings, and professional endorsements about brands concerning their reliability and customer satisfaction.

Warranty and Support:

A good tire manufacturer gives support to its products with comprehensive warranties that cover all eventualities from the wear of the treads, to defects and sometimes even road hazards. A good warranty indicts a firm belief in the quality of the tire from the manufacturer and assurance given to the customer.

Rating and Certification:

UTQG ratings reveal the tread wear, traction, and resistance of tires to temperature. Similarly, check for certification by organizations such as the Department of Transportation or European Tyre and Rim Technical Organisation.

Comfort and Noise:

Good quality tires reduce the noise of the road and generally give comfort while driving. In this regard, look for those tires which are well publicized for their quiet performances along with smooth handling.

Performance in Different Conditions:

Optimum performance in every season is attainable with the selection of weather conditions. All-season tires are versatile but if you reside in a place where either winter or summer is at its extreme, then going for professional tires like winter or summer tires is ideal.

Customer Reviews:

Go through the reviews and feedback left by various customers of different models. The real driving experience of others can be very informative regarding performance, durability, and quality.

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