Are Budget Tires Finally Good Enough? 8 Cheap Tires VS 1 Premium Tire

How bad is the ice performance of the current crop of all-seasons (& more specifically, the best) vs, say, a reference winter tire (blizzak/870/etc)?

I'm looking at moving to all-seasons (the contis, in particular) for my winter set of tires on a gs450h (currently 225/50/17 alpin 6 about to start its 4th season - might replace early). Winters here are generally mild (Sofia, Bulgaria), but I do drive in conditions that sometimes form the worst kind of ice (a few below subzero + wet weather + road with basically no sunlight = smooth, slick... you know) - plus the hard ice at winter resort parkings, of course. Same day I can be driving on a highway (140kph) in 15+ degrees dry & sunny weather (say, going to the seaside or to Greece or anywhere southern and/or generally flat), which sounds like the perfect way to degrade winter tires (both compound and thread) - or am I perhaps worrying too much and should stick with winters? And yes, I do see snow regularly, but the snow performance of today's all-seasons seems almost indistinguishable from a non-X-Ice-type winter tires.

I'd be very interested to know the relative effect of tire wear. We all know that a 50% worn tire does not perform as well as it did when it was new. What we dont know is how does a 50% worn premium tire compare against a brand new budget tire...?
Maybe if you buy budget but change at 50% wear, you might be overall safer than if you buy premium but run it til it's not legal anymore, I don't know?
A purist will buy premium AND change well within the limit but not all of us have the budget to do that, so I'd love to see some hard facts on the topic.
thanks, Mark

all your tests are done at high speeds. i am interested in the slow speed dry/wet braking test. does that also translate to cars driven inside the city at slow speeds (30 to 40 km/h)?

I would compare budget summer tires with the European winter tires, as this should be the case. Those who wants to save some money, they would not even change non-studded winter tires. I'm working in tire online store in Latvia, mostly this is the issue - most of the drivers does not see the benefit in switching tires, European winter tires are considered as All season tires: www.jaunasriepas.lv

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Did you try putting 4 different budget tires on the car - some part worn etc. The number of times while I've been waiting for a tire change someone has come in and asked for a single tire change with the cheapest replacement going.

Best thinking face emoji in video thumbnail yet! :D

I would add another recent test, where they compare set of premium tires vs set of budget brands (some maybe rather known midrange brands, not necessarily Asian unknown brands):
https://autozurnal.com/test...

I know it is in Slovak, but nowadays with google translate available... anyway, it is mostly about graphs and numbers :)

Btw, the test also confirms CPC7's great wet road abilities. I think the test was done in cooperation with Czech car club, as they have the same results in different graphic design on their web.

Retreaded passenger car tires are sometimes good for slow moving low load vehicles that travel on dirt roads. Farm cars, hunting cars we call them. In the USA the last company to offer retail retreaded passenger car tires finally went out of business recently. They produced lots of junk tires that failed at highway speeds and were a nightmare to own. Their off road low speed low load tires performed much better.