Now we have a number of people who are reporting that Nexen's are good tyres and have a few minutes to catch up with the forum, I just want to pick up on a few things
I am not making any criticism of Nexan tyres, just a great believer in the quality of Conti's or Michelin tyres. I suppose it goes back to my working days of company cars where I did 30k plus miles every year for over 30 years. The company always insisted either Conti or Michelin tyres were fitted, and in all those years only ever had one puncture, good mileage and felt safe with them.
There could be several reasons for this.... one I recently picked up at work!
1. The company could had a stonkingly good deal with a supplier.
2. It maybe one of those things where the company want quality, but don't want to invest a huge amount of time/effort
3. Have been burn once or twice before, forcing a decision to stick with 'brand names' just because..... which kinda merges with my 4th comment....
4. Some sort of personal incentive? The decision maker getting some sort of kick back? I have seen this at work in the past where we were 'forced' to use a particular supplier for toner cartages for printers. Refill units of lower quality. It later transpired the person who pushed this 'policy', her husband was the manager of the particular branch of the printer supplier!!!
5. This is where I got stung recently. I was looking at provisioning a new internet feed at work a couple of months back. At work, we usually play with 'the big boys', so that's the likes of Virgin and BT. In the past, both of these big boys have been problematic for me, causing untold trouble and billing issues. In a previous line of work, as well as personal experience running a business line, I put forward another company called Zen.
Zen came in 40% cheaper than either BT or Virgin, but have come with 'great recommendation' from not only myself but others.
It was turned down and my boss gave me some advise.... "always play with the big boys regardless of past experience, if a smaller company was to fail, no matter for what reason, you decision for not playing with the big boys would be questioned and frowned upon, even if it was not directly related to that company".
Now, at work, we are not a massive company, but do work with some large multi national insurance partners so I understand what he is saying, however despite this, Virgin decided to provide us with countess problems soon after the new order was put in!
Essentially, its not all down to 'picking quality', but picking 'a good name to prevent your decision being questioned'
My wife had a bad experience once after being talked into budget tyres with a major blow out which split the inner wall, the fitter checked the other tyres and found two of out the other three also had bulges that could have gone the same way.
Personally, I don't see that Nexen are budget but more high mid range. They may cost less than Conti, but they have certainty held their own. Yes, its taken a few brave people to trust their car with an unknown tyre, but now we have a good number of members on them, I think they have been proven to be of good quality. When you have Ford who have used them as OEM tyres supports the claim as well.
As for those tyres your wife used, how 'budget' were they, had they been miss treated by your wife (no disrespect intended) or tyre fitter? With this respect though, I completely respect your decision on ensuring that this never happens again but going in the direction you have chosen regarding "stick with known brands".
Nexen's are not right at the bottom of the pile when it comes to cost, and the tyre labels don't seem to suggest any poor results either! Nexen have however been around for a decent chunk of time, around 70 years but are one of the lesser known brands which are slowly finding their way onto the market.
Unfortunately I can't seem to get my head around how a tyre can be nearly 90% cheaper than a similar one when the same size etc.
See point 5. Because they are relying on their name to keep the price up. The same internet service I proposed was 40% less expensive for exactly the same product, but I was more or less forced to use Virgin because of the name.
Similar to what the cheaper Whirlpool tumble drier buyers are seeing with them catching fire.
Design flaw....
What about the Ferrari's and Porches who catch fire when they are filled up with petrol....
Can I point out the issues with the 1.2DIG-T and the 1.6DCI CVT gearbox? Yet Nissan is seen as a quality reliable brand (although not by me any more, my future with Nissan as a brand is in serious doubt recently but that's another story)
Just because something costs more, does not make it better or invincible
Interestingly, I wonder if anyone has been tempted to put a taller profile on the 19" tekna wheels as they look like they would wear them well and fill the arch better - I suspect you'd also start to enjoy some of the benefits the 17" owners have in them being less crashy etc.
Changing the tyre profile size is not a recommended action. Older cars you can get away with it, but given there is so much technology on these cars, I would not be surprised if it throw some sort of error or cause a function such as the stability control to go a bit funny.... only one way to find out though!