right,
the reason why manufactures fit certain brands of tyre is this:-
Car manufactures pay little or nothing or sometimes even get paid to use what ever tyres because the tyre manufactures know that people tend to continue to fit the OE for the rest of the cars life in some cases, IMHO Toyo have been paying huge amonts of money to manufactures in recent years because it was as little 3 years ago that toyo were considered simply budgets like Wanlis and Nankangs etc, i agree they have got alot better but they are not the same quality as the leading brands, but you have to admit the marketing has worked, in this thread alone peole are saying Toyos are fitted to Evo 6s etc, and it is reason enough for buying them, but there are cheaper brands that are equaly as good, but are cheaper because they dont have the overheads of advertising and paying TVR and Mitsi to use thier tyres, But you only have to look at Bridgestone to see how well this can work, but as bridegstone have proved it works alot better when they have a multi million pound motor racing R&D group behnind it, and thier tyre speak for themselfs in indepandant reviews, and for those vulnerable to marketing they have been fitted to imprezzas for years now,
for the record, most budget tyres are made underliscence by a majior manufacturer, e.g bridgestone also produce firestone and BFG, IMO firestones in recent years are very good for the money,
but for my reccomendation for fav tyre is SO2/SO3 potenzas, also nice are dunlop SP9000s which deserve a mention,
for for the long e mail but i do know my tyres a bit.
lofty
P.S anyone whos willing to listen can hear my flannel about a near monoploly in the tyre industry at present, with Mr Farmer owning the vasy majority of retail outlets but you wouldnt otherwise know as all the names stay the same.. right ill stop befor i start