The fundamental problem is 9/10 buyers will not look at tyres and of the ones which do 50% of them won't care as long as they are black and round.
If one car has four new Michelins and another identical one a couple of Linglongs, a Wanli and a Fate of varying wear if the Michelin one is advertised for £200 more it probably won't get a call. To be frank, it is rarely worth a seller adding such things as it adds nothing to the price or appeal to the vast majority of buyers.
More fool those buyers then, especially given:
a) how poor many 'hard and long lasting' budget tyres perform in the wet and wintry conditions or how long the 'good grip but soft / fast wearing' versions last and have lower mpg than quality tyres, and;
b) how expensive it is to replace such tyres with even 'mid-range' ones these days, particularly when more and more (especially on models made in the last 7-10 years) cars do not have 'standard' (common across many makes and models) tyre sizes and thus will cost well in excess of £100 each to buy and fit.
A £200 'saving' on the car's purchase price will likely be significantly outweighed by needing to either replace the cheapos far sooner, decreased mpg, and/or, at worst, the consequences of having an accident.
As has been said many times before - your car's tyres are the only thing keep you on the road, so why buy a flashy car and use poor quality tyres? People therefore should be checking the tyres before buying, rather than ignoring that, especially as it takes so little time / effort.
Doing a bit of research into such things prior to starting to look for a car (or replacing your tyres generally, so you get something good) can certainly pay off. Yes, if you want the best for your car, it will take a bit more time, but even basic research to weed out the bad ones doesn't take long, which is probably enough for most people to keep them reasonably safe and not get ripped off.
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