Just replaced the two rear tyres on my wifes car which were, wait for it, 6 years old, I noticed bad cracking on the sidewalls, so the above article is spot on, as an ex motorcyclist I am acutely aware of how important tyres are. I never buy cheap tyres, I renew them at 3mm tread left regardless, I check them every week both for faults and pressures which are very important, and I do not repair them after a puncture I replace them. Tyres are THE most important part of any vehicle, full stop, amazing the amount of people with high end vehicles who boast about cheap tyres, if you can't afford to run it don't buy it.
A lot of these Company's flogging cheap tyres are selling out of date tyres from tyre dealers and Companies, In the UK you buy a cheap tyre from an auction site, this has been discarded in the uk sold to eastern europe and then sent from there back to the uk as a new tyre. I have just been caught this way but thanks to paypal got a refund, the moral (as it has been forever) 'if it seems too good to be true it usually is'.
Two things every motorist should learn are the speed and load ratings for their vehicle, especially the latter which is usually totally ignored even by garages, a manufacturer can make the same tyre size in various load ratings, put on a one too low and as above it can blow out at speed.