tyres.

[forddeliveryboy]

^ "brought the memories back, slip sliding away"

Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away

 

1977, Paul Simon

[spike60]

I was thinking of that as I wrote!

[Des]

Ok. 'Eats tyres' may be overstating it a bit. I do get confused as well as I do rotate them, so I can't always recall when a tyre was purchased. I'm pretty sure I put a pair of Toyos on three years ago and they're now in the bin though as I've not long put another set on it. I do think the tracking is slightly out, but then I am prone to power understeer on damp roundabouts...

 

I must also concede that now mine has almost 200,000 miles on it, I would like to try one in near-factory condition. I don't buy your 'all after 1985 are crap' rule though. Post '88s certainly had issues with the nearside suspension arm wearing, leading to atrocious tyre wear (only the nearside oddly) but there were good ones too. They aren't all ruined by having a replacement chassis under them either. If they were, I doubt the race boys would use them. 

 

Hark at these two, like a couple of mental patients arguing whether the yellow or red pills are the bitterest when chewed.

If you could both meet in the middle and agree on 1986 you'll find peace, I believe that date has been bandied about somewhere as the general cut-off point for all things automotive.

[New POD]

My last set of Costco discounted 205/55/16 mitchelins on the Honda accord lasted 25K, and were BRILLIANT in wet and cold (and sun).  Which is why I invested £290 for another 4.

 

The tyres on the Mx5 don't show any wear after 5 years (15k maybe), but they are shit in cold and rain. I have some spare nearly new P6000's in the shed attached to daisies, but they have a reputation of being shit on such a light car. They cost me £50 with the wheels.

[fordperv]

I bought a pair of maxxis tyres and a pair of falken tyres at the same time for my saph as the tyre place couldn't get me a matching set of 4 in the falken were grippy and have worn well but the maxxis map1 are shocking, fine in the dry but accelerate in the damp, there's no traction you become drift king, definitely will not buy any again will go for falkens

[sutty2006]

You're buying the wrong cars.

 

My Mongdeo ST diesel has Falken's on the front shortly after i bought it 2 years ago. They have done 20k and still have 4+ mm of tread left. Everyone knows that torquey diesels eas low profiles but this one hasnt. (probably because i dont wheel spin it or drive like a douche). The rear tyres were on it when I bought it so they've probably done 30k+ and still got loads of tread (mohawk)

 

Manta has 4 firestone fire hawks, they are bloody good tyres. They've been on the front for 7 years and the rears about 3/4..... still like new. Mind you ive only done about 11k in those 7 years on the road!

[Andrew353w]

I'm a tyre fetishist, they have to be right and of decent quality, often have feel round the read to check everything is tracking the last one, but i rotate regularly and if there are signs of feathering i fix the problem.

 

Worse tyres i ever had were Michelin ZX's on the Ventora, felt like it had 4 wheel steering, terrifying in the wet, couldn't wear 'em out so slung 'em, but then old Michelins were always hopeless in the wet.

 

I have ALWAYS fitted Michelin tyres to ALL the cars I've owned and all those I have serviced & repaired in the past and swear by them! I appreciate everyone has their own opinions and thoughts on this, but I can really feel the difference when running on Michelins as compared to budget tyres. I will admit that they are more noisy than some makes but as for grip... I throw my Xantia all over the place and those Michelins hang on like a limpet with attitude! 

[skattrd]

I had Michelins on the boring last year and they gripped less and wore out quicker than most tyres I've had on the car. These were brand new Primacy 3's that cost £80 a piece, never again.. Goodyear whatever eco tyres, were not great either, grip below standard and wore out relatively quickly. Bridgestone Potenza, shocking grip, no idea of wear as I got rid of them. Dunlop Blue something gripped well but were a tad soft and didn't last great.

I've no idea what I'll go for next I'm seriously thinking of running some all season tyres 24/7 on the car as I'm quite happy with the ones on there at present ... I may go for some Nokian or something else Scandiwegian.

[Inspector Morose]

Interesting. I've heard lots of good things said about Michelins and I don't doubt them for a minute but my experience with them on a 480 turbo turned it into a central reservation ornament with a kink in the middle and ruptured fuel tank. I wasn't caning or driving like a loon and to this day I say that the tyres were at fault and far too hard a compound for their application.

 

Second case was a Michelin bus tyre catastrophically failing on the motorway. It was supplied new and fitted by Michelin themselves under a contract tyre scheme. The tyre was sent back to them on request as we were looking at passengers claiming against us for the incident. They came back with it was nothing to do with them as the tyre had been in contact with a hard surface. A FUCKING HARD SURFACE? What are they testing their tyres on? Marshmallow roads?

[Sloth in a bowl]

On the V40 front tyres lasted about 30,000 miles plus a bit.

 

On the Skoda I'm going to be lucky to see 15,000 miles out of the factory fit Pirelli's, despite the Skoda being lighter. I don't think that extra 100hp is helping.

[stephen01]

Well I actually did a few miles on the westlake's today, they knock the Bridgstones for 6, foot to the floor, in the wet, and no traction lost at all. even chucking it into corners didn't upset it. Managed 70+  and all is well.. 

 

No doubt I'll be doing the rears in the next month or so.. 

[cobblers]

I have some spare nearly new P6000's in the shed

Don't so it. P6000s have been absolutely lethal on all the cars I have had them on, all quite lightweight cars actually. They never seem to wear down, but as a result of that and probably being 4 or 5 years old, they were so dangerous in the wet that even normal steady driving was scary especially in the MX5.

[Lacquer Peel]

Kingpin remoulds all round.

[Honey Badger]

I've got 4 Bridgestone A001 all seasons on my Accord coupe and they seem pretty good so far with plenty of grip and decent wear so far.

 

Bridgestone Potenzas on the S2000 used to wear out in 8000 miles, which was a set a year at £500. Replaced them with Hankook Ventus V12 which were bloody excellent for wear and grip, could be a little dicey in very cold though.

 

Worst set I ever had we're Vrdesteins on my 216, Just awful in the wet, or even just slightly moist.

[HH-R]

ROAD CHAMPS FTW.

[The Moog]

I really struggled with P6000s. I had a set on couple of saabs and also my jag. I thought they would be ace but really sucked donkeys knob. Dont know if they were old or not.

 

On saabs fitted Proxes which were ace 😊

 

Order full set of winter retreads from ebay for civic. £120 ish delivered from Germany so hopefully will do the job.

[forddeliveryboy]

I don't buy your 'all after 1985 are crap' rule though. Post '88s certainly had issues with the nearside suspension arm wearing, leading to atrocious tyre wear (only the nearside oddly) but there were good ones too. They aren't all ruined by having a replacement chassis under them either. If they were, I doubt the race boys would use them. 

 

'Race boys' mod their chassis extensively, the aftermarket ones more so than the real thing - they have to. Bog-standard ladder-frame chassis can be easily modified to improve their road abilities to a surprising degree.

 

I wasn't suggesting for one minute you should buy into my fanciful thinking regarding strange old Citroëns, dw - think what you will. And of course this whole thing is a little like those mental patients fighting over pills, since there can be few 2cvs left from the 80s which are largely original. But if spending a few grand on a car, it's better to start with something which was decent in the first place.

 

A friend involved in motor racing also questioned my "hunch" but knowing I was rarely far from the truth he had a variety of metal samples from various cars sent off to be tested in a lab. To say I was proved right would be an understatement, the quality dropped a lot in the years mentioned.

[HH-R]

I had a lone P6000 on my Rover 45, on the back which I paid over the odds for. Can't really comment on whether it was good or bad though. The car had three other ditchfinders that were as hard as concrete and never wore out, it was one of the few cars I've had that a did a fair mileage in too. It/they offered no peace of mind at all in cornering, and it felt like it would spin out at any moment. I drove it through the really horrible winter we had a few years back where it snowed from about November to April and didn't crash or even have any hair raising moments, so maybe they weren't as bad as I thought. The feeling of being seconds away from being in a ditch was maybe a blessing there. I always thought it was a pretty poor handler but I wouldn't mind a go of one with some decent tyres on.

[xtriple]

Strange, I've never been bothered about tyres on cars, cheapest available is best! Bikes on the other hand have always had the best at any price and I've spent days researching what tyres to fit to different bikes. I could tell MANY stories of tyres on bikes..... but I won't 'cos this is a car site!

 

However, about the time I started caring about the wife and kids I did start to take an interest in car tyres and started buying reasonably decent tyres (the death of remoulds probably hastened my chosiness!) instead of just the cheapest I could get.

 

When I bought my SL it was fitted with Nexxon tyres and bloody big wide buggers at that. As I'd spent ALL my money on the car and had a sizable HP commitment to boot, I was loathe to chuck them away as replacements were hundreds apiece. The Nexxons were absolutlely fine! Granted, it very rarely saw rain and got put away in the winter but I used to thrash the bollox off that car and they would grip and grip and grip. I stopped worrying about them.

 

The MX5 I just sold (06 mk3) had three ditchfinders and one decent (forgotten the makes) and the three ditchys were fine, the one decent one always felt 'dodgy' but it was well worn. The conclusion I came to was: new tyres with decent tread and recent manufacture - even cheapies - are better than 'decent' but old and worn tyres.

 

However, I'm seriously considering ditching the tyres on my new Insight as the noise they make is BLOODY HORRENDEOUS! I did some googling and these tyres are the noisiest tyres currently made! 73db compared to most at 70 or 68. I fancy some 68s as 5db is quite a bit, but, I'm really struggling to throw away perfectly good,, new tyres.

 

First world problems and all that!

[tooSavvy]

My pair of Goodyears at the front are reining in the propensity for 'foot flat/standing still' issues, with the 'screwed' [sic] Rikens...

 

I'm on likely 4/6k a year so will crack before balding......

 

 

TS

[Inspector Morose]

The Panda diesel of SWMBO eats tyres, no matter what you put on it. Nicely though, it will go through two sets of fronts to one set of rears. Plastic ditch finders fitted. It doesn't have the power to worry them and they last a year, just like any other make of tyre fitted to it.

 

The BX astate has whatever I feel like fitting to it at a price I can afford. Look, it's a 1.9 n/a diesel. It's not like I'll be exploring the limits of its handling anytime soon, will I?