Nexen Tyres - A Review

[JohnK]

 

My Vectra had Nexens on when I bought it and I quickly found they were very poor in the wet. I nearly totalled it on my way home from collecting it, but with the nice weather we have had I put it on the back burner.

 

Anyway, I now have a solution:

 

 

 

 

 

Vague recollections -

 

1) front end losing traction, as before

 

2) the centre display going upside down as the car rolled.

 

These were brand new tyres that had been put on about 2 weeks before I bought the car to get it through its MOT. I really cannot stress enough that budget tyres should be avoided.

 

I'm battered, bruised and very sore, but still here to tell the tale but seriously guys make sure your tyres are the best your can get.

 

I also recommend not driving like a twat. Especially when you know your tyres are crap.

[Skizzer]

Jeez, glad you're alright.

[Eddie Honda]

....Fucking hell.

 

Budget tyres aren't all that bad, you just have to do budget speeds (5mph/100mpg)

[mercrocker]

Bloody hell-fire, as above, glad nobody hurt.   Pisser for the car, though, not to mention your bank balance I assume.  Hope you really are OK, though.

[beko1987]

Fuck! I've just been pricing up tyres for the xantia and toying with some random cheap brand...

 

May just get rainsport 3s again and rotate them...

[barefoot]

Another fuck from me.

 

I didn't realise that they could be that bad.

[garbaldy]

Glad your ok,

I have to say I put nexans on mine and they are pretty good in the wet,rated B wet performance, before I fitted them the traction light used to come on accelerating out of corners now it hardly flicker's,

[myglaren]

Hells bells - pleased you survived that better than the car.

My daughter's C3 had Nexens on it when she bought is and I was rather suspicious of them - nothing happened and they are long gone now.

 

I just had a set of Sailun tyres fitted, not because they were cheap (they were - £180 for the four) but because of some reviews - one a YouTube comparison with standard Ford fitted tyres.

I was wary at first but up to now they seem to be fine - even in the wet.

No better that I can see than the Michelins they replace but no worse either - a bit quieter if anything.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

Thanks for the warning - and I am very glad you are alright physically.

 

[M'coli]

Maybe some Nexens are better than others, but my experience of them on the 106 was that they were scarily lacking in grip under braking, and were changed very soon.

[mrbenn]

Shit! Glad you're ok, shame about the car as it looked a good one.

 

Excellent warning re tyres.

[sierraman]

Testament to the Vectras crash safety. I know I knock them but they can take a bang. Wouldn't fancy my chances in a Cavalier as much.

 

I've always found Nexens OK, got some on the front. I've had Pirellis in the past that couldn't hold shit. I'm a big fan of Barums, really good tyre. Not sure I agree with all budgets are shit then but I'd certainly avoid the cheapest Chinese names. Mid ranges such as Avons tend to be the best compromise.

 

Glad you've got out of that one, could have been much worse.

[DaveDorson]

I ran Nexen's on my Audi 80 and even put a set on a 924 that I had.  And on both they were predictable, even when pushing on.

 

Sorry to see that they've failed you in such a horrible manner.

 

I've got Nexen's on the front of the Frontera, and they do feel like they roll a bit when you push on.  I've put that down to the fact that it's not a hot hatch though, and I need to adjust my driving style to suit.

[Mr A Lawrence]

We had set of nexen tyres fitted to one of our mgf's.

 

Now there's a car that's skittish and critical to tyre selection and, apart from the missus fish tailing out of tescos one day in the wet* they were good tyres.

 

*she'd have got away with it being a purposeful manoeuvre if she hadn't caught the horn button midway through which made everyone look.

[gordonbennet]

Nasty that John, but could have been worse, glad you are just bruised and not broken.

 

I learned about tyres years ago, having Michelin ZX's on me Ventora at age 19 i discovered the joy of four wheel wet weather steering, would have easier to control on casters, Michelin X's on that Ford D707 7.5 tonner proved that you could actually do a full broadside oversteer @ 30mph on a bend on the M8 and forget braking in the wet..

 

The tyres on the Vent i swapped for a set of the then new Goodyear Unisteel, fuck me it was a different car entirely.

 

Ever since i've been a right fussy bastard about tyres, but did try an experiment with a set of Taiwanese thingys going very cheaply and thought i'd see if my previous prejudices were still valid, so couple of years ago put a set on me old Benz, first year they seemed all right apart from some wet wheelspin (which to be fair is easy to provoke with that old girl), second year now down to all of 7mm had two completely unprovoked broadsides in the wet going to work one morn, fuck that don't need that bollocks, got home that day and ordered a set of Uniroyal Rainsports which stick like shit to a blanket whatever the weather, i'll stick with me prejudices in future, and they can stick this cheap shit where the sun don't shine.

[trigger]

Thank god it was only you in the car, i fitted a set of Infinitys to my old Focus and it made the car almost undriveable in the wet.

 

You can knock Autoshite as much as you like, one thing though, we do know how to kill a old Vauxhall off...

[Des]

That's a harsh lesson, glad you've not hurt any kittens and Vectras are mass produced so easily replaced. I do wonder though at how the very low profileness may have been contributory, would that same tyre compound behave better on a tyre with a conventional height and width.

[phil_lihp]

Glad you're OK John, must have been scary.

 

I've learnt over time (and after a couple of scary moments facing the wrong direction) it's just not worth the risk having worn/perished/budget tyres, even the cheapest old heaps get decent tyres now.  My preferred low-cost tyre is a Toyo Proxes CF2, had them on the Volvo and Jag and they're excellent for not much cash.  I always thought Nexus were OK-ish, obviously not!

[egg]

Jeez, hope you are ok John. Take it easy for a few days.

[Lacquer Peel]

Tyres or driver? I've used Nexens and they're fine.

I crashed my Xantia 1.9D on a greasy road, I braked heavily and it kept going, even though it was wearing fresh and highly rated Goodyear all season tyres but I don't blame Goodyear for the accident.

[Felly Magic]

Fook, hope you are OK

[Partridge]

My first was, oh here we go again, another tyre flaming war.

 

Fuuuuuuuuuuuck. Have you got yourself checked out at hospital? Don't do what I did after bashing myself and ignoring it, it screwed me up for about 3 months.

 

Glad you're OK though.

 

Going back to actual tyres, I had Nexens on the 800 when I bought it. The stopping distances in the wet were alarming. This is shit, but not surprising. A good reminder to put decent tyres on the Jag next month when I ditch the "Triangles" currently on it.

[Tamworthbay]

Sometimes it can just be the car/ tyre combination. My BMW had decent tyres on when I got it but the back felt vague, swapped for michelins all round and it's perfect now.

 

But at least it's only the car that's paid, and there are plenty more vectras left in the sea.

[RobT]

Blimey, glad you're OK John, when did this happen?  

[BorniteIdentity]

The Michelin CrossClimate tyres on my Daily are a revelation. I'm not sure there's a case for buying anything else. They squeal but never let go. Ever.

 

I said this on another thread... But worth reiterating. Just think how very little surface area you have in contact with the road at any one time. It's so marginal it's almost impossible to describe. That tiny amount of rubber really does need to be the best possible.

 

Glad you're here to tell the tale. Look after yourself.

[xtriple]

Many years ago I was working for a 'large' second hand car dealers down here and they took back a Nissan Stanza and it was hilarious: you literally could not keep it in a straight line! It felt for all the world like  a 'cut and shut' where they had forgotten to do the 'shut' bit as it just wanted to swap ends all the time. After much time on the ramp, where nothing amiss was found, we swapped the tyres (the ones on there were all good, decent brand, loads of tread but showing a few sidewall cracks) and it was back to being a boring understeerer just as Nissan (may have been Datsun?) intended.

 

i think most tyres these days are okay/good/exceptional (delete as applicable by brand/price/spec) but they seem to age really quickly nowadays. In the good old days, old tyres were fine but now, anything a few years old is deadly, regardless (so it seems) of brand. Have they changed the way they are made or what they are made of?

[Tamworthbay]

The Michelin CrossClimate tyres on my Daily are a revelation. I'm not sure there's a case for buying anything else. They squeal but never let go. Ever.

I said this on another thread... But worth reiterating. Just think how very little surface area you have in contact with the road at any one time. It's so marginal it's almost impossible to describe. That tiny amount of rubber really does need to be the best possible.

Glad you're here to tell the tale. Look after yourself.

Theyre the ones I got, brilliant tyres. Great in the dry but unbelievable on the slippery stuff in winter. And not stupid money either.

[forddeliveryboy]

My rule is if Chinese, they need to be all weather or winter ones. 

 

Which I've broken at the moment with a set of 'high summer' tyres on, because the Uniroyals do tend to wear abut quickly in warm conditions. They're good for exercising any lazy calipers - apply the brakes on a wet road and while the car doesn't slow much, the ABS rattles the pistons hard.

[Ghosty]

Doesn't surprise me that Nexens are to blame, one of our old Civics had them on it when we bought it and they really fucked with the handling.

[bub2006]

Best wishes john. 2016 crash count keeps on rising. Shite year for lots of us