Decent but cheap tyres?

[r.welfare]

Dunno - I got the garage to do it. Apparently it's not easy - but easier than a rear brake flexihose which, they tell me, is the hardest job to do on a 405.I bought those eBay ones. Seem to be holding up fine.

[CortinaDave]

The only tyres i won't touch are STOMILS... they have a horrendous habit of blowing out at speed.Not sure if you still get them, but i have seen them still fitted to cars fairly recently. They are an instant ticket to the pearly gates.

[Richard]

My local friendly tyre people put something called Hankook tyres on my 405, they seem to rate them and the car handles well on them whilst still being comfortable, which is actually more important to me. Come out about £32 per tyre.

My works van has Hankooks factory fitted, which probably means Hankook have "arrived".

[Mr_Bo11ox]

The only tyres i won't touch are STOMILS... they have a horrendous habit of blowing out at speed.Not sure if you still get them, but i have seen them still fitted to cars fairly recently. They are an instant ticket to the pearly gates.

Ha ha, my Talbot Alpine has these on, they must have egg-shaped moulds in ther factory or something. absolutley terrible tyres.

[andrew e]

Hankook are factory fit on focus & Mondeo. Saying that I swapped factory Kuhmo's on a sedona for goodyears and it was like having the chassis fettled by Lotus - BIG difference.

[CortinaDave]

I would lose the Stomil tyres unless you have a burning desire to meet the Reaper.I've had three cars with them fitted and two of them had blowouts.. the third didn't under my ownership but the bloke that bought it off me wrote it off a few months later courtesy of Mr. Stomil's finest.

[r.welfare]

I had Stomils on my first car, 12 years ago. Honestly, every corner was like an episode of Starsky & Hutch - not what a new driver needs really! Bloody awful things, thankful that I didn't have a blowout based on your evidence Dave.

[Milford Cubicle]

Those Stomil tyres look proper kwal

 

[M'coli]

Those Stomil tyres look proper kwal

 

Looks like a mk2 Pissrat wheel - that's not the Stomil that wrote a car off without having an accident, is it?!!

[Richard]

Yes.http://www.geocities.com/stuart_hedges/cars/passat.htm

[M'coli]

Cheers - knew I'd read the story somewhere!

[MrRegieRitmo]

How sad about that Passat. Makes you wonder how the company that makes them haven't had lawsuits filed against them! They're bordering on lethal!

[Milford Cubicle]

It is sad about the Passat, especially as it looked easily fixable!I swapped the rear tyres on mine to the front which seems to have made a bit of a difference. The rear beam didn't try to escape which is good news!Underslung spare wheels are awful though - I had to soak the mechanism in oil overnight to get it to come undone, and the wheel looked like something that had been dragged out of the ocean. Now the bloody thing won't tighten up again! GR8 4 EMERGENCIES.

[r.welfare]

A new bolt and hook from ebay seller "paragonpug" is only a tenner or so delivered, you want the 131mm-long one (same as the 205GTI). Keep it oiled and it should be fine. I had to grind the old one out of my saloon, it was that rusted that I bent the wheelbrace thingy trying to spin it round. It's a three-handed job to tighten up anyway, if you've got a towbar in the way Had to weld up the cage too 'cos it had been cut (and get a new spare wheel) - I recommend a locking kit (about £20 on ebay) if you park in dodgy areas on a regular basis.

[Milford Cubicle]

Do they get nicked much? I can't imagine a part-worn Arrowspeed on a rusty Peugeot steelie being worth too much.That 'paragonpug' fella has 0 items listed and I can't find anybody else selling them.

[CortinaDave]

A quick search on goodgle reveals Stomil are a polish company and are currently owned by Michelin! How do they sleep at night!

[r.welfare]

Do they get nicked much? I can't imagine a part-worn Arrowspeed on a rusty Peugeot steelie being worth too much.That 'paragonpug' fella has 0 items listed and I can't find anybody else selling them.

Mine went west at some point - not sure if this was previous to my ownership though.Drop that paragonpug guy a message, he might well have stopped listing stuff as part of this revolution against eBay thing going on. He's a genuine Pug parts seller rather than some bloke operating from his mum's back bedroom.

[andrew e]

Just dredging this post back up, earlier today (at speeds legal on an autobahn...) My trusty Bavarian express had the nearside rear let go. A hell of a row (I thought the back box had let go!) but no slewing or thumping. Once on the M25's narrowest section of hard shoulder and after removing 5 red hot nuts (and people laughed when I copperslipped 'em) the tyre was complete but the sidewalls distorted to FOOK. Luckily no arch damage either. The trye was conti eco-contact and worth every penny. Trouble is I relly need to stick a pair on....

[andrew e]

I'll just add judging by the hole on the tread I had driven over something quite sharp recently...

[Milford Cubicle]

Chuck some remoulds on it. Can you still buy remoulded regular road tyres?My Rover has a Colway remould spare, but it's in a pretty bad way - must be fairly old.

[Ross_K]

Oh yeah, Colway are still in business. I bought a couple last year for a trailer, which is about all I'd trust 'em on.£18 quid each

[M'coli]

I'd run Colways if I could find them, I've run them in the past with no complaints.

[gtd2000]

Remoulds are false economy - they cost more than half the price of new tyres but get less than half of the mileage out of them! Or at least it used to be like that in the '90's which was the last time I ever bought Colway remoulds!Nowadays I just go to the local breakers and inspect the tyres removed from the car they break - you can normally find new tyres and for the sizes I buy 185/60-14's they run about a tenner with the VAT which is economical.I've had mixed results with name brands - got a set of 2 Michelin MXV's and thought I scored a real deal for a tenner each - they were bloody awful and provided terrible grip in the wet - relegated to rear end duties until they die now...

[Andrew353w]

Stomils-NEVER!!! My daughter's FSO 125p had Stomils; what Dad would risk his daughter's life... The front off-side blew on the M40/M25 junction and later examination revealed the inner casing of the tyre had come away from the inside of the tyre, although the treads were good and there were no bulges or bumps visible from the outside. Re-shod the car straight away with Michelin 165R13s all round; bit pricey but what price your daughter's life? Slightly off topic, but Moskvich cars were supplied with Russian cross-ply tyres from the factory in Moscow but all the dealers re-shod them with Michelins before the customer collected his new Mosky (Mmmm!)Andrew353w

[Guest]

I use mytyres for my bilge, but ended up using a place in Frodsham (Big In Rubber) for my Amazon as me da knows the owner and he wanted to baffle the younger tyre fitters on a Friday by bringing it in. E3As from the dealer for the shitroen - £105 eachGoodyear Eagle GSD F1s - [then] £60 each.A no brainer really.

[gtd2000]

Slightly off topic, but Moskvich cars were supplied with Russian cross-ply tyres from the factory in Moscow but all the dealers re-shod them with Michelins before the customer collected his new Mosky (Mmmm!)Andrew353w

Didn't they stop (pun intended) selling Moskvitch cars in the UK due to lack of braking performance or something - or was that Wartburg?

[Futuramic]

I've got a set of brand new Sava Intensas on the G26 and they aren't at all bad. Phenomenal grip in the dry. The wet is uncharted territory as the wipers don't work, but I'm sure it will be okay. The tread pattern is quite modern and high tech looking, so it must be working and they show no signs of wear, but Rear dirvers are kinder tot yres anyway.Interestingly the Savas are made in Slovenia. I was looking at a brand new Goodyear expensive tyre the other day. It seemed to bear a strong resemblance to the Sava. On the sidewall was emblazoned "Made in Slovenia". I suspect they are identical.

[Betaphile]

I side with the 'buy the best you can afford' crowd on this issue. At the end of the day we're not talking about a huge amount of difference in price in the grand scheme of things, for something that isn't replaced every week. One thing I would say though is that tyres are one of those personal-preference things - individual tyres have their own unique 'feel'. For example, one of the things I look for is a tyre with a solid centre rib, which I have found in the past sharpens up steering feel noticeably. Apart from the hall-of-shamers already mentioned, keep away from Falkens. I had them on the 128 as they were the only vaguely name brand which made tyres in the size I wanted (175/60 14s). They're shite - crap feel and zero wet grip. I tend to go for either Yokohama, Pirelli or Goodyear - the Eagle F1 in particular is good value for its size range, at least locally, and a phenomenally good all-weather tyre.

[scooters]

I think you have to buy the best you can afford - tyres, brakes, suspension even on a shite car need to be tip top. Remember what a crash looks like even at 30mph?I'm picking up a '55 moggy next week and the first thing that I am going to do is fix some seat belts

[Milford Cubicle]

I've taken to buying used tyres recently, there's a decrepit garage (with a residential caravan inside it as an office )near the harbour in Inverness which sells them - they usually only sell decent tyres with plenty of tread, and it's £15 a pop inc. fitting, balancing, valve. Value.