Tyre Reviews: State Car and Tyre Choice

nogoodnamesleft

Had to get tyres replaced on my car again so I thought it might be handy for people to state what car they currently drive and tyres they have fitted in the time they have owned the car.


Car: 2003 VW Passat TDI (130bhp)
Tyre Size: 215/45/17


Tyres:

Falken 452

Got them about 7 months ago on all 4 wheels from camskill. These are a high performance tyre for reasonable money. Extremely good grip in the wet or dry cant fault them in any way regards road holding. However their downfall is wear! I had to change the front set as they were down to just the 1.6mm marker after less than 10,000 miles! The rears are fine however just the front due to the weight of the diesel engine up frony and being FWD.

Federal 595 SuperSteel

Had these on the car before. Very hardwearing and a strong sidewall. Decent enough grip in the dry. However in the wet when under hard acceleration can tend to understeer a bit. Other than that I find them fairly decent in every other regard not too much road noise either probably wouldnt be able to hear it anyways over the diesel :-p

Anan1

Subaru Forester 2.5XT
Summer: Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3 225/50 R17
Winter: Michelin Alpin A4 215/55 R16

Cyrus

nogoodnamesleft wrote: »

Had to get tyres replaced on my car again so I thought it might be handy for people to state what car they currently drive and tyres they have fitted in the time they have owned the car.


Car: 2003 VW Passat TDI (130bhp)
Tyre Size: 215/45/17


Tyres:

Falken 452

Got them about 7 months ago on all 4 wheels from camskill. These are a high performance tyre for reasonable money. Extremely good grip in the wet or dry cant fault them in any way regards road holding. However their downfall is wear! I had to change the front set as they were down to just the 1.6mm marker after less than 10,000 miles! The rears are fine however just the front due to the weight of the diesel engine up frony and being FWD.

Federal 595 SuperSteel

Had these on the car before. Very hardwearing and a strong sidewall. Decent enough grip in the dry. However in the wet when under hard acceleration can tend to understeer a bit. Other than that I find them fairly decent in every other regard not too much road noise either probably wouldnt be able to hear it anyways over the diesel :-p

to be fair, softer compounds tend to give more grip and wear faster, thats why the federals lasted better,

i bought a car once with those 595s on it, took them after a week they were so bad in the wet

PaddyFagan

Car: Golf Plus 1.6 FSI
Size: 205/55/16

Dunlops (can't recall the range) have them on (all four wheels) for about 18 months now, run up about 30,000km - I'd say the fronts will last another 10,000-15,000 before they're down to the marks - rears should last another 50,000 or more - Found them fine, great in the wet and dry - she can wheel spin the fronts abit in the wet if you put the boot down too hard, but I'd argue that's just "normal" for an FWD.

Previously had another set of Dunlops on the front (did about 45,000km on them) and before that the factory supplied set of Goodyears (lasted 30,000km on the fronts and 75,000km on the rears).

Paddy

L-M

Car: Mercedes E200
Tyres: Triangles 225/45/18

Verdict: DO NOT BUY THESE TYRES!!!

I've driven on all sort of tyres, and these are the worst I've ever driven on my a long, long shot. Go around a roundabout in the wet and you basically take what ever turn the car wants you to take. I honestly couldn't recommend these tyres to my worst enemy!

Car: 1993 520i Touer
Tyre Size: 225/60/15

Tyres: Accelera Phi

they were surprisingly good, they were on the car when I bought it, even in the wet when provoked they kept gripping unless you purposely wanted to lose the back end. They didn't seem to wear much at all in the 5000 miles I had the car.

........ they were so good I got them on my ZT

Car: 2002 MG ZT 180
Tyre Size: 225/45/18

Tyres: Accelera Phi

However the 18" ones seem to be a much softer compound than the 15" ones, I don't think the fronts will last 10,000 miles, funnily enough the rears are also on 5/6mm ish thread after 5000 miles. I've never lost traction with these wet or dry and only once or twice have I gotten them to screech a bit.

Matt Simis

Limerick man wrote: »

Car: Mercedes E200
Tyres: Triangles 225/45/18

Verdict: DO NOT BUY THESE TYRES!!!

I've driven on all sort of tyres, and these are the worst I've ever driven on my a long, long shot. Go around a roundabout in the wet and you basically take what ever turn the car wants you to take. I honestly couldn't recommend these tyres to my worst enemy!

Dammit you beat me to it! Our Alfa came with them, was like driving on ice in nearly all conditions. Braking was extremely difficult too, ABS kicking in frequently. On the plus side it made the FWD Alfa feel like a RWD car....

PS:
Car: Alfa 156 2.4JTD Sportwagon
Tyres Triangles 205/50/16

Verdict: DO NOT BUY THESE TYRES!!!


PPS: Sneaky Tyre Swapping post bump!
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056243973

L-M

Matt Simis wrote: »

Dammit you beat me to it! Our Alfa came with them, was like driving on ice in nearly all conditions. Braking was extremely difficult too, ABS kicking in frequently.

It honestly ruined driving the Merc for me and I couldn't bear to fork out for a new set, nor could I bear to sell them on to anyone else!

I should say I've got Nangkangs on the Golf atm and I find them a very good tyre, loads of dry grip and unless you push the car beyond it's boundaries they're very satisfactory in the wet.

muckwarrior

Car: RX8
Tyre Size: 225/45/18

Summer Tyres: Brigestone Potenza RE050A

Dry grip is excellent. Wet grip isn't bad, but I can easily kick out the back if I want to. Road feedback is also excellent, but a downside to this is that they're also quite noisy. Think I've done about 8000km on them at this stage and I'd estimate that there's about 60-70% wear left.

Winter Tyres: Vredstein Wintrac Xtreme

Despite the lower profile (I went for 40s as they were much easier to find) they were actually much more comfortable to drive on that my summer tyres, I'm guessing due to the softer rubber. Road noise was also lower which surprised me. They felt a little spongy in the corners compared to my summer tyres, and wet grip was noticeably worse, but over all they handled very well. Unfortunately by the time I received them the snow was gone so I can't comment on their extreme weather abilities. I did less than 1000km on them and there was no noticeable wear.

EPM

Car: Octavia vRS daysul.

Tyres:
Front - Federal 595 Super Steel. They were on it when I picked the car up in the garage. Hopeless in the wet and regularly give wheel spin in 4th gear. They inspire no confidence whatsoever, even in the dry, and are not staying on the car for much longer. I have covered 15k km so far and they are still almost like new. Cheap for a reason. Cant get a remap until I sort these out.

Rear - Dunlop Sport Maxx. I've had a few sets of these before on my last car and I find them great. Not the longest lasting tyre but great grip in both wet and dry. Low road noise and give a decent ride. The car drove better when I test drove it having 2 bald ones of these on than with the 2 federals.

Matt Simis

EPM, why not just put the better tyres on the front of your FWD?

SpannerMonkey

CAR: Bmw 645Ci

FRONT:Goodyear Eagle F-1 Asymmetric SIZE 245/40/R19
fantastic tyre utterly brilliant in the wet seem to be wearing well, have 10000 miles on them and just about half worn. will buy again

BACK: Goodyear Eagle F-1 GS-D3 SIZE 275/35/R19
pretty decent , but not as good as the asymmetrics , unfortunately im very limited with tyre choice for my car as not many tyres available in 275/35/19 at least not many good ones , i would buy again but i will probably get Michelin Pilot Super Sport next time


WORST TYRE : worst tyre i ever experienced were the Accelera Phi that were on the car when i bought it , they were only ok in the dry , but bloody terrifying in the wet , literally i refused to drive in the wet after a scare one night with them. i replaced them with the Goodyears soon after getting the car even though the acceleras were nearly new