Tyre time

[tsmiggy]

Hi All
Now it is tyre time for my wifes Seat Ibiza 2015 1.4 tsi. Fitted with 17inch wheels. Do you have any suggestions, or what as been your prefered choices.

cheers

 

[Crossthreaded]

Tyre choice - a vast subject with so many variables. How is the car used (ie broadly everyday commuting or maybe "spirited" driving or even all out, tyre smoking, hard cornering max performance - to mention just a few) I've run on a vast different range of makes and qualities in the 50 something years I've held my license and often choice for me has been dictated by what I could afford at the time and what was available. However I have to mention one make which I hold in high regard - Barum. Who? I hear you say. Back in the late '60's/early '70's I worked for Firestone Racing. I was involved with the European Touring Cars. At one race, Brno, in Czechoslovakia, ( on the old circuit which looped into the outskirts of the town) We were invited to visit their factory. It was most impressive, much more modern than ours in Brentford. At that time I was running a Triumph Vitesse, quite a nippy wee car with definitely "nippy" handling to go with it! I stuck it on a set of Barums as an experiment and they were very good. Ever since I've had a soft spot for them and in fact two of the tyres on "Becky" our Panda are Barums Brillantis 2's at this minute. I don't like the Bridgestones my Ibiza came on and I'll quite likely go for the Barums when new ones are needed.

This brand used to be a strictly budget choice and were priced accordingly. Now I believe there is some link up with Continental - much, I understand like the Skoda/VW relationship. I'm sure that can only be good for quality and performance but I notice that, of late, they seem to be positioning into the mid range grouping so a little more pricey. I'll still buy them with confidence that they will serve my "average" driving style well

 

[camelspyyder]

I think its not a particularly popular size.

215/40R17 is the factory Ibiza/Toledo size.

In that size I have previously had:

Dunlop SP SportMaxx - Awful harsh/noisy but long lasting

Bridgestone RE050A - A bit less noisy but not as grippy as the Dunlop either

Conti PremiumContact2 - Quiet, good ride compared with other 2. Fairly grippy dry and wet for 25000 miles, but still easily legal (if less grippy) at 35000.

After a lot of research for a mid price tyre to replace the Conti, I settled on Falken Ziex 914 Ecorun, but had a chance to trade the car first so I didn't buy them in the end.

Consumer reviews of 100+ tyres in that size here:

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre-Size/17-Inch-Tyres/215-40-17-Tyres.htm

 

['& Son' managed]

As as been said, the 'best' choice for you largely depends on personal preferences regarding grip, comfort, steering feel, long life, e.t.c.

The most famous/trusted tyre brands usually deliver a respectable performance, but any can produce the odd relative lemon of a tyre.

In my personal experience, I can say that I've always been quite impressed with Uniroyal and Goodyear/Dunlop and Michelin/Kleber
have at least been always satisfactory. Conversely, on more than one occasion I've been underwhelmed by Avon and Pirelli

 

[jdmsx]

In recent times I’ve been using Hankook Ventus V12. Found them to be a fairly good all-round tyre. Slightly on the soft side for wear though. I always buy my tyres from Camskill online as they have prices which are really competitive so what I do is have a look at what they have for sale and compare reviews and prices.

 

[Crossthreaded]

I think its not a particularly popular size.

215/40R17 is the factory Ibiza/Toledo size.

In that size I have previously had:

Dunlop SP SportMaxx - Awful harsh/noisy but long lasting

Bridgestone RE050A - A bit less noisy but not as grippy as the Dunlop either

Conti PremiumContact2 - Quiet, good ride compared with other 2. Fairly grippy dry and wet for 25000 miles, but still easily legal (if less grippy) at 35000.

After a lot of research for a mid price tyre to replace the Conti, I settled on Falken Ziex 914 Ecorun, but had a chance to trade the car first so I didn't buy them in the end.

Consumer reviews of 100+ tyres in that size here:

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre-Size/17-Inch-Tyres/215-40-17-Tyres.htm

Ah yes, see what you mean about tyre size. I tend to forget about the vast range of specialist and minority sizes in use these days which tend to be restrictive in choice. I'm no stranger to high performance vehicles having briefly partaken in rallying in my youth and then being involved, professionally, in the European Touring Car Championship. However for a daily driver, and being now what is called a "senior citizen" My priorities for a daily driver are more to do with comfort, ease of driving and economy of operation - still needs to have a bit of "umph" available for when needed though! In that respect I tend to seek out softer riding cars on larger aspect ratio tyres (185/65 R15 at this time) I find that, generally speaking, wide, low aspect tyres tend to make a car "nervous" and don't cope with our atrocious road surfaces so well. Often cause suspension components to wear more rapidly and, as there is less choice, prices are often higher. I must agree with one of the above posts in that the car came fitted with Bridgestones (Eco type) and I really don't like them. They seem to transmit a lot of road noise and wet grip leaves a great deal to be desired - They are about 3/4 worn now and I can't wait to try a couple of my Barums for comparison.

 

[RUM4MO]

I've always found that normal tyre depots in UK are lazy and only provide a limited range of manufacturer's tyres and charge a lot of money for them, and why not when people only treat tyre buying as a "last minute" or "distress" purchase.

For many years now, I've only ever checked tyre prices on websites like blackcircles or mytyres - and then approached my local independent tyre pace to let them compete for my business, if they can't/will not, then I order them in from normally Mytyres.

Being mainland Europe based, Mytyres has access to many more brands, the most recent tyres I ordered in were for my daughter's late 2009 Ibiza 1.4 SC and they were Kleber Quadraxer all season in that "funny" 17" size. Actually I've just bought in a set of winter alloys with Goodyear winter tyres in 18" for her new Leon Cupra from the same source.

I'd only ever buy tyres locally if I was stuck and had damaged a tyre.

In case that you don't know, buying tyres from Blackcircles or Mytyres etc is easy and these online tyre outlets have agreements with many local tyre fitter outlets, so getting tyres that you have bought online fitted is easy, most of these places will even ship the tyre order to your chosen tyre fitting outlet, so no messing with being at home to receive them and then needing to take them to your tyre fitter.

I'd like to support my local outlets, but most times with tyre outlets, you are really just being a charity when you consider the prices that are being charged, again as them need to store them and normally you are not in a position to argue when you have a puncture, when it comes to just replacing worn out tyres you can have a choice if you can be bothered.

 

[Crossthreaded]

I've always found that normal tyre depots in UK are lazy and only provide a limited range of manufacturer's tyres and charge a lot of money for them, and why not when people only treat tyre buying as a "last minute" or "distress" purchase.

For many years now, I've only ever checked tyre prices on websites like blackcircles or mytyres - and then approached my local independent tyre pace to let them compete for my business, if they can't/will not, then I order them in from normally Mytyres.

Being mainland Europe based, Mytyres has access to many more brands, the most recent tyres I ordered in were for my daughter's late 2009 Ibiza 1.4 SC and they were Kleber Quadraxer all season in that "funny" 17" size. Actually I've just bought in a set of winter alloys with Goodyear winter tyres in 18" for her new Leon Cupra from the same source.

I'd only ever buy tyres locally if I was stuck and had damaged a tyre.

In case that you don't know, buying tyres from Blackcircles or Mytyres etc is easy and these online tyre outlets have agreements with many local tyre fitter outlets, so getting tyres that you have bought online fitted is easy, most of these places will even ship the tyre order to your chosen tyre fitting outlet, so no messing with being at home to receive them and then needing to take them to your tyre fitter.

I'd like to support my local outlets, but most times with tyre outlets, you are really just being a charity when you consider the prices that are being charged, again as them need to store them and normally you are not in a position to argue when you have a puncture, when it comes to just replacing worn out tyres you can have a choice if you can be bothered.

These on line suppliers are very interesting and I tend to always do an online search before buying. However I have to say that I quite like haggling and Edinburgh is absolutely awash with tyre suppliers from the likes of our old "friends" at the top of the predator list to the wee guys "doing away" in back street hovels with dodgy balancers - balance is a big issue for me! I would never buy a part worn for too many reasons to list here.

So what I tend to do is search the net for best prices then ring round for quotes (my phone package doesn't limit 01,02 and 03 numbers) If you are pleasant, speak quietly and politely and negotiate hard then, if it's one of the "big boys", after the price is agreed, innocently say - Of course you do include the balance and a new valve in that price? Puts them on the back foot and even if they won't do it you can often negotiate a saving. The smaller players nearly always quote an all in price so you need to be careful to compare apples with apples! I always achieve a price at least as good as the on line ones and frequently better. We have 6 cars in the family so I get plenty of practice.

 

[RUM4MO]

There are some "lucky prices" you can accidentally bump into, for some unknown to me, while looking for a full set of Pirelli P Zero Rosso for my 2011 S4 (same as fitted to the car at Audi factory so even marked AO), I tried the AA, they equalled or marginally beat the best price I could find locally and online as "fitted" - so I bought them only then to discover that there was a special offer with Pirelli, so that meant an extra £25 off each of the 4 tyres! The only fly in the ointment was, the AA's official supplier/fitter was National tyres, so the clowns at Causwayside marked every wheel removing or fitting the tyres!! When I ran a 1991 VX Cav GSI 2000 16V 4X4, I got a very good price from the place in Dalkeith, maybe called GP Autos, I was buying same as fitted to that car, again Pirelli but maybe P600/6000 or so, anyway, these tyres messed up that car's four wheel drive system so I had to remove the four wheel drive controller fuse, I had already replaced the front tyres a few months earlier using my local independent tyre place, all the tread depths were the same! I had a chat with VX at Sighthill - they just said "the tread depths are not the same" so I did not argue, so I marked all 4 wheels/tyres with chalk and rolled the car on flat ground until the slightly older tyres had completed exactly one revolution - the new rear tyres had completed about 1.125 revolutions - so to avoid any other trouble I got my local independent tyre place to get me another 2 tyres as it was them that supplied the first 2 tyres I had bought, problem solved now all 4 tyres were the same dimensions! Now why Pirelli had passed out a batch of tyres that were undersized I can't say, all the codes etc were correct - or was that place in Dalkeith with its unbeatable prices sourcing "seconds" or sourcing hooky tyres? I used to use Costco for Michelins that was okay at first and the guys that fitted them took pride in what they did, but unless Costco had a deal on as well as a Michelin deal, I feel Costco has not worked out that Michelin tyres have come down in price relative to other premium brands, especially at other outlets, so while I use them for winter Michelin tyres, I would not say they were now my automatic place of choice for buying Michelins.

Edit:- once with that VX Cav GSI, we were on holiday in the Newforest, so I checked Micheldever for a set of 4 new Pirelli P600/6000, with that confirmed price and with the idea of driving back up to Scotland with 4 new tyres on the rear seats, I phoned my local independent tyre place and told them what I was planning, them said that they would match that Micheldever price, so I did not buy at that time. Once home I went into my local independent tyre and asked them to get me in a set of 4 tyres at the agreed price "I don't know who gave you that price!" - well I did, I was talking to him, so we agreed to disagree but he held that price for only 2 tyres, so that was why I ended up only fitting 2 tyres initially and looking elsewhere for the second 2. Some times even the friendly local independent tyre place tries it on! BTW, Micheldever van is frequently off loading tyres to that independent tyre place.

 

[Deleted member 120738]

Our Ibiza FR Black which was fitted with 16" wheels for the first owner who found the 17" wheels gave a harsh ride has Bridgestone Turanza on the front and GT Champiro on the back, 215/45/16 but the GT's are XL tyres. They are incredibly noisy and the ride is still harsh but that is down to the sports suspension rather than the size of wheel. Why on earth the XL GT's were fitted on a small light car like the Ibiza god only knows, I assume it was all that the dealer had in stock. I have run Falken Ziex 914's on previous cars and found then fine, and only got noisy when they were nearly down to the wear limit. I think you will find that Black Circles are now owned by ATS who are in turn owned by Michelin.

 

[Crossthreaded]

RUM4MO - For many years I used to only go to Margaret who ran Auto Image (Dundee Street). She always did us a good deal, often on stuff like Yokohama etc. Then she closed down, although I think they still have a place in Glasgow somewhere? Now I tend to just go wherever I find the best price on a reasonable quality product. Fair Deal (Ford street) have done me some pretty good deals as has Stephen Juner (T C Juner) at Golden acre But I just wish I could find another Margaret! An odd ball (because it's part of a big franchise) is Farmers at Blackhall but not the one at the Y junction (the one that has the time/thermometer on it's front as you come in from Queensferry. No, at that junction take the right hand fork and head towards town. The road goes down a dip and then rises up again, taking a left turn. Look to your left as you negotiate that turn and you'll see a small Farmer's depot on your left. - If you've gone as far as the Holiday inn you've gone too far - This is a separate stand alone branch. I've only used it once when we wrote off a tyre on the Panda but they did me proud. My youngest boy's been in a couple of times and had good deals too. Maybe with the big branch just up the road he's having to try that bit harder?

 

[camelspyyder]

Our Ibiza FR Black which was fitted with 16" wheels for the first owner who found the 17" wheels gave a harsh ride has Bridgestone Turanza on the front and GT Champiro on the back, 215/45/16 but the GT's are XL tyres. They are incredibly noisy and the ride is still harsh but that is down to the sports suspension rather than the size of wheel. Why on earth the XL GT's were fitted on a small light car like the Ibiza god only knows, I assume it was all that the dealer had in stock. I have run Falken Ziex 914's on previous cars and found then fine, and only got noisy when they were nearly down to the wear limit. I think you will find that Black Circles are now owned by ATS who are in turn owned by Michelin.

Agree the FR suspension is harsher than the cooking version on our TOCA. With the same size 215/45 16 Dunlop Fast Response our rode really smoothly.

 

[RUM4MO]

Our Ibiza FR Black which was fitted with 16" wheels for the first owner who found the 17" wheels gave a harsh ride has Bridgestone Turanza on the front and GT Champiro on the back, 215/45/16 but the GT's are XL tyres. They are incredibly noisy and the ride is still harsh but that is down to the sports suspension rather than the size of wheel. Why on earth the XL GT's were fitted on a small light car like the Ibiza god only knows, I assume it was all that the dealer had in stock. I have run Falken Ziex 914's on previous cars and found then fine, and only got noisy when they were nearly down to the wear limit. I think you will find that Black Circles are now owned by ATS who are in turn owned by Michelin.

Yes, sometimes we like the way some of these "new types" of tyre traders work, and their prices, without knowing who now owns them. I bought a Ford Orion Ghia Injection new once (or twice), and found one of its Goodyear tyres had either a deformation or a section of harder/softer rubber, so it "slapped" as you drove along, at that time, there was a tyre operation in Scotland called Smilley(sp?) and they were known to be owned by Goodyear's owners, so I headed there to get a new tyre and some money back. That went well as far as them accepting they would hand the old tyre over to Goodyear and fitted a new one, only issue was, someone seemed to claim to have lost that tyre, so all Smilley(sp) gave me was a voucher to spend in their outlet - not too handy for someone who at that time was changing cars every 2>3 years so had no need typically for tyres, batteries or exhausts! That voucher got sold onto a work mate at a discount price!

XL rated tyres, that comment made me go out and check the summer tyres on my wife's 2015 Polo, which are 16", and they are not XL, but I made sure that the winter tyres, which are 15" were XL when I ordered them in via Costco - or maybe Michelin listed their Alpins in 185/60 for that car as XLs! Hum, absolutely no complains about extra noise coming from these winter tyres though - basically same noise level which is low on 16" summer tyres as 15" winter tyres - which is not how it was with her previous 2002 Polo which had 15" summer tyres and 14" winter tyres - it was so peaceful and quiet when the winter wheels went on - and of course a smoother ride.

 

[RUM4MO]

RUM4MO - For many years I used to only go to Margaret who ran Auto Image (Dundee Street). She always did us a good deal, often on stuff like Yokohama etc. Then she closed down, although I think they still have a place in Glasgow somewhere? Now I tend to just go wherever I find the best price on a reasonable quality product. Fair Deal (Ford street) have done me some pretty good deals as has Stephen Juner (T C Juner) at Golden acre But I just wish I could find another Margaret! An odd ball (because it's part of a big franchise) is Farmers at Blackhall but not the one at the Y junction (the one that has the time/thermometer on it's front as you come in from Queensferry. No, at that junction take the right hand fork and head towards town. The road goes down a dip and then rises up again, taking a left turn. Look to your left as you negotiate that turn and you'll see a small Farmer's depot on your left. - If you've gone as far as the Holiday inn you've gone too far - This is a separate stand alone branch. I've only used it once when we wrote off a tyre on the Panda but they did me proud. My youngest boy's been in a couple of times and had good deals too. Maybe with the big branch just up the road he's having to try that bit harder?

I used to pass that branch of Farmers (the one at the Y) every day to/from work at Crewe Toll from/to the dreaded City Bypass!

Maybe going further back, Thistle Metallics used to be the place to go to in Edinburgh, I've forgotten if they were I that Auto Image site or quite near it, I believe that Thistle moved down to Leith Walk/Easter Road area.

Talking about Auto Image, I probably have the task of sourcing a decent set of wheel bolts and locking wheel bolts for my daughter's new winter wheels for her new Leon Cupra, all these alloy wheel places seem to have gone - well at least the physical shops have locally. I plan to dismiss the supplied poor quality set of bolts that came as a fitting kit, and order in a set of chemi blackened McGard bolts and locking bolts - now that is harder than you might think as most/all discount places only ever list these items against actual car models - and these wheels are correct for her car, but need tapered and not radiused seat bolts. I might try having a word with ECP to see if they can locate the correct kit/kits from the McGard stock number and not their listing for car models.

 

[KXL]

Dunlop RT2s are on a somewhat good price at present...at least according to mytyres

 

[camelspyyder]

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Dunlop/SportMaxx-RT-2.htm

 

[camelspyyder]

If that's too pricey, this is the newest version of the one I was going to buy:

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Falken/ZIEX-ZE310-EcoRun.htm

from £66 rather than the £88 for the Dunlops.

 

[SaracenUK]

I've just put a pair of Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 on the front of the wifes FR, what a difference over the crappy Bridgestones !
Pricey but worth it for the extra grip and reduced road noise (in my opinion)

https://www.blackcircles.com/catalo...-asymmetric-5/215/40/R17/Y/87/m?tyre=38668112