Tyres. Budget or Premium brands?

V6Matt

Even premium brands produce rubbish tyres, such as the Pirelli P6000 which is probably the most god awful tyre available.

Do your research in advance

goldspanners

V6Matt wrote: »

Even premium brands produce rubbish tyres, such as the Pirelli P6000 which is probably the most god awful tyre available.

Do your research in advance

im certain theres worse. although the p6000 is nothing special it isnt too bad a tyre,but there is better out there for the money they sell for.

AdrianHi

V6Matt wrote: »

Even premium brands produce rubbish tyres, such as the Pirelli P6000 which is probably the most god awful tyre available.

Do your research in advance

Two things to watch out for when assessing a tyre. When you replace an old tyre for a new one of the same brand you will see a big improvement simply because it is new supple rubber and of course full tread depth.
P6000 I rate as OK , average and better than the Bridgestone RE040 tyres my wifes car came out the factory with. The Michelin Pilot Primacy HP's are even better though.

Also some tyres simply suit some cars better and some cars are messed up by having different tyres front and rear, especially if they have very different tread patterns and / or tyre side wall stiffness.

Bossworld

Viper_7 wrote: »

I use 17inch Pirelli 6000. Good all round performance.
Around £95 per corner.

Get around 10k on the fronts, and 20-25K on the rears. - big heavy diesel lump over the front and lots of country roads.

Mine wore through in 10k on the front too :eek:

Rallydriver wrote: »

The thing I've found is that some tyres that work well on one car in one size don't work nearly as well in another size on another car.

I had Falkens on a Rover 200 ex-rally car and they were brilliant. But that car weighed less than a ton. On a heavier car with bigger wheels it may not be so good and being a soft tyre it will wear out quicker.

Very well said that man, P6000s were renowned as 'ditchfinders' on pug 306 forums, they are seriously scary in the wet. Was glad to get shut of mine, but the chap above seems very happy with his - 17" compared with 15" I guess.

Would always pay extra for branded as they're the only contact your car has with the road. What's the point in saving £40 if it could cause a crash.

Then again if you live somewhere nice where it doesn't rain, it probably doesn't matter! But my car takes 195/55/15 which are always expensive, 195/50/15 are far cheaper but a lot noisier and bumpier. Goodyear eagle F1s I had on before were great, looked great too, but went through them in a little under 20k (not bad for a FWD heavy engined diesel though). Then moved to NCT-5s, they seemed OK but have swapped for some old steelies as the car's getting scrapped.

I disagree with that guy talking about remoulds being fine, testing proves that your braking distance is increased, there was a test on either Top gear or fifth gear (i forget which but it should be on youtube).

The 5 year thing is a good guideline, but how old is the spare on most cars?

AdrianHi

Bossworld wrote: »

The 5 year thing is a good guideline, but how old is the spare on most cars?

Spare stays in the boot out of sunlight which is the worst enemy and the other elements of course.

Bossworld

AdrianHi wrote: »

Spare stays in the boot out of sunlight which is the worst enemy and the other elements of course.

Not necessarily, for example the 306 has it in a cage suspended underneath the rear end of the car and that's not exceptionally rare either. Vauxhall Zafira has it too I think.

DaveMacD

V6Matt wrote: »

Even premium brands produce rubbish tyres, such as the Pirelli P6000 which is probably the most god awful tyre available.

Do your research in advance

I used P6000's on my old Pug 406 estate, and they were excellent in the wet. Guess it depends on the car, but I was getting around 20k out of a set, usually with a fair amount of junk in the boot, living on a motorway.

For the poster asking about 4x4's I have used General Grabber AT2's for a while now, and find them to be quite good. They will let go in the wet if you force it, but that has a lot to do with it being a pick up with RWD. As an off road tyre, they are well regarded as a cheaper alternative to BFG's.

As a general rule, I steer well clear of remoulds and second hand/part worn. I've had a tyre failure at speed on the motorway, it's only fun if you don't hit anything. Since you don't know the history of the tyre, you can't be sure it's undamaged, as not all damage is easily spotted, and some is impossible without taking the tyres off the wheels. If there is cracking on the sidewall, it's time to scrap them. Same if there are bands of blueing or black around the tyre (suggesting heat damage from rubbing or driving when soft/flat)

V6Matt

DaveMacD wrote: »

I used P6000's on my old Pug 406 estate, and they were excellent in the wet. Guess it depends on the car, but I was getting around 20k out of a set, usually with a fair amount of junk in the boot, living on a motorway.

I think it is more a case of the P6000's being good in the minority. The reason you get such good mileage out of the P6000 is because they are such a hard compound and offer little grip (thus lower wear).

The P6000 is well known for being truly appalling in the wet on the vast majority of cars (check out Pistonheads), I had a set on a Mazda due to the previous owner and they were atrocious in the wet, same with P6000's fitted to the back of an Alfa 156 I own (previous owner again), a friend had a full set on a Lotus Elise and again very bad.

In fact, when I bought the Alfa, the first thing I did was change the P6000's because I rate them so poorly.

I guess it depends on how you drive the car as well, if you just potter about town at an average speed of 15 mph then your not going to notice it until you need to slam on the brakes in the wet, and it's too late then.

If you drive on 60mph country road routes, motorways, or have ever needed to brake heavily, emergency swerve e.t.c then it's weaknesses will shine through.

Great if they work for you, but they are right at the bottom of the pile in my books.

Michelin Primacy HP's are a great compromise, but would normally look at Eagle F1's, Bridgestone Potenza's e.t.c.

Tyres have to be the best you can afford (and P6000's aren't even particularly cheap compared to better lesser known brand names), they are the only part of the car that has contact with the ground.

DX2

I got two new tyres last week VREDESTEIN HITRAC Total price £136.00

Paradigm

Rather than start a new thread I thought I'd breathe a bit of life into this...

Now I've pretty much killed the Avons I had from camskill the saab guy who looks after my car has recommended Vredestein ultrac sessantas.

He reckons they are a great performance tyre, with good wear, but cheap(ish) at the minute.

Anyone tried them?