Have I been shafted? (tyre replacement offered by the fitter)

brampty

I ordered 4X Primacy 4 225/45/17 94V XL tyres for a good price from ATS. A rated in fuel and A rated in wet grip. Arranged a fitting date. All fine. One day before the fitting is due, I was at work during the morning, and they left a voicemail saying "we've only got two of those, so we can either fit those two, and the next two at some point in the next few days".

Annoying, but okay. came home from work and gave them a ring, and then they said "oh actually, we haven't got any of the Primacy 4 225/45/R17 94V XL now. you would have to wait about 3 weeks for them". I was like "no, thank you, I can't wait that long", and they said "but we can offer you 94W instead of 94V for £15 extra". again, I was like "no, that's not what I've ordered, please cancel my order then".

Five minutes later they ring again saying "actually, we can get you the ones you've ordered by getting them from elsewhere within the company. but it might still take 5-7 working days"

I told them okay then. Today they rang me saying "got the tyres, can you pop in this afternoon?". So I did, and on arrival, I was greeted by them saying "actually, there's a problem, our supplier has sent us the 91W non-XL tyres, they are essentially the same tyre like 94V XL, you won't notice any difference, because you don't need the XL tyres. plus the 91W are more expensive, but I'll give them to you for the same price, because of all the mess".

Because I couldn't be bothered waiting anymore, and with them saying it's the same tyre essentially, I said okay. Then I come home and realise that the tyres they gave me are C fuel and A wet rated, while the ones I ordered were A and A for both. The original ones were also 94V XL, as compared to 91W non-XL that I've got.

Disappointment galore! Is it even worth complaining? Is there any real difference between A and C rated tyres?

Any comments are welcome, thanks in advance!

DUTR

I can understand your annoyance, will the ratings make any noticeable difference?

chrisw

I doubt there will be any noticeable difference in practice. However, irrespective of the ratings, if the car was initially specified with extra load tyres, there was presumably a reason for it.

Oponeo.co.uk says:-
If the vehicle manufacturer has gained certification for the vehicle running on reinforced tyres, then it is unconditionally necessary to comply with that requirement. Buying car tyres with a standard load index because they are cheaper than XL tyres is a breach of safety conditions and can have unpleasant consequences (such as insurance companies may refuse to cover the costs in the case of an accident).

ratrace

Xl tyres are fitted mainly on vans but cars have them to my astra j estate has xl tyres on the back which i always replace with xl, Not worth getting into bother with insurance or with the pold, for the sake of a few more quid, Personally i would have walked away plenty of tyres about never notice any change to the drive with xl's on compared to my other car, but being on the rear on a front wheel drive car no diffrence at all, Only thing i have noticed the rears have never had a punture but fronts do from time to time thats it really 

Jumblebumble

chrisw said:

I doubt there will be any noticeable difference in practice. However, irrespective of the ratings, if the car was initially specified with extra load tyres, there was presumably a reason for it.

Oponeo.co.uk says:-
If the vehicle manufacturer has gained certification for the vehicle running on reinforced tyres, then it is unconditionally necessary to comply with that requirement. Buying car tyres with a standard load index because they are cheaper than XL tyres is a breach of safety conditions and can have unpleasant consequences (such as insurance companies may refuse to cover the costs in the case of an accident).

Crucial question here
What does the manufacturer specify in terms of XL or not?
If they specify only XL as chrisw then you really should ignore the tyre shop's views as no way do they should be believed over  the manufacturer and you should kick up a fuss

AdrianC

XL simply means they're a higher load rating than non-XL tyres of that size. Most tyres of a given size are the same load rating.

For your size, the non-XL is usually 91 (615kg per tyre), XL is 94 (670kg).

Go and lift your bonnet and look at the VIN plate. There will be four weights on there - gross vehicle (max laden), gross train (max laden plus trailer), and two listed as 1 and 2. They're the max front and rear axle loads. If either of those is between 1230kg and 1340kg, you need the XL. If not, the extra load rating is irrelevant, and will probably just mean stiffer sidewalls so a worse ride.

V speed rating is 149mph, W is 168mph. Is your car even capable of hitting 149?

Stratus

I think many of these responses miss the point the OP is asking. The OP ordered one set of tyres and was supplied with another.

Looking on the mtyres.co.uk website, the tyres the OP ordered are more expensive than the tyres fitted so they are possibly entitled to feel "shafted" or at least a little hard done by.

That Primacy 4 deal that the OP ordered looks pretty good, especially with the £50 back on 4 tyres.

AdrianC

They ordered 4 x Michelin Primacy 4 225/45/17
That's what they're getting.

They may have explicitly specified 94V, but is that actually an important detail? They've been offered a choice of the same load rating but a higher speed rating (94W), or a lower load rating which may actually be better suited for their car together with the higher speed rating (91W).

brampty

Hi everyone! Busy days at work, so sorry for my late replies!
The car initially came with XL tyres, yes (it's a 2L A3 TDI). I guess it can do about 130mph, but that does not interest me, because you can only drive up to 70 anyway! I'm more concerned about fuel economy, hence my initial concern regarding C rating and A rating. Additionally, I was told that XL tyres are better against potholes and things like that.

The car itself can have non-XL tyres though, as per the inside of the car: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18vcQYrB43wnnfN8P09jlCIT7yORMJwF1/view?usp=sharing
In general it was still a good deal, as it amounted to around £60 per tyre, which is really good for Primacy 4. But that doesn't make it better, because it still looks like I got tyres which are less fuel-efficient, as much as that may or may not make any difference.

However, if the 91W tyres are better suited for the car (even though I'm not going over 70mph), then that's an acceptable compromise!

Thanks everyone!

KimJongUn88

The perceived fuel economy on tyres will have a negligible difference. You could probably make up for the lower fuel economy figure by adding and extra couple of PSI decrease rolling resistance.

DoaM

When I did a quick search earlier/yesterday I found a result that estimated the difference in fuel costs between A rated and F rated tyres (for economy) was ~£80 per year at £1.30 per litre and 15k miles. I didn't find anything that gave a graduation between A and F, other than a result saying the difference between B and C was between 2.5% and 5%.