ok i need 2 new tyres for the front of my civic ive done some bartering and got the price down on a few – turns out kwik fit ar cheapest on all the tyres
main question is what shall i go with i need 205/55 r16 91v
they do arrowsport (think they ar kwik fit own brand) has anyone got experience with these ?
or for 15 pound more i can have perelli p7s
what ar your thoughts any advice gratefully received
thanks pete

having gone the “noname” route once I wouldn’t do it again.

not sure if P7s are the best out there (i.e. I really don’t have a clue, some folk don’t like em but manufacturers sometimes fit them as standard)

I would definitely avoid the WanLi crap that I’ve got on my car at the moment – noisiest tyres I’ve driven on in 21 years of driving

Plenty of online tyre reviews.

In my experience the premiums usually excel in on or two things but are pants at one or two as well.

I’ve just got rid of 4 conti sport contacts on my Mondeo. Good grip wet or dry in a straight line. Ok for noise and economy. Less good for tyre life (worn to 2mm in 20000 miles despite front rear rotation and I am nice to my tyres!).

I have just gone for some budget nexens on mine. Hoping they’ll be ok as the ones on the wife’s car have been good enough so far. Figure for what they cost I can change them at 3mm and still be quids in.

check here http://www.camskill.co.uk/m62b0s291p0/Car_Tyres_-_MPV_Tyres_-_People_Carrier_Tyres_-_16_inch_R16_inch_-_205_55_16_205_55R16

National normally have a deal on Avons. Had zv5’s on the mondeo a few times, last average for a diesel mondeo driven swiftly, but by far the best grip, particularly when wet and even when near slick. My mondeo had the same size tyres, also tried falkens, michelins, toyo, some budget rubbish that came on it, Avons are the only make repeatedly fitted.

P7s are mediocre but OK. Def better than whatever budget cr@p Kwikfit want to put on.

Also look at Kumho – they’re pretty cheap for this size and genuinely good tyres.

Try Tyre Shopper

Click me

Just got 4 tyres done with nearly a £200 saving from the usual suspects.

£660 instead of about £850

National are the fitters and got first rate service today.

Avons for your car starting at £91 fitted. Dun lops at £108.

Kwik fit should recommend this anyway, but you should move the rear wheels to the front, and put the fresh rubber on the back.

(Unless you consider yourself a driving god, and think you are able to catch the oversteer on your Monday morning 7am commute when you are half asleep and hit a diesel spill on a roundabout…) 🙂

I have had arrowspeeds and ceat tyres and they were awful. Didn’t last and grip was terrible. I tend to stick to Kumho KH31, Firestone TZ300 or Hankook. Last well, good on fuel and reasonably priced if you’re any good at bartering

Kwikfit are the dirtiest robbing bastards going. I recently needed a new tire that retails at £65 new from Camskill. Kwikfit were £125 *after a 25% discount*

Go anywhere other than Kwikfit. Try blackcircles.co.uk or mytyres.co.uk.

EDIT: whilst I was there, they were trying to tell an obviously hard-up mum that the only tyres suitable for her Peugeot 106 were the £80 a corner Pirellis. AND they tried on the “your other tires are past the legal limit sir, discount on all four?” despite me having roughly 6mm tread all round. I honestly wouldn’t care one bit if every Kwikfit in the country burnt down.

I didn’t pay an awful lot for my Hankooks… TBH they’re not shout-out impressive, but they’re very decent, and seem to be lasting well, which is good enough I reckon.

My old kumhos were fine while they lasted but they were wearing pretty quickly, I reckon they were going to work out no cheaper than buying better but longer lived tyres.

As for no-names… Current car came with 2 Autogrips and 2 Somethingorothers, they were all absolutely *****. As much grip in the summer heat as my Hankooks have in the wet. Absolutely fine if you’re my dad.

Stay away from Kwik fit. Blackcircles and camskill can arrange fitting (usually at a local Indy tyre place) for you and I think would be prob be cheaper..
Have a look and let us know how you get on!

Not had cheaper than Blackcircles in the last 5 years. Granted, usually bought decent tyres, but moved to mid range and still better price.

Arrowspeed is the Kwikfit homebrand and in a What Car test braking from 70mph in the wet they stopped the car around 4 metres worse than the Continental Premium Contact 2.

In the dry it was something like 2 metres worse.

So yes, they were not quite as good as the best premium brand but not that far off.

Had Pirelli’s on my Mondeo then switched to the Arrowspeed -the latter were much better in all areas of use. In fact, I would go as far to say the Pirellis were awful, I swapped them out long before the minimum wear was reached.

Obviously if I had gone to Continental/Michelin then they would have been better. But if I had bought a Bugatti Veyron then it would have stopped and cornered better than the Mondeo as well.

You need to balance up your driving style with cost etc to make the call.

In my opinion the Arrowspeeds were close enough to the better brands to be worth saving a significant chunk of cash. IIRC they were less than £200 for 4.

I’ve got Pirreli P7’s on both cars, a Mondeo and Seat Altea. Again from Kwik Fit for roughly £70 a corner. I get between 15-20k miles and drive better than more expensive ones they have replaced.

Arrowspeeds are a generic budget tyre but one of the better ones. If they are selling the Pirellis at just £15 quid more then the budgets are too expensive, the cost price difference between those two is more than £15!

Outside of london you should be paying £50-60 for budget tyres in your size.

I would recommend uniroyal rainsport 2, they work well for me in that size on my car and are reasonably priced. I wouldn’t go down the cheap tyres route, tyres can make a massive difference to the cornering and stopping capability of a car, why risk it?

Arrowspeed is the Kwikfit homebrand and in a What Car test braking from 70mph in the wet they stopped the car around 4 metres worse than the Continental Premium Contact 2.

In the dry it was something like 2 metres worse.

Its not just that though, its grip mid-corner etc etc. For the cost of two takeaway meals you get 2xbetter tyres for 1,000’s of miles of mixed driving.

I got 4x westlake sv58 something or others from tyreshopper and they are great. Plenty of grip and £232 fitted I’m happy enough.

Its not just that though, its grip mid-corner etc etc. For the cost of two takeaway meals you get 2xbetter tyres for 1,000’s of miles of mixed driving.

I agree totally and as Tyre Press reported – in the lateral gip test the Arrowspeed were found to be joint third place with Goodyear on 0.75g.

Kwik fit should recommend this anyway, but you should move the rear wheels to the front, and put the fresh rubber on the back.

(Unless you consider yourself a driving god, and think you are able to catch the oversteer on your Monday morning 7am commute when you are half asleep and hit a diesel spill on a roundabout…)
On a FWD Civic?!?!?

Did you have x2 Weetabollox this morning?

LilChris, Spooky is correct, FWD or RWD it does not matter if replacing only F or R tyres you want the newest ones on the back.

I Bought 4 x 195/65 Ditchfindar’s. Very pleased as they did what they say on the ‘tin.

new tyres fitted on the back

that’s plain crazy on FWD. Is that what KwikFit brigade advice?

Eh. Where the rears worn out?

Peterich – if your civic is a 2.2 diesel cheap tyres
Are asking for trouble

Get some decent mid range Toyos or khumo
But just steer clear of any Shyte kwick fit try and sell you

I’ve had good results with Bridgestone a001’s
Great for winter & summer and the tread pattern means farm roads
Slush / mud are all dead easy to drive through

Popstar
The thing about good tyres on the rear of fwd cars is true
Next you’ll be telling me its ok to put winters on the front only

Anybody who does that deserves a kick in the nuts !!

Newest tyres on rear, end of that discussion
Kwikfit where I live are appalling , make Halfords appear to be brain surgeons in comparison .
Go to everybody else getting comparison quotes.
Tyres are one of the most important parts of your car.
Try very hard not to cheap out.

I’ve worked in the tyre trade. The only reason to put the 2 new tyres on the back (if you are only replacing 2 of course) on a FWD car is so the part worn ones on the front will wear out quicker, thus the customer coming back sooner for 2 new tyres.

Absolute tyre marketing bollox.

As for Kwik-Fit………..

It may be marketing rubbish but the rotating of tyres back to front wouldn’t make you use any more tyres, it’d probably just even out the rate at which you buy them. I do it as my old house mate who used to do crash tests at the TRRL recommended it.

As for tyres, look at the Wiki page for tyre markings, the traction rating (AA, A, B, C) gives a good guide to the standard of the rubber being used and grip levels you can expect in the dry. The treadwear rating gives you (eg 180, 220 etc) gives a good estimate of the expected life of the tyre in 100’s of miles – 220 would equate to about 22000 miles.

When I changed tyres last I looked at the what car and which reports on tyre performance, chose based on that and sourced them through an independent trader who was cheaper than the national chains.

It may mean the car needs new tyres on the front sooner, but over a longer period it will make no difference.

The tyre companies also recommend you rotate your tyres to keep the wear even, so if you did this it wouldn’t be an issue anyway, and it would be one big dent in your wallet rather than two small dents a few months apart. Overall cost is again the same.

Cheep Vs expensive tyres, I’ve never had cheep tyres do this mid corner leaving me little more than a passenger watching the crash barrier approaching. Nothing to stop a cheep tyre being similarly defective, but more money doesn’t always make things better. The Prestivo’s I had on before were quieter, gave better MPG, and handled better, and never ran out of grip (not that I really ever tested them).

Kwik fit should recommend this anyway, but you should move the rear wheels to the front, and put the fresh rubber on the back.

As others have said, I want some of whatever he’s smoking. Even on a RWD car I’d put the fresh ones on the front, over-steer you can correct steering into it and easing off on the throttle, under-steer, once you’re sliding all you can do is steer less and hope it’s not too late and the crash barriers are far enough away.

Went into ATS for new tyres the other day and the had a deal on 30% off Michelin tyres. Got to be worth going into your local place and seeing what they can do

As others have said, I want some of whatever he’s smoking. Even on a RWD car I’d put the fresh ones on the front, over-steer you can correct steering into it and easing off on the throttle, under-steer, once you’re sliding all you can do is steer less and hope it’s not too late and the crash barriers are far enough away.p

For a pro driver yes, but your average driver, which includes me, no. A little understeer means you just go a bit wide, you s**t yourself and then slow down a bit. Braking (as long as you don’t lock the wheels) or lifting off will help by increasing grip on the front. A little oversteer, especially when it catches you out, means suddenly you start heading in the wrong direction, lifting off, braking, or the high possibility of over-correcting, will just make things a lot worse.

Either can result in a crash into oncoming traffic or trees, but understeer would normally be a head-on, while that sounds really bad, you’d have a much better chance of survival than the side impact you’d expect as you slide sideways after/during oversteer.

thisisnotaspoon – Member
Kwik fit should recommend this anyway, but you should move the rear wheels to the front, and put the fresh rubber on the back.
As others have said, I want some of whatever he’s smoking. Even on a RWD car I’d put the fresh ones on the front, over-steer you can correct steering into it and easing off on the throttle, under-steer, once you’re sliding all you can do is steer less and hope it’s not too late and the crash barriers are far enough away.

No, you just lift off the throttle to correct understeer in most cases. Lifting off doesn’t fix lift-off oversteer. 😆

By the way it’s not just kwikfit:
http://www.klebertyres.co.uk/KleberUK/front/affich.jsp?codeRubrique=8032005184616&lang=EN
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/safety/car-tyres.html
http://www.michelin.co.uk/tyres/learn-share/care-guide/ten-tyre-care-tips

Those are just the first few that came up when searching on googleytron.

Amazing how the internet experts conflict with a renownd motoring organisation such as the AA – noting there are circumstances where manufacturer recommendations have an influence.

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/safety/car-tyres.html

and uniroyal advising the same (new tyres on the back) in the litigeous USA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–Hb5kQCaTg

Rears dont wear anywhere near as much as the fronts on FWD cars.

So….that means generally….the car doesnt use/slide/WEAR its rears.

WHY? Pisses over the retail-focussed above. I.e punter gets talked into 2+2 purchases huh.

Fresh front tyres with worn rears at least will steer better, brake better etc. We didn’t forget about modern stability control systems did we? But new fresh tyres fixed to the rear while front washes everywhere away is madness. Never mind brake bias are concentrated on front to more like 60/40 if not more.

Guess as Mtb-ers we fix supertacky rubberqueens on rear wheel while on front we just stick slicks on, just because shop stuff told us to do so. Hell they even showed us e-webs guide etc!

Lassa seem to be the Tyre of choice in the running club – all purchased from the owner of the local Tyre firm that is a club runner.

IME the Lassa sports / Vredestein hi tracs and Hankook versa promos are all about as good as each other, all with their own merits

Whats a modern stabilty control ?