I’m going to try some of the new Michelin Energy ones next time. £80 per corner online (not from Kwik Rip mind), and they are apparently good for 50k miles. Mixed reports on how good they are in the wet.

Vredestein Hi-Tracs are great and won Auto Express tyre test a couple of yrs in a row a few yrs ago. I had them fitted to my old car and they were good in wet or dry, fairly quiet and lasted ages.
They don’t make them in the size I need for the car I have now, so I have got Kumho Ecsta SPT KU31s. They are pretty similar to the Vredestein in terms of grip and noise.

Symmetric patterns tend to be quite noisy with higher rolling resistance than asymmetric.
And just because the design looks like it should grip well (cheap Goodyear copy or whatever) it will probably be a completely different rubber compund and internal construction that will give different results.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people say ‘just go to kwik fit and get the cheapest you can’. It doesn’t matter on the value of the car, as to how much you spend on tyres, nor does it matter the cars performance potential. If you need to stop urgently in the wet at 70mph you will be thankful for decent tyres – and I would guess that 99.9% of cars on the road can do 70mph.

Marge, you mean those:

Aren’t asymmetrical threads better?

BTW I got quoted £75 per wheel all inclusive for Falkens. Good? Bad?

Conti Vert Pro

Vredestein Sportrac 3

Falkens – sorry but don’t do it. (that is not cheap either!)

How about Avons? They’re £50 each fitted etc locally.

Another vote for Vredestein here.

I have Vredestein Ultracs (not the Sessantas) on my Octy VRS, and I’m very impressed – much better than the Bridgestones they replaced, and only £60 per corner.

Vredestein Sportrac 3 – good price too. Have you used them yourself? How long for?

I’ve just fitted some bridgestone ER300, as recommended here:

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.adac.de/Tests/Reifentests/Sommerreifen/195_65_R15/default.asp&ei=Ff-bSY2tGZWN-gaFkPHXBA&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.adac.de/Tests/Reifentests/Sommerreifen/195_65_R15/default.asp%253FComponentID%253D209466%2526SourcePageID%253D8772%2526TL%253D2%26hl%3Den

and here:
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/total_tyre_guide/213186/tyre_guide.html

Not quite as good as the Vredestines in the wet, but less noise and better fuel economy.

The guys from Auto Express do a pretty good job with their tyre test.
Of course we all have differing usage (mileage / driving style / type of car / roads type) but testing is fair & their summary is clear & informative.

The only 1 in that test you wouldn’t expect to see is the Vredestein. The remaining 4 are the big players in the tyre industry and top quality product though normally with a matching price tag.

For the price you won’t beat the Vreds….

I did this on my car in december but decied that i would go for th ebest i could afford as it is the only point of contact and i want to be able to control my car. I got Michelin piolt primacys which have very good reports and so far i haven’t any reason to complain. ATS are currently offering 30% off 4 michilens as well.

P.s. was rather unimpressed with the Bridgestone ER300 when they first went on, but then I pumped them up to the correct pressure (which the fitters had failed to do) and handling + grip improved significantly, and I got 10mpg more!

I read that fancy tread patterns don’t make any difference. They just bring out new ones to make them look cool/different to last year’s/like F1 tyres.

If it did make a difference then surely every tyre would have fancy designs? After all it doesn’t cost any more to make the mould differently does it?

For sure pattern has an effect but it certainly isn’t everything….

If you look at Conti, Mich, GY, BS, the latest asymmetric patterns are all really quite similar to one another.

I read that fancy tread patterns don’t make any difference. They just bring out new ones to make them look cool/different to last year’s/like F1 tyres.

I’ve heard the same…apparently its easy to make a grippy long lasting tyre, but it doesn’t look very exciting so they have designers make them nice deep V groove jobbies until they look sporty.

The Vredsteins look symmetrical though.
Cheap and apparently really good if a bit noisy, so it’ll probably be them (Bridgestones aren’t available locally and I like to support the local guy if I can).

I’m obviously missing something here. Tyres have a rating and the car will require tyres of that rating. So the fact that it isn’t a terribly sporty car will mean that you can put lower rated tyres on. However, you can still get a vast difference in quality and price of tyres. The price of the car is irrelevant – a tyre is it’s main contact with the road so it’s more how much you value your safety. I’ve used cheap tyres in the past and I just don’t think they are worth it. Day to day driving there feels little difference, but it’s that one time when you make a mis-judgement and need to stop quickly. Plus the fact that I have found economy much better with decent tyres.

Ring round a few local tyre places. See what they recommend and get some prices. Try haggling and get the best you can afford.

Asking on a bike forum for a load of names of car tyres is just going to confuse you.

A lower rated tyre doesn’t mean it will necessary be worse.

The ‘rating’ is a speed rating, so theoretically the faster your car goes, the higher speed rating you should need. You can get the same model of tyre across different speed ratings.
I am not sure if the rating system is quite as simple as that though, as my Ibiza can apparently do 128mph, but requires W speed rating tyres. There are lower rated tyres that still accomodate 128mph, so i don’t know why it has to be W, but that’s the gist of it anyway.

One good reasons for designing & manufacturing asymmetric tyres is that in the case of OE supply to car makers, that you don’t have to differentiate between individual tyre & wheel assemblies for each side of the car.

Indeed asking on MTB forum is perhaps normally not the best source of data but tyre engineering is my (nerdy) profession so I have more knowledge than your average joe and at the very least you can put value the on tests (linked here) published by groups such as ADAC or magazines Auto Express…..

Which is precisely why I provisionally have chosen the Verdsteins. Very good reviews, ok price and I know their road bike tyres. Thanks, guys. Marge – where else would a greeney like myself have found you and your expertise if not here? 😉 CHeers, much obliged.

I use Dunlops – pretty cheap, last a long time and have good grip in all conditions.