Any quality tyre, basically. Pirelli, Bridgestone, Michelin, Yokohama. It's a performance car, so putting the best tyres on it makes sense, as you know.

I assume it's on runflats. They will always be noisier than non-RFT tyres, unfortunately, and have a slightly firmer ride too. There's no way of avoiding that, unfortunately, unless you want to go onto 'normal' tyres and carry a spare.

I've recently put a pair of new rear tyres on my (RWD) 2013 325d estate. I went with Bridgestone Potenza, which it came with originally when new. While expensive, the original rears had lasted 25k miles, and the fronts still have about 5.5 mm remaining, meaning they'll hopefully do a total of 50k before needing changing (and I changed the backs at about 3mm, will change the fronts at the same).

BMW have now gone onto Pirelli as their 'official' tyre on new cars, I believe. But it seems to vary from year to year, probably on whoever is offering them the best deal at the time. As such, I wouldn't put any additional faith in a 'BMW approved' tyre.

I have had the official merc and no merc tyres and apart from the price they seemed exactly the same.

Want good tyres is a good thing and if you want performance tyres pay the extra get really good performance and they dont last long thu.

I tend to buy continentials or Dunlop (cheaper) as seam consistantly good. Had a few bad bridgestone tyres in the past and goodyear always seam noisy.

I run Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetric 2s on my 270hp Saab 9-3 Aero. Loads of grip even in the wet (don't half shift the water out of the way) and pretty quiet too. BTW I drive mostly rural A roads.

I tried a set of Toyo T1-R on my last car. Quiet but limited grip, though they were progressive. Popular with Scooby boys, but the 4WD can make better use of the grip than could my FWD.

I'll be buying more F1s soon, they are way better than the Sportcontacts the car came with. they are soft ish compound, but not as soft as, say, Rainsport 3s. For me they are about right wear wise (I prefer tyres that stick to the road like glue over ones that seem to last forever).

Is it worth buying the more expensive Audi "AO" branded tyres which have modified treads specially for Audi cars or is this a gimmick ?

It certainly sounds like a gimmick - I can't see how the forces transmitted through the wheel axle can be make-specific, even if they try to blind you with the admittedly clever science of the variable quattro grip round corners.

I would stick to Michelin - I had Primacy on our old A6 with no probs. They seemed to grip well and last a long time too. I think road noise is more a problem of coa*** surfaces than the tyre. I wouldn't like to live near the dreadful concrete section of the M25 east of the M1!

My personal preference - Michelin or Continental tyres , usually perform and last well - Fantastic on numerous long continental runs at higher speeds

On my 2003 Superb I got 30+k out of the above but 18k from the original fit Brigestones .

My 2014 Superb II has Continentals which seem to be great (and very quiet) although this car does seem fussier re balancing and had to re-balance at 20k miles (still at 6+mm!) - Don't know wether it had thrown a weight but all ok now.

I've also invested in another set of alloys and Continental ts850 winter tyres - also suprisingly quiet and although I haven't had any snow they were great in some of the really really wet weather we've had recentley

Edited by Big John on 21/02/2016 at 23:14