I have always found Michelins to be overpriced and underperforming.
Agreed.
The last set of tyres I bought were 245/45/17's and the Continental Contact Sport's.......
You might want to also consider Viking tyres. I believe they're made by the same company as Continental, but cheaper.
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Hi Crombster,
did you by chance see the excellent 17 page Tyre Test in Evo (July 2002 edition)? Evo spent a week at a test facility testing 8 performance tyres (that can be had in a wide range of sizes) and also included a 12.4 mile road section. The size they chose was a 215/45 R17 fitted to a Focus ST170. The tyres were measured on 11 different criteria using subjective and objective methods. A wear factor made up 5% of the final score.
The ContiSportContact's (typically £143) came overall 2nd just pipped to the post by Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 (£134). The Michelin Pilot Sport came 5th (£163).
As for wear: all three tyres mentioned above had the same score, just a little (10%) behind the best rated tyre (for wear), a Pirelli P7000.
A fascinating piece. I would urge anyone interested in tyres and tyre testing to get hold of a copy.
CMark
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Funny you should mention that as I dont normally buy Evo, Infact i only own 2 copies. One of which however contains that article on tyres. It is very informative and a worthwhile read which funnily enough confirmed my thoughts.
At the time the Eagle F1's were a tad more expensive (for my size) than the Conti's however on my last change the Conti's were out of stock and the dealer offered the F1's for £10 less per tyre. I accepted and found them to be just as well performing.
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One thing I note here is that all these tests seem to involve big, costly tyres. What tips can anyone give on the smaller tyres? My Yaris has a tyre called Aurora on it at the moment which seem to have plenty of tread left, but what should I be looking towards when they need changing? I just chucked anything on the old Tipo - usually part-worns, but should probably make a bit more effort on the Tipo.
Someone at work was commenting last week on the Kwik-fit 'own brand' tyre which he reckons are made by one of the larger companies (not sure if it was Dunlop or Goodyear). The price he was quoted (for a 318i) seemed very cheap for that size of tyre, but does anyone have any experience as to whether these are any good or not?
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The only kwik fit own brand tyre I had experience of were the arrowspeed ones they did several years ago. Utterly appalling in the wet, almost dangerous they had so little grip. I had michelin after that, about £60 a corner in 175/70s and they were pretty good.
I saw that group test in evo and wondered where the reasonably priced tyres were too. I had a look on mytyres.net on their reviews which were really helpful. The uniroyal r540s I have on my car now were just over £300 for a set in 205/50, 15" rims so should be a lot cheaper for your Yaris. The reviews were pretty positive, especially for the performance in the wet.
teabelly
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Kwik Fit own brand performed spectacularly badly in the Which/Consumers association tests of 2 relatively normal sized tyres.
This was a useful test, and I think I managed to find the results on the web somewhere. Sorry can't remember where.
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Very Interested in this topic as I have driven 5 mondeo TDCIs in the last six months. They all seem to come out of the factory with different tyres and I have found marked differences in the handling of the car.
In my opinion best of all are the Goodyear NCT. With these tyres the car handled as well as all the reviews said, the car felt like a small chuckable hatchback and was a delight to drive- slight oversteer and nice and light, crisp response to the steering. Good feel and feedback from the road.
Michelin- second best
Continental- a very aggressive sexy looking tyre, gave the car a sporty look but felt rather heavy- they seemed to make the front of the car feel much heavier and prone to understeer unless pushing really hard when they would understeer then bite the road- the transition was quite marked. Also very prone to tramlining with that wide groove down the centre. Cleared water best of all. Feel all the bumps- its as though there is a very wide, heavy ridge between tyre wall and tread which contributes excessive mass.
Bridgestone Turanza - Characterless- harsh ride without the benefit of grip or feel. Slow response, little feel, fairly heavy,some understeer compared to the others
I specified anything except these on my own car- but guess what I got? Cant wait for them to wear out and then I can fit some goodyears! Only with goodyear does the car handle as well as all the reviews say.
Yearned to try some Pirellis but havn't had the chance.
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After much deliberating I put F1s on my Rover 820 Vitesse Sport (215/45ZR17s). I've found them to be superb - In particular the car no longer slithers around in wet corners, tramlining is considerably reduced and the ABS threshold in tricky conditions is truly astounding. They were also excellent value at £105 each.
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Where did you have those fitted? That's a very good price. I need a pair of 205/65VR15 very soon.
Thanks,
Garrison
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Round here it's impossible to get a better price than Britannia Tyres. They have branches in Coventry, Hinckley and Northampton. They wanted £108 each for the F1s. Their Cov tel number is 02476 258177. They were also keenly priced for Dunlop SP9000s at the time.
I actually got the tyres from Jim Jeffrey Tyres in Warrington, Cheshire. Phone 01925 261193. They've moved premises since I was there, but they told me they would be keeping the same phone number. Otherwise look them up on yell.com. I've just checked the receipt, I paid £408 for four.
BTW, the F1s I've got are F1 GS-D2.
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I am a bit confused with the Michelin web-site. It stated that F1 do NOT have 65 profile. However, I notice some Japanese car have F1 with 185/65 R14 or similar. I think the model is F1 GS-65 or similar. Is it possible to get F1 205/65VR15 for my car?
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You are confused. It's Goodyear Eagle F1 we were talking about above. The tyre guide on the Goodyear site is currently not available, but on the home page there's a picture ad which says "the new Eagle F1" - the picture looks very similar but slightly different to the F1s I have - have they brought out a MkII version, hence the mention of DS-G3 above?
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Doh, that's why I'm confused.
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