Here in France our local tyre place (Speedy)has a special offer on its own brand of tyres that are made for it by Continental.
They say that they will guarantee them for 5 years or 40,000kms which suggests they are very hard wearing - does that mean they will be noisy.
Being rather short of cash at the moment and needing to buy four I'm tempted to go for them. They are not the cheapest budget at over £55 each but with the offer you get the 4th free - and they are considerably cheaper than the main brands.
My question is will they be loud on the autoroute - I value quietness over sportiness.
Any views?
MB
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If they last forever the question in my mind is 'will they grip?' As a general rule, given the same construction and tread pattern, the softer the compound, the better the grip, the worse the wear. Obviously it's not that simple, as Michelins tend to grip and last well, but I would wonder. Even if you are not bothered about 'sportiness', you want the best if you have to apply the brakes or swerve in an emergency.
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Noise is a function of tread pattern and rubber hardness. chunky tread = noise.
Look on the side wall for "treadwear index" if its there and >280 consider the rubber as hard, but if the tread pattern is not very chunky they may still be reasonably quiet. What car do you have as some will resonate more than others and thus even a quiet tyre can be noisy on some makes.
Lots of people say treadwear is a relative index within one make but over the years I have found it a reasonbly reliable indicator of tread life across Avon, Goodrige and other makes.
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Thanks to both.
I have a Toyota Avensis estate and the tyres in question are 195/60/R15. I wouldn't describe the Speedy tyres as chunky but I was struck by a large groove down the middle of the tread, which I hadn't seen before - but then I am not an expert on tyres.
Nick I take your point about grip. Again I would prefer a tyre with a shorter life but one that offered more grip when I needed it. Maybe I need to rethink this.
MB
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I fell into the trap of cheaper tyres, the dealer told me they would last as well as the dearer types, grip was ok but the lasted about 5k less than their dearer counterpart,
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Are you sure they're guaranteed for fair wear and tear, as opposed to failure/accidental damage?
Years ago you could get Esso branded tyres that were guaranteed "for life" - it didn't mean they would last forever, but you could get them replaced if they were damaged (you just paid for the tread you'd used).
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I was doing consultancy work at Gaydon (Rover R&D) around 1994/95. I remember they had a problem with tyre noise on the 200/400, some customer complaints, and I had a chat with a tyre engineer about it at the time (it was just out of interest - I wasn't working on the project).
I don't think the grade of rubber has a lot to do with it. He told me it is more about oscillations set up in the tyre structure, especially the sidewall. By using different belt techologies the frequency and amplitude of oscillation can be altered, as can the degree of damping (and hence resonant frequency and amplitude of resonance). As with most things, there is a lot more to tyre noise than meets the eye.
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