Your experiences with tyre brands

obi_waynne

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What are your long term experiences with tyre brands. I think most people tyres get worn out and whatever they put on seems to be much better. In reality they are comparing the difference between 8mm tread and 2mm tread!

So what I'd like is your long term experiences with tyres, did they stay sharp for much of their life.

I've found and heard now from 2 tyre fitters that Dunlops are prone to cracking between the treads and that Michelins also tend to crack around the edges as they get older.

Some budget brands are shocking and you get terrible road noise that is akin to a worn wheel bearing noise.

Generally I've been happy with Michelin and found Goodyears to perform very well for most of their life (although my GY Eagle F1's didn't last very long, about 10000 miles!)

I'm trying some Continentals at the moment on the A3 and Hankooks on the A4 so I'll report back.

So what brands work for you and which will you avoid like the plague?
 
A tyre with 2mm of tread is fine on a dry road if it's a good tyre to start with. Some of these are tyres fitted to a car when I took delivery and which I subsequently removed

I've tried various over the years, results/opinions as follows:-

Bridegstone Potenza RE-720 directional - very grippy wet and dry, noisy on all but the best tarmac, poor wear life

Continental Premium Contact 2 - very grippy, quiet, better lfie than Potenza RE-720. Expensive

Viking Protech II - make by Conti - allrounder, does nothing badly. Good value but not for sporty drivers

Goodyear Ventura directional - superb grip and handling, long life and very hushed. Shame these are no longer made.

Goodyear NCT3 - it works

Dunlop SP200 Sport - it works well

Federal - rubbish

Nexen N2000 - directional rubbish

Barum Bravuris 2 - assymetic, made by Conti, looks and drives like a Premium Contact 2 - good value

Lassa Impetus Sport directional - made by Bridestone - quiet and comfortable, nothing special to drive

Pirelli - these have always been puncture prone in my experience.
 
I've been using Dunlop Sport Maxx on the 156 for the past few years and they are far and away the best I've had. It came with Firestone which were rubbish and I kept getting punctures. Then I had a couple of SP9000's on the front which were the best for grip but only lasted about 8 months (but then I was doing around 18K a year). I had a set of SP8000's next which were good allrounders, but they have been overtaken by the Sport Maxx.

We've got budgets on the Pug 206 ... Falken ZE912's now. They aren't bad but then it's not a road racer ... 1.4 HDi. Before that I had some Federal's but they worn out really quickly and the handling wasn't the best.

The Clio (1.5 dCi) is running on Dunlop Sport 01's which seem to suit it and the wear rate is negligible. HAndling is good and they aren't noisy, etc.
 

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