OT: Car Tyre recommendations

Not a tyre type recommendation (although I've been pleased with Michelin Primacy on my Saab 9-5 Aero estate), but make sure you check prices at Micheldever tyres

Another Dave

There's now a standardised test for tyres. So just look at the grip and fuel economy letters and pick. No need to worry about the name on the outside, unless you reckon it's something not covered by those tests.

Theo

Have a look here:

Some good useful information and reviews of various makes.

Michelin haven't owned them for long enough to f*ck them up yet.

I always seem to end up with Contis on my cars, no problems with them, though if I was only doing 1/10 the mileage, I might look more to the budget brands.

I've used etyres a few times and they were fine.

Competitive prices and the mobile fitters have always been helpful.

(we do have a garage with attached tyre/exhaust place in the village. But whilst I use the garage for all our car work, I've never really liked the tyre place so much. Since I'm at home a lot, a mobile fitter is useful)

When choosing new tyres, go for the ones with the best wet-weather braking characteristics (assuming the dry-weather exceed this on the other choices...).

You maybe the most careful driver in the world, but you share the road with those who don't give a toss.

I am not an expert.

My limited experience of cheap tyres is that they didn't grip & didn't last. The word in my owner's club is to call them TDF. Taiwanese Ditch Finders...

Andy

from personal experience DON'T buy a Roadstone ........

Are you sure I should be stopping faster than the guy behind me!

I won't buy tyres made by firms I've never heard of, standardised tests or not.

Ditto Nankang. Might as well be made of wood.

It's a real problem. Once respected brands have been taken over and the names now used at the budget end.

Some time ago I bought a set of Avons for the SD1, and they were the worst tyres I've ever had. Didn't then realise it wasn't the original company which once made very decent tyres for the time.

I've got Michelin Energy now, and they are generally good. Excellent wet grip and noise - but perhaps slightly harsher ride than the best I've known.

I've stuck with the OEM Continentals on the BMW. They seem to suit it very well, and have a very decent life.

I tend to only buy tyres from people I have never heard of on the grounds that marketing simply adds cost and no quality.

Happy to wave at you looking mournfully at the smouldering remains of your car in the ditch. Personal experience teaches me that "no name" tyres are s*it.

I had a set of Colway remoulds (made in the UK) on the SD1. My brother swore by them. They were about half the price of a budget new type, and worked very well indeed. Sadly, cracks in the wall caused an MOT failure long before they were worn out on this low use car. But were still excellent value per mile driven. I'd have bought them again, if they still existed. But many seem to think remoulds dangerous, and prefer some no name tyre from afar.

All weather (winter) tyres?

Worse than Czechoslovakian remoulds?

I agree. The main problem I have found with all tyres(including branded) is the rubber hardening with age and the wet weather performance degrading. Particularly noticeable on people carrier tyres.