tyres

[steplce74]

hi, i currently I have firestone road hawks on my mk2 focus 1.6ti-vct zetec. im thinking of getting Avon zv7, any advice would be much appreciated,

[steplce74]

.

[williamweb]

On 9/29/2019 at 11:42 AM, steplce74 said:

hi, i currently I have firestone road hawks on my mk2 focus 1.6ti-vct zetec. im thinking of getting Avon zv7, any advice would be much appreciated,

I have Avon ZV7 on my MK1 I can say they are a good medium priced all rounder.Done approximately 10000 miles and there is about 6 mm of tread left on the fronts and alittle less on the rears but I have swapped them over recently.I think they excel in the rain maybe slightly road noisy for some but doesn’t bother me👍

[TomsFocus]

They're a decent lower-mid range tyre tbh.  Not fantastic but for the money I couldn't complain!

 

[mjt]

I've got ZV7's on the Mk3. I find that because the car often spends a week or more parked up on the drive the tyres develop a flat spot that causes a lot of vibration until they've warmed up enough for it to even out. This was particularly noticeable yesterday after a cold night.

I assume this is because they're textile rather than steel radials and it's a something that happens with other brands as well.

[Ennvoqation]

Not precisely what you're asking but I ran Pirelli P7 tyres for my Mk 2 for 5+ years, excellent in the wet and half way decent in snow. They can be roughly found for the same price as the Avon's if you shop around. I used to do high mileage which is what these tyres are also good for in regards to wear.

[Lenny]

2 hours ago, Ennvoqation said:

Not precisely what you're asking but I ran Pirelli P7 tyres for my Mk 2 for 5+ years, excellent in the wet and half way decent in snow. They can be roughly found for the same price as the Avon's if you shop around. I used to do high mileage which is what these tyres are also good for in regards to wear.

Surly nog the same tyres for the five years?

[Ennvoqation]

20 minutes ago, Lenny said:

Surly nog the same tyres for the five years?

The first lasted two, maybe three, years. covered about 18k on mostly country roads going by the purchase date. Was on the second set when it was declared SORN and written off due to rust on the rear axle mounts. 

[pragmatix]

I used to run the avons as the tyre of choice on my Mondeo, lasted well, gripped well, rode well, very happy with them

[0shiny1]

Had them on mine for the last few months and I'm still alive so they must be pretty good.

[F0CUE]

My rear ones are landsail and the name serves them well cos they float across puddles like a ***** boat lol

[Gymfocused]

I run Toyo Proxies Sport 225/45*17 on my mk2.5 Ti and find them very good in both the wet and the dry. £110 a pair on eBay, plus fitting.

[TomsFocus]

9 hours ago, F0CUE said:

My rear ones are landsail and the name serves them well cos they float across puddles like a ***** boat lol

The Landsail name always made me laugh...  Boat-like handling isn't something I look for in a tyre!  

[TomsFocus]

23 hours ago, mjt said:

I've got ZV7's on the Mk3. I find that because the car often spends a week or more parked up on the drive the tyres develop a flat spot that causes a lot of vibration until they've warmed up enough for it to even out. This was particularly noticeable yesterday after a cold night.

I assume this is because they're textile rather than steel radials and it's a something that happens with other brands as well.

I'd not heard of this before!  Surely they're still steel belted with textile outer?  Textile alone wouldn't be strong enough would it?

I notice my car drives pretty badly for the first mile or so after it's been sat for a few days but never even considered it could be caused by minor flat spots on the tyres! 😮 

[Ennvoqation]

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

I notice my car drives pretty badly for the first mile or so after it's been sat for a few days but never even considered it could be caused by minor flat spots on the tyres! 😮 

Aye, you can buy pillows for your wheels to help keep their shape if you don't drive daily. my friends RS was on pillows when he wasn't driving it during Winter, it was that or sticking it on blocks to remove the wheels.

 

 

[StephenFord]

I replaced both front tyres last month to, 'Autogrip', yep, I never heard of the either LOL But they were on offer, £40 each including fitting, balancing, and disposal of old ones. My days of buying premium Bridgestones are long gone, on a budget now!

 

 

[xs2man]

Eeek.  All these cheap tyres makes me nervous, lol.

I buy a reasonable of cars (and sell obviously), so have had various different cheaper tyres on many of the cars I've bought, and have been skint sometimes too, so have tried cheaper tyres in the past.  So have a reasonable amount of experience with different tyres of all budgets.  Here are my thoughts.

Autogrip / Landsail / Arrowspeed and whatever other ditchfinder super-budget tyres I get on a car are usually ditched at the earliest opportunity.  To me, at least, they always feel dangerous in the wet, and rarely much cope in the dry either.  Sure, you may get a million miles out of a set, or 3k, I dunno?  But I value my life too much to chance crashing my pride and joy over a few quid on the only points of contact that keep the car on the road.

I had a set of Avon winter tyres a few years ago on a people carrier.  Only during winter months to be fair, the benefits of having specific wheels for winter driving.  The fronts wore down at an incredible rate.  Probably due to not really being much cope when it was cold and dry, but they were OK despite the regular wheelspin off the line (probably shouldn't have remapped the 7 seat family bus).  The rears, by comparison, had about 5mm left when the fronts were done, so in hindsight, I should have swapped them around.

I've had Uniroyal Rainsport 3's a few times.  Never got much mileage out of them any time I've had them.  Usually between 6-8k per set.  Wouldn't buy again.  Ok in the wet, not great in the dry.  They are the tyre of choice of internet heroes though, and you are forever getting told about people mates who have them on their RS6 and wouldn't touch another tyre brand.  Well, they are about 2/3 of the price of Michelin PS4's in the same sizes, on average, but get half the miles out of them.  So they are more expensive and worse in all conditions than the PS4's, so never again.

I had the older Vredestein Sessantas on an mapped 335d BMW, and they were actually quite good.  Car felt planted, and the tyres didn't spin up much despite the 340+ BHP and enough torque to turn the earth underneath it.  And after 16k on them, I sold the wheels and tyres, and the fronts still had 5mm and the rears 5.5mm.  So decent wear rate too.

I had Goodyear Excellence RFT's on my BMW 530d when I bought that car.  The tracking was off on the rear or something, and wore through the inside edges, so they needed replaced.  Found a bulge in one of the front tyres too.  But the remaining tyres did 46k on it before I sold the car, and still had over 4mm tread on it.  So would buy these again.  Despite being over £300 a tyre on that car (from the dealer).

Had some Yokohama something or others on my Edition 30 Golf GTI when I bought it.  They were actually not too bad.  And wear rate seemed ok on them too.  But I got a puncture, and decided to put the PS4's all round, and what a difference they made.  So much better in all conditions, felt so much more planted.  And could corner WAY better in the dry.  I sold the car around 5k after putting them on, and you could barely tell they were used.  Think they still had 6.5mm or similar on them.  Wouldn't hesitate to buy them again.

On my current Focus, it came with Bridgstone S001's (I think), they were ok, but nothing special.  Again, got a puncture in one of them, os decided to swap them all out.  The new Goodyear Eagle F1 Assy 5's were just released, so took the opportunity to try them.  No complaints so far.  Drives nice, handles well, good in wet and dry conditions, and just the other week the car was in for a service, around 10k after putting the tyres on, and there is at least 6mm on each tyre.  So I suspect I should get at least 25-30k out of them.

 

To be fair, I have been accused of being a tyre snob in the past.  But I have experience and reason to back up my thoughts.

 

TDLR;  Tried loads of different tyres, generally, better tyres get better longevity (Continentals generally excluded), and work better in all conditions.  Get Goodyear Assy5's or PS4's if they do them in your size, and they will be cheaper per mile than almost anything else.

[StephenFord]

9 minutes ago, xs2man said:

To be fair, I have been accused of being a tyre snob in the past.  But I have experience and reason to back up my thoughts.

 

I have been driving now for over 40 years, (I'm quite old LOL), many of my million miles have been on 'premium tyres', quite a few on budget. Today it's been pouring here, I've had  a drive at 70 MPH motorway and country B roads as well and my little LX felt sure footed all the way. If I was in a Porsche 911, sure, I'd want some premium rubber under me, but you sometimes just have to reconcile that a budget car can survive safely on budget tyres, They are new, at correct pressure, and with no damage. Yes, if funds are unlimited, spend your money on what you want, but I'd never castigate anyone for living within their means and entirely legally...😀

[xs2man]

No no no.  I wasn't meaning to "have a dig" or anything.  Just giving my opinion based on my experience.

And obviously, not every kind of tyre can be found in every size.  But I generally find that the smaller the tyre, the smaller the cost to go for an actual good tyre is.

Obviously though, if that's all you can afford, then that's fine.  But I know when it comes to my family's safety, and my own, there are other areas of my life where I'd rather scrimp and save the money than the only contact area between the car they are travelling in and the road.

The argument about the Porsche 911 is a non-argument also.  There is more to a quality tyre than how much grip it has round a corner.  There is braking also.  And in this country, wet braking is particularly significant too.  And that has nothing to do with how powerful your car is (granted a more powerful car may have more powerful brakes).

Have a look here:  http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2019-Summer-53-Tyre-Braking-Shootout.htm

And tell me that for the sake of a few quid, it's worth the potential of crashing at 25 mph instead of avoiding the collision altogether?  Hopefully you never need to use it, but you'll be glad you spent the money if you do need to.  (The Goodyear Asymmetric 5's won this test).

It's not even like it's necessarily a lot of money.  Just had a quick check on Camskill for tyres prices in the relatively common 215/55/16 tyre size, and the Goodyear Efficientgrip Performance (No Asymmetric 5's in this size, at least from Camskill) comes in at £74 compared to £65 for the Avon SV7 at the start of this thread.  £9 a corner isn't a huge amount to be paying for the extra safety IMO (a couple of coffees or something?).

For reference, I also just compared the size of tyre I put on my Focus, as that is obviously the Asymmetric 5 that won that braking test.  That was 225/45/17.  And came it at £61 vs £53.50, so about £8 difference to stop about 6.5m quicker in the wet.

[Guy Heaton]

I'd always try and avoid the cheapest and get a decent midrange.  Uniroyal are one of my faves.

Davanti are a good new range, I've used them.  Good grip, great price but I felt wore out quickly.   But then it was a torquey rwd car so that might have been it.

[F0CUE]

7 hours ago, StephenFord said:

I replaced both front tyres last month to, 'Autogrip', yep, I never heard of the either LOL But they were on offer, £40 each including fitting, balancing, and disposal of old ones. My days of buying premium Bridgestones are long gone, on a budget now!

 

 

I had them too there not bad for cheap tyres.

[Micro]

Had "Prestivo" tyres on my focus when I bought it. Wheelspan in the slightest bit of moistness.

Replaced with Fallen 914s which were then subbed with Nokian wra3's for winter.

Just changed my new car from michelin Energy Savers to Goodyear Vector 4Season Gen2's due to winter coming up (and the energy savers being LOUD).

I used to put cheap tyres on my Corsa, but wouldn't dare now. Even with all the extra safety gear and ESP/ABS it's not worth gambling with 4 contact patches the size of cd cases... At best!

[StephenFord]

This could be 'one of those' threads LOL I remember on the old Celica GT4 forum I was on, a 'what tyre' thread ran to over 45 pages. Everyone has an opinion, which is often different to everyone else's, then once you get the tyres, we'll all be discussing what's the best pressure to pit in them 🤣

[Ennvoqation]

26 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

This could be 'one of those' threads LOL I remember on the old Celica GT4 forum I was on, a 'what tyre' thread ran to over 45 pages. Everyone has an opinion, which is often different to everyone else's, then once you get the tyres, we'll all be discussing what's the best pressure to pit in them 🤣

That's what you in the Land Rover forums when off-roading, a third of the convo is about tyres, the rest about pressure and surface grip! 🤣

[Hooded]

Not all budget tyres are equal, some are not too bad and can rival midrange tyre performance if you do your homework. For example roadstone eurovis sport 04 are quite a decent cheap tyre.