Another Tyres Thread

Fr0dders · 31 Aug 2011 at 08:24

best example of this is to look on tyre review sites for the cheap chinese ditchfinders.

What Car? recently published an article on the danger of foreign cheap tyres. Worst in the wet breaking test was a brand called Sunew.

Check the tyre reviews site, and in amongst all those warning they are lethal and deadly in the wet is a handful of reviews that say they are great tyres in the wet !!

Either they are being paid to advertise the company, or they don't have a clue.

Xez · 31 Aug 2011 at 17:21

sampo said:
+1 for Toyo T1-R, fantastic on light cars (like old hot hatches). Sidewalls too soft for anything heavy.

Personally wouldn't, T1-R's were far too soft even on my Clio. Didn't inspire confidence at all in the same size. Yokohama Parada Spec's were brilliant grip wise on my clio with good side walls but bad wear rate.

Frozennova · 31 Aug 2011 at 17:50

Xez said:
Personally wouldn't, T1-R's were far too soft even on my Clio. Didn't inspire confidence at all in the same size. Yokohama Parada Spec's were brilliant grip wise on my clio with good side walls but bad wear rate.

What size tyres we're they and how much did the clio weigh roughly?

Defcon5 · 31 Aug 2011 at 17:53

T1-Rs used to be dirt cheap in this size, £29 or so!

Xez · 31 Aug 2011 at 18:18

frozennova said:
What size tyres we're they and how much did the clio weigh roughly?

Same size (195/50/R15). Clio is roughly 950kg

mattyfez · 31 Aug 2011 at 18:44

I used to have T-1R on my fiesta, and thought they were brilliant quite frankly.
Had them in 195.45.15

Frozennova · 31 Aug 2011 at 18:58

Xez said:
Same size (195/50/R15). Clio is roughly 950kg

Same size and pretty much same weight then.

Just noticed the Toyo Proxes 4 which are the same price give or take a couple of pence however state reinforced on blackcircles so should have stiffer sidewalls right?

Sone · 31 Aug 2011 at 19:15

avensis

Dogbreath · 31 Aug 2011 at 19:40

I see Auto Express are keeping up their editorial standards:

Toilet Roll Material said:
The Chinese rubber needed over 40 metres more than our winner to stop – that’s about the length of a supermini, and means a car on these tyres would still be doing 20mph when it passed the Octavia on Pirellis. Not what you need for that motorway emergency stop.

Apparently in Auto Express land a supermini is around 40 meters long :rolleyes:

mattyfez · 31 Aug 2011 at 19:48

Dogbreath said:
Apparently in Auto Express land a supermini is around 40 meters long

That's one hell of a super mini, I wonder how they define a saloon, lol!

Lopéz · 31 Aug 2011 at 22:26

That has reminded me of something I heard a girl at work say today.

"We need to record these, because it's important we have an audit train"

CHOO CHOO! All aboard the audit train, next stop Invoice Queries. Tickets please!

davy89 · 31 Aug 2011 at 22:41

MrLOL said:
best example of this is to look on tyre review sites for the cheap chinese ditchfinders.

What Car? recently published an article on the danger of foreign cheap tyres. Worst in the wet breaking test was a brand called Sunew.

Check the tyre reviews site, and in amongst all those warning they are lethal and deadly in the wet is a handful of reviews that say they are great tyres in the wet !!

Either they are being paid to advertise the company, or they don't have a clue.

Had this last week when I brought my 225, when I mentioned to the salesman (at a Renault main dealer) how low the front tyres were (pretty much illegal, and on the front of a main dealer forecourt) I said I wanted nothing bar the Dunlops they had on the back.

He said even Renault now just put the cheapest tyres they can find on most of the cars they sell (second hand).

I don't understand people skimping on tyres, it's your only contact with the road, guess it's a lack of common knowledge? :confused:

Frozennova · 31 Aug 2011 at 22:47

I think its down to people being uneducated in the subject, the majority of people don't realise the difference until its too late, unlike most people here who will tend to find the limit when conditions permit. I know when I'd rather find out my tyres don't grip.

Zefan · 31 Aug 2011 at 23:14

Lopéz said:
That has reminded me of something I heard a girl at work say today.

"We need to record these, because it's important we have an audit train"

CHOO CHOO! All aboard the audit train, next stop Invoice Queries. Tickets please!

LOL

thecremeegg · 1 Sep 2011 at 01:17

Got Rainsport 2s on mine, no issues

Dogbreath · 7 Sep 2011 at 12:23

[TW]Fox;19957677 said:
Because I wouldnt trust people on the internet who are far more susceptible to bias or plain lack of knowledge?

If you gave me a car and 3 different sets of tyres and told me to go away and properly and objectively rate all of them I very much doubt I'd have the ability to do this properly, so why would most other people? There will be people who very much DO have this ability but its hard to sort them from the leagues of people bleating about how tyre B 'sticks like stuff to a blanket' when in reality the perception they have of this tyre is skewed by the fact its all they could afford anyway.

Rather than the best way to pick a tyre, proper tests are merely the least bad way to pick a tyre.

I don't really trust "proper" tyre reviews either. Have a look at the latest Auto Express tyre review

Suddenly the Hankook Ventus S1 Evo is bottom of the pile, beaten by a super budget tyre, despite it coming 5th in their last test against similar performance tyres. No doubt you'll be delighted to see the Pilot Sport 3 take second place!

I wonder if they used the same car to test them on...

[TW]Fox · 7 Sep 2011 at 12:28

To be fair it's Autoexpress who outside of tyre testing is basically the motoring press equivilent of The Sun, infact not even that given most of the stories appear to be a collection of press releases.

I bet Bridgestone are not too happy about doing so badly at the Bridgestone test centre!