**Unofficial Tyre Thread**

Surely there are no physical differences between a tyre with the "AO" label and one without? Also doesn't really explain why the tyres manufactured in 2012 are cheaper than those made in 2011. Seems counterintuitive to me.
 
I was going to ask the same question regarding the tyres I was looking at. Nothing to do with manufacturer approvals but just three tyres that are exactly the same but one has a better fuel rating than the other two but they vary a lot price wise.
 
[TW]Fox;27663647 said:
Apparently there are. Only nobody will tell us end users what the differences are :rolleyes:
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Jonnycoupe explained this recently. First re A0 and second re M0
Jonnycoupe said:
Specific manufacturer tyres also allow them
to control the size and shape of tyre rather than ETRTO max in service tyres of that size. This allows better design as can allow tighter fender cuts to the wheel , sidewall to BODYSIDE flushness and remove the need for ugly spats on bumpers to meet legal tyre coverage.

Cost money for unique tooling but the big boys have the funds to do it.
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Jonnycoupe said:
Often the OEM specific tyres are such to control the tyre size rather than generic ETRTO envelope and resulting balloon tyres from XYZTyres.Ltd that could possibly be fitted.

This allows companies to meet legal tyre coverage AND good tight coverage of the tyre with the bodywork for aesthetics. Its a nightmare trying to do some of the standard tyres otherwise you end up needing bodywork to cover the big daft tyres and then the ones the OEM fit with the wheels to meet ride and handling can look lost and you lose showroom appeal. The unique specs can have subtle differences to tread and compounds aswell.

German premium marques are happy to tool the unique tyres to avoid this compromise. So basically aslong as you stick with the decent brands you should be fine as they vary very little.
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But that implies that the non 'approved' size won't fit, which it obviously does. I'd estimate that once a car hits 3 or 4 years old the proportion fitted with 'Manufacturer approved' tyres begins to fall off quite significantly.

If it was a clearance thing surely there would have to be quite a big warning in the manual that 'Yea, I know we say it needs 225/45/18, but actually, it needs special 225/45/18 and normal ones won't fit' rather than 'Audi recommends the use of Audi approved tyres'?

It's an absolute pain for end users because typically manufacturer approval on newer tyres is slower or non-existent and it severely restricts your choice of available tyres. That sounds like negative 'showroom appeal' to me :p
 
Porsche will only ever recommend Porsche approved tyres and they don't test new tyres for old cars, hence recommending the ancient and inferior PS2 over the PSS.
 
They are certainly ancient in tyre generation terms but I wouldn't go as far as to call them inferior! But yeah, given the choice, PSS every time for a little bit extra ££.
 
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