What tyres would you recommend for an MG ZR?

ajgoodfellow · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:04

Hi!

I have recently bought an MG ZR 120+.

It is currently fitted with Michelin Pilot Premacy 205/50 R16 87W tyres on three wheels and some unknown Korean ditch finder on the back nearside tyre

I was going to replace the ditch finder with another Michelin Pilot Premacy to make all of the tyres match. It looks like this retails for about £120 per tyre including fitting and balancing

At our local tyre shop the guy strongly recommends Toyo tyres and he says that these are far superior. He says that the Michelin tyres are OK but they loose a lot of grip when they're about 50% worn. He recommended that I allow the unknown tyre to wear down and replace them both with Toyo tyres.

He says that as it's a front wheel drive car it's more important that the tyres match on the front.

What are your opinions on this?

Should I get another Michelin Pilot Premacy? Should I just replace them both with Toyo tyres? Any other tyres to consider?

Two of the Michelin tyres have plenty of tread, indeed one is has only a few thousand miles on it (bought a few months ago). One is about half worn

Many thanks!

Alistair

ajgoodfellow · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:11

Hi

Thanks for your reply

My Dad actually had those Goodyear tyres on his MGTF but he's just replaced them with the Toyo tyres (he had one GS-2 and one GS-3 and this was said to be the worst combination possible!)

ajgoodfellow · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:15

Cool

Do you think it's worth replacing the worn Michelin and the ditch finder with two Toyo tyres (and rotating them so the two Michelins and the two Toyos are on the same axel) instead of buying a new Michelin tyre?

ajgoodfellow · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:34

Hi

Thanks for the reply

New tyres all round would be desirable but at £120 per tyre I really can't afford this at the moment

I had mixed tyres on my Astra and it was scary - the back end would just snap out without warning.

If I buy another Michelin then the make would be matched, but not the wear. If I buy two new Toyo tyres then I would have two perfectly matched and two reasonably well matched (the two better Michelin's which aren't that worn) tyres in both make and wear (for the same axel)

If you were in this situation, would you go for:

a) New Michelin only

b) Two new Toyo tyres, place them on the front (with matched Michelins on the rear)

c) Two new Toyo tyres, place them on the rear (with matched Michelins on the front)

Sorry for all the questions - thanks for your help!

ajgoodfellow · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:41

Nope, 16"

Apparently its an unusual size so the tyres are expensive

Even budget tyres seem to be £60!

The Michelins are about £120, the Toyos are about £100 or so

What option would you go for?

ajgoodfellow · 13 Apr 2006 at 15:02

Hi

Yeah, I'll definitely shop around

They are expensive but I'm reluctant to change the tyre size completely - surely they chose that size for a reason?

ajgoodfellow · 13 Apr 2006 at 18:09

Hi!

I ended up buying two Toyo tyres and putting these on the front with the best two Michelin tyres on the back

ajgoodfellow · 13 Apr 2006 at 18:26

Matt82 said:
premacy are nasty nasty tyres. get rid of them at the first excuse

And to think I almost bought some more :eek:

One of them was worn so that's why I decided to replace as a pair.

I used Toyo as they were recommended

ajgoodfellow · 13 Apr 2006 at 20:14

Thanks for the comments

The Toyo tyres ended up costing £90 each including VAT, balancing, fitting, etc. I went for the Toyo Proxes T1-R

I went with Guildford Tyre - they did a good job and they had them in stock which was nice - most other people were saying that they were special order products!

ajgoodfellow · 13 Apr 2006 at 22:11

[TW]Fox said:
He should be very careful...

My MG knowledge is poor but I'm pretty sure the MG-F is actually recommended by MG to be run on the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D2 for the rear tyre only, for safety reasons. I cannot remember the exact reason but it was something to do with handling issues with regular tyres, and as a result, MG themselves insisted the car was fitted with GS-D2's.

I'm sure one of the proper Rover fans will be able to either confirm what I am saying, or confirm that it's a load of balls.

Yes, 1 D2 and 1 D3 is a very daft combination and possibly illegal, the treat patterns are different!

It was like that when he bought the car - he mentioned that it was rather twitchy and unpredictable

The problem is that the D2s are out of production - on the MG forums the Toyos were recommended as being great tyres (you're right about the specific requirements though!)