New tyres?

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Markus S

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I was looking at a new set of tyres for my own car (a Golf IV 2.3) this week. It had come factory-fitted with Michelins which had an extremely impressive long life, I've covered almost 70,000 km on them and they are still legal and work well even in the rain. If the exact same specification (Michelin Pilot HX) was still available, I'd buy that, but Michelin have introduced a successor which, in comparison tests in the German press, was good but a bit behind the best.

It seems I'll be running Bridgestone soon (Turanza ER 300). Any comments?
 
Michelin Pilots are the best I've tried on my BMW 328i. I put some new ones on about 4 months ago - far more grip in the wet than Continental/Pirelli IME.
 
I put Michalin pilot sports on my last car (TT) and said I would never buy them again, a real performance drop from the Bridgestones it came with, I replaced them with Goodyear eagle f1's which I found awsome both wet and dry. My current ride (boxster s) came with the mitchelins I hated so much on the TT, yet they feel fantastic, when they wear out I will be tempted to fit them again although many prefer Pirelli p rossos on porsche, I loved the Goodyear but they are not porsche n rated so could cause me insurance problems if in an accident.

Any other car it would be Goodyear eagle f1's, I reccomend them to friends and they are always impressed with the grip and longevity.
 
Unless the testers are using the same size of tyre on the same vehicle that you're interested in then I don't see that 'Which' or other tests are worth much.

Unless there's an extremely compelling reason I think I'd go with the nearest current Michelin to factory fit.

Paul
 
I phoned Michelin, the nearest equivalent to my original tyre is the Pilot Primacy. It costs me about 11 quid more per tyre.

I also dug out an old tyre "test" from "Gute Fahrt", a German VW/Audi/Porsche magazine with close ties to VW. They printed recommendations for the Golf IV a while back which seem to have come straight "from the horse's mouth", i.e. VW themselves. In my size, they rated the then-current Bridgestone higher than the Michelin:

Bridgestone ER30
Conti SportContact
Dunlop SP Sport 2000 E
Goodyear Eagle NCT 5
Pirelli P 6000 Powergy
Michelin Pilot HX MXM
Toyo Proxes T1-S

the only caveat being that I need R 16 91 V on a 6 J x 16 rim and the list above is given for R 16 W on a 6.5 J x 16 rim.

Anyway, it looks like the only advantage the Michelin has over the Bridgestone is longevity.
 
The Goodyears lasted very well on the TT which is no mean feat 4WD eats tyres, I went through a set of Michelins in under 8k miles. It was (is?) Evo's top tyre!
 
I use Bridgestones on my Type R they are shocking in the wet so I'd steer clear of them. Yokohama make excellent tyres which I used to use on my VR6 highly recommended and very low cost.
 
Markus Sauer said:
which type of Bridgestone?
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Potenza would be my guess.

I've got Pirelli P6000 on my Leon Cupra and they aren't too great on fast bends or in the wet (or maybe that was just me driving too fast :eek: ).

I think I'll be going down the Goodyear / Toyo route when it's time to change.
 
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Joolsburger said:
I use Bridgestones on my Type R they are shocking in the wet
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Maybe the drive sytem of the car works in some way with the tread patterns? The bridgestones were pretty good (dry and wet) on the 4WD TT, but you don't rate them on your FWD R Type (nice BTW) the Michelins are pretty good in the wet (awsome dry) on my RWD Boxster but were pretty scary on the 4WD TT dry or wet. The goodyears were easily the best I had on the TT and my friends put them on their FWD cars with equally good results another friend also has the the Goodyears on his RWD 911 and he speaks highly of them. Its more of an issue with RWD cars in the wet :eek:
 
batfink said:
I've got Pirelli P6000 on my Leon Cupra and they aren't too great
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Bl00dy awful tyres, the tread looks promising but doesnt deliver. The guys on the Porsche forums rate the Pirelli p rossos over the michelins though so I might try them next, although the pilots are lasting surprisingly well, not even scrubbed at the edges - and no I don't drive like a dad :cool:
 
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Michelin MX claim to, never thought about fuel ecconomy with tyres, grip and safety have to be paramount.
 
rsand said:
Bl00dy awful tyres, the tread looks promising but doesnt deliver.
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You're not wrong there! Had a bit of a play the other day with a BMW 325. Had it not been for traction control, I would have spun the wheels in 1st, 2nd and 3rd trying to get a quick start in the wet.

On a related note, for anyone that lives within a reasonable distance, Bracknell Tyres are supposed to offer excellent prices on most of the top tyres. I'm yet to need any new tyres so haven't tried them, but they're always v. busy on a weekend.
 
Joolsburger said:
I use Bridgestones on my Type R they are shocking in the wet so I'd steer clear of them. Yokohama make excellent tyres which I used to use on my VR6 highly recommended and very low cost.
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Interesting. This is a Civic Type R I presume? AFAIK the Bridgestone tyres on those cars (Potenza RE040) were designed specially for that car by Bridgestone (as frequently happens with other high performance cars and tyres - see below*) and the 2 or 3 Type R owners I know have tried a number of other tyres but always come back to the factory Bridgestones in the end.

Agree about Yokos though. I'd still generally stick with Bridgestone, Michelin, Pirelli or Goodyear though for any high performance car. I use Michelin Pilot Sports on my M3 (the recommended fit since the MXX3 went out of production) and can't fault them.

Michael.

* as with many high performance tyres, there's the "generic" version of the Bridgestone Potenza RE040 and then there are a number of special variants, usually identified by a special type code, which have been tailor made for specific cars. They're usually more expensive (and harder to find) but if your car has them it's worth getting them.
 

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