Looks like I'm going to need a new pair of tyres on my A500 again so I'd just to hear what everyone is running and what they think of them.
The last pair fitted on mine were Yokohama Parada Spec-2's, excellent grip in the dry, above average in the wet (marginally down on the Pirellis) but the wear rate isn't quite as good (although that might be the fact they grip better and get driven a bit harder as a result).
The price on Pirellis is getting stupid at around the £110 per tyre mark while the Yoko's are just a few pennies shy of £26 a corner cheaper and that's just on my first round of investigation.
I would agree with grimwau's posting re the
Michelin Exaltos which I thought were amazing on the esseesse that I test drove. The Pirelli PZEROs
on the standard A500 were dissappointing and once there was a hint of wet I had to engage the TTC. I have Continental Premium Contact 2 on a 500 1.4 - very impressive tyre on a 16 inch and have made the ride comfortable. I like the Contis with the wet weather performance and quiet running (although they have higher rolling resistance) - not to sure I would go for them on your 17x7J but they would be more preferable to the Pirellis price depending.
Price wise it is hard to beat the Yokohama Parada spec 2 as an excellent dry summer tyre (£77). The Toyo in
T1R (£83) are raved about (as per Stuart's posting - great price for the performance) but only come in a 205x
45x17
size - this is run by G-TEchs mega A500 - which may not suit a standard A500.
On the Yokohama Parada spec 2 some have stepped up to a
215x40x17
and think they're brillant claiming that its worth the bit of extra drag for the late braking and cornering performance - optimised for dry weather. I'd imagine you would have to be running a TMC'd + A500 to justify this oversize. The Yohos are deemed to be a mid-Range tyre and would not be premium brand.
I 'ran' Michelin Pilots on a RS Turbo and I was mega impressed with them at the time - they were 'leading edge' and in a different league to the competition. The fact that the new esseesse kit comes with the Michelin Exalto as opposed to Pirelli indicates that the former are a much better tyre. The Michelin Exalto are pricey at £140 compared with some getting the Pirelli PZERO for £88 (which is good value as a performance tyre).
If you could run 2 sets of tyres - some do - and switch the tyres for the winter for a cost of £30 - and then back again - that might be an option. 3 years is generally the shelf life of tyres so if you doing 10K a year it might be an option so both sets are worn out. But you would have to be in an area of the UK that warrants winter tyres to justify this.
It will come down to price. If you could buy the Toyo T1R in the right size of 205x
40x17 for around £80 it would make the choice easy.
Since our 'wet weather' will be back again in another 2 months I would be tempted to try out a set of Vredestien which a mate had on a
rear wheel drive 132 2L Twin cam- it saved our 'bacon'. Not too sure if
Vredestien Ultrac Cento's will fit.
There are some good links in a
recent thread on the 500 forum. You may have to drill down to get info on 17s.
It will be interesting to see what you'll end up with.