Hi All,

My Stilo has 17inch low profile Goodyear tyres on it and all four need replacing.

Can anyone recommend a decent make of tyre that isn't going to cost me the Earth? Should I stick with Goodyear as I've heard they are good but wear out quick. As a rule of thumb how long (miles) should I expect tyres to last?

Assume I don't know anything about tyres when replying, as I don't!

Cheers.

my tyres on my Stilo have lasted 44k on the originals Dunlop sp2000 i think.

Sorry I'm not much help on which tyre to choose

All depends what you want - I am running 16s, and hated the Pirellis and Firestones so far [that came with the car].

I loved my Bridgestone Potenzas though

What are you after? Long life? Wet performance? Dry performance?

44k!!!!

I'm only on 27k and the Goodyears are like slicks. I guess the owner before me must have been a racing driver or something...

Hi Stuart,

I'm looking for long life I guess. Don't really horse the car much so might as well have some tyres that last a bit.

From what I've seen Bridgestones seem to get the thumbs up from most folk. I take it they cost a bit then?

I paid about £80 to £85 per corner, fitted - that was for 16s.

I wouldn't say that they have a long life [I got through the fronts in just over 10k miles ] BUT I do enjoy the 2.4 to its full

lol 44K - I'd be lucky to get 10k out of anything on the escort!

Tyres rated by Coupe owners:
Goodyear Eagle F1 (not cheap, but good grip, even in the wet)
Toyo Proxes T1S (reasonable price and good grip)
Falken FK451 (well priced, and pretty good for grip)

H

Have a looksie on mytyres.net and get a feel for the prices, even print off a page once you have chosen your prefered tyre and ask you local place to match it.

The trade off with tyres IMO is better grip=faster wearing so cheap tyres last longer but don't grip as good so for the best of both worlds go for an intermediate tyre, a known brand but not as expensive as the big names and you'll be fine.

Liam

Confessions of a former tire salesman...

The most bang for the buck is with Barum, if they have them in your size. Avoid all other cheap brands, none of them come close.

Next step up is Semperit. Their Direction Sport is a pretty good tire considering it's a medium price brand.

And now, something they don't want you to know...

Look on the tyre sidewall for the DOT mark. This is the USA version of the UK MOT. Even so, most tyres sold in the UK will have this. It is only on one side of the tyre. If there is no mark, the rest of this will not apply.

Now find the following on the sidewall; Treadwear, Temperature, Traction. Clever how they all start with "T", isn't it? Anyway, There's a three figure number that follows Treadwear. The higher the number, the longer the tyre will last. Most European tyres have a treadwear of 300 or less. Some US tyres go up to 700 or more. Big numbers like that mean the tyre is hard as a rock. That means it sounds like a rock, steers like a rock, rides like a rock, brakes like a rock, and grips like a rock. In other words, it's not too pleasent to drive on. The other side of the coin is that these tyres will last 100000 (that's NOT a typo)miles or more and they are what is called "All Season" tyres. They give better winter grip than summer tyres, but they are no substitute for real snow tyres in the deep stuff. The leading purveyor of these in the UK is Cooper, an American brand distributed by Synton or Sinton Tire in the UK. You can safely ignore the Temperature and Traction ratings that follow treadwear. They are regarded as something of a joke in the US. Cooper also has some soft performance tyres in their range, but my former customers did not much care for them when compared to the Continental Group products that I sold alongside them. I personally have a set of 205/50 R 16 on my Idea JTD 100 at the moment. They were a big improvement over the OEM Goodyear NCT 5s.

Sometimes the best solution for the budget is go replace the 16 or 17 inch wheels with 15s. Even if you buy the 15s new from a dealer, you get your money back in cheaper tyre prices for as long as you own the car. Doesn't look as cool, but it's a lot easier on the budget.