Technical Seicento Sporting Tyres

[ECR]

I need to get a new set of 165/55/13 tyres for a Seicento Sporting which has been parked up for a few years.

In the past I have only ever had Pirelli or Goodyear tyres but looking online there no longer seems to be tyres made by any brand that I have heard of.

The brands that I have found are Nankang, Rotalla, Minerva, Imperial, Tristar, Sonar, Tracmax and there is little difference in price.

Does anyone have any experience of any of these brands? Are there any in particular to choose or avoid, or are they all much of a muchness?

 

[timmycm850]

Hi

Ive used the Nankangs before, good grip, fairly good tyre structure but the compound wont last as long as goodyear or michelin, i would probably compare them to be a slightly softer compound version of a continental.

Tim

 

[varesecrazy]

Hi and welcome to FF

I Had a variety on my cinq when purchased

Then tried 50 profile.. too firm for me

LOTS of info on here

SEARCH is great.. you can narrow a search to cinq:sei section only

Charlie

 

[dx90]

Hi,

My sons Seicento Sporting 2002 has Nankang Toursport XR-611 165/55 R13 70H fitted.


Been using and replacing with the same for years. He's pleased with them and I drive the car on occasions and find them alright.


Really limited these days of getting any small tyres any good.

Hope this helps and welcome to the forum.

 

[dac69er]

Nankang are a known brand, albeit budget. The rest are all really low budget tires. They will be adequate, but that is about it. Nothing special. Don't expect great grip, but they will be safe enough.

 

[varesecrazy]

I answered this for a cinq..

Our Sei sporting had a pair of NOS pirellis
For standard 1108 with standard road use

No better or worse than the Nankangs that they replaced...

What is pricing like nowadays..?

 

[meshgrid]

i recently bought some nankang Econex NA-1 summer tyres, paid 36€ a piece (Austria); got them mounted today. they seem fine; can't say anything about the durability yet.

there's a german forum where i found some useful recommendations; i can't post URLs but if you google "reifen und deren alternativen fuer den cento luftdruck" you'll find it.

the thread lists basically all the tyres you can still get in this dimension. turns out the nankang is really the only choice in 13" (they're the least crappy choice, i guess, excluding maybe semislicks), everything else has even worse performance on wet roads.

 

[ECR]

Thank you everyone for all your replies and help.


I very much get the impression that Nankang are probably going to be the best of the options available.

What is pricing like nowadays..?

For mail order Blackcircles are quoting around £32 for Nankang Econex NA-1 which are their cheapest and £35 for the Rotalla RH02 which is their most expensive. On other websites for various brands I found prices from about £25.

Chains like Kwik-Fit won't even quote online for that size. I contacted a few local tyre depots and those that can supply tyres of that size are quoting around £50 each fitted but they are not really saying anything about which brand. It may be I'll just have to settle for whatever I can get.

 

[varesecrazy]

Look at Adsa tyres online

They use local tyre shops.. so teasonably convenient

 

[dx90]

Thank you everyone for all your replies and help.


I very much get the impression that Nankang are probably going to be the best of the options available.




For mail order Blackcircles are quoting around £32 for Nankang Econex NA-1 which are their cheapest and £35 for the Rotalla RH02 which is their most expensive. On other websites for various brands I found prices from about £25.

Chains like Kwik-Fit won't even quote online for that size. I contacted a few local tyre depots and those that can supply tyres of that size are quoting around £50 each fitted but they are not really saying anything about which brand. It may be I'll just have to settle for whatever I can get.

I got my last ones from camskill.co.uk they are £35.90 for the XR-611. Local tyre fitter firm charged £15 each for re-fitting new valve and rebalancing. Camskill was the only place I could find at the time that supplied the XR-611 and the date on the tyres was just a few months old. Very happy.

 

[varesecrazy]

Look at Adsa tyres online

They use local tyre shops.. so reasonably convenient

Online quote today:

Asda Tyres is operating as usual.
Home**Tyre Brands**Nankang**Econex NA-1**165/55R13 70H

165/55R13 NANKANG ECONEX NA-1 70HNankang Econex NA-1

£47.46
Fully Fitted
Fully Fitted Price*- Includes VAT, delivery, fitting, balancing and disposal charges.

£34.26
Home Delivery
Tyres only - delivered to your home or work. Delivery cost calculated at the basket.

Not too daft .. comparable with quotes above..

my local fella charges £10 per wheel..
But cant get tyres that cheap..

hope that helps

 

[dx90]

Unfortunately they've got us over a barrel when it comes to tyres this small.

 

[ECR]

Thanks for everyone's help with this.

I ended up getting Tracmax tyres in the end. As the car had been off the road for many years, it wasn't MOT'd, so I was restricted to tyre places that had mobile fitting. Some said they couldn't get a tyre in that size, and of those that could, none of them could get the Nankangs. I suppose I could have ordered tyres online myself and tried to see if anywhere would come out to fit, but it seemed easier just to get it all together. At £200 for four tyres including mobile fitting the price seemed reasonable.


One place that couldn't get tyres in the size suggested putting on 155/65/13 tyres which would have been cheaper and opened up a much wider choice of brands, including some well known ones. I thought it would be best to stick with the original size.


I've only just got the car MOT'd so have only driven it a couple of times but it has been both extreme heat and pouring rain. So far the Tracmax tyres seem to be ok. From what I can gather a number of the low budget brands are made in the same factories and just have different branding and I think maybe Rotalla, Minerva and Imperial are the same tyres as the Tracmax.

 

[dx90]

Thanks for everyone's help with this.

I ended up getting Tracmax tyres in the end. As the car had been off the road for many years, it wasn't MOT'd, so I was restricted to tyre places that had mobile fitting. Some said they couldn't get a tyre in that size, and of those that could, none of them could get the Nankangs. I suppose I could have ordered tyres online myself and tried to see if anywhere would come out to fit, but it seemed easier just to get it all together. At £200 for four tyres including mobile fitting the price seemed reasonable.


One place that couldn't get tyres in the size suggested putting on 155/65/13 tyres which would have been cheaper and opened up a much wider choice of brands, including some well known ones. I thought it would be best to stick with the original size.


I've only just got the car MOT'd so have only driven it a couple of times but it has been both extreme heat and pouring rain. So far the Tracmax tyres seem to be ok. From what I can gather a number of the low budget brands are made in the same factories and just have different branding and I think maybe Rotalla, Minerva and Imperial are the same tyres as the Tracmax.

Glad you got sorted.