Bonefish Blues
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No, they are South Korean under Chinese ownership. Are you thinking about Kleber, who are?
Technical Wet weather tyre suggestions
- Thread starter Tessia
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Technical Wet weather tyre suggestions
Go for the Khumo, think the op will have information overload
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Conflicitng info as I researched prior to accepting and had different info. The ones we have a ROmanian manufactured. Not much of a recommendation in my experience. You may well be right, I wouldnt argue, but I put them on daughters car and after Ajerons comments took teh car out and really caned it in wet roads around Manchetser and in the Peaks. I wouldnt race on the things but for the plodding about she does Im fully satisfied they are safe. On a sports car. or for wider tyres I would probably avoid them. Having said all of this they were VERY cheap and available when she had two wrecked tyres.
Would I pick them over something else in the future? NO absolutely not, but the two on the Seat are definitely acceptable.
Anything made in teh far east is amde for totally different cliamtic and roiad conditions and I would never use them. We had Malaysian Goodyears on mothers Perodua. Same tread as the european ones, but the level of grip was uttely appalling and once I took the car over they were binned immediately. That car did a good impersonation of a drunk on an ice rink in a Tesco car park at less tha 20mph. Itbwas really dangerous. On Michelon all seasons it was transformed into a decent little motor. We would still have it except it seemd to be suffering sever tin worm at just a handful of yeasr old.
Bonefish Blues
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An ownership and country of manufacture disparity is understandable - e.g. Nokian has all but disappeared because whilst they are a Nordic brand (Finnish IIRC), manufacturing was all in Putinland, so killed off by sanctions. Design of Linglongs is Chinese.
OP
OP
I bit the bullet and went for the Kumho Ecsta HS52. Partly thanks to the comments here and partly from 3 days of research. Seems the older Kumho were pretty terrible but over recent years have gotten fairly good in the mid-range. These specific ones released in 2022 so recent but have been out long enough to have a lot of reviews.
They seen to handle pretty well in both the dry and wet and have a high aquaplaning resistance which I forgot to mention here but my car currently aquaplanes A LOT!! I was sent sideways at one point, how I pulled it back, I'll never know, but seems my instincts where pretty spot on!
A nearby garage that I've used for other work and my dad has used for tyres a few times has ordered them in and will be ready later today. If you don't see a post in the next few days along the lines off "hit curb, shock ****ed", you know they done the job!
Anyway... thank you all for the help, really appreciate it!!
Bonefish Blues
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Come back and tell us your impression of them when you have some miles on them 
OP
OP
Will do, hopefully it can help someone else out!Come back and tell us your impression of them when you have some miles on them
That's exactly why it's recommended to always have your best tyres on the rear.
Provided the front end loses grip before the back end lets go, doing the intuitively instinctive thing gets you back in control.
The other way round, recovery isn't intuitive and you need some advanced driving skills to avoid becoming a passenger.
OP
OP
All makes sense now!!
Glad I came here and was convinced not to just replace the fronts. Thank you!!
I'll make sure to always put new on the back and have the backs put on the front.
OP
OP
Is new tyre break-in still important? I known when I had my motorbike it was recommended to break-in new tyres and assume it's the same for cars but at the same time, bikers tend to be overly cautious which is understandable.
I've definitely heard it for cars before but I know that manufacturing processes change, materials change etc. so don't known if break-in recommendations have changed. If it is still recommended, how many miles do you lot go for? The answer to this seems to vary from person to person but from what I remember it's between 300-500 miles.
I've definitely heard it for cars before but I know that manufacturing processes change, materials change etc. so don't known if break-in recommendations have changed. If it is still recommended, how many miles do you lot go for? The answer to this seems to vary from person to person but from what I remember it's between 300-500 miles.
OP
OP
Thank you.
After reading through that, it sounds basically the same as what I read up about when I had new tyres on my motorbike years ago.
I'll take it easy for a while until they break in.
Luckily I drive a minimum of 150 miles a week, so it won't take long! I reset my trip data as I left the tyre place just incase this was needed so I can keep track of how many miles I've done on them.
Bonefish Blues
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500 miles is the longest period I've ever seen
I believe they are OEM fitment these days so can't be too terrible
Probably improved over the early days
Had Khumo years ago( when it's suggested they were terrible) never had an issue,,
It's when things get really bad that a premium tyre might get you out of a bind, but for general use I'd bet even the cheapest tyres would provide acceptable performance( when new ) 99%of the time, given most 500's are not driven "on the limit, boy racer style" ?
I drove through a huge quantity of water at 70mph in the Mazda a few years ago with brand new Goodyears just sailed through,,
It's when things get really bad that a premium tyre might get you out of a bind, but for general use I'd bet even the cheapest tyres would provide acceptable performance( when new ) 99%of the time, given most 500's are not driven "on the limit, boy racer style" ?
I drove through a huge quantity of water at 70mph in the Mazda a few years ago with brand new Goodyears just sailed through,,
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Break in still needed!- if only to rub off the release compound that gets the tyre out off the mould! also scrubs of the extra smooth initial surface to micro-scuff the rubber for best traction! I would think 200 miles of slightly more gentle than normal driving is enough!, as you say just like doing a bike tyre!( I still do it!) as a precaution.
At the cheapest end of the scale these
Mazzini ECO809 185/55 R15 V tyres | Blackcircles.com
Buy tyres online and get them fitted locally with Blackcircles. Lifetime Guarantee now on all car, van & SUV tyres. Peace of mind, at no extra cost.www.blackcircles.com
Have the same rating as Dunlop at twice the price?
The Younger Mrs S's Rasputin had a set of Mazzini 809s on it when we bought it... and they were actually pretty good.
The beast is on Bridgestone T005s now, which are slightly more stable in cornering and seem to be marginally quieter... but I run tyres down to just around the legal limit, so any new tyre is going to be slightly more stable and marginally quieter, just because they have rubber and they're new, rather than down to the wear indicators and knackered.
I suspect sometimes tyres just feel better or worse when you know what brand they are... I would have another set of Mazzini for the money.
Ralf S.
OP
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Only 50 miles on them so still wearing in but wanted to post an update while I remember.
Despite not being fully worn in yet, these tyres are much better!! Grip better in dry and wet and stopping distance is definitely lower, especially in wet.
If anything, they are slightly louder but after my first drive where I was specifically listening for it, I don't notice it.
One thing I hadn't expected is that the car feels smoother over bumps now, which given the road conditions near me, is great!!
I imagine as they wear in, the grip will improve slightly, but even as they are now, I'm happy!
Thank you all again! Will hopefully post another update in a few weeks if I remember.
Despite not being fully worn in yet, these tyres are much better!! Grip better in dry and wet and stopping distance is definitely lower, especially in wet.
If anything, they are slightly louder but after my first drive where I was specifically listening for it, I don't notice it.
One thing I hadn't expected is that the car feels smoother over bumps now, which given the road conditions near me, is great!!
I imagine as they wear in, the grip will improve slightly, but even as they are now, I'm happy!
Thank you all again! Will hopefully post another update in a few weeks if I remember.
OP
OP
530 mile update:
So I hit 500 miles yesterday and it was pouring rain so perfect test. This morning was still wet out but I was out at 7 so could have a bit more fun.
Even when I really push these tyres, they just hold! Tight corner, wet ground, foot flat down, you can feel them slip and very quickly grip again but I was really pushing it to the limits. On the old tyres they'd loose grip well before these ones start to slip a bit and once the old ones lost grip, you had to ease off the accelerator to get them to grip again. The new ones, you can keep your foot down and they'll just regain grip again. Absolutely amazing!!
Stopping distance in both wet and dry is faaaar better!! Noise level, I don't know if I've gotten used to it or it's eased off as they wore in but it's not noticeable now.
All in all, I'm incredibly happy with them. For normal daily driving, you definitely can't go wrong with them and if you like to have a bit of fun when the roads are quiet, they'll give you confidence to really push it.
Thank you all for the help!!
So I hit 500 miles yesterday and it was pouring rain so perfect test. This morning was still wet out but I was out at 7 so could have a bit more fun.
Even when I really push these tyres, they just hold! Tight corner, wet ground, foot flat down, you can feel them slip and very quickly grip again but I was really pushing it to the limits. On the old tyres they'd loose grip well before these ones start to slip a bit and once the old ones lost grip, you had to ease off the accelerator to get them to grip again. The new ones, you can keep your foot down and they'll just regain grip again. Absolutely amazing!!
Stopping distance in both wet and dry is faaaar better!! Noise level, I don't know if I've gotten used to it or it's eased off as they wore in but it's not noticeable now.
All in all, I'm incredibly happy with them. For normal daily driving, you definitely can't go wrong with them and if you like to have a bit of fun when the roads are quiet, they'll give you confidence to really push it.
Thank you all for the help!!
