508GT Tyre Recommendations? Buying 4 cheapies vs 2 primos?

adbell

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Fellow Frogger
Joined
Nov 18, 2002
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Hi

I have a 2013 508GT which sports the 235/40R19 tyres. So far, the car has been great!

I'm expecting that I'll need to replace at least 2 new tyres in next few thousand km and thought I'd seek some guidance in advance.

The original Continental ContiSport Contact 3 can cost up to $600/tyre :)crazy:). At the other end of the scale, you can buy Mayrun MR500 for $180/tyre.

So I'm wanting to weigh up putting 4 new chinese tyres vs 2 new european tyres.

I've read recently that current logic with front-wheel drive cars is that you should put the new tyres on the rear - which kind of goes against my inclinations.

I'm guessing that the better quality tyres should have better longevity but I don't expect they would have more 2x the lifespan of the cheaper tyre.

I've also heard of peoples comments on the relative road noise of various tyres. Though I'm thinking if the cabin sound proofing can capably block the sound of the diesel engine, is tyre noise really going to be a consideration?

Finally, performance/stopping power. Is there really much in it these days?

Keen for your thoughts on going with 4 cheapies vs 2 primos.

Many thanks
adbell
 
I have cheapie road tyres on my SUV, but not Mayrun or schisenflower or anything that crap....Kumho.

They are not as good as the primo Bridgestone suv tyres but they not that bad either.
Get the best tyres you can afford, and idealy get 4 of them.
Jo
 
You can knock off another $100 by looking around.
 
If you go to a UK tyre website and they have the same tyre that you are looking at, they have a standardised performance rating system (presumably an EU requirement). They rate wear, wet road handling and noise - something that should be mandatory for tyres sold in Australia. A better base on which to make comparisons.
 
Thanks Seasink - I'm in Brisbane and was going off the prices from tyresales.com.au. Looks like Tempe has them at more competitive price.

Can anyone explain the difference between speed rating of Y vs W?
 
Y is for real speed demons - up to 300 kph. W is for grandma, at a max of 270 kph.
 
Thanks - Well, not expecting to exceed 270 any time soon, but I guess Y is better than W, so the TOYO 235/40R19 96Y Proxes T1 Sport at $240 each from your website are looking like pretty good value.
 
You can use that site for negotiation, as they will dispatch tyres to Qld. They are a huge dealer.

If you do buy unfitted tyres from somewhere you may have to look about to get a local fitter to put them on - say $30 upwards per tyre. They otherwise miss out on their tyre markup.
 
I was very happy with the Achilles tyres on my 206GTi. Perhaps slightly more road noise than others, but as I never drove the car with anything else, I can't be sure. Roadholding was excellent. Wear seemed fine - bought the car and put 8,000km on it in the year i owned it, tyres still look much like new.

Doesn't look like Achilles do a tyre to suit you, unless you went to a 245/35 profile for $135 each fitted and balanced
 
On both this forum, a Toyota forum and a few VW forums, the Michelin PS3's rate as a great all rounder.

Do they come in the size you need???


MY13 Kluger KX-S AWD / MY16 Polo GTI
 
Legend has it that in the olden days, to built a new car, the French would put 4 Michelins on the ground and built up a car around it.

Of the ones that I have used, they have given double the longevity, usually at the expense of dry grip and/or wet grip, but not noise, lightness or handling.

As you may have found already, this is probably the best collection of reviews for yours :

Toyo Proxes T1 Sport | the Toyo Proxes T1 Sport reviewed and rated - TyreReviews
 
I think that it is always a bad idea to save money by fitting rubbish tyres. Reason? Poor wet grip especially under braking. The value of some premium tyres over rubbish penny dreadfuls is not proportionately longer life in relation to price difference but potentially life saving increases in grip & responsiveness, especially in the wet & especially under braking. The compounding that helps produce this is usually not conducive to long life. So be it, I say. They are also more satisfying for a fastish fang.

The Proxes T1 is not a bad tyre but well outclassed for wet grip by other tyres available.

Cost difference compared to the T1 seems to be about $100 a tyre. I scanned Bob Jane & Jax web sites (the latter is useful for listing notional prices). My own performance-orientated short list (ignoring long-life, comfort, noise, fuel economy and the like) from what's available according to these sites is:

Michelin Pilot Super Sport
Pirelli P Zero
Goodyear F1 Asymmetric 2
Continental SportContact 5

The first two have promotion deals currently on offer - but only for 4 tyres.

If fitting 2 tyres only, I'd go for the Conti SC5. Reason? Most similar structure to the SC3 & thus least chance of introducing handling oddities. Two reasons for putting the new ones on the back are: more stable handling balance if one enters a corner too fast & lifts off when the front begins an understeer slide; &: having the older tyres on the front of a FWD car means that they'll wear out faster & you'll more quickly get to the point of having a matched set of 4 tyres. (Perhaps rotation of tyres would then be a good idea.)

The Tyre Reviews site in the UK is a very good one.

Tyre tests at tyrereviews - TyreReviews

Apart from just browsing tests, you could go to the top right of the page & click Reviews - by brand. This gives you a menu of tyre types. Click on Michelin's Pilot SS, for example, & you get two offerings: a list of clickable magazine tyre tests featuring the PSS & a bunch of owner reviews. I tend to ignore the latter & especially ignore the statistically meaningless overall summation scores of them. The magazine test links are good value though.

When reading the tests, I'd ignore the overall rankings & look at scores & comments on disciplines of particular interest to you. Look especially at comparative scores on these disciplines of other tyres on your short-list if they're included in the same test as (on our current assumption) the PSS. Test protocols vary from magazine to magazine & comparative rankings can vary even within one discipline like, say, wet braking. But spend an hour or two browsing & you'll soon get a feel for what tyres are doing best on things that are important to you.

cheers! Peter
 
I'd avoid the cheapo Chinese tyres like the plague. You get what you pay for.

A year or so back I binned the Toyo Teo Plus tyres I had on my GTi6 and fitted Eagle F1 Directional 5s. The Toyos weren't even cheap Chinese rubbish, just 'eco' tyres. The difference was like night & day...although I must admit I sometimes miss the older tyres' propensity for a bit of easy sideways action :D

Be wary of any upsell tactics like 'free' puncture repairs/replacement. They usually come with the proviso that you come in for 'safety inspections' at regular intervals, which you pay for. If something happens and you missed one of the checkups, oops looks like your warranty is void.
 
I'd avoid the cheapo Chinese tyres like the plague. You get what you pay for.

A year or so back I binned the Toyo Teo Plus tyres I had on my GTi6 and fitted Eagle F1 Directional 5s. The Toyos weren't even cheap Chinese rubbish, just 'eco' tyres. The difference was like night & day...although I must admit I sometimes miss the older tyres' propensity for a bit of easy sideways action :D

Be wary of any upsell tactics like 'free' puncture repairs/replacement. They usually come with the proviso that you come in for 'safety inspections' at regular intervals, which you pay for. If something happens and you missed one of the checkups, oops looks like your warranty is void.

Regrettably, low rolling resistance & wet grip remain largely conflicting compounding demands. For instance, Continental's PremiumContact5 & EcoContact5 have near-as-dammit the same structure & similarly conceptualized tread pattern elements but the PC5 compounds for wet braking & the EC5 for LRR.

One's best ecotype hope is a tyre that does most of its eco work via a light-weight friction-minimising structure & prioritises wet grip in compounding. A tyre I've written of before, Hankook's EX, is a promising example (although I've yet to see a test as it's not a European range type & I have no experience of it). Another Hanhook eco Kinergy tyre, the K 425, does remarkably well in the below linked test (note the abysmal Toyo NanoEnergy 2 & the mediocre Yoko Blue Earth AE01). So, not all "eco" labeled tyres are hopeless in the wet; much depends on the causal pathway to LRR.

2015 Market Overview Braking Test - TyreReviews

cheers! Peter
 
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GT radials... great performance and price.. may not be as long lived as others but you will love them... see if you can find a distributor and get a quote. I have seen them for sale on the sunshine coast
GT Radial Champiro HPY
 
GT radials... great performance and price.. may not be as long lived as others but you will love them... see if you can find a distributor and get a quote. I have seen them for sale on the sunshine coast
GT Radial Champiro HPY

Seriously, no. As I remarked on the Proxes T1, not a bad tyre but there are better options. Peruse the following summary &/or go to the A.E. site for the full test

2015 Auto Express Tyre Test - TyreReviews

cheers! Peter
 
If you go to a UK tyre website and they have the same tyre that you are looking at, they have a standardised performance rating system (presumably an EU requirement). They rate wear, wet road handling and noise - something that should be mandatory for tyres sold in Australia. A better base on which to make comparisons.

Actually, that's not quite right. The new EU rating system rates rolling resistance (more economy related, not wear), wet braking & noise.

Continental Tyres Australia & New Zealand -The new EU Tyre Label ? What does it tell you?

These ratings are but the crudest initial screening device for development of a "medium list" & a better guide is a thorough trawl through the tyre test summaries at Tyre Reviews looking for comparative ratings on parameters of importance to you. Note that there can be ranking changes across various wet performance parameters & one shouldn't assume that a tyre that has been optimised for a good EU wet braking score will do similarly well laterally. Note also that, although tyre companies do make tyres for particular markets, they give them unique names (like Michelin's XM2). But a world-wide type, say, a Pilot Sport 3, is named, compounded & structured identically wherever it's sold. The point here is that European tyre test rankings & ratings translate across to the examples of those tyre types sold here.

Adbell, when you've finally actioned your decision, it would be nice to report back on how things panned out , especially in the wet.

cheers! Peter
 
Hi

.....snip....

The original Continental ContiSport Contact 3 can cost up to $600/tyre :)crazy:). At the other end of the scale, you can buy Mayrun MR500 for $180/tyre.

....snip....

Many thanks
adbell

I just rang my local Jax Tyres - those CSC3's in that size are $439 fitted and balanced. You seriously need to find a new tyre place ! One day turn around on delivery.

Do you ever brake in the rain ? Do you ever go around corners ? I tried to save a few bucks on the latest 2 tyres I bought and put mid spec Dunlops on instead of Conti's - worst mistake ever. The Dunlops are as close to dangerous as I've ever had a tyre - the grip on 1000km old Dunlops is certainly far, far worse than bald CSC's. My wife recently had trouble doing a hill start up a local hill because the Dunlops couldn't get traction - I thought that a little strange and so took the car out myself - first round-a-bout I nearly speared off the road they were so bad in the wet. I checked the tyre pressures with 3 different tyre gauges to be sure.

If I had a car with 450Nm of torque I'd be putting the best tyres on I could afford.

Cheers

Justin
 
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