Prices for Conti premium contact 2 in 185/55 R15 ?

If you buy from non-mainstream outlets, I'd be very wary about stock age.
Tyroola advises that maximum stock age is 4 years but that most tyres will be about I year old.
 
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eBay Continental $105
Fresh tyres are best and then they deteriorate.
Reasonable up to 5YO then become skid masters in wet
Tyres are good for up to 10 years then throw away
 
What do yo mean by non-mainstream?

To me, Tyroola is non-mainstream for instance.

1 year old would be okay, I think.
I would call Tyroola 'non-mainstream'. I would call Bob Jane 'mainstream'. Yes, 1 year old would be good. 4 years would not (as Driven opines).

Bob Jane has a listed price of $158. You can talk to the guys in the store & make clear that anything over 18 months from the manufacturing date will be a "no sale". You can then police this by looking at the sidewall before bringing out your credit card. Refusing old stock is harder with an online retailer. For the sake of $25 (assuming that Tyroola's price includes delivery & fitting), I'd choose Bob Jane. (I do admit that $25 would, at Dan Murphy's, buy a half way decent bottle of aged red from their "Cellar Reserve" range.)

As you know, I am an enthusiast for the merits of the PC2; how have you found them?
 
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Nice. I do not however have the guts to drive them as hard in the 205. For some reason that car does not inspire confidence (everything is in fact perfect mechanically on my car). But the car is so raw it is down right scary.

The Koleos is much more reassuring and I actually go around certain bends at much higher speeds in it. It has the other tyres you recommended (thank you) and they have not disappointed me.

Agree regarding things with dealers. We'll see.
 
Are you suggesting that higher cornering speed, indeed, such speed that you suggest is limited by the capacity of your tyres, is a responsible and worthwhile achievement?
 
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I am suggesting that good tyres are very capable and most likely do everything better than not-so-good tyres. Which in an emergency may be the difference between going home or not. 1200 dollars a set of good tyres every three or even two years is cheaper than full comprehensive insurance for the same time span and does more for you than cover potential costs. Hence I consider good tyres cheap insurance.
 
Emergency?
An often used term intended to create an irrational emotive response.
I guess the suggestion is that a sudden threatening situation outside the drivers control, that may be avoided by extreme braking or a violent swerve.
Yes, many accidents both minor and major, arise completely outside a drivers control, and in very short time frame, however the response of the driver is a much bigger factor than the response of the tyres. Most drivers freeze mentally and physically.
Don't think you won't!
It's well known that sensory overload causes even very experienced and trained people to fail to enact basic responses.

Fortunately I've not been in such a situation in my 47 years and 1.5million km driving.
However I have observed many situations where other drivers have not anticipated or responded to developing situations, leading to a high risk of an emergency.
I believe that the likelihood of such behaviour rises with the confidence level of the driver. I believe that a driver who is overconfident in the ability of his equipment or himself to rescue him from an " emergency" is far more likely to find himself in it.

Maybe my life experience of driving on the oldest, crappiest, bald, perished, patched and mismatched tyres has made me a more careful driver.
A far more effective means of avoiding an emergency.
 
I think we have some similar experience there.

I started driving with a 1966 R10 that would drift at 40km/h on dry tarmac with the (only) tyres I could buy in the right size. In winter we had snow, ice, black ice and temperatures down to -40 degrees (Celsius, that is) to contend with.

Later, I drove RWD solid rear axle taxis with tyres that wouldn't have passed rego. These like to drift at gentle take off speed from a standstill in the wet.

Today I often drive (for work) on the cheapest chinese plastic 14 ply crossply tyres pumped up to 3 bar (which makes them rock hard) in a vehicle that weighs 2 ton (empty) and god knows how much fully loaded with field equipment and sometimes dragging a twin axle trailer fully loaded with samples behind. I do sometimes 1600km a day like that, rain or shine.

I lost count of years and kilometres.

No accidents to date. Get the picture?
 
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No idea. I think there's a whole network of tyre dealers? importers? that cater to the mining industry. We find them through mining supplies companies. Triangle brand?

I think I may be wrong though on the crossply. Anywhoo, they are tube tyres, 14 ply.
 
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