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Tyres.

deanf said:
That's food for thought, my experience is that new tyres work better on the front.

note. "tires" and the US spelling / rear wheel drive
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I don't think there's a single tyre manufacturer that says newest tyres on the front.

https://www.theaa.com/driving-advice/safety/car-tyres

"New tyres to the front or back?
Check your handbook first but if it doesn’t give any specific advice then, whether your car’s front-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive the best/newest tyres should be on the back.

Making sure you have your best tyres on the back will favour ‘understeer’ rather than ‘oversteer’ when grip is limited such as in very wet or cold conditions.
  • Understeer – the car tends to go straight on even though you’re turning the wheel.
  • Oversteer – the back end breaks free and the car is likely to spin.
Tyres with deeper tread grooves are less likely to puncture too and it's more difficult to control a car with a damaged rear tyre than one with a damaged front tyre."


 
Mullardman said:
Evening! To be accurate. my prioriity is ride comfort from the fitted tyres.. The car.. I'm stuck with.. Yes 2.0 L VTEC It's done a little over 70k and has been very well maintained. New calipers and discs all around in the last couple of years as they do seem to be a weakness. I've had it since 2012 and have changed oil and filter annually, using Castrol Edge.. despite annual mileage maybe around 5k. Anything breaks/wears out.. it gets changed. As time goes. I notice more and more folk admiring it.

After a minor rear end shunt a couple of years back, Insurance wanted to scrap it and offered way less than £1k I told them to 'go away' and demanded repair.

A very fine car. Not high on gadgets, but what it has works.. and it will fly if asked.

At 71.. and weakening a bit.. this really could well be my last car.
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My 51 reg 1.4S 3 door is the poverty spec but it's still got air con and electrically heated door mirrors. It's done 139K miles but it is just beginning to show it's age. For the first time ever there is a very slight oil leak. My garage told me that the sump was porous, which makes no sense to me, but I do have my doubts about that place.

The original battery needed changing at 110K. I made the mistake of replacing it with a Unipart one which has barely lasted 30K miles before it's started conking out in cold weather.

The steering is accurate with no slack at any point, which is good but it isn't the lightest. I did try to get my Dad to get a new car to replace his Peugeot 306 when he was in his late 70s but it was too late, he was just stuck in his ways too much. The 306 had rubber band steering which I personally couldn't get on with but it suited him alright.

I'm fortunate in having a local independent tyre fitters that I trust. They're out of town a bit and usually have a stack of tractor tyres out front. You often see commercial vans there as well so they must be doing something right. Before now I've asked them what they recommend and not been disappointed. The Kumhos aren't quite as good as the original equipment Dunlops but they're close enough.

This is my 6th Honda in a row but I'm not a fan of the modern ones. Too heavy with absolutely no connection to the road and about as nimble as Chatsworth House. Apparently a lot of ex-Toyota guys came in at a high level and you can definitely tell, old Soichiro Honda must be spinning in his grave - at 8500 rpm of course :)
 
JensenHealey said:
Cross Climates on my XC60. I have a high profile set up, only 17" wheels! Very good and £130 or so a corner. Not bad for big heavy car.

Previously Jag X-type also had them, excellent they were too.

My wife has a Qashqai with very low profiles on 19" wheels (just unnecessary in a 130BHP car, but hey! they look good, and are £180 each for a decent Continental. Sadly the Cross Climates are not available in such a low profile.
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One of the reasons I'm looking at all-season tyres like the Cross Climate+ is to avoid having to get a 2nd set of wheels with winter tyres on, but not that many all-season tyres seem to be available in the fitments I need. It looks like the CrossClimate+'s should be though.
 
Mullardman said:
Evening! To be accurate. my prioriity is ride comfort from the fitted tyres.. The car.. I'm stuck with.. Yes 2.0 L VTEC It's done a little over 70k and has been very well maintained. New calipers and discs all around in the last couple of years as they do seem to be a weakness. I've had it since 2012 and have changed oil and filter annually, using Castrol Edge.. despite annual mileage maybe around 5k. Anything breaks/wears out.. it gets changed. As time goes. I notice more and more folk admiring it.

After a minor rear end shunt a couple of years back, Insurance wanted to scrap it and offered way less than £1k I told them to 'go away' and demanded repair.

A very fine car. Not high on gadgets, but what it has works.. and it will fly if asked.

At 71.. and weakening a bit.. this really could well be my last car.
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I had a Civic Type S too and absolutely loved it. Mine was written off after a sunstantial rear end shunt which left it properly irrepairable sadly. I was hit by a garage mechanic driving a customer's car wwhich must have taken some explaining.
 
Another vote for Cross Climates, used them on my last three cars. Excellent tyres, and give little or nothing away to high performance summer tyres in, er, summer, but also give decent winter performance too. Also find them very good in the wet.
 
2ManyBoxes said:
This is my 6th Honda in a row but I'm not a fan of the modern ones. Too heavy with absolutely no connection to the road and about as nimble as Chatsworth House. Apparently a lot of ex-Toyota guys came in at a high level and you can definitely tell, old Soichiro Honda must be spinning in his grave - at 8500 rpm of course :)
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We were a Honda family for many years - even had one of the crazy 1.6 VTi Civics back in the day. It's a few years since we've bought one now though as most of the range just isn't interesting. The Jazz is the only one I'd considering buying, as a replacement for my sons Fiesta (the Fiesta is better to drive but by comparison with the Jazz's we've had before the build is poor and the dealers are shocking). I do still mostly stick to Honda for motorbikes though.

For cars we've most switched to Mercedes now.
 
glancaster said:
Don't cheap out on tyres. Michelin Cross Climate are very good in all weathers. The cost is insignificant compared with the other costs of motoring, and the value of human life.
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I put a set on my car last autumn, on the basis of the long-range weather forecast, replacing a scarcely worn set of Dunlops. Oh, dear, there's more money spent unnecessarily.
 
SteveG said:
We were a Honda family for many years - even had one of the crazy 1.6 VTi Civics back in the day. It's a few years since we've bought one now though as most of the range just isn't interesting. The Jazz is the only one I'd considering buying, as a replacement for my sons Fiesta (the Fiesta is better to drive but by comparison with the Jazz's we've had before the build is poor and the dealers are shocking). I do still mostly stick to Honda for motorbikes though.

For cars we've most switched to Mercedes now.
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So what tyres did you run the fleet on? And aren't you finding Mercedes a bit of a shock after Honda, reliability wise?
 
Cross Climate+ here. Noticeably quieter than what was on before (Hankook somethings) and seem grippy enough in the wet. Certainly grippier on snow/ice.
 
Funk said:
yres with deeper tread grooves are less likely to puncture too and it's more difficult to control a car with a damaged rear tyre than one with a damaged front tyre."
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Agreed on the former but can't understand the latter on a FWD car. I've had punctures on both axles and the one(s) on the rear were relatively benign.
 
2ManyBoxes said:
So what tyres did you run the fleet on? And aren't you finding Mercedes a bit of a shock after Honda, reliability wise?
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Michelin Pilot Sports on the sportier cars, and Conti's on the rest. The Mercedes haven't been quite as reliable as the Honda's but not too bad so far.
 
Mike Reed said:
Agreed on the former but can't understand the latter on a FWD car. I've had punctures on both axles and the one(s) on the rear were relatively benign.
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Same here. I've had rear wheel punctures on a front drive car and barely noticed them, but front punctures were more of a handful.
 
If for no other reason, on a fwd car, you’ll save a fortune by putting new tyres on the rear. They usually have an easier life on the rear, so wear at about half the rate of front tyres. Then, when fitted to the front, the slightly shallower tread depth means the tread blocks don’t move around so much, therefore they run cooler and last longer.

I’ve know so many people to gave silly little cars like Vauxhall Agilas who go through the front tyres in 10k miles, fit the new tyres to the front, and hey presto they also wear in 10k. The rears, strangely enough, last six years or more, but have gone hard and a bit cracked. They just won’t listen to good advice, even when it’s backed up by the RAC, AA, all manufacturers, car forums...
 
Funk said:
Every single tyre manufacturer recommends that the tyres with the most tread (so typically the newest) should always be fitted to the rear of the vehicle.
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So they don't recommend regular rotation anymore?

On a FWD car the fronts will wear faster than the rears. If you start with four new rim-protectors, the rears will always have more tread, and the fronts will eventually wear out when the rears still have half their life left.
 
Yank said:
That's an oxymoron.
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We'll not be 'avin any of them Continentals round 'ere now we've Brexited. Innit.

Not sure whether Continental as a brand is different for the US, but over here it's very much premium, alongside Michelin, Pirelli, Bridgestone, etc. I've used, and liked, Contis for several years, but I switched to (considerably less expensive) Avons a few years back and have not been disappointed.

I agree with Mike Reed and Steve G that the advice about rear punctures being easier to control is both counterintuitive, and contrary to my own experience.
 
I had Cross Climates on my last car (Lexus RX) and they were pretty impressive, certainly better under all conditions than the OE Bridgestones.
New tyres should definitely go on the rear, as the tyres get older the compound can harden and lose grip - when you add that to potentially lower wet grip from reduced tread depth it could be a dangerous situation. Having said that - I've put new tyres on the front of my cars in the past without any problems, but I've been aware of the situation and cautious until I've checked out the grip balance. You can't expect stability control to sort out any problems for you...
 
Yank said:
So they don't recommend regular rotation anymore?

On a FWD car the fronts will wear faster than the rears. If you start with four new rim-protectors, the rears will always have more tread, and the fronts will eventually wear out when the rears still have half their life left.
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You would simply move the part-worn rears to the front and put new ones on the rear. Ultimately you're spending exactly the same amount of money, just spread out. It seems to be a very 'American' thing to rotate tyres, I don't know of any other country that talks about it.

The only exception to this rule is cars like BMWs where they have staggered wheelsizes front/rear.
 
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