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Car tyre law

thebigfredc said:
I remember auld Jeremy Clackerbag summarising the X5 as a completely pointless car. Seems strange to me that after BMW and Mercedes spent decades building reputations for making utility saloons they then spoilt it with people carriers, 4x4s etc.
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Loved my X5, it was a great car.
 
thebigfredc said:
I remember auld Jeremy Clackerbag summarising the X5 as a completely pointless car. Seems strange to me that after BMW and Mercedes spent decades building reputations for making utility saloons they then spoilt it with people carriers, 4x4s etc.
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Like with many things, he was wrong, The X5 for me has been the best family car I have ever owned. Perfect for lugging 2 kids to and from University, perfect for a kayaking son, perfect for my band commitments, perfect for long journeys and zero discomfort, perfect for taking bikes to different locations.

It is big but its footprint is no bigger than a 5 series saloon and being the 4 pot it is much more fuel efficient than you might imagine, I get low 30’s around town and up to high 30’s on longer trips.

I get the image thing but I thoroughly enjoy letting people out of junctions and giving way to them just to see them stare in disbelief and often kangaroo in surprise at the unexpected.

Anyway I shall make up for it with a Tesla next.
 
Back on topic.

We have no such tyre laws in New Zealand. It is perfectly legal to drive with four different tyres with different tread depths, as long as they have a minimum 1.5mm of tread, and they are of the same size and type.

My standards are different, and arguably better. All four tyres must be the same brand and model, preferably from a tier 1 company like Michelin, Michelin or Michelin. Tyres must be changed when they have less than 3mm of tread. Both tyres on each axle are changed at the same time. For AWD vehicles like Subaru, all four tyres are changed at the same time. No compromise. Your life depends on those four contact patches, each little bigger than your hand.
 
djftw said:
On a FWD vehicle putting matched tyres on the front axel and having mismatched ones on the rear is often held to be preferable to any other configuration, but in actuality you should have your best tyres on the rear of a FWD vehicle as any loss of traction from the heavier driven front is likely to be understeer and far easier to correct.
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That reminds me of a time I was upgrading the shock-absorbers on a Civic GTi. The workshop ordered the wrong Konis for the back end, but went ahead with the fronts; and asked me to come back the next day for the rears. They did not tell me not to push it. As an impressionable young lad with sports suspension half installed on his car, what was I to do? I pushed it, and I managed to swap ends rounding a downhill corner on a trailing throttle. Thankfully, it was a right-hander, and the gravel run off was generous. No harm done, but it was a salutary lesson about traction, FWD dynamics and lift-off oversteer.
 
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