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Are "Jaguar fit" tyres meaningfully different to the standard equivalent?

My father used to talk about a Riley Pathfinder he drove in the 50s. They had the nickname Riley Hedgefinder on the original cross plys. Michelin radials transformed the handling.
 
John Phillips said:
The Jaguar XE had a puncture yesterday afternoon. I am driving it on its "space saver" spare. The tyres have always been Dunlop Sport MAXX RT "Jaguar fit" and available without any difficulty.

However, I cannot find any "Jaguar fit" versions online this morning. In a local branch of a national tyre fitter I was told that next availability is the end of January.

The person quoted special homolgation testing when I asked about whether the "Jaguar fit" version was meaningfully different to the standard version. However he could not go into detail and suggested a possible source. This has not proved succesful.

I suspect I could get a new tyre at a Jaguar dealer but Is there any information around about compatibility/incompatibility and whether fitting the standard version is OK or not?
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Tyres are not “Jaguar fit “, they are “ Jaguar approved” , they don’t “fit” differently. New Jags are fitted with Michelins, unless (at the dealer) a customer asks for a different brand fitted. Continental, Pirelli and Avon are also “approved” and one or two others which I cannot remember, been a number of years since I stopped working ( Michelin). Folk can fit any tyre brand to a Jag, (providing they match Jag wheel sizing ) they simply will not perform as well as the approved versions, nor last as long.
Jaguar, like many OEM customers, ask for particular rubber compounds, steel belts, additional components in certain areas in a tyre but there is very little difference in tyres produced apart from specialist designs…e.g.snow and ice, 4 wheel drive etc.
 
pork refer to my tyres as "pork fit" - I am inclined to agree with their nomenclature over some random on the Internet.

When I had a puncture a few months back, even the tyre shop I took my car to referred to 'pork fit'
 
I came a bit late to this thread, but can offer some tyre industry knowledge.

Yes there can be a vehicle specific version of a tyre, which more recently can have markings to identify it. I had a V90 recently which had the usual size / speed / load ratings, and a "V" after that on the sidewall to say "Volvo"

Tyre factories know what range they make, and who they sell OEM tyres to. When I was working at a factory, there was 4 different versions of one tyre size, going to either Saab, Jaguar, Peugeot or Honda for fitment on new cars. Each had a different internal construction to emphasise some performance aspect or other, but if you had a two year old car and put a Honda tyre on a Jaguar for example, you wouldn't notice much difference. Critical things like grip level (from tread compound) would not be different. In those days there was no customer specific marking, so the only way to know you had the right tyre was to look at the coloured bands around the tread which were unique to each tyre design - easy when new, bit tricky when you try to match a tyre in kiwi fit to what you have been using for two years.

As Locheeboy says, any tyre of the right size/load/speed can be fitted, but if you had a puncture on a nearly new car, you might want to buy from the main dealer to get the same spec.
 
When I ran an S type the recommended Pirelli p6000's were specially formulated for Jag and weren't the same as the standard ones and I kept buying them until the car was pretty old. Eventually £140 per corner was a bit much in the context of the car's value so I went with part worn Avon ZV5's and didn't really notice any difference except the Avons were a bit prone to side wall failures. Not sure I actually saved much in the long term due to having to replace the failed Avon's on a couple of occasions.

Depending on how far worn the dead tyre was it may be worth replacing the pair, particularly if you can't get the exact same one or the other one is down to less than 5 mm say.

You can always keep the good one taken off as a spare for when the next tyre goes, or sell it as a part worn on Ebay. I've certainly kept and reused tyres in those circumstances.
 
Often the Mercedes-Fit, Audi-Fit, BMW-Fit, Pork-Fit, or Jaguar-Fit versions of tires will have different sidewall contours than the standard versions of the same tires. I'm not sure if there's much in it apart from rub-strips to prevent curb rash.
 
colasblue said:
When I ran an S type the recommended Pirelli p6000's were specially formulated for Jag and weren't the same as the standard ones and I kept buying them until the car was pretty old. Eventually £140 per corner was a bit much in the context of the car's value so I went with part worn Avon ZV5's and didn't really notice any difference except the Avons were a bit prone to side wall failures. Not sure I actually saved much in the long term due to having to replace the failed Avon's on a couple of occasions.

Depending on how far worn the dead tyre was it may be worth replacing the pair, particularly if you can't get the exact same one or the other one is down to less than 5 mm say.

You can always keep the good one taken off as a spare for when the next tyre goes, or sell it as a part worn on Ebay. I've certainly kept and reused tyres in those circumstances.
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How did you manage to get a side wall failure? I've never seen that other than age related cracking or by kerb damage.
 
tony_s said:
I came a bit late to this thread, but can offer some tyre industry knowledge.
... In those days there was no customer specific marking, so the only way to know you had the right tyre was to look at the coloured bands around the tread which were unique to each tyre design - easy when new, bit tricky when you try to match a tyre in kiwi fit to what you have been using for two years...
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Thanks man! I always wondered what those bands was for.
 
tony_s said:
Yes there can be a vehicle specific version of a tyre, which more recently can have markings to identify it. I had a V90 recently which had the usual size / speed / load ratings, and a "V" after that on the sidewall to say "Volvo"

Tyre factories know what range they make, and who they sell OEM tyres to. When I was working at a factory, there was 4 different versions of one tyre size, going to either Saab, Jaguar, Peugeot or Honda for fitment on new cars. Each had a different internal construction to emphasise some performance aspect or other, but if you had a two year old car and put a Honda tyre on a Jaguar for example, you wouldn't notice much difference. Critical things like grip level (from tread compound) would not be different. In those days there was no customer specific marking, so the only way to know you had the right tyre was to look at the coloured bands around the tread which were unique to each tyre design - easy when new, bit tricky when you try to match a tyre in kiwi fit to what you have been using for two years.

As Locheeboy says, any tyre of the right size/load/speed can be fitted, but if you had a puncture on a nearly new car, you might want to buy from the main dealer to get the same spec.
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I did notice online that the Jaguar versions of the tyre I want have different ratings for fuel / wet grip / noise compared to the standard version.

The Jaguar-marked version is better in all three ratings. I have no idea of how significant or not the differences are but the existence of a difference seems to align with there being the difference in internal construction that @tony_s reveals in the post above.

BTW, finally I found a supplier who took an online order for a "J" marked version of the tyre that got punctured. If all goes well it will be fitted on Wednesday morning at a local garage. Until then it's no more than careful local driving for me on the very orange space-saver spare wheel.
 
stevec67 said:
How did you manage to get a side wall failure? I've never seen that other than age related cracking or by kerb damage.
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When I changed tires this summer, I lurked around the big heap of used tires in the backyard of the shop. I spotted a Chinese made tire of the silly 30 aspect ratio kind that was clearly cracked all the way around. Yeah, never buy crap Chinese tires! Looking further I spotted a proper European high quality tire that also sported cracks. So, it happens.
 
colasblue said:
How did you manage to get a side wall failure? I've never seen that other than age related cracking or by kerb damage.
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Apparently Avon ZV5's were a bit notorious for it. A decent pothole is probably all that's needed to cause it. Wouldn't have bought them if I'd known.
 
colasblue said:
Apparently Avon ZV5's were a bit notorious for it. A decent pothole is probably all that's needed to cause it. Wouldn't have bought them if I'd known.
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I imagine not, nor would I. I've only ever seen sidewall damage on a mate's car when he biffed it up a kerb and on MTB tyres when you slice them on a sharp rock. MTB tyres are chunky on the wearing face but the sides are thinner to keep the weight down and flexibility up. Unfortunately this means that a sharp rock can slice the side of your tyre when your backside is shoving down on it.
 
tony_s said:
I came a bit late to this thread, but can offer some tyre industry knowledge.

Yes there can be a vehicle specific version of a tyre, which more recently can have markings to identify it. I had a V90 recently which had the usual size / speed / load ratings, and a "V" after that on the sidewall to say "Volvo"

Tyre factories know what range they make, and who they sell OEM tyres to. When I was working at a factory, there was 4 different versions of one tyre size, going to either Saab, Jaguar, Peugeot or Honda for fitment on new cars. Each had a different internal construction to emphasise some performance aspect or other, but if you had a two year old car and put a Honda tyre on a Jaguar for example, you wouldn't notice much difference. Critical things like grip level (from tread compound) would not be different. In those days there was no customer specific marking, so the only way to know you had the right tyre was to look at the coloured bands around the tread which were unique to each tyre design - easy when new, bit tricky when you try to match a tyre in kiwi fit to what you have been using for two years.

As Locheeboy says, any tyre of the right size/load/speed can be fitted, but if you had a puncture on a nearly new car, you might want to buy from the main dealer to get the same spec.
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Nah…the letter “V” on a tyre sidewall signifies the speed rating of that particular tyre type…😎
 
Locheeboy said:
Nah…the letter “V” on a tyre sidewall signifies the speed rating of that particular tyre type…😎
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dem manufacturer specific coding is marked in a different location to the size/speed rating/loading.

My 992 specific tyres are marked "NA" high on the tyre wall next to the tyre manufacturer and tyre model.

N = Manufactured for Porsche
A = Manufactured for a 992
 
gintonic said:
dem manufacturer specific coding is marked in a different location to the size/speed rating/loading.

My 992 specific tyres are marked "NA" high on the tyre wall next to the tyre manufacturer and tyre model.

N = Manufactured for Porsche
A = Manufactured for a 992
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Exactly so. Those OEM markings are different from speed ratings.

Even KwikFit has some examples of these codes:

AudiA0, A01
Audi QuattroR01, RO2, R03
BMW*
BMW/ Mercedes*MO
BMW/ Mercedes Runflat*MOE
JaguarJ
Land RoverLR
MaseratiMGT
Mercedes BenzMO, M01
Mercedes Benz RunflatMOE
PorscheNO, N1, N2
TeslaTO
 
Barrymagrec said:
Crossply Dunlop RS5s were original fitment on Jaguar MkIIs, and fitted to mine in 1971. Jeez, they were utter crap and they wore out in next to no time as well which was actually a good thing as I had no choice but to spring for some decent radials (Continentals).
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Barry, were you driving like John Thaw on the way to a suspected bank robbery with ashtray contents going everywhere on the corners?
 
Ginger said:
You can fool some of the people.... get a grip man
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This is heading towards becoming a cable thread. Presumably if Porsche say they work in conjunction with tyre manufs with specific criteria, and test them, then they do. What’s not to like?
 
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