C70: Tyre Advice

[CNGBiFuel]

Tyres: From another perspective I'll put in my two-penneth...

Tyres: They're black and round.

Maybe not for garage-queens or BS boy-racers, but at the other end of the spectrum, I do 25-35,000 miles a year. [far less lately ] Current car is a tatty 'shed-of-a-thing' with 420K on it.

Tyres for me are a alrge cost. Hence tyres are about comfort, price and mileage. Whereas tyre threads usually wind-up as nonsensical opinions from those that by default admit complete lack of the drver-talent to have the first idea. How so?

For opinions on tyres to be worth a lick, requires heaps of tyres tested in succession.... and a heap of talent. Talent at that level is rare, and we wouldn't be reading this.... It's a flat admission, we can't 'Drive'. Instead you'll left to look past opinions from the clear deluded. And how many tyres have most of us compared in controlled conditions anyway?

What you can know, for fact, is:

For comfort on 16" rims, go tall:

Why is this? Luxury cars go tall. Lovely tall tyre-walls offer comfort and ride. Low profile 17" rims kerb easily, make more noise, and are evidence we don't intend to drive far. Like a noisy exhaust, fine but if you drive far and often, you'll soon be fed-up.. But yes, they look good.

The biggest tyres you'll get to fit are
205/55/R16 (from memory,but it's those fitted stock on XC and some US market CD trim variants.)

For miles and cost:
The cheaper stuff covers 2/3 of the miles the top brands will do, but cost a third of the price. Top brands achieve this with harder rubber. But hard rubber offers less grip.

Grip
Racers will tell you, tyres 'half-way done', grip better than new. High-mileage means harder compounds, and reduced grip.

Winter tyres
Because I do the miles, I run tall... summer is 205/55/R16 (XC size), two sets. two sets of rims. Winter tyres are narrower and softer and designed for lower temps, not just snow. Summer tyres for summer. Yes you can run all-season, most are, but if you're doing the miles...

The emergency services etc run 'winters' in winter for good reason.
It's why the AA & Plod go where a Range-rooney with wide 'summers' can't. It's in the winter 'sipes' on ice. And a 4x4 won't stop any better, and nothing like a 2WD with narrow 'winters'.

Narrow size for 'winters' (if I remember right) is 195/55/R16. It's in your handbook. Being a Swede it'll all be in there. Can't be sure, check this. The narrower size is best in wet and ice.

Buying part-worn
Your current tyres will be part-worn, so forget the stigma. The problem with part-worn is not usually the wear. However, what you'll want to look for is not wear, but expiry? Tyres expire at 5 years, and all have a 'sell-by' date moulded in the walls. We don't, but the Germans have this in law. A lot of part-worn tyres appear near-new but are German 'old' worn. They've failed the German MOT on age, not wear. Rubber age-hardens and will be less grippy.

A good argument for cheap tyres is that they are softer, wear quicker thus deliver more grip, and if you don't mind more frequent changes, still come out cheaper overall. And for the above reasons, if getting 'old', you might argue, you're better with old cheap tyres over 'old' pricey ones?

These words from someone who takes no joy in spending £4-600+ a year on tyres. These the most boring and very basic.

Check your handbook to see if I have the winter & XC sizes correct.

[turboboy]

CHGBiFuel,

I'm with you on tyres. Black and round with an affordable price.

I have 205/55 R16 fitted to my V70 CD but it didn't come with them. 205/50 R16 were originally fitted but when the MOT had an advisory on cracked tyre walls I discovered that the 205/55 R16 that had recently been fitted to my VW Golf were cheaper.

[CNGBiFuel]

Agreed. To sum this up, tall for comfort, if you're doing miles to warrant, narrow in winter. Watch the dates on 'part-worns'.

Motorway-plod back in the day used to run V70s on 'winters'. Size is in the manual.
Come Feb, on a favourite ice-laden hill near me, I'm the only b*gger that can get up it, and stop. It's about the sipes, leaves any 4x4 on M+S for dead.

Winter tyres have a 'Snowflake' mark. M+S is not a true winter tyre. I think it's the Germans again that make 'winters' a legal requirement.

[turboboy]

Knew someone who lived in Canada for a few years (Montreal) who told me it was a legal requirement to have winter tyres fitted by a certain date (announced each year). This usually resulted in a weekend where every tyre shop was jam packed with customers who only had one set of wheels and had left the change over of tyres until the last minute.

[DaveNP]

Originally Posted by CNGBiFuel

...
For opinions on tyres to be worth a lick, requires heaps of tyres tested in succession.... and a heap of talent. Talent at that level is rare, and we wouldn't be reading this.... It's a flat admission, we can't 'Drive'. Instead you'll left to look past opinions from the clear deluded. And how many tyres have most of us compared in controlled conditions anyway?
...
Buying part-worn
Your current tyres will be part-worn, so forget the stigma. The problem with part-worn is not usually the wear. However, what you'll want to look for is not wear, but expiry? Tyres expire at 5 years, and all have a 'sell-by' date moulded in the walls. We don't, but the Germans have this in law. A lot of part-worn tyres appear near-new but are German 'old' worn. They've failed the German MOT on age, not wear. Rubber age-hardens and will be less grippy.

Agree with you on 'opinions', I prefer to look for 'Tyre Tests' such as are run by motoring magazines and organisations where they test many tyres alongside each other, the results can sometimes show a cheaper tyre that is better than several of the more expensive ones and the results are quantified so it is possible to make a real comparison of say braking in the wet or cornering speed and make ones own judgment of cost vs benefit. Reviews or dare one say forum opinion can often be based on one set of tyres, and someone who has just had a knackered set of tyres replaced (and their tracking done) is going to find the new tyres better than the old ones and leave a positive review, avoiding buyer's remorse and confirmation bias probably have an effect too.

Date coding on tyres (and as far as I can tell this is international) is a manufacturing date rather than sell by, it is a 4 digit code moulded into the wall of the tyre, the first two digits are the week number the second two are the year (so by my reckoning a tyre made today would be coded 2021), the place I get mine seems to consistently have stock less than about 3 months old. Precisely what age a tyre should be seems a little vague (albeit the Germans may have legislation) I'd previously heard/seen 6 years as the figure, but some of it depends on what conditions they've been kept or used in, either way you don't want them too old.
I have bought partworns in the past depending on the car, its life expectancy and finances. There are rules/laws about selling partworns in the UK which include inspections and marking them but I don't think I've ever come across a shop that marks them so I'd be suspicious of them doing the rest of the requirements either.

[CNGBiFuel]

You're correct, my words are misleading. The date on the sidewall is not truly a sell-by date, but the manufacture date, and thus should be seen as a date + period. Not strictly a sell-by. More a date-calculation, after which, UK law or not, the tyre should be regarded as suspect.

Tyres don't seem to like sunlight. The chemical-mix of the rubber, no matter how it's stored won't be what it was when fresh as a daisy, out of the mould. It'll go hard, or harder.

And agreed, if we've just swapped our tired tyres for new, if only to justify our thinner wallets, it'll be no surprise when we find them better. And this tells us even less.