But I will maintain that you do get better handling from those low profile tyres. Stick a much higher profile tyre on that Merc your friend has and the ride will be far more comfortable but the ability to corner will deteriorate a little bit.
yes car manufacturers dont measure this. They want it to look pretty so it sells.
No real argument with your mechanic either. I am guilty of drifting (not literally) into the world of customisation again where I’ve been through several iterations of wheel and tyre combinations. I suspect I’m probably not finished!
But to summarise I’ve done everything from OEM fitment through to pretty much slam the suspension to the floor, big wheels, small wheels, stretched rubber, big tyres, I’m currently raising the suspension again (second step up) and AT tyres.
Our 2013 Santa Fe is on its second set of Continental ContactPro 235/55/R19 OEM tire for summer season, a very decent ride. My winter set is Michelin X-Ice 235/60/R18 on a set of 2012 Santa Fe rims. they ride the best, albeit a little soft as I have them set for 32PSI for contact patch at the moment, it’s getting slick in the mornings.
Both tires have exactly the same diameter at standard inflation, does not change my speedometer reading at all.
I’ve gone larger (both wider and bigger) on my van at the moment. Somewhere between 5-10% error on the clock. Trying to develop a very light right foot especially with the 20mph speed limit in Wales now.
Thankfully we have a 20mph limit on my work access road with one of those live speed signs. Handy practice.
One thing I forgot to mention with regards to large alloy wheels is the fact that manufacturers can fir larger brake discs rotors and calipers.
Brakes are so much better these days, perhaps too good on some. I used to have a 1987 VW LT camper. There was a stopping procedure that took several minutes to go through with that thing. I’m convinced the rear brakes were purely there for aesthetics.
Have you made a decission?
I now have Nexen hd blue plus on my toyota (different size to yours) for my purposes they are the best Tyre I’ve ever had. Very quiet (though this changes between vehicles) and great grip. I’m not interested in mileage as I run the old wagon so little.
Next best I ever had were some Hankooks however their prices went up too quickly. Toyota recommended 89T Hankook the H version. I went with the T 1st time round (cheaper) however they used on the front way too fast and ‘bubbles’? fell off. The H was much better.
So if your having problems with front tyre wearing it might be worth looking at a higher index (in your case W). 10000 isn’t good fronts should last 15000, 60000 for rears is quite normal whatever the index as there’s very little weight on them most of the time (that’s Kms btw).
You could swap front to back and vice versa particularly if you have the same tyres all round. At the same time get the equilibrage checked (the weights that counteract wobble).
If I don’t swap tyres round 6 years is max for rear tyre (living in sunny south of france) they just start cracking up.
I started off on Michelins these were ok except very noisy. Uniroyal next were complete rubbish even noisier and wore very quickly.
So i started looking for compromises above all on price so the manufacturers mentionned above.
If you have uneven wear on the fronts have the anti rolling fixtures checked and the ‘rubber’ bungies on the train avant as well as parellelism. Bolts can come loose and rubber wears out.
I put Norautos Prevensys 4 on my daughters Clio 2, these are excellent on this small car (again for usage quite and great grip wear can not be calculated yet). This is a small car so not really relevant however just making the poit that my more recent tyre buys have been a great success imo.
I’ve just had an email from Toyota in the UK. Now, since we sold our last Toyota in 2018 when we were moving to Germany, I’m not sure whether I approve of their data retention policy; but it appears that our old garage in Falkirk has ceased being a Toyota dealer. This is actually rather sad since it was the longest establish Toyota dealership in the UK going back to 1966, just after they starting importing cars to the UK.
The only plus side is that they appear to have transferred business to someone other than Arnold Clark.
I never found the parts costs much of a problem, partly because we didn’t need that many but also because the models we had were UK or European built so there was never an issue as the parts were readily available.
My search continues. Thanks to working nearly 6 days a week at the moment and now COVID actually getting out and looking hasn’t really been possible. Plus anything I want to look at is at least an hour away in most instances. Options seem limited.
But looking on line I’m finding I’m way out of touch these days. Apparently you can buy cars on line, without even looking at them in first person. They can be delivered too.
Being old fashioned I’m not sure I’d really want to go down that route
If you buy a new car you are essentially doing that regardless of whether you do that at the dealership or simply online. I take it that it is a second hand model that you are looking for?
When did cars get so damn expensive? Not long ago we were having a laugh at work about a VW camper costing £90k but that level of pricing seems across the board nowadays.
I’m soo out of touch. I’ll be complaining that sausages don’t taste the same as they used to next.
I think the lack of manufacture and sales during the pandemic has affected the whole market. I sold my old Golf in 2019 when we moved to Germany. I just had a look on Autotrader and a similar model of that year, model and mileage would cost exactly the same now.
It’s not just the UK either. I think new cars have gone up in price because of the amount of safety kit that they have to be fitted with but I’ve noticed that manufacturers are essentially dropping entry level models. VW Group have stopped making any city cars. A colleague in the Red Cross was saying that this is causing them issues because they used VW Up! cars as their standard car worker car.
This will probably get worse as they move towards all-electric models.
the used car market these days has become a profiteering exercise. some car owners have figured out that a half-decent used car (mostly Honda due to the import car scene here) and are parting-out running vehicles for profit. Thus, taking a large number of good vehicles out of the used car market.
I’d love to get my hands on a 2003-2006 Acura RSX Type-S, but those vehicles are upwards of $15000 now. for a 20yr old car with 200,000kms on them!
You can partly blame insurance companies for that, in the UK at least. They write off anything that they deem above a certain repair value, 50% of the cars value I think it is. But also you end up with cars that have accident category even if they’ve just cracked those huge plastic bumpers cars have got these days.
Cars have become expensive domestic goods. Use it, throw it away when it’s done. I can’t think of a single car post 1996 that will become a classic. I doubt there’ll be any of them left for one thing but also how many are iconic models now?
