Life of Tyres

[Quillan]

I have Michelin tyres fitted to my Peugeot 307 and I don't seem to have much luck with them. I keep them at the correct pressure and at the last tyre change also had the tracking done at my local Peugeot dealer. The trouble is after about 20,000 km they look like the will need to be changed shortly. It is of course always the front ones that wear first but then its a front wheel drive car. I am not an agressive driver neither am I a 'boy racer'.

Is this a Michelin thing, I ask this because I have a friend, with a different make car who is also experiencing similar short life problems. To be honest in the UK I had company cars (and money [;-)] ) so therefore never noticed how long tires lasted, they just got replaced when required with not much of a thought as somebody else was paying.

[Bugsy]

Flint dressing used on rural roads is much more agressive than the normal tarmac stone. You get more grip, of course, but at the expense of tyre-life. Michelin do a tyre called a Primacy HP. I have them on my car and they give excellent grip and good mileage (good kilometerage doesn't sound right)

If its any consolation motorcycle tyres usually last about 4-5000 kilometres and are more expensive than your average car tyre.

[dave21478]

A longer-lasting tyres tends to be made from harder compunds, so gives less grip on smooth surfaces.

My Vectra came with kwik-fit branded tyres on the front and I wore them out on rural french roads in less than 10k kilometers.

Back in uk, I found Toyo tyres to be a good compromise for longer life without loosing much grip, but they arent so easy to find here. French tyres prices in general are a shock, so I have taken to using part-worns from the breakers which are usually fairly new, but cost significantly less. I have just recently been tipped off though, if you are into buying partworn tyres, german ebay is the place to look. many regions in germany require winter tread tyres to be used for part of the year, so people have two or more sets of tyres, which once they are no longer needed, they sell off on ebay.

 

[Pickles]

Of the various tyres that I have tried over the years, the Michelins have always lasted the longest, with (as was noted earlier) some trade-off in terms of grip compared with other good brands. I have used in the last couple of years online suppliers from the Delticom companies to supply tyres - mytyres.co.uk in the UK and 123pneus.com in France, and then paid local tyre fitters to do the fitting, and this has worked out very well. In the past I have used Delticom's prices to get the local fitting stations to price-match, but recently local fitters have not wanted/not been able to get the tyre that I wanted in a reasonable timescale. I also bought a set of new winter tyres on new steel wheels from a German online supplier that uses ebay.de for a LOT less than I could in France (in fact, it seemed pretty difficult to get the wheel/tyre combination in France at ANY price). Even with delivery to France they were still 2/3rds of the best price I could get in France.

Regards

Pickles

[Quillan]

Thanks guys and so quick as well.

Bugbear - I like the sound of these Primacy HP's. I have had a look around on the UK google first and they seem to be getting a very good writeup, there are claims that they can last up to 50% longer, one chap says he has 30k miles on his and they are still going strong. I have had a look in French google and found a guy on Ebay who sells them in my size (205/55 R16 91V) for 180 Euros a pair including free delivery which I thought pretty good. I have never bought tyres from Ebay (but I buy an sell other things) so I am a bit worried because they sound too cheap (normally about 120 Euros each), my main concern is they are perfect tyres, safety is of course a major worry. Think I might pop down my local Peugeot dealer and see if he will do a deal.

Many thanks.

[Pickles]

[quote user="Quillan"]Bugbear - I like the sound of these Primacy HP's. I have had a look around on the UK google first and they seem to be getting a very good writeup, there are claims that they can last up to 50% longer, one chap says he has 30k miles on his and they are still going strong. I have had a look in French google and found a guy on Ebay who sells them in my size (205/55 R16 91V) for 180 Euros a pair including free delivery which I thought pretty good. I have never bought tyres from Ebay (but I buy an sell other things) so I am a bit worried because they sound too cheap (normally about 120 Euros each), my main concern is they are perfect tyres, safety is of course a major worry. Think I might pop down my local Peugeot dealer and see if he will do a deal.

[/quote]

I've used the Primacy HP and can confirm its longevity. That's a VERY good price: 123pneus has them at 106€ each including delivery.

Regards

Pickles

[Quillan]

Sorry there was a typo in there, I ment to say "my main concern is are they are perfect tyres".

[AnOther]

Your tyres are the same spec as mine and I run Avon ZZ3's which seem very hard wearing.

I've just had 2 new front's fitted in UK for £129 all included. I bought two because I'd damaged one on the run to UK and was on an odd Bridgestone spare. I had the 2 new ZZ3's fitted and had the odd one fitted as the spare to keep all 5 tyres the same. S0ds law dictates of course that being directional tyres it's a dead cert that it will be the wrong side when it's needed [blink] but the point is the fronts were less than 50% worn after some 20k km on the French backroads.

I bought the tyres from HERE and they were fitted by National Tyres who's own price was over £100 apiece

The previous pair I'd again bought from UK but by mail order from HERE and delivery to France was £6/tyre. Although they don't currently show the ZZ3 it doesn't mean they can't get them so give them  a call if you're interested.

[Pierre ZFP]

[quote user="Quillan"]Sorry there was a typo in there, I ment to say "my main concern is are they are perfect tyres".[/quote]

I think there still might be a typo in there.

[andyh4]

In independent ADAC tests Michelin Winter tyres had the longest life of any tyre tested - OK you're almost certainly not on winters.  But I would guess Summer tyres would be similar

[Speedy]

Do some searching for tyres with American web sites.

You will find they have a specific measure of tyre life - which is not used in Europe.

Assuming in our globalized world the tyres are probably made to the same standards, you can then look for these brands/models in Europe.

From memory its called wear rating (I'm not going outside to llo - as its raining!)

[M]

When the front tyres on my Laguna needed replacing, the original Michelins came in at £120 each. I fitted Han Kook Ventus (Korean, but now made in Hungary) at £70-ish each. They have been fine - good grip, smooth ride and not noisy - I have just replaced them (after 23,000 miles) with the same - and I am not feather-footed on the brakes & accelerator! Han Kook are best known for truck & bus tyres, I am told.

M

[Jonzjob]

Quillan, have you thought about hopping over the border into Andorra? I was told that you can get tyres there really cheap and you are even closer than I am.

http://www.andorrapneumatics.com/inici_eng.html#Link%20to%20Michelin%20web%20site