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Opinions, guidance whatever on buying fresh tyres for the banger? Right now i'm running 155/70s upfront on the smart mk4 steels, and 145/80s at the back on rat mk3s. Would like to be silver all round again soon as possible.. but one of the mk4s has a nice big nail in the sidewall. May as well get that re-shoed, and do the other at the same time, putting those on the front, and swap the one half-decent old tyre onto the spare (tyre knackered because of oil contamination)

I've phoned a few places and the quotes aren't too different... where's doing a good deal out of the small local sample at the moment is Kwik Fit.. here's some examples

2 Arrowspeed 155/70 R13 for £40..... there's extra stuff I want done though - £5 per wheel balancing (x5), £3 per valve (x2), and of course, a quid for disposal (x2), plus some extra amount for swapping the old tyre (£4 maybe?) ... all in price £77

Budget tyres though - got some on at the moment upfront and they seem to give up grip a bit easy, particularly in the wet.

The next most affordable tyres are all around £40 per corner, and i dont know whether it might be a good idea to do all four at once, or just have the cheap ones at the back and good ones up front?

Plus the quality may just be as bad, but with a brand name -- bit crap at this game without much knowledge.

The three flavours offered were
Continental at £38
Pirelli at £39.50
Michelin at £40
for the sake of two quid a tyre i'm not going to choose on price - what d'yall think would be the best out of those? No "model" names given, just the overall brands. Hopefully up to the level of the Dunlop SP10s that are on the mk3s - despite being 145s they seem grippier than the Arrowspeeds.

2 continentals - £76 raw, all-in price £113.. denting bank balance, but not too bad
4 michelin - £160 for the tyres, £205 total... or "ouch"
i can afford it right now, but wondering if it's worth it, or whether i should be saving much of my cash and using it on something else.

could save a couple quid by disposing of the bad tyres myself (and keeping the two half-decent ones as spare, if i get all 4 done), not having the spare balanced, etc, but that wouldn't make a massive dent in the total..

What do the great tyre gurus say?
Bit of a departure from a more usual "whats the stickiest 165/60 i can get for less than £100 each" question i know


Reccomendation on a better place to go would be great too

cheers folks, 2 contrasting votes
well i guess at least i can surmise the michelins are getting the larger nod there...

probably let this rest a couple weeks and try to condense it still further and throw it at "general"

thanks those anonymous ones who did vote

I've only experianced Pirelli's. Which i just put on the fron of my car just last week, And they are really good, In both the wet and dry.

Depending on what money i have have got at the time of tyre replacement i go for arrowspeed or michelin. Currently running michelin on the rear and arrowspeed on the front.For budget tyres arrowspeed are good as long as you aint wheel spinning everywhere.

michelin last longer so in the end are better value, im a michelin fan and have the exalto pilots on now. there alright alrounders

How much are the Michelin (roughly) per tyre. I paid £45 each for the Pirelli's from Kwik Fit. Plus £25 for the Tracking.

I thought this was a bit much, and wouldnt have paid it. But the front 2 were totally illegal (bear wire) Plus i never paid for them

i got mine for £140 second hand and they were barely worn at all. i know its abit pricey for seconds but ive been well chuffed with them. i think they retail for about £60 on 14" rims normally. the reason i bought seconds was cos i was in the isle of man at the time and tyres are well expensive out there especially from net companies as you can pay upto £40 a tyre for importing. i got them in january and have put about 10k on since and theyve still got deep tread. i recommend them

For my size, they're £40 a corner at kwikies, though I dare say I can find 'em cheaper elsewhere. Or Dunlop SP10's... which seem alright. Manufacturer's standard fit on new Rovers at least

Yeah they offered a free tracking check with the fitting as well... whats the betting the car won't get out of there without something being found wrong with the track, even if it's caused by one of their can't-get-quickers with a mallet... hello another £25 fee for a couple minutes on a machine!

mind you the car does seem to be pulling left quite a bit stronger than usual of late, might need a tweak.

now, regarding wheelspin... reason i started with this thread is that i may just have jumped at the arrowspeed offer if i'd only just started driving the car - but a good few months back now, i went from the standard mk3 steels on 145/80 Dunlops, to mk4s on 155/70s... which i thought would give just a little extra grip... but they're on arrowspeeds, and the amount of spin (and slide in corners) you can get out of them seems quite amazing, most particularly in the wet. Burnouts in 2nd gear on a 1-litre and all that. Which may one day translate to the car ending up eating a brick wall when it might otherwise not have on "better quality" and more expensive tyres.
but if they wouldnt help, dont want to go spazzing away a good £20 a tyre for no reason! that's the best part of a tank!

Not sure whether it's just that the old tyres were also used with the old clutch, however.. and 145s might actually be better for "cutting through" rainwater on a wet road, given the relative lack of weight up front?

no love for the continentals though i see so much for their adverts if the stuff just doesnt stack up in real life...

you might be able to get some decent + slightly cheaper part-worns from a local scrappy,

if getting them from a scrappy bothers you then don't forget you're running on part worns at the moment.

plus fitting, balancing and all that?

must admit I've never had some myself so I dont know prices but it
might just be worth a look. If they can take them off the rims I'd think they can fit them!