Tyre choice - Blue Gt 6R

[cailbrin]

I have been trawling around various tyre review sites looking at possible replacements for mt tyres.

My car has 215/40/R17/87V tyres fitted.

Ideally I want to try and get a softer ride, as the roads around where I live are quiet poor, and the car feels a bit crashy over some surfaces.

I have read I can bump the tyre to a 215/45/R17, and this may improve the ride.

I would welcome any opinions on choice of tyres, and their experience of bumping up the tyre size.

[SRGTD]

Things to consider;

• The BlueGT will have quite a firm suspension set up as it’s the ‘warm’ hatch in the 6r/6c Polo range, so it might be the suspension rather than your tyres that’s the biggest contributor to what you perceive to be a slightly crashy ride.

• If your tyre pressures are too high, it’ll affect your ride comfort. Some Polos also have a ‘comfort’ tyre pressure setting (if applicable to the Blue GT, it’ll be shown on the sticker inside your fuel filler flap - you may need to cross refer with your manual to make sure which set of pressures relate to the comfort setting).

• Replacing 215/40 R17 tyres with 215/45 R17 tyres will increase the ride height of your car and reduce the gap between the tyre and wheel arch. A reduction in wheel arch gap will potentially increase the risk of tyre rub when the suspension is working hard on poor or potholed road surfaces.

• The rolling radius of your tyres will be larger, so you’ll get an inaccuracy in your speedo reading; around 2mph below the true speed at 60mph.

• Some places (e.g. Costco) actually refuse to fit different sized tyres to those that were designed to be fitted to the car.

• Fitting different sized tyres to factory spec Is likely to be considered as a modification by most insurers so you’d need to inform your insurance company.

• You might not notice any discernible difference in ride quality by changing the existing 40 section tyres with 45’s.

I would personally stick with 215/40 R17 tyres. It’s worth having a look at the reviews on http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/ as each tyre review includes a comfort rating, so you’ll be able to see whether there’s an alternative brand of tyres to your current tyre brand that has a high comfort rating. I’ve read over on some forums recently that Michelin PS4’s have quite a compliant ride compared to the likes of Bridgestone. VW seem to fit Bridgestone to quite a few of their performance models; I personally don’t rate Bridgestone tyres very highly - IMO, poor winter / wet weather grip, noisy and quite a hard ride). I have Continental Sport Contact tyres on my GTI (also 215/40 R17’s). They are fine for me in terms of ride comfort, but the GTI is quite a firm riding car anyway, some of which will be down to suspension as well as tyres.

[cailbrin]

Thanks for the advice.

I will try dropping the pressure down to the comfort settings, see if that makes a difference.

As for new tyres, I will have to check out the reviews and balance that against the cost of 4 new tyres.

[Mikeso51]

Out of interest, what tyres are you running at the moment?
I have Bridgestones on my BlueGT, and I find the ride rather crashy, even on “comfort” pressures.

[cailbrin]

Front: Landsail LS 588 UHP

Rear: Dunlop SP Sport Maxx

It is frustrating that VW have picked an "odd" size for the tyres.

215/40/R17 doesn't seem to be a common size, and a lot of recommended tyres on the review sites won't fit the car.

I am going to try the comfort pressures, and see if the car feels any better.

It has a problem with squeaky bushes / suspension, which will hopefully be fixed next week.

After that, I will take a more serious look at swapping out the tyres.

[davo172]

Landsail are a truly awful tyre !! I would swop them anyway.

Dunlop Sp sportmax all round on mine and car rides well even over poor surfaces ino