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• poor durability of finish, especially if subjected to winter road conditions on a car that’s used as a daily driver

• susceptible to white worm corrosion

• expensive to refurbish and can’t be refurbished more than twice

• easily damaged by inexperienced or over zealous tyre fitters or poorly maintained tyre changing equipment

SRGTD wrote: ↑Thu Jan 19, 2023 11:17 am I think the decision on brand of replacement tyres is likely to be influenced by owners experiences of the tyres that were originally fitted from the factory.

With the pre-facelift Polo GTI and GTI+, the vast majority of UK cars with 18” alloys were fitted with Bridgestone Turanza tyres which are a touring tyre rather than a performance tyre, so not the best tyre for a performance hatch. Presumably VW’s decision to fit touring tyres was based on cost. From memory, GTI / GTI+ Polos on 18” alloys that didn’t get Bridgestones from the factory were fitted with Continentals.

I took the opportunity to change the Bridgestones on my car after three months of ownership when I fitted new wheels to my car as I dislike diamond cut alloys with a passion(!) ;

• poor durability of finish, especially if subjected to winter road conditions on a car that’s used as a daily driver

• susceptible to white worm corrosion

• expensive to refurbish and can’t be refurbished more than twice

• easily damaged by inexperienced or over zealous tyre fitters or poorly maintained tyre changing equipment

I had a set of Michelin PS4 (a proper performance tyre) fitted to my new wheels and these have been on the car just over two years now. IMHO they’re much better in pretty much all respects. With the Bridgestones, I found it was pretty easy to induce wheel hop and axle tramp on almost dry roads in warm autumn weather without any provocation on my part. Since having the Michelins fitted, there’s been no wheel hop or axle tramp whatever the weather conditions, and grip, ride and handling IMHO are better too. If my car had come from the factory with Continental tyres, I may not have bothered changing them until they were worn enough to need changing.

There’s now a Michelin PS5. I’ve no idea how that compares with the PS4 but IMHO would be worth consideration when new tyres are needed.

Always worth checking out back to back tyre reviews on www.tyrereviews.com. However, it needs to be borne in mind that many of these reviews don’t replicate real world driving conditions.

LEEA123 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 19, 2023 9:25 am So my gti has the 18-inch wheels, and a size of 215x40x18 I think. I have tried a search for gti tyres on here but had 800 pages to look through, so thought I would ask the question. Is there a generally agreed tyre to go for when needed by owners, as they are not going to be cheap and would like to make sure when the time comes I have good advice from owners to make the right choice of tyre.
Thank you