Bl**dy Tyres.

Yes

And don't expect brand new tyres to be grippy straight away, they take a while.

I usually know what tyres to put on a car, as I only choose them on my own car, and as you acquire knowledge about a vehicle over a period of time I find it easy, and have only made 1 bad choice of tyre in 20 years. On the other hand, with a car I'm unfamilar with, it's just a random ball game.

Och well, here we go...

If they're on the driven wheels, it's quite easy to 'bed' them in with some ham-footed use of the throttle.

"David R" wrote in news:OQhkh.32144$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe5-win.ntli.net:

So, what make were the tyres? I use a company just outside Dunfermlne for my tyres, and they haven't been wrong ever.

Which is what I was trying to do. I've driven it a bit harshly before just to check out if everything's alright mechanically. Before and after inspection, a mate's got ramps.

Might try some continental eco-contacts; I do like the look of the Toyo T1Rs, but most reviews seem to be for speed 'performance' - I'm not after that as an end result, though I don't doubt they would do the job otherwise very well, I can't be arsed the £100 to make the mistake.

To be fair. If Conti Premium Contacts are crap for the Escort, then Eco Contacts can only be worse.

My recommendation - Pirelli P6000 or Goodyear Eagle Venturer.

The new ones fitted were 2 continental premiumcontact's on the front. The old ones (of which, one was busted by a pothole last week) were falken

NOOOO. Anything with ECO in the name usually has a rock hard compound and all the grip of an ice cube on a hot plate.

If it's cold, wet and they're new tyres, they need time and mileage to bed in. With gentle use this may be a couple of hundred miles, going on my own experience.

Oh and they should be on the back too. :-)

Meh. You mean, overpriced and inadequate. :)

Partially. There are lots of reviews but what works well on one car in one size, may not for another car and / or size.

Which is the wrong way to treat new tyres. Tyres should be run quite gently for the first couple of hundred miles, so the carcass is flexed without generating too much heat, which is what can happen if they're driven hard whilst still fairly new. Overheating new tyres doesn't do them any good at all. Mike

They must have been old stock then these PremiumContacts. They're now PremiumContact2's. I've had both on a Primera and the newer ones are great tyres, the older ones were just very good. They take about 300 miles to bed in. The last Escort I drove, a new at the time 1.4 J reg with whatever tyre was factory fitted had totally dead steering with nothing you could call understeer or oversteer, it just sort of eventually moved over to whatever direction you turned the wheel. Time delay steering I would call it rather than understeer. If you've found tyres before that work OK on it, you ought to stay with those I would have thought.

The Toyos are good - had some on me Fiat and they stick like crap to a blanket, only problem is they are a softer compound so the extra grip comes at the cost of shorter life.

Hellraiser................>

Maybe usually. Definitely not in the case of Eco-Contacts when fitted to a Focus. 100% better that Goodyear NCT5's anyway...

Chris

What pressures are you running ? Grossly under or over spec (about 29psi OTOMH) will cause you understeeryness (more than normal on a 'Scrot)

Tim..

Yeah turn off the traction controle and do a few donuts...

So you put new ones on the front!

Premiumcontact2 is a big improvement in grip over the premiumcontact - even so my current merc has the old version.

Oversteer on demand!

They still make the others, or at least have loads of stock - could have had either for my A class.

NCT5s - had them on my Volvo at one point - didn't like corners but lasted nearly 20k miles (as opposed to 12-14k for the contis or pirellis). The CLS had them on and it suited it well. I think they are very chassis sensitive and probably better on a rear drive car.