Budget tyres

The end that you least want to be going into the hedge first deserves the better tyres i.e. normally the rears.

If you do put worn fronts on the back be aware that they may have worn on the shoulders and you might get some really wicked oversteer.

adder1969 (adder1969 ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

That'll be "neither end", which is why I tend to have decent tyres all round.

Let's not forget that some cars left the factory with narrower tyres on the back than the front. I think the manufacturer there may have had a clue.

I'm curious now. Which cars were these? I know of plenty which had larger tyres on the back but never the other way round.

JB

JB ("JB" ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Various Citroens over the years have had - particularly DS & CX.

Other cars, of course, have had fewer wheels on the back than the front...

Adrian (Adrian ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Some Ds even had narrower wheel rims at the back than the front.

I didn't think it was allowed (in the UK) to have *wider* wheels on the front than the back but I have no idea where I got that impression.

Mine has differnt size rims,tyres and offsets front to back so rotating isn't an option (nor necessary)

Isn't there a big difference between the Barums from the socialist era, and the recent ones from the capitalist era (since Continental took over the company)?

I'm interested to know dated your unhappy experiences are.

John

Mine are in the 10 year ago era.

Barum Bravuras did very well for wet performance in an AutoExpress tyre test a year or so ago.

To be fair, you could put a set of supermarket trolley castors on the back of a hydro-thingie Citroen and probably not notice the difference.

IIRC you could even fail to put anything at all on one side and get away with it...

Hard to say then from the Barum company history I found at

The most recent Continental Vanco tyres I bought for my VW Transporter are marked "Made in Czech Rep", so easy to guess which factory that is. For what it's worth, so far they've proved every bit as good as the German ones I've used previously.

John

Christmas getting a bit much for you, Adrienne?

Did they come with two (different) spare wheels?

SteveH ( snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk (SteveH)) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

*ding*

...and that's why generalisations _always_ fail. Because there's _always_ an exception.

some (Mercedes) come with no spare and a roadside emergency tyre repair kit and a compressor, or a universal spacesaver spare on others

Mrcheerful ("Mrcheerful" ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

And that latter's a *ding*. Space saver spares - in the case of the D/CX, not much narrower than the main four, but slightly so - are nothing new. Nor are four alloys plus one steel spare.

I've got the Vancos on my T4 Caravelle LWB and they've been excellent for grip but wear a little quickly. They are however far, far better than the Avon AV9s I've currently got on the front. I've had a couple of 'soiled laundry' incidents recently due to these.

JB