Fortuna F2000 Tyres

In message , Lee B writes

The debate has focused on the budget tyres and the top premium tyres. There are good tyres in between these two extremes. I've always bought Michelin, Dunlop, Pirelli, Goodyear etc in the past.

I have put Michelin Primacys on my Focus but they worked out too expensive on my Mondeo which has one of those odd expensive sizes. I put on Firestone TZ200's. They have been on for 11k miles and they have been just fine wet and dry. The fronts have got 5.5mm of tread left which isn't too bad. The Mondeo is heavy on the front tyres so if they last more than 20k I'll be pleased.

True about performance and life expectancy, but there is the argument that all tyres are made to conform to minimum safety standards.

The message from "mrcheerful ." contains these words:

No, they're not, but in my experience they're adequate for the way I drive.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "mrcheerful ." saying something like:

Corporate kickbacks are one reason, certainly. Another might be the fear of legal action if a lesser-known but still quite good tyre is fitted as OE. Why give the sharks bait in the event of a numpty driver looking to blame somebody else?

Didn't help Ford in the US of A though, did it?

:-)

Chris

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Chris Whelan saying something like:

What case is that, out of interest?

I was referring to the infamous Ford/Firestone problems of a few years back.

The message from Chris Whelan contains these words:

Odd that they should blame the tyre when a car rolls over after a blowout. OK, it'd be nice if they didn't pop but designing a car which rolls over when it happens is foolhardy.

The combination of soggy Yank suspension, dodgy tyres and an "SUV" probably made it almost inevitable!

Chris

The message from Chris Whelan contains these words:

Which is why it seems silly to blame the tyres.

Yep, but it was in America!

Chris

The message from Chris Whelan contains these words:

Fair point. You'll probably find a sub-suit somewhere where someone's sueing McDeadthings for letting hot coffee spill all over them when the car turned over.

There's also the fact that the tyres are the only obvious item of equipment on a car to have OEM branding, to the average Joe Bloggs at least. I'm sure many manufacturers at the 'cheaper' end of the market wouldn't have a problem with, for example, specifying a cheap unknown brand for the suppliers of their headlights at the factory instead of maybe Hella, but kitting out their brand-new cars with a big fat 'Ceat' logo stamped on the tyre walls doesn't do much for showroom kudos.

Very probably!

Chris

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Chris Whelan saying something like:

Ah, thought it rang a bell.

Ta for that.