New tyres recommendation, diesel Touran

Goodyear Eagle F1 Toyo Proxes T1R or Proxes 4

Or go mad for grip Dunlop DZ02G

I found the Goodyear Eagle NCT5 OK for wet and dry conditions. In the wet they do tend to hold on, even if you drive like a nutter. Mine are on a diesel and it doesn't lose any grip. I got my tyres from TyreShopper. Ordered online and picked a local National Tyres to have them fitted 3 days later. The funny thing is, had I bought the tyres from National Tyres I would have paid around £30 more for each one. It was a fully inclusive price too. The only problem was the total lack of attention to tyre pressures - I had to correct them all. They were 35, 47, 28 and 32 when they were all meant to be 30 - as I asked! I prefer tyres that give good performance in rain or puddles of water on the motorway. I previously used AVON tyres and the car used to "slide", they were nohere near as good as the NCT5. I didn't want anything that wears down in a few months which is why I avoid TOYO and AVON. They are probably good on a race track, but not that practical on a standard road at current speed limits. Make sure you compare prices, go to one of the tyre sites and read reviews. The only tyres I would avoid are "unknown" brands or remoulds. Don't be put off by some names as "Kleber" tyres are made by Michelin and used in many main dealers.

It surprised me to see anyone recommend NCT5s they are some of the worst rubber I've ever driven on, quite harsh no where near the grip in the wet or dry of there F1s or Toyo stuff and they don't last that well in my experience (my father was changing them twice as often as I was with T1-S and he had less power and torque, he now runs T1-Rs like me).

Although common wisdom here and elsewhere is that a tyre that is great on one vehicle may well be poor on another, I endorse your findings about NCT5's. They were dreadful on my Focus, and changing back to Continentals made it feel like a new car!

Chris

Serious suggestion - be less ham-fisted with the clutch and throttle. I have the same engine and wheel size on my Passat and don't really find it to be a problem.

Bridgestone Touranza, ISTR, are what I had fitted last time.

I've found the Conti Sport Contact 2s on my Fabia vRS to be very good. Others reccomend Goodyear Eagle F1.

SteveH coughed up some electrons that declared:

But where's the fun ;->

In all seriousness, the engine/box may have a different setup. I test drove a Sharan with exactly the same engine as the Touran which I ended up buying and the Sharan, IMO, had a *dreadful* response. The Touran 2.0 feels like it's been purposely set up to kick like a mule at low revs.

It's not a clutch thing either: in 1st gear, occasionally second, with clutch fully engaged, booting the throttle gets the TCS light on fairly consistently in the dry on all but the best road surfaces.

Got a lot of country lanes round here, and it's turning out into a stream of nutters doing 50-60 down roads with lots of blind bends that leads to being heavy on the gas. I'd rather get the power to the road where I want it before some idiot rear ends me (see that about once a month on my route to work :( Just the way it is round here.

Sticky in the dry? How do you find them in the wet?

Cheers

Tim

Chris Bartram coughed up some electrons that declared:

General thanks to everyone :)

The Eagle F1's seem to have good reviews. I'll read up some reviews on the Bridgestones and Contis too. It's knowing where to start - and you've all given me some good pointers. Cheers :)

Tim

There must be something wrong with your car, then.

The setup of the Touran and Passat is very similar, as they're both based on the MkIV Golf, with appropriate stretching. Maybe the length of the Passat makes a difference, but I doubt it.

I can *provoke* mine to do the same, but I don't - normal driving rarely sees it lose grip under power in 1st or 2nd. Unless I really do abuse it. But that would be true for any car if you drive it like you stole it.

Absolutely no problems with them.

Just checked the run I did a couple of weeks ago, door to door the run is 43 miles. I did it in 45 mins - there's about 8 miles of dual carriageway, 2 miles of 'urban' and the rest is twisty mountain A-road. It was a wet day, the kind of wet you only get in the Brecon Beacons.

They do wear quite quickly, though - there's a note on my lease file recommending that I'm not given Bridgestones ;-)

h.tees coughed up some electrons that declared:

Thanks for the tip on tyreshopper.

I agree the Avons don't last long, in fact they are some of the poorest wearing tyres I've ever had. The old Daewoo wasn't a very stable machine (or it didn't *feel* stable, which amounts to much the same thing if I have to drive it) and it was positively scary in the wet until I fitted the ZV3s (can't answer for other Avon models). The ZV3's wet handling made up for the poor wear.

But the logic may not apply to the Touran, which is a very stable machine and feels it no matter what - this is why I decided to re-examine my previous choices :)

Food for thought, off to read some reviews.

Thanks!

Tim

My Accord also didn't like the NCT5s...

Nah not the car, but the ECU / electronic throttle settings may well be different.

Try a 9-5 2.0t and an old shape 9-3 2.0t - same engine - and their responses are quite different.

What Michelin, because there are several?

Traditionally I've leant towards Michelin's energy saving tyres, not because of their cross country abilities, but because they are consistent. Consistently mediocre grip, consistent and progressive break away when reaching that grip limit, quiet, good riding and long lived.

The 9-3 SS uses 215/55/16Vs and is currently wearing Michelin Primacy HPs on the front and Pirelli P6000s on the back. I've no comments on these tyres because I've only driven the car on these; they are the best tyres I've known on the car but this doesn't help you! :)

Agreed. Even new and 'worn in' they were slippier than the Pilot Primacys that came off my Rover 800. When I found what discounts could be had on the Primacys by phoning around, I'm back to them.

Derek