Goddam Kwikfit

The underlining point for me was that they're too expensive for everything.

Oddly yes, the car now has four tyres of the same make, model and spec for the first time since the first set...

I'd rather have that situation on the front than the back, though.

Oh yeah, the spare is a different size; 15" as opposed to the 16"'s on the car.

LOL

last time I was there was to buy a spare tyre for which I paid cash. They asked for my name and address, when I told them I was taking it with me and didn't require delivery, they looked confused.

Is it rear drive? If so, they may have set the toe in as toe out, due to mostly doing FWD.

The contact details are so some mindless git can ring up and try to sell you insurance.

Yes indeedy. SWMBO used to pay £190 fully comp. A week before it ran out K.Fit phoned up and asked if they could quote her. She said yes the guy said OK we'll call you back, nope they couldn't quote in real time you had to wait for a phone call.

They didn't call when they said they called the day after, then after the tedious business of giving all the details he said right we'll call back with a quote. 2 hours later he called back and said "what are you paying at the moment" she said £190.

He said "Well our price is £400, what do you think to that"

She said "It's no good ! - Is it ? - It's over twice as much"

Phone - Down .

DG

Some fleets allow use of the mobile fitters. If so, make them come to you.....

I wouldn't. On most FWDs, the front does everything, the back wheels just get dragged arround and are only there to stop the arse end dragging in the dirt

Well, with a FWD, it is considered that the end of the car you do have=20 control over should be the one that you can actually control. No point=20 in trying to control the rear, because it just gets dragged behind.

--=20 "Sorry Sir, the meatballs are Orf" The poster formerly known as Skodapilot.

Dunno about that - under braking or just deceleration some FWDs will lose rear end adhesion when cornering.

Dave Plowman (News) ( snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Yes. Some. Under provocation.

Whereas EVERY FWD car will initially understeer merrily.

Ask the tyres - they will tell you which end is working harder. If the rears wear far slower than the front, then the front is working them much harder, and the front will repay the decent tyres.

Under power, yes.

Well, understeer is said to be safer for the majority as you just run wide on a corner, and reducing the speed should tighten things up. But if that understeer changes to oversteer quickly and the car spins that's a whole new ball game.

Like I said, I'd not have unbalanced wear tyres on the same axle anyway.

But still think the 'best' pair should be on the rear regardless of drive.

True, the fronts do wear out first. I'd rather have power understeer than breakaway oversteer though.

I'd prefer power oversteer however ;)

Not necessarily contradictory statements, are they?

In my experience both are true. Depends on the car. (I really must get that made up for framing)

In message , Adrian writes

Unless it's doing it under excess power, though, that's setup rather than anything intrinsic to FWD. They're set up that way because it's safer for the market they sell to. People can (and sometimes do) set up FWD cars for motorsport so that they break away at the back first.

Dave Plowman (News) ( snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

And the vast majority will remain understeering even if you back off, unless you *absolutely* provoke them, in which case, the weight transfer will mean that it doesn't really matter what the tyres on the back are like, because they're not being stuck down very well.

On some FWD cars, like 205s, yes, the tail is fairly happy - so keep decent boots on all round.

On others, dynamite wouldn't unstick the tail.

If weight-transfer and body-roll provoke the tail to come out in extremis, will a difference of a mm or two of tread save the day? I'd think not. By that stage, you're fooked.

Nor I.

For years, Citroen sent CXs and DSs away from the factory with narrower tyres on the back than the front. At one stage, Ds even had narrower rims on the back.

The best tyres go where you need them most and that's direction control and braking. i.e. on the front.

Not according to anyone who knows.

I'm old enough to remember the introduction of radial ply tyres which gave a far better 'grip' than crossplies.

Even then, it was against the law to fit one pair on the front only when mixed with crossplies. If not replacing all four, they had to go on the back.