Please recommend tyres for...

Fulda H-series Continental Touring Contact Pirelli Scorpion Goodrich Traction T/A

It has been my personal experience that Michelin tires are super except when it rains. But take that with a grain of salt or three as it is _only_ my opinion.

We are running Scorpions on the Volvo (AWD), Goodrich on the Saab, and Continentals on the VWs (High load range). We have had (and liked) Fulda in the past. US roads with rain, snow, sleet & salt, also hills around here. The 98 Diesel Beetle we sold last year came with Michelins. My wife would not drive it in the rain.... she took my car.

Peter Wieck Wyncote, PA

My experience is exactly the opposite. My '02 GTI came with Continentals and they sucked all the time. Replacing them with Michelins fixed the problem nicely.

nate

Wouldn't doubt it for a moment. Those with Michelins either swear by them or at them. I have never know anyone 'indifferent' to Michelins.

Peter Wieck Wyncote, PA

Try something else, unless you are as happy as a pig in muck with them.

Not available in the UK (unless you have the name of the tread patern).

Not available in the UK.

Not available in the UK.

Not available in the UK.

Not done very well, have we! He asked for tyres for UK roads and weather conditions, and IME, whilst rain is the same wherever it falls, some road surfaces, and many tyre types are very different between the US and UK.

IME, Michelin are one of the best performers in the rain, weather it be Michelin Energy, Pilot, or Pilot Sport. Uniroyal are supposed to be good in the wet too, but I havn't used them for a long time.

Signal, tell us the type of roads you drive on, how you drive your car, and also what you expect/want from a tyre!

Sean

Hi... 50/50 country roads and motorways. I don't rag it much. I'd take a bit of precision in steering over lifespan.

The Pirellis seem good in the dry, less than stellar in the wet.

Thanks...

-- S i g n a l @ l i n e o n e . n e t

Note the interpolations:

LeakiestW>

Sean:

It is a matter of nomeclature. Most tire (tyre) makers that distribute internationally have to meet many different "local codes" for lack of a better term. Here in the US, they have to meet DOT specifications, FTC specifications and also include treadwear, traction, temperature range and speed-range on each tire, which must also include an individual serial number. I am sure that specifications in the UK and the rest of the world are similar in the main, but differ in detail. Point being that I put the US name and then the brand and UK into the search engine, each one linked as you see above.

As to Michelin, for whatever reason the OEM tires on my wife's VW were wretched in the rain (driving rain, not just sprinkles), but excellent at all other times, including those times after a long dry spell when a few drops turn the road surface into an emulsion of oil, mud, dust and dirt... very slippery. When I had my M-Class Mercedes SUV, it also came with Michelins, same phenomenon. Now I would expect that the UK has more rain than the mid-Atlantic US, narrower roads, some of them hard-pan but somewhat higher speeds on those narrower roads. So, that is why I advised away based on MY experience from Michelin tires.

We drive a combination of local suburban roads and highways, and upstate PA mixed and hardpan roads, and our summer house is accessible only by AWD/4X4 for three months out of the year, and it is a muddy trip hoping for +/- 8-inch ground clearance for three more months. My work takes me out in all weather all year round, so we are generally more sensitive to tires than the typical can-take-a-day-off-when-it-rains-snows-and-sleets driver.

Peter Wieck Wyncote, PA

Erm... that's a US site (with data back to German market vehicles exclusively) - the i in tire gives it away. Anyhow, it still don't list a type of tyre, only tyre sizes.

That's for and I quote "medium-weight to heavy 4x4 vehicles". I don't recall a Mk3 Golf being described anything like that!!!!

OK, that is a tyre available in the UK market, and a fairly good one too. That would be one of my reccomendations (but only if certain driving styles were listed). I would also suggest the ContiPremiumContact

That's a winter only tyre for "fast luxury SUVs". We don't use winter tyres in the UK, we use all season tyres, and a Golf ain't no SUV!!!

That still don't list the Traction T/A.

Yes, I agree, to a point. All tyres in the UK have the DOT specs, as well as traction, treadwear & temperature, along with full size and load/speed indexes , as well as manufacturing batch codes. The DOT specs, along with traction, treadwear and temperature are usually ignored and irrelevant in the UK, the official tyre importers pre-determine temperature specs, so we don't get a choice anyway. However, they must have, by law, "E" codes for European Type Approval. In the UK, along with the European Union, we have very different specifications and legal requirements, to those in the US and Canada. As you say above, "differ in detail", and, as the saying goes, the devil is in the detail.

You honestly surprise me about poor Michelin rain performance. Leaving SUVs aside, generally, the entire range of Michelin passenger car range tyres have allways been reknown for their wet weather performance as ranging from the good to excellent. Your experience may be down to a very different road surface, or maybe some kind of placebo effect from previous bad experiences of Michelins??? Maybe you got a dodgy batch, that slipped through some hole in the quality control net - it does happen.

Oh - tell me about it. For the vast majority (in England), the first dusting of snow or ice, and they become utterly incompetant and dangerous at the wheel. I really wish they would take a day off! That is on area where, it seems, over the pond in the US and Canada, you are much better drivers than us :-o

Regards Sean, rural lil 'ol England