croquemonsieur

Well.... in the review, the tyre with the lowest rolling resistance had the best dry grip and did well in the wet too and the tyres I highlighted also did well on all 3 counts. I doubt any in the reviews were specifically ECO tyres though, just good all-round tyres - have you any in mind that illustrate your point?

The recent review of All-Weather Tyres by TyreReviews, mentioned in a couple of other tyre threads, is worth looking at for noise + all aspects. The 25min Youtube link is good too. Apologies for those who read my recent thread here, as this repeats much noted there. https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2020-Tyre-Reviews-All-Season-Tyre-Test.htm They've 2 noise categories and I was more interested in the 2nd rough road noise chart. My Karoq on 17" Bridgestone Turanza Summers is pretty quiet on smooth tarmac, but some roar and bump thump is noticeable on the rough, but not really horrendous. (The review found that the tyres were typically 9-10dB noisier over rough roads than smooth roads and I assume this is a general truism, whatever the tyre type). It's also noticeable with rough road noise that all A-W tyres, except for the Michelin X-Climate, are quieter than a well regarded quiet summer tyre (Goodyear Efficient Grip) used as a control comparison. Low road noise and ride quality is important to me for general driving pleasure, so I do welcome any reduction in this noise, but not at any great expense of other aspects - so in a year or so, am looking at either the Goodyear G3 or Bridgestone. Both good all-round, with low rolling resistance & good ride, but the Bridgestone was top of the heap on latter. The G3's better in snow, but as I live in SE England not quite so important. Auto-Bild found the Bridgestone wore quickly - a pity, so currently directed towards the G3's. TyreReviews seem to regard this new tyre as quite an achievement. Autobild's noise comparisons are to be taken with a pinch of salt, as only measured outside the car, whereas TyreReviews in this comparison, were taken inside & done with considerable care. Winter tyres also seem to be pretty comfy & quiet, possibly even more so, but I'm not prepared to change tyres twice yearly, nor to rely on summer tyres, as we do get substantial snow occasionally. No Pirelli's were tested.

Actually, I'm unsure if Autobild and Tyrereviews were testing the same tyre, in view of the wildy differing wet handling results. Autobild refers to their testing a Quatrac tyre that had just superceeded the Quatrac 5, whereas Tyrereviews tested a Quatrac Pro. I'm not familiar with the Vredstein Range these days though, but did once fit a set of their summer tyres once to my BMW 523 16+ years ago as they were a good price and recall being quite impressed, including noting the ride was a bit quieter than before. Tyrereviews claim they apply the following weightings in their overall ratings - 30% wet handling, 25% dry ditto, 25% snow ditto, 10% noise and comfort & 10% rolling resistance. In the video, they say the testing was done blind - no, not the driver blind folded, but he never new what tyre he was testing at any one time, as the wheels were covered so the driver couldn' t see the tyres as he entered & exited the car. I acknowledge e-roots preference, but for me, ride & noise are worth more than that 10% weighting, because as well as driving pleasure, I believe amongst other things, this aspect is important for reducing driver fatigue and thus driver error - so, significant for car safety overall.

Yes e-root, difficult to argue with that, but I'll have a go. If 'good handling' is the overiding safety factor - taking that in isolation would guide you towards using a good summer tyre, but then you'd need to change over to winter in late Autumn. Probably wise where you are, but not many would bother in the South East and probably then safer overall to use all-weathers. Anyway a few arguable points :- Looking just at all-weathers, safety depends on the situation. Comparing the Michelin & Goodyear for instance, the Michelin is better in the dry, particularly regarding braking, but the Goodyear generally better in the wet, so which is safer? Difficult to say overall and the Goodyear has the better, quieter ride. Is sporty ultra-sharp handling the only form of good handling? and when I refer to a little softness in the steering, I don't mean going as far as soggy or unsafe handling. I do reckon many of the tyres in the reviews here can be regarded as very safe. When it comes to needing to brake quickly on a bumpy or broken road surface, particularly on a bend, I speculate a more compliant tyre or rubber may keep it in more consistent contact with the road surface and this would equal better braking in this situation or less sliding/bumping sideways, but never seen any tests on this. Certainly the BMW I previously referred to, felt rather alarming on a rippled road section - the steering wheel was almost dancing around in my hands - couldn't believe that they would release a car like that for sale, probably more to do with suspension settings than tyres alone and less sporty versions of this car likely don't suffer. I reckon that a more comfy ride with low road roar and bump thump is less wearing for many, if not all people - certainly me - and so keeps one more alert & content (& so safer?), if doing anything more than short journeys.

It's worth looking at the 25min video in the 1st Tyrereviews link. For one thing, all the testing seems to have been done at Goodyear facilities, so maybe Goodyear tyres should do well, having been developed there. The video does suggest at the end that if living say in SE England, where snow is rare these days, the Bridgestone Weather Control tyre could be the best option, not as good as the Goodyear in snow, but by far the best riding tyre (but Goodyear still good) and as quiet as the Goodyear + also similarly good rolling resistance. On the other hand, it should be pointed out that the Autobuild review indicates that whereas the Goodyear Gen3 wears very well, the Bridgestone is one of the poorest. Back to what is said on the Tyrereviews video, for me the rough surface noise levels are a more important consideration than the smooth road noise levels, as the former are typically 9-10dB greater. My Karoq, on what seem to be regarded as rather average 17" Turenzas is very quiet on smooth tarmac, with just a gentle but not unpleasant woosh at 70mph, but noticeably noisier on course gravel and over rough ridges - and though not particularly bad here compared with other cars I've been in, any reduction is to be welcome. The Tyrereviews sound level measurements were taken inside the car, whereas the Autobild noise comparisons were measured outside, which actually is of little value, so scrub that comment at the end of my opening message. I think these tyre reviews could go one better still and also look at handling on rough roads - 5 years ago I tried a BMW sports version of an Active Tourer on low profile tyres and the steering on rough roads was dreadful - although presumably fine on a high speed test track. I suspect good ride and handling in the rough go hand in hand. Tyrereviews did note that a new version of the X Climate is due next year - so maybe that's worth waiting for. My inclination at the moment though, following these reviews & when I get to reshoe the Karoq, is to forget about good summer tyres & go for the Goodyear Gen3, as these will be noticeably comfier and quieter than any summer tyre - even the notable Goodyear Efficient Grip, as used for the contol comparison. I'll likely change to 16" wheels too, to further enhance these qualities. But that just reflects my priorities, comfort being rather more important than ultimate handling - which I never really test and I don't mind losing a little bit of steering sharpness.

Oops that first link should have been https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2020-Tyre-Reviews-All-Season-Tyre-Test.htm

Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons seem to be one of the popular choices in this category. There is now a review of the recently announced latest version - Gen3 in a comparative review of 9 all weather tyres from Tyre Reviews. It's their 1st choice having the overall most rounded performance https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/364-skoda-karoq/?do=add The Michelin X Climate, also often highly regarded here, is still best of the bunch in the dry, but is noted as one of the noisiest and least comfortable, the latter aspect echoing my experience and that of a friend. It is of course an XL tyre. The review also included a reference summer tyre that they say is well regarded for comfort, but interestingly it was joint worst here with the X Climate and also tended to be noisy. Did well in the wet though and best for rolling resistance (but Goodyear Gen3 a close 2nd here). There was a new category I haven't seen before - as well as noise they looked at rough noise, but I would have liked to see further explanation of this. I recall reading stuff on the Goodyear Site earlier this year, that the Gen3 has been designed to maintain it's winter performance over a longer period of the tyre life. I believe this is the achilees heel of winter and all weather tyres, as the winter preformance tends to deteriorate once the tread groove depth wears lower than 5mm, but I don't know the details of what Goodyear have done. Wear testing was excluded from this review, but they intend to look into it. https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2020-Auto-Bild-All-Season-Tyre-Test.htm The Goodyear Gen3 came top here too but the X climate did marginally better for noise.

I don't normally buy newspapers, but Saturday's Telegraph came my way. Summarising a question & answer in the motoring section (Honest John Expert Advice) someone asked the following :- "My Audi A1 has the notorius DSG dry-sump gearbox. In view of the many problems owners are experiencing, are there any advanced warning signs we should know about." "ANSWER. Don't ever sit in Drive with the engine running or you simply grind the clutch plates together. Also many independants and better VW group dealers advocate changing the mineral oil in the gearbox every 4 years. This 'sealed for lie' DQ200 box actually isn't. There's a drain plug and a breather, the cap of which can be removed to reveal an opening through which fresh transmission fluid can be added with a syringe." Totally new to me and any comments?. I usually leave my Karoq 1.0 Tech DSG in gear at say traffic lights with the auto stop/start switched off. Maybe I should always keep the auto start/stop operating. OR does the autohold put it in Neutral - I'll look at the display next time. I don't actually like the auto hold & prefer just keeping my foot on the brake and letting the car momentarily creep forward as the lights change, before touching the sensitive throttle pedal. Can't comment on the oil change. I previously had a Yeti 1.2 SE DSG for 4.5years with no auto stop/start and so the car car was frequently in gear when stopped and never any trouble with the gearbox or anything else much. I thought that although the DSG box gave trouble early on, it's woes were sorted out quite a few years ago. Ford had trouble with their newer DSG box more recently - my sister and partner like Focuses and their 1.6 of a few years ago had juddering problems that were only fairly recently sorted. Their recent 1.0 has been OK though, but not as economical as my Karoq or Yeti, nor in fact quite as good as their older 1.6. This reinforces something said here a while ago that the VAG 3cyl is a sunstantially different animal to the sporty Ford 1 litre. Also, is it possible that creeping forward in traffic, clutch plates slipping away, causes excessive wear I wonder - my car usually soon changes up to 2nd even at very low creeping speeds, so whether there is much slipping, I can't say. There was a brief article in Autocar earlier this year about the VAG DSG box, saying that it has oversized clutch plates with a view to giving a gearbox life of 300,000KM. I assume both my Skodas were /are the DQ200 box. I love my DSG, in spite of the slightly iffy start from standstill issue - not helped by the sensitive throttle.