BigBadRob

It's not really though; that's just the cost of a reasonably performing set of 19" tyres at this profile. A neighbour of ours has to buy £400 a corner Michelin's for his ridiculous Merc SL vanitywagon - everything is relative. Yes, there's price movement either way depending on what brand you buy but if I spent £60 a corner on the only things that are keeping my face out of the armco in a downpour then I'd probably deserve it when I ditched it on a corner. The way I look at it, doing 25k a year, £650 once every 12-18 months isn't a huge issue compared to the amount of fuel I have to put into the vehicle (circa £3.5k annually) and as I reclaim business mileage for around 15k of that 25k it more than covers the costs for me. Anyway - 6 months on from my original post and the Goodyear's are still going strong and have performed very well over winter (imminent 'polar vortex' not included) with decent grip levels in all conditions unless accelerating uphill with a boot full of gear in the wet in Eco mode but drop it into sport and it lets that spinning occur without being all nanny state about it. The noise hasn't gone up appreciably in that time either and I'd probably get another set when it comes to it at the beginning of next Winter.

Update: I went for 4x Eagle F1 Assy 2's (they don't seem to do the Assy 3 variant in the right size yet) at a total whack of £654 from Blackcircles, fitted, which was about £150 cheaper all in than Michelin or Bridgestone. As we're having to fork out for a new boiler as well this month because ours failed 3 weeks ago I was ordered not to buy anything that wasn't absolutely necessary so the Goodyear's are the best I could afford this time. First impressions aren't all that different on my local roads with normal tarmac but I did notice they were a bit quieter on the concrete bits on the way to the mother in laws last night so that's a decent start. As the last ones were unevenly worn resulting in a £25 charge for tracking to be adjusted and had differing tread depths from 3.5mm to sweet FA I'm definitely seeing increased ability to stop already but will wait for a good British downpour before I commit to saying they're any better in the wet than anything else I've used.

Agreed. I had Efficient Grips on my Octavia VRs and then on My XC70 and they were faultless. Quiet, grippy, efficient & hard-wearing. Best tyres I've had on a car. I enquired locally as to whether anyone can source them and they all said they weren't available in 19". 'The Google' (as me Mum calls it) backed this story up and even the Goodyear website could only offer me a Dunlop Sport Maxx in the right size. I've heard good things about Eagle F1's from a few friends with high torque RWD cars and about a decade ago an ex-girlfriend of mine had them on a 206GTi and they were very grippy & soft but wore down quickly. One assumes there have been some developments since then and they're not still made of sticky butter. A local provider did recommend some UniRoyal RainSports as they're 'superlative in the wet' apparently but their lack of cost (£40 less per corner) leads me to believe they'll not be the greatest (that and they're a UniRoyal stockist so I probably represented a significant amount of commission) Anyone have any experience of them in a barge on on 19's? I know SWMBO has them on her fiesta but it's a different beast altogether and over 60mph all you can hear is it's wheezy little engine & 4spd auto box screaming for mercy so it's difficult to assess the road noise.

Afternoon all, Not got long to do this and searching brought up all sorts of stuff that didn't quite answer my question. I'm doing 20-25k a year in my Sportline. Mostly M-way or large A-road stuff and sitting on adaptive cruise. Current tyres are the factory fit Pirelli P7 Cinturato. 235/40/19W. They're unbelievably noisy, the grip is very questionable in the wet, they're more prone to aquaplaning than any tyres I've had before and as the summer disappears and the liquid sunshine starts to fall more, I'm noticing that I'm getting an awful lot of ESP light when I'm pulling away. According to Skoda they're all sitting around 4mm. At the rate I drive, that will be down to 2 before the year is out (I've done 3000 miles since my service 8 weeks ago) and I'll be looking to get something else when the usual 'Buy 4 for the price of 3' stuff starts to appear in places like ATS around the end of October as everyone tries to drive footfall into stores. So, what have the high-milers got on their cars that are quieter and give more confidence on soaking A road corners? (economy not as much of a concern as the sound level at the moment - I get reimbursed for fuel but not for my time trying to block out the road noise!) Especially want to hear from anyone who's got a Sportline on 19's and puts it through the miles. Much obliged. Rob.

Looks kinda cool dropped. All I'd have to do is drive everywhere with the boot packed full of concrete rubble from under the driveway...

All because Nicola Sturgeon goaded her about not having a mandate a few weeks back...

Agreed. Usually I'm half way out the door before that message is on the screen and heading away from the car. SWMBO has started giving it the "Phone?" if she's with me. Works much better than a screen message

Having purchased one of those grey numbers (front centre) about a week before I got my SIII I feel I should save you the £13. Nothing on that shelf will fit in the cup holder. Nothing. None of them. Nada. Not one. Which is a shame as they really are very good insulated mugs and keep stuff hot for hours.

You can close the lid with a cable plugged in provided the USB connector isn't huge as I put my iPhone in there and then close it and use the CarPlay UI. It does mean you tend to forget your phone when you get out though...

Drive with the DSG in any mode = scores between 30 & 50 (even with LOADS of freewheeling in eco mode) Drive with ACC on in any mode = scores above 60. I think it's a marketing ploy to get you to use ACC more as it makes you think it's more efficient than your driving. Which it may be as the acceleration is always going to be constant and it will only use the minimum fuel input to maintain/increase your speed. As it's just a figure on a screen that is arbitrarily derived from a set of inputs though and has no tangible basis on which to gauge against other types of efficiency score, I ignore it. SWMBO is looking at buying a Nissan Leaf and the green score thingy in that is connected to a database that scores you against all other Leaf owners and tells you if you're more efficient than other people in the country. I think you get an award if you're the most efficient driver in the country like a free bag of coal or your own cubic metre of CO2...

Life is far too short to give a monkeys what people think of my car, it's function over form here I'm afraid. I only bought a white Sportline because it was close and convenient and the dealer were very good. That said, a long time ago, when I had the inclination, I had a white Astra and it was very easy to make it look astounding with very little effort as one brief hose down and a wash and the difference is huge so it might get done once a year if I have to take the mother-in-law anywhere. The rain today has made me realise 2 things: 1. It must be bank holiday 2. After taking the hounds for a walk this morning, I need to get this sorted asap as their paws have turned the kitchen into a swamp and we're off out to Sherwood Pines later for a run. I feel an order being placed with rearguards shortly...

I own two spaniels (latin term for 'mud magnet'), aesthetics are not a concern I haven't washed a car in over 4 years and I doubt that will change through the ownership of this one, they just get hoovered out when the dog dust gets up a bit but having something in the boot with the large lip that can catch any emissions from them is always helpful. I forgot to put it in once when I took them to the beach in my Volvo and quickly regretted it I looked at rearguards earlier based on one of your posts in a previous thread. Still can't believe it's over fifty quid for a slice of plastic (ahem, or even stainless steel...)

I looked at the SuperSkoda offering and, whilst it was cheaper than the UK dealer network, I've not had particularly good service from them in the past (found them quite rude and unhelpful when things were delayed/out of stock and they hadn't told me before ordering) so I'm reticent to give them too much business. The Skodaparts website also appears to be similar pricing to the main stealers. If that's what it has to be then so be it, just seems a hell of a lot of money to pay for a piece of plastic with some sticky tape on the back that's going to get trashed.

Morning all, It's quickly become apparent I need some sort of protection for the boot lip as the dogs are using it as a convenient step on their way in & out and very soon they will scratch it. I note that the official Skoda variant is a small piece of plastic 3' long with an adhesive backing available for a cool crisp £54..... I also note that eBay sells other things that are not quite so Gucci but will probably suffice as it's a sacrificial strip anyway. Anyone with particularly energetic dogs with sharp claws got any experience of anything other than the Skoda offering that they could recommend? Same goes for a boot tray; The Skoda unit retails at £165 (yes really, and no apparently it isn't lined with gold or impregnated with Saffron) so would be interested to see if anyone has found a cheaper tray with a lip height of around 100mm that isn't priced for Saudi Princes and will contain any bodily functions expelled by a pair of spaniels that don't travel particularly well (pictured below - butter wouldn't melt)

I wouldn't say its a particularly good indication; I did 300 miles on Wednesday in eco mode and returned 54.0mpg on the gauge and that, combined with the rest of the tank used since last weekend equated to an over all of 48.7mpg. In reality, it was a wee bit less than that according to the petrol pump on refill, sitting somewhere around 45mpg. I imagine if I had less of an inclination to use the sport mode for certain stretches of A road then it may improve dramatically...but I can't see that happening any time soon I have never had a vehicle that was dead accurate in it's reported figure on the dash but some, as you say, have been closer than others. My Fabia Vrs once told me I'd achieved an average of 64mpg on a run to the Aberdeen office (and what a boring drive that was slip-streaming trucks most of the way) In reality it turned out to be closer to 55mpg whereas my Volvo XC70 did a permanent 32-33mpg regardless of the amount of people, dogs & tools in the boot and that was fairly accurate all the time.