I have just given my Octy a quick once over for its forthcoming MOT on the 14th, and I noticed the inside edge of my front nearside tyre does not look quite as clever as it could (I have seen much worse!).

However on phoning my local tyre fitter, he does not have any stock of the f452 205 55 zr16 and when he spoke to his supplier he told me there were none in the country (other than at the back of peoples tyre fitting places) and they are not expected in stock till the 22nd of May. Hopefully the Octy will pass the MOT if not I need a plan.....

He suggested the Goodyear NCP5 as a replacement - but they cost more - £75.99 fully fitted rather than £64.57 for the Falken.

Any feedback on the Goodyear NCP5 - I would probably replace both fronts, although the offside is not looking too bad. The front tyres are about 14 months old with something like 30k of miles of them. I do a daily commute of 120 miles (country A-roads) and some motorway work. The car used to have Yokahomo tyres on it, but currently had f452s all round and I have been quite happy with them.

Otherwise I could just stick my spare wheel on and drive around with that will the f452s come back into stock (how embarrassing driving around with a steel rim though :( )

A bit off topic, but those prices seem quite expensive. Will your local guy fit tyres that you supply? If so you could save yourself some money and/or get some 'better' tyres. My local tyre guy fits tyres for £10 ea so assuming your local tyre fitter is the same you could get some Goodyear GSD3s delivered for £57.00 ea and get him to fit them...

Sorry if this is no help. I've been at work since 4:00am and I'm very bored now:O

I have had some Goodyear NCT 5 on the front of my Vrs (205 50X17 size) on recommendation of my tire fitter for the same reason, as supposedly they were the only ones he could get in that size at the time.

I would not recommend them as have only got approx 7000 miles out of the pair and I am not a heavy driver. I got nearly 20000 out of the original Continentals for comparison!!!!! Also the grip levels in wet and dry are not that great in my opinion.

I would wait for the fk452s to come back into stock. I'm highly impressed with them too.

I think if the garage get shirty about the tyre, I swap it for my spare - a dunlop, iirc, and then get the Falkens when they are back in stock. Hopefully she will sail through on the rest of the MOT. I'll give her a good rag between now on Wednesday to clear out the cr@p :-)

The f452s seemed much better then the Yokahomos I took off, so I'll do my best to stick with them.

"Event Tyres" in stock, £65.09p fitted

A bit off topic, but those prices seem quite expensive. Will your local guy fit tyres that you supply? If so you could save yourself some money and/or get some 'better' tyres. My local tyre guy fits tyres for £10 ea so assuming your local tyre fitter is the same you could get some Goodyear GSD3s delivered for £57.00 ea and get him to fit them...

Sorry if this is no help. I've been at work since 4:00am and I'm very bored now:O

I quite like the f452 - has worked well for me, so if I can track down a good online price, then I'll see if my tyre bloke will fit (or find someone in the Weymouth or Salisbury area that will).

Just found them here (mytyres.co.uk) for £53.80. Thinking about it I think we have a work deal with etyres or mytyres - I'll check on Monday :-)

"Event Tyres" in stock, £65.09p fitted

I have used event tyres in the past - took them about a month to get around to doing the mobile fitting (fitter in the area went off sick, iirc).... However certainly worth considering.

Cheers!