I was at the tyre place near my mechanics and was asking about tyres as 2 of mine need replacing and one of them is getting close.

He has budget 165/70 R13 Speed rating T tyres for £25 a pop

Or he can do me 165/80 R13 Pirellis for £35 and he has 4 of them

Price includes wheel balancing and fitting

Kwik Spit have an offer on Firestones but even then its £20 dearer for 2 or 4

Or £10 dearer using my discount card

Will that extra size make a difference?

But 2 of my tyres are still fairly deep and good.

Even if they're free in kwikfit don't go there

Pirelli's for £35 a corner fully fitted sounds great.

As for the size making a difference or not, the increased rolling radius means that at 70mph your speedo will increase the speed reading by 4mph so it will probably be closer to your actual speed given speedo's generally over-read. See Car Bibles : The Wheel and Tyre Bible Page 2 of 2 It will also make some slight differences to maximum speed and acceleration. If I understand my physics I think it will reduce maximum speed and increase acceleration slightly but I could be entirely wrong about that.

Maybe see if they can get hold of the 165/70's or buy from here and see how much they'd charge for fitting, valve, balance and disposal of old tyres mytyres.co.uk - Details: Pirelli P 3000 165/70 R13 79T or they have plenty of other tyres same size

Pirelli sounds like the way to go from over here too. Seems a very competitive price, if that's all-in fitted.

My favourite tyre place has some offerings, but not looking that competitive against what you've got already: Car Tyres - MPV Tyres - People Carrier Tyres - R13" - 165/70/13, 165/70 R 13 -

Steve

I won't go for the Pirellis they will make my Speedo over-read according to car bibles.

Thanks for the link anewman

Fair play, think it's the right thing to do. Now if you can only get the same deal on 165/70 Pirellis eh?

Steve

Kwik Spits will cost about 91.40 or 82.26 for 2 tyres inc my discount.

Will have to see what another local fitter charges.

On my Astra I had Cooper Sportsmaster GLE's and they weren't too bad.

My cousin was talking alloys. The Alloys on his mums Polo Dune are scratched.

How much would it cost to refurb them and does it make them look like new again?

Decided I'll be prob be getting 3 Fulda tyres fitted tomorrow.

Was debating the Kwik Spits Firestone offer but decided to go for the proper size fitted by a tyre place I've used previously. (Thistlethwaites Bolton)

Whereabouts is the Dune based? I'm sure some places can be recommended. I know a good place near Piccadilly Station in Manchester for example.

Alloys are 17" on a Dune, so would be around £40-50 a wheel realistically, dependant on the place.

Steve

If refurbed properly (strip, powder coat etc etc) they will look brand spanking new A place I called in leeds said they refurb 13" alloys with tyres (so I assume this includes removing tyre, refurb alloy, refit tyre, new valve and balance) for £40 each and I can't find cheaper.

The Dune is in Amesbury Wiltshire.

Cause they were looking at new wheels. but they arent cheap!!!

If I understand my physics I think it will reduce maximum speed and increase acceleration slightly but I could be entirely wrong about that.

Nope you got that the wrong way round.

The 165/80 R13 higher profile tyres will give you more top speed and slower acceleration than the std 165/70 R13's

Lots of people buy new wheels because you can get 4 new wheels for the cost of getting the OE wheels re-furbished. what they don't take into account though is that most aftermarket wheels are sh1te - very heavy and will corrode pretty quickly. There are of course some good aftermarket wheels around, these are usually made by people who either make OE wheels (BBS, Ronal etc) and/or they make them for the rally teams (OZ, Speedline, Minilite, Compomotive, Revolution etc).

The Dune is in Amesbury Wiltshire.

Cause they were looking at new wheels. but they arent cheap!!!

Hmmm, will see what places can be found nearby. Would be interested in those wheels as a project though, if they decide to go down the new route!

Steve

I won't go for the Pirellis they will make my Speedo over-read according to car bibles.

Thanks for the link anewman

If the pirelli are P6000 don't bother IMHO as they are some of the worse tyres I've ever had the misfortune to use.

P6000s do have a purpose; propping up the rest of tyre test tables.

How the P6000 came about (IMHO and not factual).

At a pirelli meeting a manager said that he wanted pirelli to make a tyre that was a winner on cost and at least matched the performance of all the competitors.

The techs agreed it was a good idea and set about looking for tyres to buy in and test for performance and compare so they had a basis to design their own tyre. They placed orders for hundred of tyres from various quality manufacturers and the manager duly signed it all off.

A bean counter looked at it and set his purchasing department on to get the tyres cheaper. The purchasing department phoned around but couldn't do much better and it didn't look like they would get their bonus which was a share of the savings. Suddenly one of them realised that they could just use equivalent parts so phones up asking for equivalents to the tyres at the best price.

The suppliers realised this opportunity to sell all their cheap ditch finders at a good price and so suggested they were equivalent parts. Purchasing bought these and were happy as was the bean counter.

The engineers got the tyres and complained, but purchasing pointed to the savings and the equivalent part notice and the manager was unable to get any more money signed off.

So the engineers were told to carry on as they would and duly tested all these tyres. They then created a tyre that matched the performance of all these tyres and was just a touch better on price.

Thus the Pirelli P6000 "ditch finder" was created.

My sister has Pirellis on her Micra but they aren't the P6000. Think they are the P3000s

Just got back from the tyre place after shuffling around at home.

I now have the good tyres still with decent tread when I bought the car on the fronts as they are the oldest.

And the 2 new Fulda Eco-Controls on the back.

Got a few long distance trips coming up but at least I won't have to worry about the tyres for a bit.

Also at the tyre place was an 02 plate Fabia saloon. The woman who owned it spent £165 (55 a tyre) to have 3 tyres Good Years to match the one good wheel on the car. Think one had a screw and the others were wearing low.

Be careful on them for a while as they are going to be slippery.

Thanks Cheezemonkeh

I haven't experienced slippiness from new tyres before :confused: but then I'm driving quite economically anyway.

The distance driving will soon "run them in"

The only time I really bought tyres was in 2001

about £130 odd pounds for a set of Cooper Sportsmaster 175/70 R13s on an Astra. Sadly prices always go up. :(

Hmm, I have 6000s on the SLK and they aren't too bad, better than the Falkens, Dunlop Sportmaxx and the Michelin PE2s they superceded

Hmm, I have 6000s on the SLK and they aren't too bad, better than the Falkens and the Michelin PE2s they superceded

Really, I absolubtly hate them on the focus, and had 4 tyres egg out on the inside of rear sidewalls. (first set then the replacements and no external damage to the sidewalls either:( ). No such problems with other brands. Another mate of mine has had similar on his astra and they certainly don't inspire me in the wet.

I find the falkens much grippier and the same goes for the PE2 I had on the MK I.

I guess they *may* have changed them in the year or two since then, but I found them properly scary and really did think there were up with the ditch finders.

TBH the purchasing comment may be reflecting on past experiences working when I was a student.

From that:

etyres - tyre tests reviews - Pirelli P6000

I guess they must make them in a couple of places and they vary as some report them wearing quickly and others say they wear well.

Tyres vary from car to car. It's not just about the tyre construction, it also comes down to the car's configuration and setup. Unless they are all tested on the same car you can't compare them properly and then the test wouldn't necessarily be the same if you ran the first test on a Focus and the second on an SLK

I was paying less than that for Vredstein 185/65R15Ts, fitted, balanced, new valves about then.

Tyres vary from car to car. It's not just about the tyre construction, it also comes down to the car's configuration and setup. Unless they are all tested on the same car you can't compare them properly and then the test wouldn't necessarily be the same if you ran the first test on a Focus and the second on an SLK

That's true, but I've seen P6000s propping up the tables in several back to back tests, using a variety of cars.

Tyres vary from car to car. It's not just about the tyre construction, it also comes down to the car's configuration and setup. Unless they are all tested on the same car you can't compare them properly and then the test wouldn't necessarily be the same if you ran the first test on a Focus and the second on an SLK

I'm aware of that fact, but bearing in mind that was the tyre the focus came with you would have thought (well ok hoped and yes i know it's whatever is cheapest :( ) it would be a good tyre for the car.

According to the place that wanted to sell me the Pirellis that were slightly larger than my current size, Pirellis are the No3 in Tyres.

1st being Michelin - My sisters Corsa 2002 model had Michelin tyres.

2nd Bridgestone

and 3rd Pirelli

I did read current budget tyres are quite good these days.

But my Dad got a set of budgets for his Honda Accord 2.0 once and he said the car felt jittery and not that stable espec in the wet!

So I guess it depends on a lot of factors!!!