At 26000 miles its time to start looking for new tyres.

Its a company car, but with no maintainance contract, so it is down to my boss to choose what i get.

The cheapo budget brands have been dismissed, however the cheapest named brand seems to be Avon.

I don't have any knowledge of this brand, just wondering if anyone has had this brand before and what they think of them for, life, noise, grip etc.

I have found Michelin Primacy for and extra £15 per tyre, which would you choose.

Michelin Primacy no question.

The last bloke I knew who bought Avons got sidewall cracking after about 2_000 miles, and Avon tried to claim it was because he'd been driving too fast, with H rated tyres on a car capable of 108mph!

I suggest you take a look at the Auto Express website and search for tyre test on there. They run them every year. I've found their results to be informative and impartial.

Personally, I really think you get what you pay for with tyres. Saving money now may look attractive but when you read some of the results of the comparison tests where, for example, budget tyres often take tens of metres extra to stop in the wet, it puts the saving into perspective. Since you seem to be doing around 25k miles p.a. if I were you I'd get the best going.

Another useful website is mytyres.com, not necessarily for ordering tyres, but when you put your size requirements etc in their search engine, you can look at individual tyre results from the German magazines (easily translated via google if you don't sprechen Deutsch)

HTH

Mark.

Michelin Primacy no question.

The last bloke I knew who bought Avons got sidewall cracking after about 2_000 miles, and Avon tried to claim it was because he'd been driving too fast, with H rated tyres on a car capable of 108mph!

I haven't got them on my Superb, but have used them on both my Classic cars for the last 4 years with no problems whatsoever (Triumphs Stag and Spitfire) Caterhams fit them as standard to the lower powered versions, so I guess they're more suited to lightweight cars. I am running Barum Bravaris 2 tyres on the front of my Superb and they seem to be giving good wear and grip, they are a lot quieter than the Conti's that were on them as standard too.

I haven't got them on my Superb, but have used them on both my Classic cars for the last 4 years with no problems whatsoever (Triumphs Stag and Spitfire) Caterhams fit them as standard to the lower powered versions, so I guess they're more suited to lightweight cars. I am running Barum Bravaris 2 tyres on the front of my Superb and they seem to be giving good wear and grip, they are a lot quieter than the Conti's that were on them as standard too.

Avon turbospeeds were original equipt tyres on Aston V8's also (so not just lightweight sportscars). Avon tyres aren't poor quality. I've had a set on one of my previous cars (can't recall what) but I don't remember any problems. Thats not to say I'd recommend them for the Superb. The Conti's that are fitted to mine are good quality and do well in the tests. They cope well with the usual British weather (wet, raining or both) No, they aren't brilliant on snow, best option as several on here have done is two sets of tyres, one winter, one summer.

Mark.

On the Superb I've got the Conti's that were factory fitted. I've no complaints.

I just had one rear tyre replaced with a Uniroyal due to a puncture. I had no choice in this as it was specified by LEX.

My previous car, a Honda Civic IMA originally came with Brigestones. Handled beautifully. They got replaced with Perelli P6000's despite my specific request for like for like replacement in advance of dropping the car off to the garage (not LEX then) the handling went to ****. I would recommend not touching these with a barge-pole.

My parents have a Octi. It came with Perilli's On my advice they just changed to Bridgestones as I suggested they not go for perellis again. They rarely go above 50mph, due to the rural environemnt where they live, and go at about 60 on the motorway. They have thanked me and commented on the marked improvement in handling, especially in the wet.

My Advice: Your tyres are the most important safety device on your car. They are the only contact between the car and the road and define your steering, traction and braking.

Even if you drive like my an old granddad you will notice the difference between good and bad tyres in the wet, and will hopefully never notice the difference in a skid type situation.

The wrong tyres could cost you your life, or that of a pedestrian (think child) who stepped out in front of you.

I have liked the performance of Bridgestones (I wont put anything but Bridgestone Battleaxe on my motorcycle), Michelin and the factory fitted Conti's

I would treat Avons with distrust unless advised otherwise by someone I trust who can give you a comparison from having used them. Like Perelli's they're cheap. - However that's just my impression of brand immage, I've never yet used Avons.

I opted out of my company car scheme at the end of 2009 and bought a new Superb 170 TDi. The OE Conti's couldn't cope with the snow we had in early 2010. The ice ripped more than half the tread off in no time! As I have to pay for replacing the tyres out of my own pocket I did quite a bit of research on the web when choosing the replacements.

I finally plumped for some General Altimax UHP's on all four corners in November last year. I've done about 8,000 miles on them since then and they've been excellent. Quieter than the Conti's with good grip in all weathers, and as they are M&S rated they were fantastic in the recent snow, with no loss of tread.

They were £98.00 each fitted and balanced, which was a darn site cheaper than the 'big' brands.

I've used Michelin Primacy's on both my Octy and Superb, both of which had the same 1.9Tdi 105 engine.

For noise, wet and dry handling, economy and long life I personally think Primacy's are hard to beat.

I wanted the same again recently, however, the short-sighted leasing company would not authorise Primacy's and instead, I ended up with Goodyear Efficient Grip tyres. These have a softer compound than Primacy's and are nowhere near as predictable when cornering, even at moderate speeds.

Edited 5 March, 201115 yr by veloplus