I'm using:

Winter: Continental WinterContact TS850 (Best Tyre I've ever tried in winter)

Summer: Continental EcoContact 5 XL (These will last for at least 100K miles, 2 seasons for me)

All are: 205 / 55 R16.

If you can't afford it, get some 205/55R16 wheels with tyres off eBay.

I realise that now, sorry my mistake. I've just stuck with the Michelins as they've always been good to me; out of interest what do you rate as a better tyre? Mine are due for a change.

I agree Michelins are good, but only use tyres like these in the warmer half of the year as even my local Michelin place, advises not using them in the colder half of the year. Its all down to EU based premium tyre manufacturers, fine tuning their tyres for certain conditions - ie summer tyres for summer use, and winter tyres for winter use. It took me a few years to work that out, now its Pilots in warm weather and Alpins in cold weather.

I realise that now, sorry my mistake. I've just stuck with the Michelins as they've always been good to me; out of interest what do you rate as a better tyre? Mine are due for a change.

I second that as I have Michelin on my car they are very reliable. Mileage has been good but they are not cheap I have to say. Some good prices online. My wife got her tyres recently from Best4Tyres. She took the car down and said everything was fine - no complaints.

I just got a new set of Michelin Primacy III's - total cost fitted for this set was £385, and the Primacy III is noticeably quieter than anything that has been on the car so far. So thumbsup! I used my local tyres-only specialist, and though you usually have to wait a bit as they are so busy, the prices are great. Plus they spent ages cleaning up the rims (which have quite a bit of salt corrosion). Result - I've not had a drop of air leave them in over a month, whereas the last two rears fitted at a tyre brake exhaust place, for £115 each, would lose a fair bit over the same period.

Edited 29 March, 201313 yr by jimbof

I'm on the point of buying some new tyres for my Octavia L&K Estate, running on sports suspension, and 17" rims, and the Michelin Primacy III's have caught my eye. I've had some gently driven Pilot Sport III's which have lasted about 20,000 miles having swapped fronts and backs at some point, and as always, Michelin never fails to impress me. However, I see the Primacy III's offer lower rolling resistance, possibly yielding higher mileage or a harder ride, so I'm interested in how your ride has been affected. Norfolk is a bit too far out of my way, so I will look closer to home.

I'm on the point of buying some new tyres for my Octavia L&K Estate, running on sports suspension, and 17" rims, and the Michelin Primacy III's have caught my eye. I've had some gently driven Pilot Sport III's which have lasted about 20,000 miles having swapped fronts and backs at some point, and as always, Michelin never fails to impress me. However, I see the Primacy III's offer lower rolling resistance, possibly yielding higher mileage or a harder ride, so I'm interested in how your ride has been affected. Norfolk is a bit too far out of my way, so I will look closer to home.

Settled on just a pair of Primacy IIIs for now, from F1 Autocentres. £209.50 fitted. Note that Michelin currently have a promotion on that gives you a £50 fuel voucher if you purchase 2 or more tyres for 17" rims. The offer only runs to the end of April, mind. The first impression is that the new Primacy IIIs are noisier than the (admittedly worn) Pilot Sport IIIs.

Edited 22 April, 201313 yr by HUD Engineer

on my 16" steels i have Neuton NT5000 tyres fitted and i have to say im very happy with them, a very confident feel. there apparently made by yokohama.

on my 19" alloys is another story... i went for budgets all round and although they are fine to start with but at around 10.000miles of wear and they are now HORRENDOUSLY loud. ive long since switched to Vredestein ultrac sessanta which are brilliant in my opinion but they havent lasted as long as i hoped. i may try the neutons on the 19s this time round.

I'll give a big thumbs up for Neuton NT5000 tyres as well. They were crazily cheap (about £50 ea delivered) when I bought them, but have gone up a bit since then.

I didn't expect too much from them when I bought them, but the rear tyres are still fine with 30,000 miles on them (20,000 spent on the front) and the front tyres hardly seem to have worn at all with 10,000 miles gone. They don't spin up in the wet, are decent in the snow, quiet and excellent in the dry.

Not bad considering the torque that the V6 puts out

just fitted a full set of Matador Hectorra 2 tyres to my 19s, Most definitely a vast improvement in road noise, comfort and road holding confidence.

i think Matador are owned by continental. i will definitely be using these tyres again

as for the previous tyres - fullrun and sunny, i can confidently say they are absolute sh1te

Matador Tyres - In 2009 Continental AG Hannover increased their capital share to 100%. New Continental’s distribution-logistic centre was open in that year in Puchov, for Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the new production finalisation hall.

Edited 11 May, 201313 yr by Cown

Yesterday I bought a full set of Barum Bravuris 2 (94W) tyres (225/45/17). National Tyres currently have an offer on these buy 1 get 1 free. Barum are owned by Continental and Made in GErmany. SO far impressed, the tyres have a nice tread, are quiet too, and so far grip is absolutely fine too.

I paid just £303 for a full set. If you need a set of tyres I would definitely consider the current Barum offer at NT, read the reviews, many many people happy with them. They are not directional, so I will be swapping them around on a regular basis to change the rotational direction and axle position for even wear (after my bad experience with Pirelli P7s that became very noisy after 15k miles, partly due to lack of rotation).

NT just list them at twice the price you can buy them elsewhere. If you buy them online through tyre-shopper.co.uk (who use NT as a fitter) you get that price (well, close to it) by default.

i purchased my tyres from camskill as i couldnt find the tyres cheaper anywhere else.

National Tyres did a really bad job of balancing my tyres... I can feel vibrations at 65mph, gets quite bad at 75mph indicated, and pretty dangerous at 90 warps. As I am off to the Continent on Saturday travelling at mostly 150 km/h (comfy and safe with 2x brats in the back) have now re-booked it for balance check. The guy on the phone told me "we can only balance wheels up to UK legal speed limit" as he was uninterested my car was falling apart at 75mph, but when I told him it started at 65mph, he started cooperating. What the....! That's the most ridiculous argument I have heard yet... Previously I have had responses such as "oh sir there must be something wrong with your car", "you have aftermarket alloy wheels so that throws the balance off", or even "those tyres are more than 10k miles old so they are impossible to balance right".... Honestly, every time I need some new tyres I dread the moment I have to get out onto the motorway after having them fitted because most of the time they get it wrong. I don't know if it's poor training or just lack of due care and professional pride, but it keeps happening to me. In fact, over time I have learned to stick to 2 garages in the area where I live who are consistently good at rectifying other people's bad workmanship (balancing), but it just happens National had a good offer on at the moment, and being a big company, you lose the attention to details and pride that small business tend to have. Hopefully they will get it resolved tomorrow... Last time I used a big company (Formula 1 Autocentres) they actually balanced the tyres statically (!) - I know because I took the car back to another branch (Maidstone - on my way to the Channel - did a fantastic job, top blokes there) in a hurry and they said so - even chased up an internal complaint and I got a £20 gift voucher - but to sum it up.... well, I am just frustrated that such a simple thing always seems to take longer than it should.

Just to add that now done 2000 miles on these Barums and very happy indeed on them. Drove down a very very wet/windy night, expected lots of aquaplaning but the car never lost its stance once, these tyres are really good, no worse than the previous Pirelli P7s I had on, and lots cheaper. Similar on noise, perhaps only marginally more noisy, wet grip/dry grip just as good, fuel economy too.

Edited 24 May, 201313 yr by oh_superb