My estate will need 4 new tyres pretty soon. I've been impressed with the grip, feel and reasonable quietness of my current Uniroyal Rainsport 2s and am considering getting them again. However, I've just discovered they have been superseded by Rainsport 3s - has anyone tried them yet?

My other short-listed tyres are the Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetric 2 and Michelin Pilot Sport 3. Any experience/opinions of either of these two would also be gratefully received.

there is a thread in the tyre section on them, not even on tyre reviews yet, but I really can't see them being worse than the 2's! I have 2 friends who swear by the PS3.........

In my personal opinion id say something like goodyear eagles and michelin pilots are a tad wasted on anything thats not a preformance car.

There are plenty of tyres caperble of doing the same job at a reasonble price.

I have to say I loved the Conti sport contacts that were fitted as new but really couldnt warrant the £120 a corner need to replace them.

After a lot of shopping around trying to find something that would offer as good a grip as the conti, be good in the wet and have a resasonble econmy rating. I ended up at Khumo escate (KU39).

In terms of preformance they have been close enough for not to miss the contis too much.

The telling factor now is tyre life, the orignal contis lasted over 40,000 no with these being just over half the price of the contis they need to last 30,000 to of made the shopping around worth my while .

Eagle F1 AS2's have just gone on my Fabia VRS Estate. Night and day difference to the CSC2's I've just taken off.

 

Regarding the comment above. AS2's came top in the Evo tyre test, most importantly regarding wet weather grip. The difference between those and something like your Khumo's will be car lengths in brake distances. Or, to put it another way, stopping in time and.... not... in an emergency situation.

 

At the price point for the Fabia, you can get 4 AS2's for under £440 fully fitted. That is seriously cheap for the best tyres you can get.

 

I honestly questions the legality of some tyres on sale with regards their wet weather grip, but to suggest that AS2's are wasted on non performance cars is silly. You want grip in every situation, not just if you are practicing for Rally GB.

Conanius, I'd second you on that! Always ran eagle F1's on my mk1 vrs and the last ones fitted were the new AS2 version, great tyre! Tyres are not the place to penny pinch, quality tyres complete a good car, enhance a performance car and add safety benefits to all cars in all weathers.

Eagle F1 AS2's have just gone on my Fabia VRS Estate. Night and day difference to the CSC2's I've just taken off.

 

Regarding the comment above. AS2's came top in the Evo tyre test, most importantly regarding wet weather grip. The difference between those and something like your Khumo's will be car lengths in brake distances. Or, to put it another way, stopping in time and.... not... in an emergency situation.

 

At the price point for the Fabia, you can get 4 AS2's for under £440 fully fitted. That is seriously cheap for the best tyres you can get.

 

I honestly questions the legality of some tyres on sale with regards their wet weather grip, but to suggest that AS2's are wasted on non performance cars is silly. You want grip in every situation, not just if you are practicing for Rally GB.

A valid comment but you have a 180ps vrs i have 86ps monte.

And yes what you state regarding braking distances etc is very correct. But at not point have i felt that i needed any more grip in any situation as yet. So for me on and my situation and ise of the car i cant see why spending £440 on set of tyres when a mid range set set me back £280 and have more then performed to statisfactory standards.

Also my preformace cars im refering to Things such as a VRS.

Even on a non-performance car I don't scrimp on tyres. I've long been prepared to pay more for better grip, especially wet grip given the UK climate. Years back I used to boot my first car (a 1980 Ford Cortina!) with cheap tyres or even remoulds. It took three accidents in wet conditions for me to stop penny pinching on rubber and I haven't been involved in an accident since.

Although I'm interested in the Rainsport 3's it looks like they won't be widely available for a while, so I think I'll be going for the Eagle F1 Assy 2's. I'd be happy to get them for £110 a corner fitted. Thanks for all your comments fellas.

Even on a non-performance car I don't scrimp on tyres. I've long been prepared to pay more for better grip, especially wet grip given the UK climate. Years back I used to boot my first car (a 1980 Ford Cortina!) with cheap tyres or even remoulds. It took three accidents in wet conditions for me to stop penny pinching on rubber and I haven't been involved in an accident since.

Although I'm interested in the Rainsport 3's it looks like they won't be widely available for a while, so I think I'll be going for the Eagle F1 Assy 2's. I'd be happy to get them for £110 a corner fitted. Thanks for all your comments fellas.

Ohh dont get me wrong i don't waste time with cheap tyres and if i had the cash id had that sort of cash available to use i would of refitted the Contis as i was very happy with them.

I spent hours looking at different brands seeing how they rate and going though consumer reviews (its amazing how many are pure ****e at times lol) and tbh i couldn't justify the difference in price between contis and my chosen mid range tyre.

Yeh statically it doesnt match the Performance of a top range tyre but for general road use and a little it fun the Khumos are more then capable on my 1.2 monte and at £70 a corner not a bad deal either considering the 120 i would of been looking at for the conti.

I personally cant justify an extra £40-50 a core for general road use on car of this sort

Ohh dont get me wrong i don't waste time with cheap tyres and if i had the cash id had that sort of cash available to use i would of refitted the Contis as i was very happy with them.

I spent hours looking at different brands seeing how they rate and going though consumer reviews (its amazing how many are pure ****e at times lol) and tbh i couldn't justify the difference in price between contis and my chosen mid range tyre.

Yeh statically it doesnt match the Performance of a top range tyre but for general road use and a little it fun the Khumos are more then capable on my 1.2 monte and at £70 a corner not a bad deal either considering the 120 i would of been looking at for the conti.

I personally cant justify an extra £40-50 a core for general road use on car of this sort

£70 a corner seems good value for decent mid-range performers I must say and it does add up significantly when you pay £40-50 more for each tyre. My estate with the 1.9 TDi lump is probably a fair bit heavier than your 1.2 Monte though, and puts a fair slug of torque down on the fronts. The Khumos, though no doubt good, probably wouldn't stop mine quite as well as they do yours!

£70 a corner seems good value for decent mid-range performers I must say and it does add up significantly when you pay £40-50 more for each tyre. My estate with the 1.9 TDi lump is probably a fair bit heavier than your 1.2 Monte though, and puts a fair slug of torque down on the fronts. The Khumos, though no doubt good, probably wouldn't stop mine quite as well as they do yours!

Thats kinda of what im getting at to a degree.

I dont agree on buying budgets but then again i would spend on out on the top of the ranges tyres unless i thought i was getting massive benifts from it.

Im the same with other things ie football boots

In a range of footy boots can go from £30- £150+

I only play sunday league so wouldnt payout for top of the range ones but i wouldnt buy the cheaps ones as id want them last.

I just some people can be blinded by prices and brands.

As its surpising what cheaper brands are quite close to the more expensive brands in ratings but cheaper to buy (ie buying a skoda rather then a vw)

I have PS3s fitted to the superb and they are immense in the wet and dry. William fit again as can get then at Costco for not much more than my usual preferred Hankook V12 Evos.

On thw wives vRS I have Falken ZIEX 912 on the rear and 914s on the front. Have been an excellent Tyre and coped well in the snow last year. I replaced one set of 912s to the 914s and they have lasted well. I think I paid £68 a corner fitted in 205/45/16 so a good sensible price for a mid range Tyre.

There is a thread in the 'tyre' section about these new Rainsports. http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/291558-uniroyal-rainsport-3/

 

I will need some new rear tyres soon so don't know weather to try these un-tested tyres or go for the award winning Asymmetric 2s. I've used Goodyear summers before (GSD2 & GSD3s) and couldn't fault them in the wet. However they were absolutely useless in cold weather. The Rainsport 2s were better. I would hope that Goodyear have changed the compound to work better in cold, but am not certain.

I don't have plans (yet) to fit winter tyres so I don't want my choice of 'summers' to be abysmal in the cold. If the Goodyears are really bad on the coldest days then I might need to look elsewhere. The RS 2s weren't too bad on the ice, similar to

Jim's experience. Thinking now of holding out for the RS 3s, or researching more on other's experience of PS3s during the winter. Hmmmm...