Hi all,

 

There seems to be a regular question on here every now and then as to what tyre to fit on a mk1 Octavia Vrs.

 

I have over the last 4 years had Continental Sport Contact 3's and sport contact 5's, each time on all 4 tyres so no mixing and matching, so I can give a genuine opinion based on their performance at all corners of the car. Both the Continentals 3 and 5 offer good dry grip, and good wet weather grip, with a fairly good amount of grip in temps down to about 0 degrees. Whilst they offer grip at that temperature, they are no winter tyre, just fairly good as normal tyres go.

 

The Contact 5's seem to lose their "edge" once the tread depth drops under 3.5 mm, which considering they only come with about 6mm when new means you don't get full performance from the wear of the tyre, they also emit a lot more road noise once wear passes 3.5mm.

 

I have now gone for Goodyear efficientgrip performance tyres in the standard 205/50/17 size, and whilst I have only put about 300 miles on the tyres so far, my initial impressions are very favourable. Wet weather grip seems to feel more sure footed, mainly because the Goodyear's seem to feed back more feel as to what is going on at the wheels allowing you to control the car much more positively. Braking is hard to judge yet as the tyres are new and not fully bedded in yet, but it appears to be at least as good as the Conti's, and I think it will probably get better.

 

The one thing that is so obvious even though the tyres are not fully bedded yet is how much less roadnoise is in the car. I would say it is about 10% less than the Conti's when new, and is really noticeable over regular roads that I drive on compared to the Conti's.

 

Once the tyres are bedded down, I will try to give more info on dry and wet braking to make it a fairer comparison, but my initial impression is that I did not waste my money here and that there is the start of a big smile on my face. One last thing, to keep the opinion fair, tha car always has a 4 wheel alignment at the same time as the new tyres are fitted, so any misalignment is ruled out to cause any skewing of the opinion.

 

I hope this of some interest to some of you, and I will update in about 4 weeks to complete the comparison.

 

Have a good Christmas,

 

Phil.

Edited 17 December, 201510 yr by kentphil1

OK, as promised, here is an update on the Goodyears after they have had some mileage put on them.

 

They have now done nearly 1000 miles of varied journeys taking me to and from different hospitals over the last month or so, in a variety of very poor weather conditions and low temperatures.

 

I can categorically state that they are better in every area than the Continentals, both around town/urban and at high speed. The grip is by far superior, as is the confidence to commit to the corner in dry conditions without the slightly dead feeling that the Continentals give.

 

Road noise is much quieter now they have bedded in, and braking and take-off grip is also better. Anybody who is considering tyres would not go far wrong with these.

 

The only other tyre that I have tried on a friends car with the same grip levels as the Goodyears is the Dunlop Sport Blueresponse, but they appear to be noisier by a couple of db when we used my friends hand held db meter and used it inside the car.

 

We did swap my wheels on to his car to rule out soundproofing issues, but they appear much noisier than 2db to the naked ear, on bedded in tyres.

 

If you need a good priced tyre with good overall performance, then these are worth considering.

 

Hope it helps someone,

 

Phil.

Edited 18 January, 201610 yr by kentphil1

That's good to hear. Was going to get these tyres for summer and have read some good reviews of them.

I've had Continental's on my car since having them on a new car in 2000. I even changed to them when I got the Roomster. I never thought i'd use anything else, UNTILL, August of last year when, after reading up about the Goodyears above, decided to change, have to agree with all that kentphil1 said.   :clap:

I did a fair bit of reading before I plumped for the Goodyears, the noise reduction was really surprising. I still have a few gremlins to work out with regards mpg etc but so far they are cracking.

I have these on my Yeti and had them on my Octavia before that. I like them - last longer than Continetal tyres, quieter than most, fuel economy is up by 3-5 mpg on both cars, driving response seems no different. And they are one of the cheapest 'premium' brands in my tyre size.

What's not to like?

Yeah the price of them is really good for a premium tyre. £57 a corner fitted for my car.

 

Will definitely be getting some once I've had the alloys refurbished for summer.

If only mine were that cheap!

Just under £100 per corner fitted.

Edited 21 January, 201610 yr by KBPhoto

Yeah I assume you have 17" wheels as the price jumps a fair bit for just a slightly bigger size!

 

Mine are 205/55/16 which is a very common size I guess.

Correct. The downside of bigger alloys!!!

Isn't the Yeti 225/50/17? If so then this is a bit more of an unusual size. If they'd been 225/45/17 then that'll be common and cheaper!

 

Very impressed when ran on our previous C'eed. Can't get them in 205/45/16 sized but can in 195/55/15.... Do I sense a wheel change for the Fabia coming up?

I also rate these tyres, I had them on the Toledo v5, good noise levels and good grip.

Hi

 

I too moved from Continentals to Goodyears this year, mine are 18" and of all the places I found Kwik fit online the best price at the time(End of Jan) at £80.99 which is not too bad. I am very pleased with the level of grip and the noticeable difference in noise. time will tell what they are like for wear but all looks well so far.

 

Another very happy customer here.

So had some if these fitted on Tuesday. Very pleased with them.

They are nice and quiet, seem to be helping with the MPG and when I did a spot of "spirited" driving earlier my face was nearly ripped off from the g force... brilliant grip!

Thought I'd add an update to mine. They have been fitted for just over 20,000 miles (about 15% motorway) and I'm just thinking about changing them on my Yeti (2 litre Tdi 170) as there is just over 2mm of tread left on all tyres (I had front and rears swapped a few thousand miles back).

Edited 23 May, 201610 yr by KBPhoto

As above the fronts on mine have done about 19k (12 months old) and they are now almost due for renewal.

Probably due in the next week or so.

Not sure what I'm going for next though.

As above the fronts on mine have done about 19k (12 months old) and they are now almost due for renewal.

Probably due in the next week or so.

Not sure what I'm going for next though.

 

If you've been happy with them why not the same? Or perhaps the F1A3 instead?

If you've been happy with them why not the same? Or perhaps the F1A3 instead?

Due to the millage I'm doing of circa 20k per year I'm leaning towards a tire that offers more in the winter.

The efficient grip is great in the wet and summer, but when the temperature drops or there's snow about then it's not very good.

Looking at all options at the moment, probably not an all season tire but one that's got a lower wet weather rating but with a more blocky type tread.

What size tyres do you have on your car? I would have though ride comfort and noise are more important at that mileage?

Don't worry, the noise factor is also high on my list of factors when considering tyres.

 

For info I'm running 18's.

are the goodyear efficentgrip performance tyres run flats as been on blackcircles and foun them for 225/40/18 for 80 pound each fitted but says re enforced walls dose that mean run flats?

No, that will just mean Reinforced Walls.

Used to drive GoodYear UG8 on 15" for 5 years. My statement is : brilliant for first two years, average on third, fast degraded on 4th and 5th.

I was thinking of putting good years on the car but seeing that the previous contis did over 50k I decided to Put contis premium contact 5 on mine £250 for 4