After lots of reading I had these fitted in February 2014. They ran a total of 798 days, for 39573 miles, when this happened:

 

 

No idea what caused the initial puncture.

 

Thread had still another 5-6.000 miles on them, but I decided to change them for 4 Michelin Primacy 's. This mainly because the last 5-8.000 miles were VERY noisy. So noisy I had the car checked for bad bearings, however turned out the tires were unevenly worn (sawtoothing). Alignment was checked and adjusted BEFORE I had them fitted, and alignment was checked again after diagnosing the problem, and was declared ok. I rotated the wheels front-to-back every 10.000 miles, and they didn't run in winter.

 

Had alignment checked when fitting the Michelins (and the rim was checked aswell) and all was still in order. Car is quiet again, no more 'singing' noise at certain speeds.

 

We'll see if the Michelins last as long (they bloody better) and if the sawtoothing returns. MPG is still the same at 64,20MPG measured.

 

in conclusion, I was very happy with the Goodyears' mileage, handling, price, but the sawtoothing problem was a major pain. What bothers me most is that the definite cause is not known, so I can't do anything to prevent it from happening again with the Michelins. I just hope it was a combination of my car + my driving + my roads + my tires that just didn't work out.

 

IF the sawtoothing hadn't happened, I would have fitted them again.

Edited 10 August, 20169 yr by Too Tall

Well, one of the known causes of saw-toothing (on rear wheels) is "assertive braking" not being balanced out by acceleration torque going through the same end of the car.

 

Best suggestions for avoiding it are swapping front to rear or side to side (not with directional tyres though).

We'll see if the Michelin's last longer in 2.5-3 years hopefully