Sportline tyres - need input please

[BigBadRob]

Afternoon all,

Not got long to do this and searching brought up all sorts of stuff that didn't quite answer my question.

 

I'm doing 20-25k a year in my Sportline. Mostly M-way or large A-road stuff and sitting on adaptive cruise. Current tyres are the factory fit Pirelli P7 Cinturato. 235/40/19W. They're unbelievably noisy, the grip is very questionable in the wet, they're more prone to aquaplaning than any tyres I've had before and as the summer disappears and the liquid sunshine starts to fall more, I'm noticing that I'm getting an awful lot of ESP light when I'm pulling away.

 

According to Skoda they're all sitting around 4mm. At the rate I drive, that will be down to 2 before the year is out (I've done 3000 miles since my service 8 weeks ago) and I'll be looking to get something else when the usual 'Buy 4 for the price of 3' stuff starts to appear in places like ATS around the end of October as everyone tries to drive footfall into stores.

 

So, what have the high-milers got on their cars that are quieter and give more confidence on soaking A road corners? (economy not as much of a concern as the sound level at the moment - I get reimbursed for fuel but not for my time trying to block out the road noise!)

 

Especially want to hear from anyone who's got a Sportline on 19's and puts it through the miles.

 

Much obliged.

 

Rob.

[penguin17]

I'm still on the stock Pirelli tyres too and I also find them quite underwhelming.  I also agree they have a very noticeable drone, though the UK roads aren't the greatest.

 

I've recently moved back up to N. Yorks and my previous winter alloys/tyres set up won't fit the Superb so I'm debating whether or not to go for some four season tyres and the Vredestein Quatrac 5 appears to be the only thing available for 19" rims.

 

It's a shame that the GY Efficient Grip Performance tyres aren't available for 19" rims as they are a very good tyres that have predictive handling and are quiet too.  The eco naming would suggest they would be crap but when I was doing 20-25k per year with 240 bhp going through the front wheels I was more than impressed with them.

 

Watching this thread with interest.....

 

 

[freelunch]

I had Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetric 2's on my Brera and liked them. They are well rated for noise (check TyreLeader.co.uk). That's what I will replace my Pirelli's with, if they wear out before I change cars. But, at 5K miles per year, I'm likely stuck with the P7's.

 

Mind, if I keep the Sportline for 5 years, you're meant to change the rubber regardless of mileage. Let's see... by then the F1's should be about £1K each. I'd buy Avon, but don't think they make a tyre for our car.

[MartiniB]

@freelunch

there is method how to change them earlier 

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/434028-tire-pressure-monitoring-system/

 

replaced P7 by Michelin Primacy 3 225/55r17 97Y

winter's - GoodYear ULTRA GRIP PERFORMANCE G1  215/55r17

[Mr Grump]

I don't think I have ever worn through a set of tyres, but I know what I would get in a heartbeat if mine needed changing. Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2.

[Sagalout]

Eagle F1 is now on Assy 3? Alleged to be even better but I haven't tried them yet. I agree that the Pirelli are the loudest tyre I have ever driven on; can't wait to get a few miles on and then change.  There are a lot of good reviews about the Michelin Crossclimate tyre and will deffo look at them. I have 18" wheels and an L&K, not a Sportline.

[cyberkank]

Yes, I have the same issue. The P7 Centurato is very underwelming, very loud on anything that is not perfectly smooth. 

I have done nearly 10k on them and couldn't wait to swap them out for either Michelin Pilot Super Sport / Pirelli P Zero / Good Year F1 Assym 2. 

[BigBadRob]

14 hours ago, penguin17 said:

It's a shame that the GY Efficient Grip Performance tyres aren't available for 19" rims as they are a very good tyres that have predictive handling and are quiet too.  The eco naming would suggest they would be crap but when I was doing 20-25k per year with 240 bhp going through the front wheels I was more than impressed with them.

 

 

Agreed. I had Efficient Grips on my Octavia VRs and then on My XC70 and they were faultless. Quiet, grippy, efficient & hard-wearing. Best tyres I've had on a car. I enquired locally as to whether anyone can source them and they all said they weren't available in 19". 'The Google' (as me Mum calls it) backed this story up and even the Goodyear website could only offer me a Dunlop Sport Maxx in the right size.

 

I've heard good things about Eagle F1's from a few friends with high torque RWD cars and about a decade ago an ex-girlfriend of mine had them on a 206GTi and they were very grippy & soft but wore down quickly. One assumes there have been some developments since then and they're not still made of sticky butter.

 

A local provider did recommend some UniRoyal RainSports as they're 'superlative in the wet' apparently but their lack of cost (£40 less per corner) leads me to believe they'll not be the greatest (that and they're a UniRoyal stockist so I probably represented a significant amount of commission) Anyone have any experience of them in a barge on on 19's? I know SWMBO has them on her fiesta but it's a different beast altogether and over 60mph all you can hear is it's wheezy little engine & 4spd auto box screaming for mercy so it's difficult to assess the road noise.

[penguin17]

5 minutes ago, BigBadRob said:

 

Agreed. I had Efficient Grips on my Octavia VRs and then on My XC70 and they were faultless. Quiet, grippy, efficient & hard-wearing. Best tyres I've had on a car. I enquired locally as to whether anyone can source them and they all said they weren't available in 19". 'The Google' (as me Mum calls it) backed this story up and even the Goodyear website could only offer me a Dunlop Sport Maxx in the right size.

 

I've heard good things about Eagle F1's from a few friends with high torque RWD cars and about a decade ago an ex-girlfriend of mine had them on a 206GTi and they were very grippy & soft but wore down quickly. One assumes there have been some developments since then and they're not still made of sticky butter.

Due to my local fitter not being able to source GY EGP's at short notice I opted for Eagle F1's Asymmetric instead, which I was very dubious about as I had tried a previous version (F1 GSD2 IIRC) and the wear rate was shocking.   They were pretty good tyres but I never got more than 8K miles on the fronts of my Octavia vRS. 

 

Anyway, after using them for the circa 10K on my Leon just before I got rid, I found them to offer no advantages over the EGP's but found them noisier and FWIW economy was reduced by ~10% too.   

 

If GY offered the EGP's in a 19" then they'd be on my car right now.  

[mavala]

Bridgestone Porenza S001 are one of the best premium tyres on the market.

I am on my 4th set having done 70000 miles since December 2015 in my SEL 190  estate.

I get 20k miles/set and they offer very good grip in the wet and the dry.

Noise levels are very good as you can speak normally at any speed without any noise intrusion inside the car.

[Greezy56]

My sportline came with Potenza's , nowt I could do about that , Sept 1st 67 plate

Look , no matter what anyone says here. Michelin  Pilot sport 4's are the best you can get. they may not last as long as say harder compound Eagles or Bridgestone potenzas.

 

Guy above says Potenza's are great, its down to choice and wallet. Go see what the BMW M3 guys use. Pilot 4's run rings round anything else for dry and wet above 7 degrees road temp.

 

Don't expect F -all winter snow and ice performance , as per every other summer tire.

 

I had 4 on my Octy Vrs stage one and you don't get that judder judder on full acceleration.

 

BTW Potenza's hate the wet and spin like ****

 

CHANGE AT 3-4MM for best performance. I will be trolled for saying this . Bring it on with " I had a set front tires that did 40k miles and were still really grippy"

 

[Mr Grump]

Personally, I have had Bridgestones already fitted on various cars, I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole through choice.

[chrisoverson]

Got Pirelli's on my Superb (approx 1700 miles now), and I agree they are very loud compared with the otherwise lovely quiet drive.   I thought there was something wrong with the car when I first drove it away like stuck brakes or something, turned it out it was just the tyre roar on the crap roads round here :P

[TGR]

The tyres are by far the loudest noise my car makes with the Canton turned off and my foot off the floor. I'm happy with that. I'm actually really impressed with how much outside noise this Superb shuts out. Traffic outside is pretty much inaudible with the windows up.

But I can hear the Pirelli P7 tyres on the road. Of course it's mostly contact noise transmitted through the wheel, suspension and chassis.  I don't mind. When I've worn them out maybe I'll look at other options of tyres... So far they've gripped everywhere. Even when I was convinced I might lose traction!  Perhaps helped by the 4x4 with DCC but this car has impressive performance and handling! Maybe I'm not pushing it hard enough but I'm happy where I am. This car is good. 

[chrisoverson]

3 hours ago, TGR said:

The tyres are by far the loudest noise my car makes with the Canton turned off and my foot off the floor. I'm happy with that. I'm actually really impressed with how much outside noise this Superb shuts out. Traffic outside is pretty much inaudible with the windows up.

But I can hear the Pirelli P7 tyres on the road. Of course it's mostly contact noise transmitted through the wheel, suspension and chassis.  I don't mind. When I've worn them out maybe I'll look at other options of tyres... So far they've gripped everywhere. Even when I was convinced I might lose traction!  Perhaps helped by the 4x4 with DCC but this car has impressive performance and handling! Maybe I'm not pushing it hard enough but I'm happy where I am. This car is good. 

 

Not had any problems with grip either  but then again I drive like a granny... a granny who's late to pick up her prescription... fairly brisk but still careful not to flatten the little kiddies.

Edited 12 October, 2017 by chrisoverson

[Q102]

Pirelli tyres are verging on dangerous imho. Had them on several cars, horrible to drive in the wet. Glad I fit winter tyres when it gets chilly

I've seen on other car forums that Pirelli tyres are generally slated! Seems they are designed for warm weather only

[kriva]

My new 280PS SIII was delivered on Continental ContiSportContact tyres (235/45/18).

Even though I don’t have much experience with them yet, they seem to be quite okay in terms of handling and grip, and aren’t noticeably loud, which the Centuratos were during our test drive.

[laurencemchenry]

Would also do high miles 20k ish and have used vredestein this was on a vectra c 150 mainly a and b roads and was able to push on comfortably, got about 9k out of a front set and then rotated them round. 

[BigBadRob]

Update: I went for 4x Eagle F1 Assy 2's (they don't seem to do the Assy 3 variant in the right size yet) at a total whack of £654 from Blackcircles, fitted, which was about £150 cheaper all in than Michelin or Bridgestone. As we're having to fork out for a new boiler as well this month because ours failed 3 weeks ago I was ordered not to buy anything that wasn't absolutely necessary so the Goodyear's are the best I could afford this time. 

 

First impressions aren't all that different on my local roads with normal tarmac but I did notice they were a bit quieter on the concrete bits on the way to the mother in laws last night so that's a decent start. As the last ones were unevenly worn resulting in a £25 charge for tracking to be adjusted and had differing tread depths from 3.5mm to sweet FA I'm definitely seeing increased ability to stop already but will wait for a good British downpour before I commit to saying they're any better in the wet than anything else I've used.

[jstallan]

Since the tracking was done, does the steering wheel sit straight ? I had a QashQai prior to the skoda and when I changed the front tyres to a different brand the steering wheel wouldn't sit completely straight and tracking just made things worse ( I wasn't the only QQ owner with this issue following a tyre change)

[mrtnbcky]

I've now had my 2017 Superb Sportline Combi for just under 6 months, and have put 14,000 miles on top of the ex-demonstrator mileage that was on it when I bought it so it's sitting at just over 25k miles currently. After hitting a pothole on the M6 the other day I gave the tyres a once over at the weekend and sure enough the offside front has duck egged. This is particularly annoying as only the other week I'd taken a good look at the tyres, and was congratulating myself on having kept a good tread on all 4 tyres at 22k+ miles. So I've been looking at the usual Kwik-Fit, ATS, F1 etc and there's no major price motivation to fit anything other than at least another pair (hopefully I can get away with just the front pair rather than a full set) of Pirelli Cinturato 7s at £175ish per corner.  I opted for Michelin Pilot Sport in my previous car, a Seat Exeo ST and was getting very poor wear overall on them. So this reasonably high-miler will be sticking with the Pirellis given the experience I've had with them and other similar tyres. My main beef is with the M6 maintenance people!!!

[casati]

I collect a new Sportline on 19’s and after reading this thread was delighted to see if didn’t come with Pirelli’s and it arrived of Bridgestone Potenza’s. Somebody from Skoda might have been reading these threads or maybe mine is a once off 

[Mr Grump]

The Pirelli's may be not the best, but from my experience, I would take them any day over Bridgestones

[bspman]

On 10/30/2017 at 14:27, BigBadRob said:

Update: I went for 4x Eagle F1 Assy 2's (they don't seem to do the Assy 3 variant in the right size yet) at a total whack of £654 from Blackcircles, fitted, which was about £150 cheaper all in than Michelin or Bridgestone.

 

That's Eye watering!

both my fabia 14s and octy 16s combined cost less than that!

[BigBadRob]

On 2/19/2018 at 21:16, bspman said:

 

That's Eye watering!

both my fabia 14s and octy 16s combined cost less than that!

 

It's not really though; that's just the cost of a reasonably performing set of 19" tyres at this profile. A neighbour of ours has to buy £400 a corner Michelin's for his ridiculous Merc SL vanitywagon - everything is relative. Yes, there's price movement either way depending on what brand you buy but if I spent £60 a corner on the only things that are keeping my face out of the armco in a downpour then I'd probably deserve it when I ditched it on a corner. The way I look at it, doing 25k a year, £650 once every 12-18 months isn't a huge issue compared to the amount of fuel I have to put into the vehicle (circa £3.5k annually) and as I reclaim business mileage for around 15k of that 25k it more than covers the costs for me.

 

Anyway - 6 months on from my original post and the Goodyear's are still going strong and have performed very well over winter (imminent 'polar vortex' not included) with decent grip levels in all conditions unless accelerating uphill with a boot full of gear in the wet in Eco mode but drop it into sport and it lets that spinning occur without being all nanny state about it. The noise hasn't gone up appreciably in that time either and I'd probably get another set when it comes to it at the beginning of next Winter.