Some of you may remember that I recently had to take my 17"s off and replace them with the original wheels, as the tyres that came with the 17"s were V rated and therefore invalidated my insurance.

TBH I had given up on the people who sold me the wheels helping me out but after 4 months of unanswered phonecalls and a few trading standards threats they are going to replace the tyres for upgraded ones FOC:thumbup:

I am a bit gutted now coz I have had to pay out for new tyres on the original wheels but will save them for the winter I think, can't believe how good they are though, definately recommend P Zero Nero's but am hoping yoko parada spec 2's on the 17"s will be as good.

Result! Well done Schwarz !!

What are the new tyres like?

Look good, turned out they ordered me toyo proxes T1S, not the yoko paradas I was expecting. Just pleased to have my 17"s back on TBH. Will post some pics. Any comments about the T1S's +/- points would be appreciated.

err, what does V rated mean?

This worries me because i just got a one of my tyres replaced by a garage after having a blow out, and i read on the side they are 205/45/16 83V.

But the ones which came with it were 83W.

These are the Continental SportContiII's.

err' date=' what does V rated mean?

This worries me because i just got a one of my tyres replaced by a garage after having a blow out, and i read on the side they are 205/45/16 83V.

But the ones which came with it were 83W.

[/quote']

You can find more detail from most of the web-based tyre retailers, who usually have a section of their website explaining what all the stuff on the sidewall means, but in general the later the letter in the alphabet the higher the speed the tyres can take.

For driving within the speed limit then the difference between V and W is immaterial, however I have heard people claim that you should always have tyres of the recommended speed rating or better as it can be an excuse for insurance companies not to pay out.

When you say you got one tyre replaced recently, was it a match to what was already there or are you running with three of one type and one of another?

. Any comments about the T1S's +/- points would be appreciated.

To keep it short and sweet, a pretty good all rounder, fairly sticky in the dry, not bad in the wet and i found the release point was very predictable,

Nice tread pattern, slightly noisy on the road, but my big bug with them is that the Fabia ate them for brekkie, Rears outlasted 3 sets of fronts

err' date=' what does V rated mean?

This worries me because i just got a one of my tyres replaced by a garage after having a blow out, and i read on the side they are 205/45/16 83V.

But the ones which came with it were 83W.

These are the Continental SportContiII's.[/quote']

V = 149mph

W= 168mph

So a set of P Zero Nero's invalidated your insurance? :confused: I thought they were a good tyre?

Anyway - T1-S are good as Big W says. Just seem to be out of production now and the T1-R has taken over and is supposed to be even better.

Some of you may remember that I recently had to take my 17"s off and replace them with the original wheels' date=' as the tyres that came with the 17"s were V rated and therefore invalidated my insurance.

TBH I had given up on the people who sold me the wheels helping me out but after 4 months of unanswered phonecalls and a few trading standards threats they are going to replace the tyres for upgraded ones FOC:thumbup:

I am a bit gutted now coz I have had to pay out for new tyres on the original wheels but will save them for the winter I think, can't believe how good they are though, definately recommend P Zero Nero's but am hoping yoko parada spec 2's on the 17"s will be as good.[/quote']

How do you know they invalidate your insurance?

It would never cross my mind to check.

Did you company ask? or is it written someplace?

What is the speed rating on the OEM Fabia vRS tyres then? Surely it's not higher than V?

How do you know they invalidate your insurance?

It would never cross my mind to check.

Did you company ask? or is it written someplace?

It seems to be a bit of myth in the same way that changing a stereo invalidates your whole warranty , and nobody can show a single example of this ever happening.

I'm pretty sure that it's used by garages to sell you more expensive tyres.

Theoretically if you were to be involved in an accident that the insurance company could show was due to you fitting inappropriate tyres then they would have grounds to reduce your payout or refuse entirely.

If however you are using tyres rated for 149 mph , in a car with a top speed of 130mph and doing 70 at the time of the crash this clearly isn't going to be a factor.

If it was the case that any tyre of a lower rating than originally fitted invalidated your insurance then you would not be able to drive a car with a space saver wheel after a puncture.

If it was the case that any tyre of a lower rating than originally fitted invalidated your insurance then you would not be able to drive a car with a space saver wheel after a puncture.

The situation has probably changed, but back in the early 80's when space-savers were starting to be used by the manufacturers, they were illegal for use in the UK and had warning stickers on them proclaiming so!:confused:

I found this on blackcircles.com:

It is IMPORTANT that you check your speed rating before buying your tyres - as choosing a lower tyre speed rating could INVALIDATE your INSURANCE.

It also gives a guide

http://www.blackcircles.com/general/speedrating

T1-S's - Excellent grip, but at the expense of wear rate.

The new T1-R's (which I have) are supposed to have a better wear rate, but only done 3000 miles on the so we'll see.