I have just brought an Octavia 2.0 TDI after owning a Renault Megane 2 1.9 Dci and I am impressed with the car, bar the noisey engine and tyres, both of which were super smooth and quiet on the Renault.

The tyres on my car are Bridgestone Turanza ER30 and i have to say i am not impressed at all, so after a lot of research i have now replaced them with the new Goodgear Excellence and boy what a difference, the road noise has halfed and the drive is even sharper. It is quite unbelievable that a different tyre can have such an effect on road noise. I have also just had the creak in my dashboard that occurs when the dash heats up or cools down fixed - very annoying. The fix is the dash vents on the top are replaced and no more noise. This was carried out by SMC Skoda Exeter who are superb.

I hope this may be usuful to some of you tyre roaring, dash creaking Octavia owners.

Well it is one answer, but we should not have to go to the extra expense of sorting out the right tires for a new vehicle.

That said if the UK authorities provided us with the correct road surfaces to drive on then perhaps none of us would be forced into seeking solutions to their problem.

Apart from them providing noisy road surfaces they also knowingly put down unsafe surfaces or leave in place surfaces where they know the driving surface has gone completely making them lethal in wet weather. Our Road Tax is and long has been nothing more than an easy means of collecting additional State Taxes.

Well it is one answer' date=' but we should not have to go to the extra expense of sorting out the right tires for a new vehicle.

That said if the UK authorities provided us with the correct road surfaces to drive on then perhaps none of us would be forced into seeking solutions to their problem.

Apart from them providing noisy road surfaces they also knowingly put down unsafe surfaces or leave in place surfaces where they know the driving surface has gone completely making them lethal in wet weather. Our Road Tax is and long has been nothing more than an easy means of collecting additional State Taxes.[/quote']

:iagree:

In the best part of 30 years' driving, I have never known the roads to be in as poor a state as they are now.

Fits in with the rest of the country - why should roads be any different!

I have just brought an Octavia 2.0 TDI ....

The tyres on my car are Bridgestone Turanza ER30 and i have to say i am not impressed at all' date=' so after a lot of research i have now replaced them with the new Goodgear Excellence and boy what a difference.....hope this may be usuful to some of you tyre roaring, dash creaking Octavia owners.[/quote']

Are these tyres on 15" wheels and a hatchback?

reason I ask is that I'm getting sick of the Dunlop Sports Sp 01s on my new Octavia - the noise is terrible.

guineapig

:iagree:

In the best part of 30 years' driving' date=' I have never known the roads to be in as poor a state as they are now.[/quote']

Yep I'll second or third or whatever that

Britains roads are diabolical, problem is how on earth can we complain.

Taz

POLITICAL ALERT

:orb_loser GET THIS INCOMPETANT SHOWER OUT OF GOVERNMENT :orb_loser

Total wunch of bankers, but then, who is any better? They all seem to be as bad as each other. Heigh-ho...... still, about the roads, driving round Coventry on Saturday, the side roads, I have to say, were very nearly as good as the side roads in Jaipur, although not nearly as good as the side roads in Bombay. So we ARE getting there, as we're nearly as good as India! Who says our road fund licence (Vehicle Excise Duty) is just another tax??????? NOT that I'm cynical.......

The roads in this country are absolubtly disgusting, and I think it would be fair to withold our taxes to the value of damage done to our car (as certified by a garage) by crap roads and pot holes.

Even some m/ways have large pot holes in their surfaces now, what on earth is happening.

So on our cars we pay road tax, fuel tax, VAT, insurance tax (speed/safety cameras... oh sorry cynic moment there) and I think i remember reading somewhere that they take about £53bn in and only spend about £7bn on transport.

While the green hippies have some valid points, not repairing the current roads is unacceptable and leads to accidents and damage to vehicles. Since the damage done to the roads is a power of 4 of the weight of the vehicle it is about time that raod taxes were set up to relect this more, and that goes for 4x4's transits and lorries including those from outside of the UK too.

The answer to guineapis question is, my tyres are 16" (205 55 16 w) they are likely to work as well or better on 15" wheels due to the increased side wall height.

I know its not the answer to the root of the problem but did you know that you can claim for any damages to your vehicle from poor road surfaces (potholes damaging alloys are a common example).

I think you have to go through your local council and the highways agency. Not had need to claim myself but people I know have done so, with success.

Basically that is true but it is not that easy to prove and if they get wind they rush round and fill in any holes then deny a hole was there on the day in question.

The tire roar problem is not just down to old poor roads, but newly laid roads where they deliberately put down a course mix, it being cheap, then rely on the road users wearing down that course mix to hopefully a smooth surface. However it rarely if ever gets smoothed right down hence your tire noise.

Hey guys!

Don't You live in Hungary? We're just in the same situation both in politics (another banker based government) and public roads' "quality".

We pay more than 1 euro for one litre of fuel. The fuel costs 40-45% percent, all the other sum is tax. We pay tax on tax! The fuel's price is taxed and this higher sum is taxed again by VAT! That's nice thing, eh? One part of the tax goes to the "road fund" to maintenance the public roads. That's what they say...

Besides we pay to the local authorities 4-5 euro per each 100 kg of the weight of the vehicle like annual "weight tax"! It means 13 x 4-5 euro for Octavia II. It's also turned to repairing local roads...

Ah, today I could hardly avoid a large hole in the INNER lane, where You can go at green light by 40 mph and no way You can see this 5-7 cm (2 inches) deep and 70 cm (about 2-3 feet) wide "lake" where the upper layer of asphalt is missing.

3 years ago we were in Croatia on holiday. They're building highways through high mountains, buliding long tunnels and viaducts and each year they're finishing several tens of kilometers. After a war. We've been on small secondary roads, the surface was cracked by tanks but still in better shape than some of the roads here.

Here, where the main part of the country is flat land, and building of tunnels unneeded, there's no way you can travel from border to border on highway. We have all the highways under construction but none of them is finished!

And all the highways are leading to Budapest, where You must drive through the city since the bypass highway system is in less than half-ready state for more than 15 years now...

Basically that is true but it is not that easy to prove and if they get wind they rush round and fill in any holes then deny a hole was there on the day in question.

QUOTE]

Always have a half decent mobile camera phone, and take pictures for evidence.

The same goes for accidents.

Irrefutable in court when you have pictorial eveidence to back you up, even if the hole has been repaired.

Been there, done that and WON!

I have the Goodyear Excellence on mine, not sure if they are that much quieter than my previous Goodyear Hydragrips but they are pretty good tyres and they are cheap too. They should last as well as the Hydragrips which lasted 38k on mine with a rotation part way through. Would have lasted longer but shagged suspension did them in.

Don't shoot me, but as an 'insider' who has worked in Highways in the past, the budget given to the highways branch of the council is meagre and even the 'cheap' road surface materials are very expensive. No lectures on council wages either, they are worse than the roads.

Hey our roads arn't good, but there are worse! My brother-in-law lives in Greece and has to replace his alloys every time he chages his tyres! Doesn't bother with top brand alloys any more! Did say he was potty running on 19s" on their roads!

Did a driving holiday round Northern Greece with him last year and went through 2 wheels/tyres in 2 weeks of driving!