Cutting a long story short I am in "discussion" with a certain Nationwide Tyre retailer concerning thier poor customer service during a recent visit to purchase 2new tyres for my fabia.

Discussed with the chap prior to fitting and he agreed that new tyres should be fitted to the front. This echoed my previous experiences of having new tyres fitted.

Following my complaints about the new tyres were fitted to the rear, amongst other things, I receive a call from an Area Manager who categorically states new tyres should be fitted to the rear of a vehicle so that "In the event of a skid, you have the most grip at the rear" :confused: :confused:

So now I am well confused :confused:

What is the general concensus (sp) here?

normally as the fronts are worn down you would swap the fronts with the rears to put more grip at the front of the car. Then when they eventually wear down you should buy four to replace all of them as you should have even wear.

i would say though that you are best with having more grip at the front on a front wheel drive car.

I never put the rears on the front when the front are worn out . I ALWAYS get new on a front wheel drive car.

I never put the rears on the front when the front are worn out . I ALWAYS get new on a front wheel drive car.

The only reason I swapped mine was because the ones on the rear looked brand new and hadnt worn at all.

They say put them on the rear becuse in the event of a skid the back and might come round and you would lose all conrol BUT I'd still rather ahve more grip on the front and not have it break away in the first place

Thirdplace - Just how does having all the grip at the front stop the rear loosing grip in the first place? :confused:

It is now current practice to put new tyres to the rear if possible. As stated previously it is to stop the intances of control being lost of the rear only, thus entering a spin which would be avoided if most grip was on the rear. With new tyres on the front, you will have a lot more grip there increasing the chance of the rear end sliding out. This is especially the case in the wet, and demonstrated on an early episode of 5th gear where they highlighted the problem using a FWD corsa. They demonstrated how easy it was to lose control with new tyres on the front. They then swapped the front / rear and the difference was like night and day.

To answer Goochie, basically you have gone from a poor grip/poor grip situation to a poor grip/good grip situation.

Thirdplace - Just how does having all the grip at the front stop the rear loosing grip in the first place? :confused:

In my experiance the front has always broken away first and the rear will follow if the tyres are not up to the "challenge".

The only two prangs I've ever had occurred when the front of a FWD car lost grip. My best tyres go on the front, so I can steer into the skid if the tails goes walkabout.

In my experiance the front has always broken away first and the rear will follow if the tyres are not up to the "challenge".

Oh, I see, you're talking about understeer then.

Whats that ?

Oh' date=' I see, you're talking about understeer then.

Whats that ? [/quote']

What the matter... too scared to find the limit of your car? Shame...

What the matter... too scared to find the limit of your car? Shame...

Think that'd be oversteer Phil would be getting!

Rob.

Think that'd be oversteer Phil would be getting!

Rob.

oh yeh rear wheel drive innit. So if u took a corner to fast the back would go first then?

Depends on what I'm doing with the accelerator TBH (and if the ESP is on or off).

With the ESP on, you can floor it half way round the corner, you feel the back twitching and hear the throttle being tweaked for you, flashing lights on the dash indicating that you're lucky to have ESP. This is the prefered method as you can drive like a fool in the dry.

With ESP on in the rain, the above method results in even more throttle adjustment by the ESP and a slightly scary feeling that its going to let go.

In the dry with ESP off, the tail will come out very very easily in almost any gear at almost every gear.

In the wet with ESP off..... lord knows, I'm not stupid enough to try!

If you'd effectivle coasting up to and through a corner at some speed, it feels liek the nose would run wide - but you can correct that easily with your right foot.

Never before have I been forced to put so much faith in 4 narrow strips of rubber.

as has already been stated correctly , always have the best tyres on the rear on a FWD car, even with very worn tyres on the front you will always be able to feel what the grip is like , usually understeer , but if you've got very worn tyres on the rear and you are going quickly in a wet corner there may come a point when those rear tyres lose grip , this will not be felt until it is to late and will be very difficult to correct , most people i would think would in this situation lift off the throttle but this would only make it worse causing the noise of the car to tuck in further , if you watch the BTCC races if the back end has been touched sending them into a spin, they floor the throttle , due to the abundance of power ,300bhp iirc ,this will pull the front of the car straight stopping the car from spinning , i wouldn't think this will work on our humble road cars though

I was told to put my new tyres on the rear of my Octavia. I had them put at the front, following the advice in the manual, and what seemed like common sense (understeer being a big problem with my old tyres).

No, trust me, you want to do as the man says and put the new ones on the back. I'd rather feel some progressive understeer and ease off a little than feel it's all going fine then get snap oversteer on a wet roundabout (or on rain sodden alpine passes).

J

Another argument goes something like this:

When braking very hard much of the weight of the car transfers to the front wheels so there is less grip at the rear. If the rear tyres have more tread than the front then they are more likely to grip better in these circumstances. Therefore the best tyres should be at the back. Discuss! :confused:

From a harsh experience, I'd always have the better gripping tyres on the rear, especially with a FWD car.

If you're going round a corner too fast and you need to adjust, as the fronts go before the rears, you'll understeer. Lift off the gas, or brake slightly and the fronts will dig in again, allowing more turn in and recover from edging off the side of the road.

In the same circumstances, if the rear goes, you're fekked :(

So in my case, I'll always have the tyres with more tread on the rear.

New tyres on the rear for me too... means the old rears don't stay on the car for 80k miles,

But, having **** tyres on the rear, something really sticky on the front with the back seats etc out (with Jabba ARB) makes wiggling your right toes an absolute joy...