[khoj]

No tyre of whichever make will develop bulges on it's own. I have had Goodyears on several of my rides (GM & Honda) as OE equipment in the past and currently our Swift Zxi has JK Vectra since 2008. 36K+ Kms later, the tires still have decent tread depth and absolutely no bulges. BTW this car is driven 99% by our drivers, so no one is nursing them but then again no one is driving oblivious to road debris either.

Originally Posted by ank.nsit

........Though I think if the running is low, Duraplus won't be that good, as the rubber of Goodyear/JK tend to develop bulges/wear out within 3-4 years.

[ank.nsit]

1 GY in 2009 Santro developed a bulge in 2010 itself, got it replaced under warranty & had to pay 1K for that.
3 of them had bulges in 2013 after around 40-45K km of driving. There was still some tread depth left in them but the rubber had gone kaput.
I also had issues with 2 Stock JK Vectra in 2009 Ritz.
One had developed a big bulge, and the other had side wall worn out. This was when I used to get the tyres rotated regularly, air pressure under check always.

Originally Posted by khoj

No tyre of whichever make will develop bulges on it's own.

Thanks for pointing this out. Until now I was thinking that these issues cropped up on their own(because of poor quality rubber), but now I realize that maybe it was our fault somehow. But the roads on which these both cars are majorly driven are well laid out.

Originally Posted by khoj

36K+ Kms later, the tires still have decent tread depth and absolutely no bulges. BTW this car is driven 99% by our drivers, so no one is nursing them

I did say that they "tend to" develop bulges. Even my 2 stock GY were still good before I replaced them with XM2 & 3 JK Vectra tires are still going good in Ritz.

Originally Posted by khoj

but then again no one is driving oblivious to road debris either.

I guess my dad & me are just ignorant of the roads the car is being driven on. Being more cautious would have saved us a few bucks.

[Thilak29]

Can someone help me with reasons to choose XM2 over Yokohama Earth 1 tyres?
XM2 has premium pricing when compared to earth 1, any specific reasons/advantages for this premium pricing?


Sent from my iPad using Team-BHP

[ank.nsit]

Originally Posted by Thilak29

Can someone help me with reasons to choose XM2 over Yokohama Earth 1 tyres?
XM2 has premium pricing when compared to earth 1, any specific reasons/advantages for this premium pricing?

Having driven XM2 in my Santro for around 15K KMs, I can tell you that the tyres are great w.r.t road noise, grip, wet road grip, comfort & fuel efficiency. Just a little prone to puncture though.
Having said that, will I go for XM2 again? Probably not. There are many other more value for money options that have similar characteristics to XM2.

Yokohama Earth-1, A-Drive, MRF ZLO are my current favorites & based on the requirements, one can decide among these which tire to go for.

[RakishRam]

Originally Posted by ramanak

Civic comes with OE Size 195/65/15.I upgraded to XM2 - 205/65/15

can I ask how much you paid. I am planning to get XM2 205/65/15 for my civic or a pirelli. The dealer in HSR Bangalore quoted 6400 for XM2.

[9tMax]

After several months of dilemma and confusion, finally took the plunge and changed the original JK vectras of my Logan with XM2. The vectra set had done 59k km in about five and half years and needed a replacement because of the regular wear.

I am such a featherfooted and sedate driver that never had any complaints with even those Vectras, though they are almost universally called as crappy handling tyres. Main priority was ride comfort. Had shortlisted the MRF ZLO and the XM2. And was not able to make up my mind as to which one to go for. But then finally decided to pamper her a little bit with the Michelin shoes.

After more than 5 years of usage the JKs had become slightly hard and recently over the last few months I started feeling that the car was not riding as smoothly as she used to do on the same road earlier. And realized how true it was, the moment I started rolling with the new XM2s. Ride is distinctively silent and smoother and the steering also has become noticeably lighter.

As claimed by the Michelin site, the rolling resistance seems to be indeed lower. How do I know this? Well, my garage has a very slight downward slope towards the gate. With the JK tyres, after releasing the hand brake, I had to give it a slight push to start rolling backwards, without starting the engine. But with the XM2, as soon as hand brake is released, the car starts rolling backwards without any extra push.

Just thinking aloud, without taking away any credit of the XM2, I wonder how much would have been the diference in the behaviour of the car, if I had switched to a new set of same JK Vectras - that would have given a true comparison between the 2 tyres. But unfortunately don't have the option of doing that anyway.
Overall initial reaction about the transition from vectra to XM2 - absolutely happy.


In case it is of any use - paid 4.8k per tyre and got back a total of 1100 for the set of 4 old tyres from a neighbourhood puncture repair shop.

[ramanak]

Originally Posted by RakishRam

can I ask how much you paid. I am planning to get XM2 205/65/15 for my civic or a pirelli. The dealer in HSR Bangalore quoted 6400 for XM2.

Dont exactly remember mate.It was around 33K for 5 nos XM2 at Sai Iyengar Indra Nagar

[pocket_bee]

Hi Team-BHPians,

Greetings from a noob! After having spent a long time looking at posts on this forum, as my first post let me start off with saying thanks to this great community for all its insights, tips and expert advice. This is a great resource and your inputs are greatly appreciated!

The question I have for you today is the following:

My car is a November 2010 Honda City i-VTEC that came with stock Michelin XM1s. I'm not a mile cruncher, so in the last 3.5 years, I've done only 32,000 km. What little I do drive though, is majority on highways where sometimes in situations of duress I can feel my XM1s skid, make noise and generally get pushed to their limits. I've been reading up on the pros and cons with replacing tyres, including when to do so on these threads, and ideally would have liked to switch to 195/60/15s, but was planning to wait till I'd clocked 45-50k kms in order to not waste a perfectly good tyre.

Problem struck the other day when parking in my neighborhood, the City went over a broken wash-basin (don't ask), and completely lost one tyre. Options I have now are

Option 1: Get an old stock of XM1 from somewhere, pair with the brand new stepney tyre
Advantage: Cheapest of all fixes
Disadvantage: Running on old stock of XM1s might be risky, wont be able to upgrade later either as one pair of tyres will still be new

Option 2: Sell the brand new stepney tyre, replace with 2 stock sized XM2s
Advantage: Depending on how much I get from stepney, might still not cost too much
Disadvantage: I'll have a mix of tyre types, wont be able to upgrade later either as one pair of tyres will still be new

Option 3: Take the plunge, throw away the semi used tyres and upsize all 4
Advantage: That was the long term plan, better ride quality
Disadvantage: Throwing half decent tyres, costly in the short term

Can you suggest another alternative? Which would you choose? Thanks!

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by pocket_bee

Hi Team-BHPians,

Greetings from a noob! After having spent a long time looking at posts on this forum, as my first post let me start off with saying thanks to this great community for all its insights, tips and expert advice. This is a great resource and your inputs are greatly appreciated!

The question I have for you today is the following:

My car is a November 2010 Honda City i-VTEC that came with stock Michelin XM1s. I'm not a mile cruncher, so in the last 3.5 years, I've done only 32,000 km. What little I do drive though, is majority on highways where sometimes in situations of duress I can feel my XM1s skid, make noise and generally get pushed to their limits. I've been reading up on the pros and cons with replacing tyres, including when to do so on these threads, and ideally would have liked to switch to 195/60/15s, but was planning to wait till I'd clocked 45-50k kms in order to not waste a perfectly good tyre.

Problem struck the other day when parking in my neighborhood, the City went over a broken wash-basin (don't ask), and completely lost one tyre. Options I have now are

Option 1: Get an old stock of XM1 from somewhere, pair with the brand new stepney tyre
Advantage: Cheapest of all fixes
Disadvantage: Running on old stock of XM1s might be risky, wont be able to upgrade later either as one pair of tyres will still be new

Option 2: Sell the brand new stepney tyre, replace with 2 stock sized XM2s
Advantage: Depending on how much I get from stepney, might still not cost too much
Disadvantage: I'll have a mix of tyre types, wont be able to upgrade later either as one pair of tyres will still be new

Option 3: Take the plunge, throw away the semi used tyres and upsize all 4
Advantage: That was the long term plan, better ride quality
Disadvantage: Throwing half decent tyres, costly in the short term

Can you suggest another alternative? Which would you choose? Thanks!

Throw all the old tyres and get all new tyres. If you are ready for the hit on your wallet, this is the best. At 32,000kms, they have gone past much more than half their usable life. So, you will not be losing a great deal.

[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by pocket_bee

Can you suggest another alternative? Which would you choose? Thanks!

Since you were not satisfied with the tyres on the car, I would ask to use this opportunity to replace them all. Its been 4 years and 32K KMs.

If you are going to stick with the stock size, keep one used XM1 as spare and sell the unused spare with tread. Used Michelin tyres (especially the spare with tread) can fetch some good money and can soften the burden of buying new ones.

Happy shopping!

[pocket_bee]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

Since you were not satisfied with the tyres on the car, I would ask to use this opportunity to replace them all. Its been 4 years and 32K KMs.

If you are going to stick with the stock size, keep one used XM1 as spare and sell the unused spare with tread. Used Michelin tyres (especially the spare with tread) can fetch some good money and can soften the burden of buying new ones.

Happy shopping!

Thanks Nikhil and deetjohn for your suggestions. I went with your recommendation and upgraded all four. Have been traveling for the past few days so haven't had a chance to spin the new tyres much, but my initial reaction is that they are good. Though I have a suspicion that the XM2s are a tad bit noisier than my old XM1s. Will post with an update again when I have had a chance to drive them over a longer period.

Cheers
Bhaskar

[sam_sant2005]

Honda amaze comes with 175/65 14"*tyre*either good year or MRF , is it better to just change the stock tyres to Michelin XM2 of same size or should I go for 185/60 14" Michelin . changing to*changing to 185/60 has resulted in an increase of almost 17.3 mm in the circumference of the tyre.*What are the advantages/ disadvantages of both ?*
*

[khoj]

All of your questions are answered here, read thoroughly very informative and useful.

http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible_pg4.html

Originally Posted by sam_sant2005

Honda amaze comes with 175/65 14"*tyre*either good year or MRF , is it better to just change the stock tyres to Michelin XM2 of same size or should I go for 185/60 14" Michelin . changing to*changing to 185/60 has resulted in an increase of almost 17.3 mm in the circumference of the tyre.*What are the advantages/ disadvantages of both ?*
*

[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by sam_sant2005

Honda amaze comes with 175/65 14"*tyre*either good year or MRF , is it better to just change the stock tyres to Michelin XM2 of same size or should I go for 185/60 14" Michelin . changing to*changing to 185/60 has resulted in an increase of almost 17.3 mm in the circumference of the tyre.*What are the advantages/ disadvantages of both ?*
*

185/60 14 is the prefect up-size for Amaze. Contrary to what you said, there is a loss of circumference with 185/60, but very negligible. Its almost similar to the stock in profile with added width.

[sam_sant2005]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

185/60 14 is the prefect up-size for Amaze. Contrary to what you said, there is a loss of circumference with 185/60, but very negligible. Its almost similar to the stock in profile with added width.

I agree , but will the speedometer and mileage readings change if we upsize the car? And how about the warranty?