[Tushar]

Apollo has just launched the Amazer 4G Life range of tyres in India. The range has been developed jointly by the company’s global R&D centres in Chennai, India and Enschede, the Netherlands, and Apollo claims the tyres can to run up to 1 lakh kilometres or more.

The Apollo Amazer 4G Life is targeted towards compact and mid segment cars like the Maruti Swift & Dzire, Tata Indigo, Toyota Etios, Honda City & Amaze, along with MUVs like the Maruti Ertiga, Toyota Innova and Honda Mobilio.

The tyres are being offered with a 2 year unconditional warranty and will be available in 5 sizes initially. Given below are the sizes:

- 165/65 R14 79 T
- 165/80 R14 85 T
- 175/65 R14 82 T
- 185/65 R15 88 T
- 205/65 R15 94 T

[jinojohnt]

Have they mentioned the service life in years? For people like me, it takes 10 years to reach the 1 lakh kilometer mark. Wonder whether these tires would last so long.

[Lalvaz]

Originally Posted by jinojohnt

Have they mentioned the service life in years? For people like me, it takes 10 years to reach the 1 lakh kilometer mark. Wonder whether these tires would last so long.

Not sure whether they have quoted the service life in years, but even if Apollo or any other tyre company quotes a 10 year service life for a tyre, I would'nt buy that logic. Rubber hardens and cracks with age and it's not worth risking an accident due to old tyres. At the very least you should change rubber every 5 years even with low mileage. See guidance below.
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice...e-and-age.html

[GTO]

Tyres designed to last 1 lakh kms = Super hard compound which in turn will bring compromised grip levels & a stiffer ride.

Unfortunately though, this '100,000 km' marketing trick will work well in India. When the common man is buying tyres, his only criteria is price & maximum life.

Agreed with Jinojohnt & Lalvaz = No tyre should be used more than 6 years tops, irrespective of the kms.

[RSR]

I think the name Apollo Amazer 4G "Life" says it all about this tyre. If it doesn't, then the claimed life of 100,000 km makes it doubly clear!

I guess Apollo may as well sell this tyre with the tag line, "The tyre that taxis love!"

I'm by no means an Apollo basher. On the contrary, I'm very impressed with the Apollo Acelere (now rebranded as Apollo Alnac) as an OEM tyre. It's way better than many other popular OEM tyre choices for A & B segment cars like those from MRF, JK, Ceat, Goodyear, earlier Apollos like Amazer 3G, and even some OEM Bridgestones like B-series and S-Series. In fact, the Apollo Acelere (now Alnac) makes for a good value-for-money tyre even in the replacement market for those who value ride quality and grip.

I think Apollo have made a conscious decision to concentrate on softer compound tyres that offer better comfort and performance. Starting from the Acelere, their newer products like Amazer 4G, Alnac 4G etc. are softer compound tyres that are more comfort and performance oriented than the earlier Apollos like Amazer 3G, Amazer XL etc.

The decision to favour softer compound tyres has generated a lot of goodwill for Apollo among private buyers in both the OEM and replacement markets, and even forced a traditionally hard compound tyre maker like MRF to introduce a comfort-oriented tyre in the form of their new ZLX to take on Apollo's growing breed of soft compound tyres. Private buyers' preferances are surely changing in favour of softer compound tyres that offer better comfort (& performance), and this change is noticeable even in the A segment.

However, it gave the impression that Apollo was gradually becoming more of a performance & comfort oriented brand (like Michelin, Yokohama, Continental, Bridgestone etc.) and neglecting those who prefer hard compound tyres that have a long life & are highly resistant to abuse. MRFs, Ceats, JKs and Bridgestone B & S series tyres dominate this space and Apollo was going down here.

The Amazer 4G Life is their new generation tyre meant to appeal to hard compound tyre lovers. Yellow-board car operators are simply going to love this tyre. The promise of 1 lakh km alone is enough for them. And sure enough, I think it is available in sizes that cover most vehicles that are popular with fleet operators.

With this, I think Apollo is becoming a more balanced tyre company for the Indian market. Much like Bridgestone which has both soft compound and hard compound tyres in its range. MRF is also moving towards the same goal by introducing newer softer compound tyres. These companies now offer something for everyone!

[greenhorn]

I wonder how their unconditional warranty is going to hold. My indica with its front alignment issues have nearly killed my acceleres in around 30k Kms/ 2 years. My bridgestone S322's lasted around 45K kms/3 years. - and this was with religious alignment .
I wonder if apollo will replace tyres which were damaged due to bad alignment/uneven wear - lets see how unconditional the warranty is.

[carfreak7]

This tyre is definitely aimed for the taxi market because :-

- 165/65 R14 79 T - Hyundai Xcent (saw few of these as tourist taxis)
- 165/80 R14 85 T - Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire
- 175/65 R14 82 T - Tata Indica Vista
- 185/65 R15 88 T - Maruti Suzuki Ertiga
- 205/65 R15 94 T - Toyota Innova

The above cars are used for the taxi segment and the taxi owners want tyres with high life. Tyre tread looks simple and this must be a hard compound tyre.

Taxi's have high running and thus the tyres will wear out in 1-2 years.

For people with lower usage, they could go for regular Apollo Alnacs or tyres with softer compound for better ride quality.

[DipakDZireLover]

For the similar price bracket, what are your suggestions for my swift dzire?
Apollo 4G Life for Rs.3023/tyre
Bridgestone S248 for Rs.3199/tyre

Most of the driving is in city traffic with 2-3 long drives in a year.

Also, is it advisable to buy tyres online on Snapdeal if I get a better deal than the local tyre shop?

[arnabchak]

Originally Posted by GTO

Tyres designed to last 1 lakh kms = Super hard compound which in turn will bring compromised grip levels & a stiffer ride.

Unfortunately though, this '100,000 km' marketing trick will work well in India. When the common man is buying tyres, his only criteria is price & maximum life.

Agreed with Jinojohnt & Lalvaz = No tyre should be used more than 6 years tops, irrespective of the kms.

+1 to your views Rush!!

I have the Goodyear "Ducaro Hi Miler" on my Wagon R.
The only intention of buying them over the Michelin was the 100000 kms promise as my running is high.
Did not want to change the tyres a shade over a year from purchase date.

Though I do not have any major issues with the Ducaro(it has run 28K with a single instance of nail puncture), it remains hard and extremely noisy.

Grip levels are ok at the max.
I had Michelins on my earlier Ikon and they were a different league all together.

[jinojohnt]

As per newspaper advertisements, Apollo is offering 2 year unconditional warranty on these tires (what ever that means).

[anupamtiwari]

need suggestion for tyres for my innova - present stock tyres have done 50k/3 years - bridgestone - happy with the performance- completed Ladakh circuit and Spiti circuit with them. 4-5 punctures in last 3 years. The dealer is offering Amazer 4G life (with exchange of present ones) @5100, Bridgestone and Yokohama 10-15% expensive. After going through these discussions I am worried about noise as Innova itself has little high noise level. My uses - daily office drive of 45km in Mumbai and 5-6 long drives in a year. I will go for stock specs - no change (205/65/R15). Thanks in advance.

[mxh]

"UNCONDITIONAL" warranty- So I guess can slash my tyres and keep getting new ones right Apollo? They have used this same word on multiple sites so it's not a mistake.

Someone really needs to regulate the advertising in India, unethical companies like Apollo just lie and make ludicrous claims and no action is taken.

It is as "unconditional" as the "unlimited" internet plans.

[Ramon]

I am running the stock 155/80 R13 JK Vectras in my A Star Zxi, run around 23,000 in 5 years. The tread was wearing out badly on one side in the front tyres even with proper alignmentand, rotation and pressures.

So I wanted to flip over the tyres so that the wall on the inner side would be in the outside.

Went to 3 tyre guys all refuse to do it saying
1. It's not needed/done for Tubeless tyres.
2. It's an issue with JKs no use doing it.
3. It's because the alignment / pressures were incorrect (I had been maintaining it correctly from day one)
4. Unmounting the tyres from the rim may cause it to bulge :-O due to poor quality of the JKs.

In short unable to get anbody to do the job.

Any suggestions? And any truth in what they say?