[m4ugr8]

Originally Posted by autopsyche

A lot of my customers preffered silverstones a few years back and i realised how crappy they were only after i installed them in my esteem (13") and on my octy (17"), and in both cars i had frontal impact accidents due to tire slippage under harder braking, which had never happened under same driving and braking conditions on earlier michelins and dunlops on both cars respectively.

Arush you are so right!! Even i almost lost my life due to these CRAP tyres. I was at around 100 when i applied the brakes on seeing a car in front of me suddenly,but instead of stopping i went straignt into the car almost killing myself and the occupants of the other car.Luckly me and the other guys came out without any injuries. But the car was damaged badly.

PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THESE TYRES.THESE ARE LIKE STONES ONLY,NO GRIP.I FEEL LIKE TAKING THESE TYRES AND THROWING THEM ACROSS TO THE GUY WHO SOLD THEM TO ME.

[abhi1309]

This has happened with me too. I got the MRF ZVTS tubeless 175/65 - R14 tyres in my fiesta when I bought it. In Pune, I was doing about 80 kmph on the cement road infront of Le Meridian during rains. I slammed the brakes because the Optra infront of me swirved to the right to avoid something and I was overtaking it.

Guess what, nothing happened, the tyres locked and I was at the same speed, not slowing down at all and luckily avoided a hit with the Optra rear fender. I had run out of breath and skipped a beat as well possibly. The tyres are basically useless with no straight line grip at all. This has happened twice and now I am thinking of getting Maxxis Victra or Eagles F1, but not less than 205's.

[Soccerfan]

Reviving an old thread. A dealer is Kochi is offering 5 years warranty on Hankook tires (For bulges). Cost is around 4250 for 185/70 r14. Would like to know the views of Nikhil and other tyre gurus on this

[Sprucegoose]

Guys, I'm planning to pick up a set of S.Drives for my Skoda Octavia vRS.
I'm based in Bombay.
1> What would be a good price?
2> Will they suffice? I read a thread where the thread starter said S.Drives on a heavy car are useless.

[neerajku]

I am planning to change my Innova Tyres. They were Michelin Energy and have done 71k KM now. They are 225, 15, R 60 spec. New tyres cost around 10000 for the same spec and brand. Was looking at buying slightly cheaper ones now. I saw Nankang tyres XR-611 on Changemytyre.com. They cost about 4800 odd. And come with 2 years unconditional warranty. Is is worth buying? Does anyone have any experience of them? Couple of websites I checked had good reviews but they were Internaional sites. Not sure of there usage experience in India hence the query.

[nithin_86]

Hey guys. I have the same query as neeraj. I happened to see Nankang tyres on changemytyre.com and the offer seems pretty good. Its cheaper than all the other brands by a margin and also they offer 2 years unconditional warranty. Could anyone let us know if the tyres are good. All the reviews on changemytyre.com seems really good. I dont know anyone who is using these tyres so a little doubtful.

[anachronix]

Wanted to share my experience with the Hankook Ventus V12 Evo (K110)

Bought them for my Fiesta 1.6S, crappy tyres. It grips but there is awful amount of roll from these tyres, the stickiness of the tyres can never be used into a corner. Brakes well, but tramlines quite a bit. I would rate them 2/5!

The tyres are just 2K KMs old and I am already considering a swap

Stay away from these Hankooks!

[akshay4587]

Another update is that all these tires now come with unconditional 2 years warranty.

[kpzen]

Originally Posted by anachronix

Wanted to share my experience with the Hankook Ventus V12 Evo (K110)

Bought them for my Fiesta 1.6S, crappy tyres. It grips but there is awful amount of roll from these tyres, the stickiness of the tyres can never be used into a corner. Brakes well, but tramlines quite a bit. I would rate them 2/5!

Anachronix

Could you please elaborate on this ?

And, the tire specs as well.

[AbelAFC]

Originally Posted by anachronix

Wanted to share my experience with the Hankook Ventus V12 Evo (K110)

Bought them for my Fiesta 1.6S, crappy tyres. It grips but there is awful amount of roll from these tyres, the stickiness of the tyres can never be used into a corner. Brakes well, but tramlines quite a bit. I would rate them 2/5!

The tyres are just 2K KMs old and I am already considering a swap

Stay away from these Hankooks!

Noob question but what is tramlining?

[anachronix]

My driving is more spirited and like to take corners fast within the urban limits. There is too much movement from these tyres through short tight corners, on wide corners its not too prominent. But taking tight corners, the car gets a lot more unsettled, the movement could be clearly felt from the tyres in the Fiesta. I am thinking this is more to do with the softer sidewalls, I read about this before I bought these tyres, but I was hoping I could run higher air pressure and I should be ok, but the higher tyre pressure is not helping me :(

Originally Posted by kpzen

Could you please elaborate on this ?

Mine is 195/55 R15!

Originally Posted by kpzen

And, the tire specs as well.

Road surface is not 100% flat! There are minor difference in the surface with up/down contours, these along with the design of the tyres could unsettle the car and push/pull the vehicle without steering input towards/away from the contours while going faster on these surfaces. The K110 takes these contours normally while cruising, the moment you brake it tramlines!

Originally Posted by AbelAFC

Noob question but what is tramlining?

[RoaringEngine]

So, what would be the final verdict on Kumho Ecsta SPT Ku31( high performance summer tyre) of 195/55R15 profile in terms of;
Wet grip:
Dry Grip:
Tyre noise on highways:
Tread wear:

any idea anybody? Thanks in advance.
Regards

[shinuak]

Originally Posted by nithin_86

Hey guys. I have the same query as neeraj. I happened to see Nankang tyres on changemytyre.com and the offer seems pretty good. Its cheaper than all the other brands by a margin and also they offer 2 years unconditional warranty. Could anyone let us know if the tyres are good. All the reviews on changemytyre.com seems really good. I dont know anyone who is using these tyres so a little doubtful.

Nithin, I dont think we should attribute too much of a weightage to the reviews in Changemytyre as it is a business platform unlike in our forum, where you get unbiased reviews from personal experience and examples. I have too used changemytre to check out on tyre prices to get an idea and during the process, one thing which I noticed is that I din't see much negative reviews, whereas here you can even find a negative thread about yoko s drive (a product which is known as a performance tyre). It helps you to take calculated decision based on your needs. By the way choosing tyres also depend on your car, where and how you use etc, right? Indeed if I were to try the lesser known low cost brand, I would do that only on a secondary car which is used only for city commute or one which is not used for highway dash. For a primary car, which you may take out anywhere including City/Highway and expose to all sorts of stress/conditions, I would not risk going for these brands unless convinced 100% by someone whom I can trust. This may not have helped you much in terms of finding how good Nankang is, but thats just me and my 2 cents .

[ringoism]

Originally Posted by nitrous

We know the story with koreans.
Some europeans work hard and engineer a product.
The koreans buy one and make a copy without breaking the patent/copyright.

So effectively, they save on the R&D and that translates to better pricing to the buyer/user.

So, how many of U have used these korean/taiwanese tyres??
What are ur experiences?

True. Huge R&D, advertising, motorsports programs and blimps. The major-brand consumer pays for it all. Unfortunately, in most cases, the minor brands do cut corners in some other respects, too...

I worked for a few tire retailers / installers abroad, and have been messing with high-performance cars (and bikes) for a good thirty years now.

The U.S. website: Tirerack.com has some extremely helpful info / articles on tires / uses / ratings, etc, and has reputable / unbiased reviews, most likely on some of the same models (incl. the grey-market stuff) available here in India.

There are probably good-quality lower-cost brands. Heard some good things about Kumho. But to generally address other queries in the thread: (1)there's no point putting actual low-grade / discount budget tires on a car that you've paid good money for, unless you seldom drive it; (2)If you're a performance-oriented driver, then the rule is: Buy the best quality (and perhaps, upgraded size) tires you can reasonably afford / fit ; and (3) If you don't find premium prices justifiable in your present economic situation (likewise in mine), then for God's sake, slow down and drive more in accordance to the limitations of tires/road/driver !!!

Re: the brands:

Nankang: Got some old, hard, A/T-type ones on the back of the Marshal 4x4 and can say they're pretty bad in every respect.

Michelin: I'm no Francophile, but in my years in the business / hobby, I can say I never, ever saw a defective or poorly-designed Michelin. They pioneered the first radials back in the 1950's/60's under insane levels of secrecy (even within the organization), and I tend to think Michelin's designs / technology have remained distinctive and a bit ahead of the game all these years. Had them on a few of my cars and always impressed.

Goodyear: Might be the biggest tire company in the world, and might have been riding on their name, racing publicity, and O.E. contracts for a long while, too; In general they've never seemed anything better than average to me, despite the premium prices (in the U.S., at least).

Yokohama / Bridgestone / Dunlop: In their premium performance lines, have run all these, and can say they produce some extremely capable high-performance tires. The classic AVS / D40 / Potenzas really transformed driving for a lot of people, myself included.

China / Taiwan / Korea: Overwhelming majority seem unexceptional at best; probably a few particularly good models to be found with a little research.

And for the record, yeah, a Maruti 800 with high-end rubber will hold the road much better than an Octavia (etc, etc) with low-grade skins (the other solution for budgetary constraints ).

-Eric

[ringoism]

UPDATE:

NANKANG: (failure)

One of my NANKANG "WIDE CONQUEROR" (Looks to be similar to the current FT-7 A/T tyres) A/T radials failed structurally this past week; i.e., the belting wires broke/shifted and started both sticking out of the shoulder (area where sidewall joins tread), while on the inside also puncturing my tube in multiple places. Never was run flat or otherwise abused, mind you. Still has half-tread, but nothing to do but dispose of the tyre. My loss. It was a DOT-approved U.S.-market tyre, by the way.

Having been in the tyre business earlier, I am EXTREMELY skeptical about companies that will produce a tyre with basic structural design issues. If they can't get THAT right, there's no point even talking about rubber compounds and tread patterns. It's conceivable that the company makes other decent tyres, but I've no confidence in them now. There was also some dry-rot / cracking evident in the rubber on both the tyres, too... so I do have doubts about the quality of their compounds also.

MAXXIS (Trepador) These are doing special duty on 4x4's for the Indo-German Rohtang Tunnel project here, north of Manali; i.e., lots of snow service. Have seen 235-75-15 (Gypsy/Bolero Camper), as well as 9.50x30 / 10.50x31 (Camper), etc. Good ratings on websites abroad (but those are mostly for huge 35-40" sizes). Was told they're being sourced from Bangalore, but they are U.S.-market tyres with the DOT (Dept. of Transportation) stamp. Will keep an ear open for feedback and report back once I have it. Grip would be fantastic... it's the reliability / durability / structural soundness over the long run (under local mixed-use conditions) that's more of a question for me.

-Eric