[kumar7]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

I would still say the XM1+ is a great tyre and extremely comfortable.

Nikhil@ Today I took delivery of Fiesta and as decided gone to change all 5 tyres. From showroom the tyre dealer shop was at 4 -5 kms and as soon as I parked the car the dealer instructed his people to change all 5 tyres of it with XM1+ 185/65/R 14.

While fixing last tyre they found a nail inside the tyre

If I am not wrong it was from his place only but no point in arguing so I didnt said anything. The dealer said he can't take the 5th tyre and agreed to pay back difference amount of 5th tyre (minus VAT)

Now I have four 185/65/R14 & one 175/65/R14 (in boot)

The tyre dealer removed the puncture but said no for exchange. Now though everything is set right but still somewhere in back of my mind tyre in Boot making me uncomfortable.

The tyre dealer said in emergency you can use that tyre but I think its not good idea to have different size tyre! What you recommend in this case

I have plan to check with other dealer if he can take back the single tyre back in exchange with XM1+ but I think changes are very less.

[kpzen]

Originally Posted by kumar7

Now I have four 185/65/R14 & one 175/65/R14 (in boot)

Kumar

Same here and nothing to worry

My Getz runs on 4 tubeless 185/65 tires and the spare tire is 175/65-14.

Thanks to tubeless tires i never had to use the spare tire so far in 38000kms.
Using one smaller size tire for small distance is fine unless you plan to drive fast and do some long distance highway trip with one different tire.

[Nikhilb2008]

Kumar7,

First of all, congrats on the new car! A puncture can happen ANYTIME. It's your bad luck that it happened in the first 4-5 kms. I assume that the tyre with the nail was one of the 4 running on your car. In which case, you can more or less rule out foul play.

Secondly, I didnt understand the

The dealer said he can't take the 5th tyre and agreed to pay back difference amount of 5th tyre (minus VAT)

part.

I hope your overall deal went something like this: New Michelin tyre: 3600. Buyback for old tyre = 2000.

So, effective price for one new Michelin - 1600/- per tyre.

So, you bought 4 tyres, effectively paying 6400/- rs.

I didnt understand the minus VAt part. VAT doesnt even figure in this. Could you explain more?

Anyway, you can use one odd sized tyre in emergencies without a problem. Lots of people do it on a regular basis. Dont worry about it!

[kumar7]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

Kumar7,

First of all, congrats on the new car! A puncture can happen ANYTIME. It's your bad luck that it happened in the first 4-5 kms. I assume that the tyre with the nail was one of the 4 running on your car. In which case, you can more or less rule out foul play.

Secondly, I didnt understand the part.

I hope your overall deal went something like this: New Michelin tyre: 3600. Buyback for old tyre = 2000.

So, effective price for one new Michelin - 1600/- per tyre.

So, you bought 4 tyres, effectively paying 6400/- rs.

I didnt understand the minus VAt part. VAT doesnt even figure in this. Could you explain more?

Anyway, you can use one odd sized tyre in emergencies without a problem. Lots of people do it on a regular basis. Dont worry about it!

Here is the case :

Michelin one tyre price = 3650/-
Initially I assumed stock tyres will be MRF. So we had deal that I will give 5 tyres to dealer and will take 5 XM1+

After doing +/- dealer said I need to pay him a total difference amount of Rs 4800/-

Later one month after doing PDI I came to know its Bridgestone tyres and not MRF. So dealer agreed that he will give Rs 2000/- back.

Today I went to dealer to change the tyres at that time he found that out of 4 tyres (which were running & mounted on car) one is punctured.

So he removed the puncture of stock tyre and kept in boot without exchanging it with XM1+.

So now I have 4 XM1+ and one BS (in boot - after removing the puncture)

As agreed earlier, dealer returned Rs 2000/- so now in total dealer have 2800/-

So now dealer have Rs 2800/- as difference amount for 5 tyres.

So I got each XM1+ (after exchange) = (2800 / 5) = Rs 560

As he didnt took 5th tyre so he need to pay me Rs 560/- but in actual he paid me Rs 500/- (Explanation given by him as 12.5% VAT so he deducted Rs 60/-)

Do you think another dealer will take back punctured tyre in exchange with XM1?

Today when all 4 tyres fitted at that time they did weight adjustment and alignment also (They said not required but I insisted as it was agreed earlier)

It would be really smooth deal with Ford dealer & tyre dealer as both of them we really helpful. The tyre dealer suggested me to check with Ford dealer to exchange punctured tyre but I myself was not convinced to ask this as no one have control on this thing. But still I given a try and as expected Ford dealer said he can't help on this front.

The tyre dealer was trying to convince me to take 5 Yoko's but thanks to your advice and I said NO to him

Somewhere I am getting convinced with you to keep 5th tyre without exchanging it but you can imagine how you feel on very first day to have punctured tyre in Boot.

In case I used the spare tyre in emergency then will that damage remaining 3 tyres which will be running along with it? Do I always need to make sure that the 5th tyre should be used only in emergency and should go back in boot asap?

In long run is it ok to use 3 tyres of 185/65 and one of 175/65?

To make this discussion lighter uploading the pic so that I will come out of this panic situation

[Nikhilb2008]

You still got a good deal. Dont worry about it. Though I have a feeling that whole VAt thing was hogwash. Maybe you can explain it better.

There will not be any damage on the other 3 tyres if oyu run the spare tyre for a short while. Dont worry about it! As KPZen has pointed out, he also is doing the same thing.

I assume he's repaired the puncture and only then put it in your car as a spare tyre!

[kumar7]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

You still got a good deal. Dont worry about it. Though I have a feeling that whole VAt thing was hogwash. Maybe you can explain it better.

There will not be any damage on the other 3 tyres if oyu run the spare tyre for a short while. Dont worry about it! As KPZen has pointed out, he also is doing the same thing.

I assume he's repaired the puncture and only then put it in your car as a spare tyre!

Thanks! This made me bit relax

Originally Posted by kpzen

Kumar

Same here and nothing to worry

My Getz runs on 4 tubeless 185/65 tires and the spare tire is 175/65-14.

Thanks to tubeless tires i never had to use the spare tire so far in 38000kms.
Using one smaller size tire for small distance is fine unless you plan to drive fast and do some long distance highway trip with one different tire.

Kpzen@ We both are in similar boat and you can understand how much impatient you become if something happens like this

[ScorpMan]

I was following this thread for quite some time now, as my 03 Alto Lxi was in need of new shoes. The car was running on Bridgestone S322 165/65 R13 on 13" HR rims since Day1, and has covered almost 75k kms. But as the tyres still had some life left, so carried on till yesterday and finally gifted her with new shoes.

As most of you can make out, 165/65 R13 was a wrong upsize for the Alto, and the tires touched the rear wheel wells under load of 2 or more passengers. Never knew about it back in 03, and even the tire dealer was not responsible enough to guide me on this. But, the tires changed the character of the car completely. It felt like running on rails, awesome grip on corners & under heavy braking. And I was equally amazed that they ran for almost 75k kms., as none of previous cars has ever done more than 40-45k kms on a single set.

So, finally after a bit research & visit to Michelin & Bridgestone websites, the correct upsize suggested was 155/65 R13 or 165/60 R13. Visited 2-3 dealers in my area & these were the choices available.

155/65 R13

1. Michelin Energy XM1+
2. Bridgestone Turanza ER-60
3. Bridgestone S322
4. Yokohama A-Drive
5. Continental *****

165/60 R13

1. Bridgestone Potenza

Was keen on going in for 165/60 R13, but the only choice available was Potenza, which were outright high performance tires and in no way could give me as much life as S322's, so they were rejected.

Next to get rejected were Continental & Yokohama's as they lacked any character in their looks. Have read lots of good stuff about A-drive's, but their looks completely turned me off.

S322's were rejected as they looked too thin compared to the others.

So, the choice was down to Energy & Turanza. Energy XM1+ seems to be the most suggested tire on T-BHP, so i knew nothing could beat them in comfort & economy. Looks were okay, and the price difference was only Rs.100 more than the Turanza's. But, was feeling more & more inclined towards Turanza because: 1. The Pattern looks much much better & sportier than Energy.
2. Looks wider than Energy.
3. The side walls felt harder & sturdier than Energy.

So, finally it was the Bridgestone Turanza ER-60. Costed me Rs. 2550/- per tire, and the total bill came out to be 10200/- including Wheel Alignment, Balancing & Tubeless Nozzles for the rims.

Have run only 25kms since than. The grip & ride seems to have improved over the S322's, and looks far better than any other tire in its range.

[DieselFan]

Turanzas do have a better Side wall build and hence they last quite a bit of abuse we do on Indian roads.

[tmnraghu78]

After much deliberation, finally I replaced my OHC tires with Michelin XM1+ 175/70 R13 at Wheels, Ameerpet, Hyderabad.

I drove over 50 kms yesterday on best to worst roads in Hyderabad. Thanks tor week long rains to test in wet and muddy conditions also. Here are my initial observations:

• Noise almost gone even in uneven patches
• Steering has become feather weight
• Ride comfort is increased than what anticipated.
• Braking has definitely improved.

Overall no disappointment whatsoever as of now.

My previous tires has kind of worn out and become harder. I could manage to get the deal for rs.11500 including all. I was not in a position to bargain much as there is nothing such to do after seeing those tires and compared with newer ones. Anyway here are the numbers

Original tires for 4: 3150 * 4 = 12600
Wheel balance, alignment, nitrogen = 700
Value of older tires = 1800

Total comes to rs 11500. I know there is some scope of more bargain but I just left it.

One observation which I wanted to cross check with all BHPians. The shop owner asked to inflate 2-3 PSI more for initial 3000 KMs so that the tread expansion gets even while the tyre is rolling. He looks like professional as he got couple of training certificates displayed in the shop. But, I need to get some suggestions on that from you.

I will post FE (as the fuel tank was almost full yesterday) and more observations on different conditions as it progress.

Thanks,
Raghu Lakshman

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by tmnraghu78

One observation which I wanted to cross check with all BHPians. The shop owner asked to inflate 2-3 PSI more for initial 3000 KMs so that the tread expansion gets even while the tyre is rolling. He looks like professional as he got couple of training certificates displayed in the shop. But, I need to get some suggestions on that from you.

Yes this helps in bedding-in the tire to the rims, run it like this for a week and then revert to desired tire pressure.

[ForeRunner]

Hi all,

I have booked Swift Dzire and Nov' 1st week is the expected delivery. I prefer to change the tires as soon as i get the delivery. When i checked a dealer in Trichy he quoted 3800 Rs each for Michelin XM1 185/65/R14. And he agreed to buy back the stock tires for 1200 Rs each.

Is this a good deal? Can any one please guide me to get a better deal in Chennai?

Thanks in Advance.

[Jaggu]

Buy XM1+ and not XM1, latter is outdated model.

[tmnraghu78]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Yes this helps in bedding-in the tire to the rims, run it like this for a week and then revert to desired tire pressure.

Hi Jaggu,

Thanks a ton for your response.

Regards,
Raghu Lakshman

[Nikhilb2008]

ForeRunner --- 185/65 R!4 is the wrong size for oyur Swift. You need 185/70 R14.

[ForeRunner]

Thanks Jaggu and Nikhil,

Then can anyone suggest me the right price and place for Michelin XM1+ 185/70/R14?

And also i found from this forum that BS Turanza ER-60 also equally competant tire for Swift Dzire. What will be the pros and cons of Michelin and BS? I will mostly drive in dry highways and occasional long drives to hill stations.

Thanks