Soft / hard tyre compound, steel rims / alloys for Ford Figo

I find it very hard to believe that just potholes can do so much damage to these expensive rims that I now feel like I have wasted my hard-earned money on.

BHPian bking recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I am in a big dilemma right now and would require your expert advice to move further ahead. Let me explain my problem statement and then pose 2 viable solutions. I would like to know the pros and cons of both.

I drive a 2018 Ford Figo TDCI Titanium and I changed its rims on the day of delivery itself. For close to a year and a half, I was running on MOMO Revenge Concave with Conti MC5 195/55. Whilst on this set, I had to change 2 tyres due to sidewall cuts and the rim width of 7.5J ensured somewhat bad ride quality but superb handling and high-speed stability. I didn't have a great experience with the rims as 2 of them got bent as well at medium speed impacts on pot holes.

When I was finally tired of driving a car that could never be properly balanced, I decided to change my rims in 2019 and changed to HRS rims of 6.5J width. The steering vibrations never went away even after various rounds of alignment balancing through multiple shops. I even bought a set of hub rings from the UK but they made no difference at all. The car also lost 3 tyres to sidewall cuts, one at highway speeds (pothole), one at city speeds (no pothole, no idea how the sidewall got cut), one due to low air pressure. The rims also didn't last long and now I stand with 2 bents rims again. My tyres are also not in a great shape and I am again looking at changing all 4 tyres and rims.

I find it very hard to believe that just potholes can do so much damage to these expensive rims that I now feel like I have wasted my hard-earned money on.

Now I want to understand what should be my next course of action, I would like to stay in the 15-inch category and not move above or below. The options that I see are as below:

• I migrate to 15-inch steel rims, they cost much cheaper (4k for a set of 4 as compared to 25-35k)
• I migrate to 15-inch Freestyle alloys, they are available at Ford for 23k + fitting (which is going to be exorbitant I believe)

What I am looking for:

• A steering vibration (wobble) free drive above 80 kmph (have sorely missed this since my first set of revenge got bent, could never come back from it).
• On par performance/grip levels, I believe that tyres are the most important component of one's car and I want my braking power and grip to be top notch.
• High-speed stability and excellent highway manners, I like to do a lot of cross country road trips.
• To not waste money, I've already spent 1.25L+ on these tyres and a new set of alloys plus tyres will cost me another 50k.

Advice on tyres:

- Should I stick to Conti MC5 195/55 R15 even when I've lost 6+ tyres to just sidewall cuts? The only reason I've been going back is that they offer superior grip levels and my dealer has been able to get me a goodwill warranty on 4 out of those 6 cut pieces and I've gotten replacements at 50% price. (Bear in mind that most tyres were driven less than 15k when they got cut and had 60-70% tread)

This also means that in the past 65k km, I've never really changed the entire set of 4 tyres which probably means uneven tread levels (does that cause vibrations?).

- Should I retain the tyre size or should I switch to a higher profile?

185/60 R15 or 195/60 R15 or 195/60 R14?

I am really confused. I was keen on low profile tyres when I bought the car but now it is majorly used for my office commute and outstation trips and I mostly drive sedately with some spirited rides that occur maybe once or twice in a couple of months.

- Soft compound or hard compound? Should I opt for Michelin/Conti/Yoko considering the experience that I have had with soft compound tyres or should I switch to Goodyear/Apollo/MRF/Ceat etc. that also offer unconditional warranties.

To bring things in perspective for one last time, in terms of money:

• A set of soft compound tyres, 195/55 R15 / 195/60 R15 + 15-inch alloys from Ford (Freestyle ones) will cost me approximately 50k.
• A set of soft compound tyres, 195/55 R15 / 195/60 R15 + 15-inch steel rims from Ford (Freestyle ones) will cost me approximately 30k.
• A set of hard compound tyres, 185/60 R15 / 195/60 R15 + 15-inch steel rims from Ford (Freestyle ones) will cost me approximately 25k.

The car is going to stay with me for another 2 years and is going to see a running of anywhere from 30k to 40k km in that time frame.

Please advise, I just want it to feel the same way it felt when I used to drive this car before my first set of alloys got bent. Vibration-free, planted at all sorts of speeds and extremely stable.

Here's what BHPian gkveda had to say on the matter:

Within 3 years of ownership, if you had to change 2 sets of rims due to bends or cracks and 2 sets of tires due to cuts in sidewalls, then, below are the most dubious factors that might have contributed.

• Quality of alloy wheels
• Quality of tires
• Quality of roads
• Quality of driving

Since first 2 have been changed multiple times in last few years, but still did not solve the problem, they can be eliminated as most contributing factors. Or if local or china made, low quality tires and alloys are used when changing the damaged ones, you may have to relook at considering only high quality alloys and tires from reputed brands like Bridgestone or Yokohama or Michelin (I don't think you get Michelin brand now).

Now coming to quality of roads, it is the same for all vehicles that run in your locality. I am not sure if most cars in your location have same issue of cracked wheels or side wall cut tires. If not, the only issue that personally I feel could be the factor for the issue is, quality of driving (no offense meant).

Please look at your driving style. May be you are used to driving on smooth roads very swiftly and the same practice may be causing issues when you drive on pot holes with same style.

Or the way you cross humps, the way you brake the car, the way you accelerate your car, the load the car carries most of the times, many factors are there that causes the issues mentioned.

Also, the issue that you have not mentioned - shocks need to be checked thoroughly once. If the shocks are also impacted, all the eyes from my side would be pointing towards driving style and redefining it.

I may be sounding harsh but please don't miss out on the points mentioned.

Here's what BHPian Tgo had to say on the matter:

The logical way to proceed for me would be:

• to revert to stock set of steel rims
• good indian made tyres (Apollo Alnac 4G) in stock size or one size up
• test thoroughly to see whether the wobble was from rims/tyres or whether there is some issue with suspension / wheel bearings
• once the wobbling is sorted, space out the rims a bit, colour-up those steelies to look the part
• live with a reliable and robust setup and replace the tyres a little early next time if there can be no compromise on grip

Wider rims and spacers, unless done with correct offset, tend to pound on the suspension extra hard. The problem may not be the rims and tyres, it could be the suspension components too.

Whatever you do, this one is going to be the last set you spend on for the time the car will be with you.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.