A detailed review of my MRF Perfinzas.
As mentioned earlier, a lot of eyebrows were raised, a lot of sarcastic comments passed when I got the Perfinzas.
After covering 2k kms on these, I must say, I am very very impressed.
Please remember that these are MRFs. Not really known for making high performance luxury tyres.
Having summed up my feeling, let me explain in detail.
Comfort:
These tyres are definitely very comfortable compared to the Hankooks I as running earlier. They are soft and pliant and very cushy. They definitely give a very plush ride to the car which is much needed. I think these feel as good as the P3ST on my Civic (do keep in mind, this is just a feeling. A serious comparison isnt valid as the cars and their suspension setups are very different).
The ruts in the road, rough roads, bad patches are handled very well and I dont dread potholes anymore. The ride of course improves with speed(thanks to the Euro suspension).
Road Noise:
A noticeable improvement at high speed over the Hankooks. Even after 2k kms, they are as silent as they were on Day one. Typically tyres do get noisier over time but in this short distance of 2000 kms, there is no increase in road noise.
Grip
This is the BIG ONE. I have done some high speed braking and cornering on these tyres and they are ridiculously impressive.
Please note that these are luxury tyres. Not outright sporty ones. Do not compare these to the Michelin PS4. These deserve to be compared to the Michelin P3ST/Yokohama Earth 1/BlueEarth/Continental MC5.
Having used the MC5 (2 sets ) on my Civic and the P3ST(again on my Civic), I can safely say that the Perfinza is on par with these tyres for most normal driving. Even if you drive fast consistently, the Perfinzas will hold up well.
BLR guys will know the road going from the airport to Hyderabad. It's a beautiful 270° curve. You cant do some insane speeds there but you can do a reasonable speed and hold the car in the lane... It really stresses the tyres and the suspension of the car. This has been my favourite place to understand the way a set of tyres behaves for about 8 years now. I used to take my old Honda City Gen 3 with Yokohama Advan Neovas there and I also tested the MRF ZLOs on that curve and now the Perfinzas.
I was able to hold my line through the curve without any drama or tyre squeal or loss of grip. My dad was in the car with me at that point of time and he was equally impressed with the way the car held it's line. If the tyre starts to give up, I would have had to make constant steering corrections to bring it in line but in this case, the steering too was rock steady.
I have had to do some emergency braking and the tyres held exactly the way they are supposed to. They didnt squeal or lock. I never felt the ABS kick in. I wasnt standing on the brakes though. If I did stand on the brakes, the tyres may lock and ABS may kick in but in these 2000 kms, I havent had to do that.
There was another scary moment on the Hyd highway when I was doing triple digit speeds and around a bend, there were barrels kept in the middle of the highway. I wasnt doing illegal speeds but cruising around 100-110. The barrels came up absolutely suddenly around a bend leaving me with almost NO time to react. Drivers are expected to perform a slow speed slalom course through them. I had to brake hard and steer the car left, then right, then left again to get through.
Braking and turning the steering does upset the balance of the car and tyres can lose grip thanks to the quick steering inputs and weight transfer.
Luckily for me, the suspensions, brakes and tyres worked well together and what could have resulted in a dent on my car turned out to be nothing apart from an anecdote I can relate here.
Disclaimers:
On my Octavia vRS, the suspension and chassis is so good, the tyres look even better. The best way to really test these tyres is to take a car with a not so great suspension and see how they grip when the suspension and chassis give up soon. Like a Honda City or the old Verna or something like that.
In any case, I feel the MRF Perfinzas are far better than my Hankooks. In a couple of tight situations, I feel the Hankooks could have led to an incident but on the Perfinzas, it was no big deal.
At the end of the day, tyre performance is subjective. What appeals to me may not appeal to someone else. Please understand that everyone's driving style is different.
I really like these tyres as of now based on the 2000 kms I've covered. However, your mileage may vary.
As of now, I'm one of the few people using the Perfinzas and I'm happy to report my experience. I really really look forward to more reviews to understand whether the tyres are really as good as they seem on my car or whether my car is making up for any drawbacks in the tyre.
Conclusion:
I am extremely happy with this tyre.
In 225/45-17, this tyre is very close in price to the Michelin PS4. So, for a high performance car like the Octavia vRS, the PS4 might be better. It's also a tried and tested tyre.
However, in the smaller sizes like 195/60-15, 195/65-15 and 205/55-16, the Perfinza is priced extremely competitively and there is a huge gap to the Michelin P3ST. These are the sizes where someone looking for a brilliant tyre at a brilliant price should seriously consider the Perfinza.
Approx Prices for the Perfinza:
195/60-15 - MRP: 5870/-
195/65-15 - MRP: 5990/-
205/55-16 - MRP: 8350/-
