[noopster]

Got my tyres changed today as a Diwali gift to the little Fräulein.

It was on my mind that the tyres have lost a whole lot of tread recently. Was comparing with pics from February this year and the tread wear becomes glaringly obvious:

Then:



Now (as of this morning, driving into the accessories shop):



Off with the old:









...and on with the new:









Some fitting issues:





...resolved by some hammering.


New shoes!




Ah tread! How I've missed ya

[noopster]

So while I was in the shop (Car Ax, at Baner Road), the staff were doing their best to cross-sell me stuff. The body polishing at 700/- looked tempting. Decided to give it a shot.

Wax on...


Rubba dubba dooo!


Dirt accumulated in those hard to reach places!


Looks way better now doesn't it?




All set to hit the road!

Happy Diwali everyone!

[F150]

Congratulations ! Nice choice of tyre and the safe size. What was the price ?

Did you smoke the headlamps ?

[noopster]

Headlamps have been smoked back when I added the HID/projectors.

Got the Yokos for 5K each and installation free. Car Ax have done a good job; the car feels very solid and is virtually noiseless now.

[F150]

Originally Posted by noopster

Headlamps have been smoked back when I added the HID/projectors.

Could you let me know if they can do the same for SWIFT ? Any contact details ?

I too want to smoke my swift's headlamps. How much did they charge ?

Happy Diwali !!

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by noopster

Got the Yokos for 5K each and installation free. Car Ax have done a good job; the car feels very solid and is virtually noiseless now.

Finally Mr. 408 gets to say hi to Mr.5544 Guess you slipped on that one eh?


AVS db 550 is a new one to me - haven't seen that one on the forum earlier; does it go by a different name? How's the feedback on other aspects? Asking as my shoes will be re-shed next week. Plus 5k is a good price!

P.s. I hope you changed the spare too to 195/60 specs.

[Alisiddiqui]

Originally Posted by noopster

So while I was in the shop (Car Ax, at Baner Road), the staff were doing their best to cross-sell me stuff. The body polishing at 700/- looked tempting. Decided to give it a shot.

Wax on...

Rubba dubba dooo!

Dirt accumulated in those hard to reach places!

Looks way better now doesn't it?

All set to hit the road!

Happy Diwali everyone!

Nyce. Pls share some more pics of the cars profile with wider rubber. Also update on pros and cons of upsize. One i hear is that car becomes bouncy. Given the limited options in OE size tires, will need to evaluate other options. Vento still has some rubber, but Polo's due for replacement soon. May switch on both cars though if anything makes sense for Vento.

[Swanand Inamdar]

Good to see new shoes on the Fraulein! She does shine bright, after that waxing.
Any particular reason to choose only the DB's (as compared to any other tyre)?

@Ninja: Did you go for a tyre change too?

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

Any particular reason to choose only the DB's (as compared to any other tyre)?

Interested to hear the same.

@Ninja: Did you go for a tyre change too?

Not yet sir. Hopefully either this week or coming week (depends on suitability with Gautam & Bala).

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

AVS db 550 is a new one to me - haven't seen that one on the forum earlier; does it go by a different name? How's the feedback on other aspects? Asking as my shoes will be re-shed next week. Plus 5k is a good price!

GTO is using these on his Merc C class.

V550 are not new to the market. They have been around for a while. The prices earlier were exhorbitant so were not that popular. Moreover they are not high grip performance tyres.

As the name suggests they are dB i.e. low noise tyres, designed to be the quietest with minimal road noise. They are a bit soft and the sidewalls may not be as strong as some other tyres. They are supposedly premium.

Recently the prices have gone up for all tyres whereas this seems to be at the price point. That's why this is now an option as well.

[dkaile]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

AVS db 550 is a new one to me How's the feedback on other aspects?

There have been some bad experiences with the Yokos recently on the forum. They seem to have quite weak sidewalls compared to others and I suspect are not properly homogenised for Indian conditions. I would rather go for slightly higher road noise than lesser durability or having the fear of them bursting at high speeds.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

As the name suggests they are dB i.e. low noise tyres, designed to be the quietest with minimal road noise. They are a bit soft and the sidewalls may not be as strong as some other tyres. They are supposedly premium.

Thanks Viddy! That was helpful.

Originally Posted by dkaile

There have been some bad experiences with the Yokos recently on the forum.

Experiences like these make me wonder if I should stick with the Apollos only - have had quite a satisfactory experience with them so far! Nothing exemplary so far, but still satisfying most of my requirements.

As for any tire brand, local or global, warranty claims hardly seem to be an option to be counted on. However does one need to pay the additional premium for the brand, is the question one needs to answer I guess.

[noopster]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

AVS db 550 is a new one to me - haven't seen that one on the forum earlier; does it go by a different name? How's the feedback on other aspects? Asking as my shoes will be re-shed next week. Plus 5k is a good price!

P.s. I hope you changed the spare too to 195/60 specs.

Spare is the same one that VW provided (175/90 is it?)- it hasn't been used ever and hope to keep it that way!
Too early to call on the tyres but the noise levels have gone down drastically now. DB stands for "decibel" series- and Yokohama claims these are the most noiseless tyres in their class. High-speed testing only after I run them in (around 1500 km to go).

Originally Posted by Alisiddiqui

Also update on pros and cons of upsize. One i hear is that car becomes bouncy.

It's a 12 mm increase in the height(1.99% change) and barely perceptible. Bounciness will only be a factor if you upgrade to 16" rims or higher.

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

Any particular reason to choose only the DB's (as compared to any other tyre)?

Originally Posted by Vid6639

GTO is using these on his Merc C class.

^^ What he said. Also, friend subodh switched to DBs a month or two before me and since I drove his car (identical to mine) and liked it, went ahead without a second thought.

Originally Posted by dkaile

There have been some bad experiences with the Yokos recently on the forum. They seem to have quite weak sidewalls compared to others and I suspect are not properly homogenised for Indian conditions. I would rather go for slightly higher road noise than lesser durability or having the fear of them bursting at high speeds.

Thanks for that dkaile- Manuuj's tyres were Yoko Geolander ATs, while mine are DB series V550. I have been using A-drives on my Swift for nearly 20,000
km now and have no complaints about comfort, grip or safety so far. Sidewall softness is an issue with most comfort tyres, I understand. Michelins are notorious for being terribly prone to sidewall failures as well.
For the price I found it a sweet deal. The Aceleres in their early life are pretty good but they don't age well. I am not enamoured by Bridgestone thanks to bad experiences on my Accent earlier, and Pirelli, CPC2 etc. were more expensive. Hence opted for these.
Need to be careful since subodh has already reported a tyre failure (sidewall issue again).
Warranty is 3 year/40,000 km for manufacturing defects only. Am told Car Ax (Bhandari) are god at honoring warranty when required.

Originally Posted by F150

I too want to smoke my swift's headlamps. How much did they charge ?

Car Cupid on Sus Road charges some 800/- purely for the smoking effect. However he confessed to me that he has had some issues since the paint faded/flaked off in most of the cars that he tried it on. Mine was fine, but it is an exception.
My bet is that Mr. Cupid is good for small, regular jobs but experimenting with him is a bit of an issue. The Chinese HIDs I got fitted are already causing issues- the ballasts fail very often and need to be replaced. Akshay1234 was right

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Experiences like these make me wonder if I should stick with the Apollos only - have had quite a satisfactory experience with them so far! Nothing exemplary so far, but still satisfying most of my requirements.

As for any tire brand, local or global, warranty claims hardly seem to be an option to be counted on. However does one need to pay the additional premium for the brand, is the question one needs to answer I guess.

No tyre manufacturer will honour warranty easily in India. Almost all the tyre failures seen will be due to bad roads and not due to manufacturing defect. Therefore it's pointless whether indian brand or foreign brand.

If your looking at options these are decent:

1. Bridgestone Turanza ER-60 - grip is decent not exemplary but these tyres can take solid abuse. Some sizes have a reinforced metal sidewall to prevent sidewall damage. Very heavy tyres and now a bit long in the tooth since they have been around a while.

2. Conti CPC2 - very good tyres. good balance between ride and grip. Soft sidewall but can take fair bit of abuse. Have seen these in action on old man (Rudra's) Optra and was impressed. They can take decent abuse going by the way he was driving in some stretches.

3. MRF ZLO - Hearing good reviews about these and they are vfm. Being so called performance tyres and softer compound could mean shorter life.

Pick your poison.

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by dkaile

There have been some bad experiences with the Yokos recently on the forum. They seem to have quite weak sidewalls compared to others and I suspect are not properly homogenised for Indian conditions. I would rather go for slightly higher road noise than lesser durability or having the fear of them bursting at high speeds.

I wouldn't say that for all Yokos, but rather only for the Geolanders. Infact I've seen a couple of other posts too about the Geolanders having soft sidewalls, and would now advise most to stay away from them. Otherwise I've run Yokos on a couple of my cars for over a lac of km's combined, without any issues.

Originally Posted by noopster

The Chinese HIDs I got fitted are already causing issues- the ballasts fail very often and need to be replaced. Akshay1234 was right

Nothing you can really do right now I'd suggest you switch out the HIDs for a set of good ones like P4 or Philips in 4300k, unless of course you wanna change out the projectors too.