[WasavaTyres]

Originally Posted by nithinnarayanan

Long time buddy.

How is the steering now?
You had complaints about your steering being very hard while you were running the goodyear's.

Too many people put the Eagle F1's on thier cars purely for the looks not realizing that they are hard compound tyres not meant for everyday driving. And end up complaining about the performance.

[iraghava]

Originally Posted by kalidas

As you can see, I'm claiming all tires to be more or less equally equipped to do regular work. It's also very hard to give comparative opinion on tires. You'll practically need to drive the same car in quick succession of tire changes and you'll need to perform standard skid, roll tests to find out which tire is better than the other. Do you believe "we" the non-testers can even comment on which tire is better? Seeing that tires in essence don't differ is straightforward though. It's easy to see how an engine is different from another (even there people get wrong bigtime), but how do you differentiate tires without changing them on the same (or same built) car in quick succession and doing the above mentioned tests that I talked about?

Well guess what, I drove the same car for 200,000 kms on a variety of set of tyres, the list is below:

1. Bridgestone Potenza RE88 185/60 R14
2. Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD2 185/60 R14
3. Michelin Energy 185/65 R14
4. Michelin Pilot Preceda 195/60 R14
5. Michelin Pilot Preceda 185/60 R14
6. Yokohama A.Drive 185/65 R14

Now after this analysis on the same route/roads year after year I think I'm fairly qualified to state what I think are my findings about the various brands of tyres available in our market and how they perform.

P.S. Note that this is only one example of a car I've owned in the past few years that I'm mentioning and not bringing up the others. And the car was a 2001 Honda City VTEC.

Originally Posted by kalidas

So far as tire making goes, Indian manufactures are good enough and evolving. Continental, Michelin, Goodyear are great companies but not the likes of Bridgestone whose roots are not in innovation, even though they make smashingly good products (now), it must be acknowledged.

No they are not. Why do you think no single manufacturer has an international presence? Only because we have not a single product which is internationally competitive. All the above mentioned produce their quality stuff outside India.

Originally Posted by kalidas

Having said that, how many posts have we seen here on the Eagle or EagleF1 which are great tires for mid-end to high-end applications???

Says who?? I ran a set (F1 GS D2) and was disappointed to the core and others confirmed the situation. Do you want details on how crappy the tires were??

Originally Posted by kalidas

Let's check the facts: We run on road, not on track. We stay close to speed limits and we don't abuse our car. And any tire is as good as any other. Our carmakers are yet to come of age, and they will. But our tiremakers are good and racing.

No they're not. The car makers might disagree but good tyres are a blessing and something that I would give up a lot to get to.

Originally Posted by WasavaTyres

Too many people put the Eagle F1's on their cars purely for the looks not realizing that they are hard compound tyres not meant for everyday driving. And end up complaining about the performance.

Exactly WT! People need to learn this man! Thanks!!

[nithinnarayanan]

I totally agree with you Ishan and WT.

Well after changing the following tyres on the same car totally disagree with kalidas.

Appolo Acelere 185/60 R 14 (Present, 4th Set)
Appolo Acelere Sportz 185/60 R 14 (3rd Set)
Goodyear Eagle F1 185/60 R 14 (2nd Set)
Michelin Pilot Preceda 2 195/60 R 14 (1st Set)

I would quote Ishan here, that good tyres are a blessing and something that I would give up a lot to get to.

This is the reason I chose Appolo Acelere again for my 4th set

Cheers
Nithin

[mathewpn]

Nithin,
Steering whell is now very light, tyre noise is almost zero and very good ride comfort. I realised all these only after changing the tyre :-( . Poor me, I was having low mileage, pickup and a very tight steering wheel for the last 40,000 kms. But trust me, the looks were awesome, but that thats not all what we want.

Originally Posted by nithinnarayanan

Long time buddy.

How is the steering now?
You had complaints about your steering being very hard while you were running the goodyear's.

[DocG]

Originally Posted by iraghava

No they are not. Why do you think no single manufacturer has an international presence? Only because we have not a single product which is internationally competitive. All the above mentioned produce their quality stuff outside India.

Sir actually you're wrong on that front. YHI who market brands like Yokohama, Enkei, OZ, Konig and also manufacture alloy wheels for the mentioned companies on contract also happen to represent JK Tyre.

I've also heard that MRF export some tyres (commercial segment).

True that in the arena of passenger tyres our Indian companies fall behind the likes of Michelin, Goodyear, Bridgestone etc, but think about it this way. If we don't show support for our own products then how will they ever improve?

I'm not asking people to slap on apollos on Ferraris, but if you have sedate driving, and need a workhorse of a tyre, then by all means consider the apollos which seem to be a decent tyre.

[Scorp72]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

Why not the Continental CPC2? And how come no Yokohamas in your list?

Have'n researched the CPC2, so no opinion. As for Yoko, i have heard mixed response. I have the Eagle NCT5 and they are ok tyres. No major complains as such. Only sometimes when braking I feel that my car could have stopped a little earlier than it does. Not sure if it is the grip level. But I have driven it on wet roads and the grip was fine.
Another option is the Kumho, which have been talked about as being pretty good & value for money.

[sohail99]

Hi fellow BHPians!

I'll be taking delivery of my Hyundai i20 tomorrow morning and after that I'm driving straight to the tyre shop.

i20 comes with 185/65 R14 Apollo Accelere(mine is Asta variant, so it has alloys)

I'll be getting either Michelin XM1+ or Yokohama.

I called up the shop and the guy said that I should get 195/65 R14

Will there be any speedo/Odo error if I switch to wider rubber while retaining the dia?(I know wider rubber = better road holding + decreased FE!)

[iraghava]

Why do you want to change the tyres? The Accelere's are pretty good tyres as is.

[Nikhilb2008]

I agree with iraghava. No point in upsizing. The OEM tyres are pretty good. You will just be throwing away money!

[sohail99]

Was getting an awesome deal for A-drives if I gave in the apollo aceleres!

Tyre guy quoted 5k for all 5 tyre replacement(A-drives) with same spec.

and 7K for 5 tyres of 195/65 R14 spec!

Should I go for it?
Personally, a part of me says to replace the tyres and other part says, don't!
+ someone reported aquaplaning on aceleres during a TD of i20!!

Pls help! :(

[tsk13]

Sohail, while getting the tyre upgrade on a friend's i20, we witnessed that the stock Apollo 185 and upgraded Michelin XM1+ 195 had no visible difference. Maybe on account of the rim width, the 195's were not looking that broad. We ended up getting stock Michelins only; moreover as Nikhil and Ishan are praiseworthy of Acelers, so am I as my i20 is running on stock Apollos refrain from the upgrade.

Moreover, I'll suggest to go for some other Yokohama tyre (other than A-Drive) or go for XM1+ if you're still considering an upgrade.

[sohail99]

Thanks a lot tsk13!

Will check out other options.
And I'll be getting only the stock replacements then!

[CorsaLove]

My I20 will be only seen with 185/65 R14 Apollo Accelere.

They are good and one of the best tyres offered as OEM. Although a bit noisy on rough roads, I can still live with it and would not want to upgrade.

Sohail - If you really want to put in some $$$ on the car, try some better looking Alloys instead of changing the tyres.

Keep us posted.

[tsk13]

Originally Posted by sohail99

Thanks a lot tsk13!

Will check out other options.
And I'll be getting only the stock replacements then!

You're welcome. For other options in stock, Nikhil and Ishan shall help you out. By the way, do check Yokohama A539 and S.Drive.

Originally Posted by CorsaLove

Sohail - If you really want to put in some $$$ on the car, try some better looking Alloys instead of changing the tyres.

Keep us posted.

CL, won't warranty claims be a issue if he changes the alloys? I think it is, that's why my i20 is still having stock alloys. Let the warranty expire and 15" alloys will don the i20.

[CorsaLove]

Originally Posted by tsk13

You're welcome. For other options in stock, Nikhil and Ishan shall help you out. By the way, do check Yokohama A539 and S.Drive.


CL, won't warranty claims be a issue if he changes the alloys? I think it is, that's why my i20 is still having stock alloys. Let the warranty expire and 15" alloys will don the i20.

True TSK - I'm not aware of the warranty side of things as I did not check about it cause I'm very happy with the OEM's. May be they would be void if you shift alloys but not with similar size I guess.