This is my first post in TeamBHP. First of all congrats for making such a great site for Indian auto enthusiasists.
I have also recently booked a Swift Vxi non ABS version. After the booking I have been browsing this site day and night and virtually gone through every post to try to find the right accessories for my car. I am looking for a tyre upgrade like all Swift Vxi owners. I have been doing my fare bit of research and have quite a bit of suggestions and questions for Team BHPians to answer. Firstly after going extensively through the Pros and Cons of a tyre upgrade here is what the key aspects are involving a tyre upgrade from a laymans prespective:
1) The looks of the tyres and the rims (Fatter tyres the better, bigger rims the better)
2) Car handling and performance while cornering road grip (Fatter tyres better handling and road grip)
3) Car comfort, shock absorbtion on bumps, and feul economy (The thinner the tyre the better)
Since points 1 and 2 contradict point 3 and all these three points are important thus a compromise has to be achieved while deciding which tyre to buy. Now after thorough research I went to the market yesterday (Karol Bagh). I saw virtually 100's of Swifts being worked on by tyre/alloys people. Mostly owners were upsizing to 185/65, 195/65 and 195/60 etc with (foriegn looking) tyres such as Goodyear Ventura, NCT5, Bridgestone GIII and Micheline Certis. My heart had me going for such an upgrade as well, but common sense got better of me and I decided to upgrade my car no more than 185/70 as the factory fitted on Zxi, a great compromise between comfort, FE and performace. And boy was I to be proved right, I just read an article in the messageboard in
www.indiacar.com questions to autoguru the following:
B Singh question :
recently i owened maruti swift vxi car and upgraded its tyre from jk tornado 165/80/14 to nexen p 2000 205/60/14 but ground clearance become low and now it is difficult to negotiate speed breakers some time underbody of car touches what should i do to raise suspension for better ground clearance Indiacar's answer :
Dear Mr. Singh, it was wrong on your part to go for this uosize, as now ground clearance has been substancially compromised. You could put pads above the shock-abs to raise ground clearance, but that will ruin car suspension and hence absolutely not recommended. My sincere advice is to return these tyres and go for 185/70R14 as tyre upsize
Of course the guy had not calculated the speedo error or ground clearance factor before the upgrade and paid the price. For any novices who want to know how to calculate a safe upgrade on their car, please goto the following link, it has a tyre size calculator. Please make sure that the new tyre and the old tyre dont differ more than 3%:
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http://www.chris-longhurst.com/carbi...yre_bible.html>
Right now its a sellers market with everyone trying to upgrade. So the guy at Karol Bagh was offering me 1000 Rs per tyre.
The options of tyres available to me were:
195/60/14 Good Year NCT5 for 2400
195/65/14 Good Year Ventura for 2600
185/70/14 Good Year Standard tyres for 2300
185/70/14 JK Tyre of the Swift Zxi 2100
185/70/14 Bridgestone Potenza GIII 3000
185/65/14 Bridgestone Potenza GIII 2600
185/70/14 Michelin Certis 3100
Of these tyres, my father wanted to go for the 185/70 Michelin Certis and I wanted to go for the 185/70 Potenza GIII. However I think the guy selling the GIII is overpricing it, as I find it difficult to understand why would a Potenza GIII in one shop for 185/65 be 2650 and why will a guy at another shop give me 185/70 for 3000. Since that was the only shop that had that size, my options are limited and need advise from Team BHPians. Do they know any other shops in Delhi? What is the cost that I should get for my JK stocks in exchange?
Now comes the Alloys part. The GoodYear shop showed me League alloys in hypersilver and Full Mehive (cant read what the guy has written) for 15k and 14k. League LG 194 for 15k and LG 159 and 160 for 14k.
The guy who was selling Bridgestone Potenza GIII was demanding 14k for Hyperblack Millenium alloys and I dont know which company is better.
I really want to go for Potenza GIII as I want to gain in comfort and ride department after upsizing to a better rubber. But its rare to get a GIII in 185/70/14 size. Is 3000 Rs of the 185/70/14 Potenza reasonable? And is 1000Rs for my JK tyre reasonable? Why 185/65/14 Potenza cost so less?
Lastly what is the offset value of Swift when buying Alloys. No Alloy sellers know about this, all they know its 6J*14. If the TEAM BHPians can help me with this, its greatly appreciated.
How does Certis compare to the Potenza GIII, the look department wise, its Potenza all the way, but any suggestions. Also I have seen that if I upsize to R15 I get a lot many choices for Alloys and tyres, I can do the calculator thingie and find the right size, but I dont want this to effect by riding comfort and feul economy. So please guys, in short, HELP!!!