[saket77]

Hello BHPians!

In a world where tire reviews mostly revolve around the Michelins, Pirellis and the likes, you may ask why GY and particularly Assurance tires which are incidentally also OE fitment for many cars rolling out of factories these days. What's so special about them so that they are commanding this writing and some precious real estate on our forum. Well read on to discover...

The need of rubbers arose since the ones in my Civic needed replacement as they completed 6 years. The outgoing Pirellis P4s had done about 33K kms and still had a good amount of tread left on them, probably at least for 10-12K kms more. They were a good set of tires which performed flawlessly, had decent grip levels, had low noise and were comfortable at the same time. In short, it was an all-rounder, a very good all-rounder, doing most things much better than average. If I was not pressed against my limited budget, I would have gone for them for sure again.

So, the search began to get the best in a budget. It is when I started scouting for this peculiar size, 195/65 R15, I came to know that I had a limited number of choices available. This isn't a fast moving size as it is the stock size for only a handful of cars, mostly from the D segment, so availability was an issue. Another option was to upsize but honestly I never felt that the Civic is an under-tired car, hence was keen to go with the stock size.

The options:
1. MRF ZSLK ~Rs. 4500 per tire.
2. Michelin ~ Rs. 6500 per tire.
3. Bridgestone B250 ~ Rs. 5800 per tire.
4. Yokohama EARTH-1 ~Rs. 5700 per tire.
5. Goodyear Assurance~ Rs. 4500 per tire.
6. Goodyear Assurance Triplemax : My tire@ Rs. 4650/-
7. Apollo Accelere: not available.

* All prices from Ranchi local market.

The variant ZSLK From MRF were average set of rubbers, good enough for a layman. The tread pattern was nothing special to write about. Just another tire on road. Pricing reaffirms the thought. Pricing and availability (factory fresh tires were available) was good but it was not for me. They were out from my consideration list.

MRF ZSLK

Michelins were not considered, not because of their pricing but due to my horrible experience with them. Read here: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...e-failure.html

Yokohama, well, if I had not got the current set, My car would have been driving on Yokos for sure. Earth-1 tires were good on most fronts as per the reviews. The tread pattern was lovely and anyone would like to have them on their ride. Priced reasonably for a premium tire (well almost), I liked them.

Yoko Earth-1

Bridgestone: I have a B250 as the spare tire in my Civic, hence knew what to expect; except for the price. I was quoted Rs. 5800 per tire and I felt it was too much money for what B250s actually are. Don't get me wrong, they are decent tires but just not at this price point.

Bridgestone B250


Apollo Accelere: I noticed these tires on some cars as OE fitment and they looked very promising. The tread pattern and the build quality were right up there with the premium ones. Much better than what OE tires should be. Honestly I was impressed but didn't know about the durability aspect. I later came to know that these tires have been replaced by Alnac and they weren't available in the size I was interested in. Else, they would have made for a strong contender.

Apollo Alnac


Goodyear: GY offered 4 tires in this size- Assurance, Assurance Triple Max, Eagle NCT5 and Eagle F1. The Assurance Triple Max had a 2 year unconditional replacement warranty which was great 'assurance - pun intended! I did not like the strange tread pattern on F1 and NCT looked like a very basic tire, hence these 2 were not considered.

By now, I had my priorities set. My first priority was grip level- both wet and dry, then road noise and comfort. As per the fact sheet provided by GY, I narrowed down my choice to Assurance Triple Max based on my priorities. These tires were supposed to have excellent grip levels. But scouting for an unusual size and asking for factory fresh tires is probably a bit too much. The tires I wanted were lying at dealers stockyard for over an year now. Surely I wasn't shelling anything for them. The dealer offered a good discount on them and of course the unconditional warranty too but that didn't cut the ice for me. BHPian and good friend Shashi came to the rescue. He had good contacts with the dealer and an order was placed to GY to get as fresh tires as possible without a single penny as advance

The tires arrived after more than a month & were less than 3-4 months old. Paid Rs. 4650 per tire for them. Replaced all valves for Rs. 100/- each, hence the total bill for 4 tires & 4 valves added to Rs. 19K.

GoodYear Assurance Triple Max

Coming to Performance of these tires on various grounds:

Dry Grip: Outstanding. It just grips, grips and grips. Spot braking at moderate speed did not let the ABS kick in. The car holds the line perfectly and stops without any drama. Fully satisfied with the grip levels. On another note, the tires in this particular size have a 'V' speed rating which do say a thing or two about its ability.
Dry grip rating = 5/5.

Wet grip: Still to test it but the tread pattern looks good for it too with longitudinal ribs running through the center along the entire circumference. It is sold with a USP of excellent wet grip. I have reasons to believe it but I will reserve my final comments after I'm done with my practicals.

Comfort: if you are looking for a comfortable tire which can give you a feel of gliding over potholes then please don't bother reading further. These are not for you. Whenever these tires fall for ruts and potholes, they will make sure that you know it. 6 year old Pirellis were still better on this front. These set of rubbers are just average in this department.
My rating for Comfort = 3/5

Road noise: Initially I was a little disappointed with this one. But probably as the top wax layer went off, the faint noise subsided. Especially when the tire warms up after a few kms, road noise is not an issue. They are satisfactorily silent, esp at higher speeds. As stated, I was initially little disappointed, but after a few hundred kms, I can say that road noise is definitely well controlled and is not worth bothering at all. I would give it a 4.
Road Noise= 4/5.

Other factors:

Looks: They look a notch below premium tires for sure. But the tread pattern is good to look at. Build quality seems very good for the price. I cannot complain.

Fuel efficiency: GY claims lower rolling resistance and an improved FE with these tires. I am sure that I will never notice it. Any gains in FE, if at all, will be marginal which according to me can only be verified in lab test conditions and not in real world. And even if it could be, surely I'm not the right person to check and even comment on it. All I can say, if at all, it's good to have.

One of the biggest 'Assurance': The 2 year unconditional warranty by Goodyear.: This was a reinforcing factor for this purchase. Actually I would go on to say that this is the only warranty which you can expect the manufacturer to honour. There are more than a dozen million ways to escape honoring the regular warranty of 3-5 years that most tire manufacturers provide by blaming the driver, the car, the roads in your locality, the direction of blowing wind, etc. In short other 'external factors' beyond control of even the almighty.

This unconditional warranty comes as quite a relief. Though you pay for actual tread wear but still keeps you worry free largely.

So, my hunt for good tires in a budget ended with getting the Goodyear Assurance Triple Max tires and I can surely say that I am happy with them. I hope this review will help people who are looking for value for money tires. I do believe that these tires are a good buy at the given price and do offer decent performance on most grounds. They are certainly not 'god' of all tires out there but they are certainly all rounders.

Thanks for reading guys! Drive safe!!

Disclaimer: I am in no way connected to Goodyear.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Tyres Section. Thanks for sharing!

[rambo1o1]

I have experienced these same tyres that came as stock on my ciaz. I must say that my 35k km experience exactly mirrors with your observations. In addition, the Wet grip is quite good, adequate grip on wet roads at triple digit speeds.

I was in the process of fitting my figo with the Assurance TM tyres but the cost was 600rs more per tyre than the yoko earth 1, so decided to give the yokos a try based on positive Bhpian reviews.
I wouldn't be able to compare the two tires since the ciaz and figo have dynamically different suspension setup. But I will be switching to earth 1s on my ciaz since the current Assuarance TM are worn out.35k seems very less for 4 tires to be completely worn out but i guess its due to my dads driving style, the Yoko A drives and Michelin xm1+ dint last any longer on our previous Honda city , hence i would be in a better position to compare the behavior and life of the two tyres on the same car.

Regards

[sumeethaldankar]

I am surprised the B250 retails at 5800. I inquired about Bridgestone T001 Turanza and i was quoted 5600 a piece for factory size . Any reasons for not considering the Turanza ?

I am still on the fence for my tire change and forget the brands i am not able to decide whether i should continue with the up sized or go stock. I am quite inclined towards the factory size (195 65) vs the larger (205 65) as the latter makes the steering heavier and the car slower off the mark.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

I am surprised the B250 retails at 5800. I inquired about Bridgestone T001 Turanza and i was quoted 5600 a piece for factory size . Any reasons for not considering the Turanza ?

I was surprised as well. B250 are average tires and I was shocked to see the quote. Could have been an error on dealers part, but this was the quote given.
Reason for not considering Turanzas was number one: price - if B250 was quoted at 5800, I wasn't expecting anything lower than 6500 for Turanzas. And number 2 reason: availability. I don't know about availability at your place Sumeet but at Ranchi, scouting for this size was a task in itself.

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

I am still on the fence for my tire change and forget the brands i am not able to decide whether i should continue with the up sized or go stock. I am quite inclined towards the factory size (195 65) vs the larger (205 65) as the latter makes the steering heavier and the car slower off the mark.

In my opinion, go for stock size. As mentioned and as felt in real world, Civic is not at all an under-tired car. Grip levels are not an issue even with 195s. A 205 section rubber will unnecessarily make the steering heavier and pick up will be slower besides reduced fuel efficiency.

Regards,
Saket.

[CARDEEP]

So my Aspire, which has run almost 21k off late, got set of new Goodyear Assurance Triplemax Tyres ~ 175/65/R14 this Sunday. This wasn't a planned change & I wanted 185/65/R14 (Michelin or Yokohama) instead. But, as @espraveen as mentioned in his thread, the MRF Z2VKs has quality issues, which even I was experiencing, the Service Adviser suggested changing them when I went for 20k service on the 12th Nov.
To put in simple words MRF's had deformed & outside agency confirmed that 3 of the tyres had deformed & the 4th was only bit better.
Coming back to the captioned tyres, I'm of the opinion these are in the league of best. The Ride is silent & cushy & I feel there could be marginal improvement in economy. I would also confirm that these are bit wider than the stock MRFs & look extremely good.
Further, since my car had run 20k kms, I was offered 50% discount on the warranty exchange. In all, I spent Rs.9,131 on the new set of 4 tyres + alignment+balancing (at dealership) & peace of mind.
I would definitely recommend these to others.

[CARDEEP]

Lost one of the new tyres - front one driver side to a piece of rock today morning. Thankfully I was driving slow so major damage was averted. Basically the sidewall gave way to sharp edge of the rock & the tyre is unusable. Running on spare till Sunday.

Apparently, the sidewall is quite soft, due to which it gave way to sharp edge easily. Now I'm in a fix to go for Goodyear Assurance Triplemax Tyre as replacement or any other one.

[sandeepmdas]

Using a tyre with a different tread pattern is not advisable and you should replace it another Triplemax, IMO. Keep the spare as it is.

Originally Posted by CARDEEP

To put in simple words MRF's had deformed & outside agency confirmed that 3 of the tyres had deformed & the 4th was only bit better.

Originally Posted by CARDEEP

Lost one of the new tyres - front one driver side to a piece of rock today morning.

I'm not flaming you but either your driving style is slightly off-roadish/devil-may-care-my-tyres or your daily commute is through an area that features really harsh terrain conditions.

[saket77]

These tires come with unconditional warranty. You should be able to get free replacement for it.

Regards.

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by CARDEEP

Apparently, the sidewall is quite soft, due to which it gave way to sharp edge easily. Now I'm in a fix to go for Goodyear Assurance Triplemax Tyre as replacement or any other one.

How old was that tyre?? If its not more than 2 years old, then you are eligible for a free replacement.

I got my Goodyears replaced twice because of sidewall cut(entirely my fault and carelessness) under the same unconditional warranty.

BHPian sidindica had a similar experience when GoodYear replaced his tyre which was damaged by a sharp object.- http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post4117878

Regards,
Shashi

[sumeethaldankar]

How are the tires fairing? Any update on them?

[saket77]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

How are the tires fairing? Any update on them?

Hi Sumeet!
I have put up around 2500 kms only on these tires but to share my views, the performance is very satisfactory. If anything I would like to change in my original review then it will be the noise factor. The tires are now quieter than when they were new.
In short, absolutely no regrets that I bought them. Dry/ Wet grip is really good.

Regards,
Saket.

[CARDEEP]

The damaged tyre was replaced by Goodyear for nominal charge in February. The delay at Service Center & company end.

The tyres have performed flawlessly since then. Still I'm not 100% convinced, maybe marginal difference between the Michelin (middle class luxury IMO) that I have used in the past. But price difference is too much to ignore the Goodyear Triplemax Tyres.

[Tapish]

I got the same tyre for my i20 today. I was looking at Yokohama Earth 1 as well but there was a price gap so thought of giving this a try based on the reviews here. I got the 195/60/R16 for 6200 each. Changemytyre was quoting 6400-6700 for the same tyre in Ahmedabad.

There is some tyre noise but its better than the B250 that the car was riding on. The Bridgestones came with the car in 2015 and have done 33k till now. Will post a detailed review as I use them.

Tapish

[shifu]

I am in the lookout for replacing my Polo's stock tyres. I was at the service center today and he was offering the GY assurance triple max at Rs 20k for 4. This is with a Rs 200 discount per tire.

5k per tyre for a GY tire seemed slightly expensive. But looking at this glowing review, I will check if there is a dealer who can sell it at a reasonable price...

Thanks for the review!