[patron]

Originally Posted by patron

I think I will go with the PLC's.

Went for PLC.

Car: Civic V-AT
Mileage on ODO: 32000 ~
Where: Reliance Autozone - Basaveswarnagar
Which: Michelin Primacy LC - 205/65/R15
How much: Rs. 6200 /tyre inclusive of trade-in and fitment and balancing. Free: few sachets of shampoo and polish
Feedback:
Noise: Maybe its me but I did not see any perceivable difference in the tyre noise (previous tyres were stock NCTs)
Comfort: Same as above.
Steering Response: Definitely lighter now. I like it.
GC: Already had coil spring adjusters installed and the GC was good. Now with the upsized tyres, GC just got better. Used to scrape my office parking ramp even with the adjusters, this morning, it was smooth sailing down the ramp. So another +. Of course, nothing to do with the tyre itself.
Mileage: Too early to say. Filled the tank as soon as I replaced the tyres. Will update on the mileage on the next refill.

Overall: Neutral. I don't see the value for the so called premium tyres from Michelin. But like I said, it's probably me. But then I did not cover much distance since replacing the tyres. Going on a road trip to Hyderabad tomorrow. Hopefully I will get a better understanding of the tyres and a feedback will follow.

[csentil]

CPC2 are good tyres. Have got it for more than a year on my Civic. Get in touch with Madhu's in Bangalore. I got it from them.

[sumeethaldankar]

Called up Bombay tyres at Milan subway to inquire about the Bridgestone Turanza ER60 for my civic.I was told Turanza 60 is not available for Civic and only e300 is for the Civic.Also was quoted 5250 for each tyre.
Is is true that ER60 are not available for the Civic and does the price seem right.I was told there is scope for negotiations on the price after considering exchanging the old tyres and also for the alloys for my old 800.

thanks

[spadix]

Originally Posted by patron

Feedback:
Noise: Maybe its me but I did not see any perceivable difference in the tyre noise (previous tyres were stock NCTs)
Comfort: Same as above.
Steering Response: Definitely lighter now. I like it.
GC: Already had coil spring adjusters installed and the GC was good. Now with the upsized tyres, GC just got better. Used to scrape my office parking ramp even with the adjusters, this morning, it was smooth sailing down the ramp. So another +. Of course, nothing to do with the tyre itself.

Nice initial report, Patron!

I'm surprised you say there's no difference in noise levels. The stock NCT5s have gotten a fair bit of stick in the forums, and I think deservedly so. The tyre noise is frightful at high speeds on certain types of roads.

It's good to see that steering response seems better even with the bigger contact patch (205 vs. 195). Are you sure it's not got anything to do with air pressure?

These coil spring adjusters you talk about - are these the same as the rubber O-ring jugaad that GTO and some other Mumbai Civic owners have done?

I'll wait keenly for your F/E report. That would be interesting. When it's time for me to upgrade my car's tyres I was going to look at 195/65 only to keep things as close to stock as possible. If 205/65 offers about the same F/E I think I'll upsize. Of course my tyres have only done 12 months/17k kms so far so the upgrade is a couple of years away at least.

The one obvious/immediate downside seems to be the price. I was somehow expecting replacement PLCs to cost 5k per tyre (w/o balancing and adjustment).

Regards,
spadix

[patron]

Originally Posted by spadix

Nice initial report, Patron!

I'm surprised you say there's no difference in noise levels. The stock NCT5s have gotten a fair bit of stick in the forums, and I think deservedly so. The tyre noise is frightful at high speeds on certain types of roads.

It's good to see that steering response seems better even with the bigger contact patch (205 vs. 195). Are you sure it's not got anything to do with air pressure?

These coil spring adjusters you talk about - are these the same as the rubber O-ring jugaad that GTO and some other Mumbai Civic owners have done?

I'll wait keenly for your F/E report. That would be interesting. When it's time for me to upgrade my car's tyres I was going to look at 195/65 only to keep things as close to stock as possible. If 205/65 offers about the same F/E I think I'll upsize. Of course my tyres have only done 12 months/17k kms so far so the upgrade is a couple of years away at least.

The one obvious/immediate downside seems to be the price. I was somehow expecting replacement PLCs to cost 5k per tyre (w/o balancing and adjustment).

Regards,
spadix

I drove to Hyderabad this morning and with some sensible and some spirited driving reached in 5hr 30mins.
Mileage update: 13.3kmpl
On a previous trip on highways i got anywhere between 11 and 13 with similar driving style. But i did touch 19kmpl once with extremely sedate driving once (80-90kmph).
Will update on the mileage with exclusive city driving soon.

Seems decent for the driving style. Mine is an AT.
Agree the price is steep but in my experience the reviews on PLCs are hyped. All tyres are more or less the same with each having their own pros and cons. Go for something that lasts longer than others.
I have my Tyre pressure at 32.

Yes the same adjusters as what GTO installed.

Again, I still don't see much difference in the road noise levels compared to the NCTs. :(

[normally_crazy]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

Called up Bombay tyres at Milan subway to inquire about the Bridgestone Turanza ER60 for my civic.I was told Turanza 60 is not available for Civic and only e300 is for the Civic.Also was quoted 5250 for each tyre.
Is is true that ER60 are not available for the Civic and does the price seem right.I was told there is scope for negotiations on the price after considering exchanging the old tyres and also for the alloys for my old 800.

thanks

Got a quote of 4800 for the E300's 205/65 R15 - they are OE on the Altis and a bit noisy.

Also got the following qoutes in R15

Yoko A drives - 5000
Yoko C drives - 5300
Michellin PLC - 6200
Conti - 5800


Will confirm again tomorrow.

[patron]

Originally Posted by patron

I drove to Hyderabad this morning and with some sensible and some spirited driving reached in 5hr 30mins.
Mileage update: 13.3kmpl
On a previous trip on highways i got anywhere between 11 and 13 with similar driving style. But i did touch 19kmpl once with extremely sedate driving once (80-90kmph).
Will update on the mileage with exclusive city driving soon.

Seems decent for the driving style. Mine is an AT.
Agree the price is steep but in my experience the reviews on PLCs are hyped. All tyres are more or less the same with each having their own pros and cons. Go for something that lasts longer than others.
I have my Tyre pressure at 32.

Yes the same adjusters as what GTO installed.

Again, I still don't see much difference in the road noise levels compared to the NCTs. :(

Back from Hyderabad and here are the mileage figures for the return trip:

Total kms - Door - Door - 578 kms
Total fuel consumed: FT-FT: 35.1 L
Mileage: 16.46 kmpl

This was steady driving at ~ 90 kmph with a broken wheel bearing.

Wheel noise: Well...

[sumeethaldankar]

I noticed in BS there is no size for 205 60 R 15 for the ER300 but the same is available in Potenza GIII so will that be the way the to go if i were to upgrade to a larger size ? I am not cosidering other brands as i do not want a tyre with a soft sidewall.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by patron

This was steady driving at ~ 90 kmph with a broken wheel bearing.

Wheel noise: Well...

What happened!? Did it happen enroute? If not, why didn't you get it fixed before starting from Hyd?

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

I noticed in BS there is no size for 205 60 R 15 for the ER300 but the same is available in Potenza GIII so will that be the way the to go if i were to upgrade to a larger size ? I am not cosidering other brands as i do not want a tyre with a soft sidewall.

There is at least one other way - 205/55 R16.

Regards,
spadix

[khoj]

CAUTION All of you who are looking at the Yokohama AVS dB please understand that these are great tires but they are "Rotational" tires by design and can rotate in only one direction. In everyday life what this means is that once mounted you will not be able to switch a tire from the left side of the vehicle on to the right and vice versa without first dismounting the tire from the wheel, flipping it and remounting it. The recourse is to have a non rotational spare tire which can do duty on either side of the vehicle.



See mid bottom of above photo and you can see the direction of rotation clearly marked. This is the only shortcoming (if you can call it that) in this tire otherwise it is an excellent buy.

The second choice after this would be the C drive. This tire also incorporates the dB technology but is non rotational and from n_c's post, clearly is pocket friendly too.

CPC2 are good tires and are fitted on a lot of German vehicles as OE, maybe someone here who has used this make can share their experience(s).

Bridgestone Turanza ER300 has sizes suitable for the Civic.

[patron]

Originally Posted by spadix

What happened!? Did it happen enroute? If not, why didn't you get it fixed before starting from Hyd?

I posted what happened here:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post2455720

[sushrutha]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

I noticed in BS there is no size for 205 60 R 15 for the ER300 but the same is available in Potenza GIII so will that be the way the to go if i were to upgrade to a larger size ? I am not cosidering other brands as i do not want a tyre with a soft sidewall.

The tyre profile is available in YOKOHAMA & Michelin too.
But both these tyres are way too soft.

Originally Posted by khoj

CAUTION All of you who are looking at the Yokohama AVS dB please understand that these are great tires but they are "Rotational" tires by design and can rotate in only one direction. .

I agree, they are good tyres in every other sense except when braking at wet surface.
I would say very bad braking in wet when compared with Michelin.
Positives - No noise (silica based) at all. Good at dry braking. No drop in F.E.

CPC2 are good tires and are fitted on a lot of German vehicles as OE, maybe someone here who has used this make can share their experience(s).

I have tried CPC2, they are very good tyres indeed, I would say they are next to Michelin as per my experience.
They would pick up in sales, if they are marketed properly.

[The Saint]

I have Michelin PLC since last 1year or so, have done 2 delhi trips and couple of pune trips, I have 215/55/R16 on a OEM civic international market design, love the tyres, good handling, great on corners, awesome in rains, nothing to complaint.

Cheers

[khoj]

Originally Posted by sushrutha

The tyre profile is available in YOKOHAMA & Michelin too.
But both these tyres are way too soft.

I agree, they are good tyres in every other sense except when braking at wet surface.
I would say very bad braking in wet when compared with Michelin.

I am going to disagree with you on both of the above points as far as the Yokohama AVS dB 550 tires are concerned.

I have had no issues with the dB's side walls and this despite of the broken and patchy terrain that I traverse in the course of my work as also my driving style where I have no issues in dropping the left on to the muddy cracked shoulder which invariably is well not the ideal surface for any tire. In fact on my recent BOM to DEL run with a fully loaded car and a highway replete with stripped surfaces complete with ruts and potholes, I never faced an issue with any of the tires flexing to a degree that would result in the wheel impacting the surface. Anyone who has soft side wall tires on their rides and have hit a pot hole dead center would know that sickening sound as this happens. Guess what with the AVS dBs I have completely forgotten what that thud feels like. The tires have been on MDR roads, village roads, village embankments with no roads but plenty of stones (aggregate) laid out and then left as is, over the past year and a half without any problems. I have driven on similar roads in the past with Bridgestones and Michelins and have first hand experience of what these surfaces can do to the rubber.

Coming to the grip. Once again the dBs have always performed admirably under all sort of weather conditions on all types of surfaces. I have not had a single issue in the past 15 odd months that I have had with these tires driving 16000 kms and this does includes two monsoons in Bombay and it's surrounding highway network apart from the city roads. The dB's have always come through for me in critical braking situations and infact are so grippy that I have on several occassions confidently changed my vehicle's trajectory in the middle of sharp curves to overtake / avoid traffic at triple digit speeds on wet surfaces going wetter.

I have driven extensively using Michelin's too and have found some of their products to be exemplary, even today my other two vehicles run on Michelin products. However, as far as I am concerned for my personal ride I find the AVS dB 550 to be the best tire available in the current times.

[nitrous]

Originally Posted by khoj

CAUTION All of you who are looking at the Yokohama AVS dB please understand that these are great tires but they are "Rotational" tires by design and can rotate in only one direction.

The term is 'directional'.
And it isn't a big deal if you run it in the other direction sparingly.