[no1lives4ever]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 2003 baleno Lxi. When I bought the car, I got the tyres changed to 185 70R13 Goodyear Ducaro with a set of 5 13" alloy wheels.. These tyres are pretty worn off now and the grip is quite bad.. I am looking at getting a new set of tyres. My main crieteria is performance, and here are a few options given by my tyre dealer

1. Yokohama A Drive 185 70R13 @ Rs. 3150/- per tyre - This is what my dealer is recommending
2. Bridgestone Potenza GIII 185 70R13 @ Rs.3100/- per tyre
3. Yokohama A Drive 195 60R14 @ Rs.3600/- per tyre
4. Bridgestone Potenza GIII 195 60R14 @ Rs.3250/- per tyre

My dealer recommends getting only 4 new tyres in 13" rim size and using one of the existing tyres as spare. For 14" rims he is recommending a set of 4 Plati alloy rims for around 12,500/- a set.

Now what would be a good option from the above in terms of performance. With the current tyres, the car feels like it is flying when I take it above 130km/h on the G. Noida expressway and I have had cases of skidding when cornering with hard barking.. I am not really that bothered about looks.

-- no1lives4ever
PS: I am from Delhi..

[v1p3r]

If you corner and brake hard at the same time, you WILL skid. You can have competition slicks but a Baleno will still slide when upset in a corner.

[Scorp72]

I have been researching on the same subject for a 185/70R13 size. I was thinking of the GT brand (cause I was getting it cheap at Rs 2100 ) but found Bridgestone Turanza ER-60 at Rs 3200 and the XM1+ at Rs 3600/- being better and more acceptable to many on this site. More and more people are recommending the XM1+.....though albeit costlier than the others.

[no1lives4ever]

Originally Posted by v1p3r

If you corner and brake hard at the same time, you WILL skid. You can have competition slicks but a Baleno will still slide when upset in a corner.

Hmm.. so will a tyre upgrade do nothing to the skidding and braking performance of a baleno? Or is it that a 185 70R13 tyre is decent enough and any skid problems caused with such tyres would be more due to the car getting upset than due to tyre problems?

-- no1lives4ever

[nitrous]

High speed Cornering and braking at the same time is bad driving technique unless its required to slow down.
Do this on a track to understand the dynamics.
Slowing down before entering the corner is the right technique.

[Akshay1234]

since you are ready to upsize rims and you want performance. theres only 1 thing to do. get 15" rims and get yoko s-drives in 205/50 r15. many balenos on the forum running that and there are no complaints.

[no1lives4ever]

Originally Posted by nitrous

High speed Cornering and braking at the same time is bad driving technique unless its required to slow down.
Do this on a track to understand the dynamics.
Slowing down before entering the corner is the right technique.

What I normally do is I apply brakes while car is straight, start removing brake pressure and start turning the stearing.. Be completely w/o any breaking force once i am in the turn with throttle applied as i start bringing the steering wheel back to straight ( I guess the correct term would be as i pass the apex of the turn).. This almost always keeps me out of trouble.. But then I mostly keep my speed down to sane levels.. A few times when I have tried taking turns at higher speeds I have faced skidding and I now do not try and drive very fast into corners..

I got the current set of tyres within 100kms of getting the car. During the first few months, I did drive the car hard and was able to to decent speeds into corners.. Once I had a case of car skidding across 1 lane when i applied only a touch of breaks while taking a not so hard curve at around 80km/h. And a few more times i had skids when I tried cornering at faster speeds.. Now I do not know if I had my foot on the breaks while i was in the corner, but I guess that is what must have happened as the car did not stop faster..

Now as far as race tracks are concerned, there is none that I can have access to which is within 1600km of my home, so I can not really get to test cornering dynamics in a safe manner anywhere close by :(

Some problems I am facing with the current set of tyres now is that the car has a tendency to loose grip at slightest of provocation.. And I do not at all feel confident to take the car above 130km/h as at higher speeds, the car just feels like it can skid at any moment with any kind of steering or brake inputs..

Originally Posted by akshay1234

since you are ready to upsize rims and you want performance. theres only 1 thing to do. get 15" rims and get yoko s-drives in 205/50 r15. many balenos on the forum running that and there are no complaints.

I have thought about it, but this option is frankly well out of my budget range.. Also with the car giving pretty poor mileage as it is, i wonder what kind of mileage i would get with a 205 tyre.. And finally the roads in India are pretty bad and I wonder how fast I will end up cracking a alloy rim with these lower profile tyres.. I used to frequently have bent rims on my Maruti 800 with stock tyres which I had before the baleno.. At least with the current set of tyre + alloy rim combo I have not faced the same kind of situation..

I am very seriously thinking about sticking with the current 13" alloys and getting a set of 185 70R13 tyres.. Is there any real benefit of getting a 14" rim and 195 60R14 tyres over getting 185 70R13 tyres with a 13" rims in terms of performance? I suppose the wider 195 tyres would reduce fuel efficiency of this car even further..

Now the only question is should I get Bridgestone Potenza GIII or the Yokohama A-Drive. Has anyone compared these 2 tyres on the same car?

Is there any real requirement for getting performance tyres for a car like the baleno? Or will most comfort & FE oriented tyres do well enough with this car? What do I gain by getting a performance oriented tyre? I am not really bothered about road noise, but what I am bothered about is the grip that tyres give when cornering or when breaking hard during an emergency.. And also wet weather performance, but then I mostly drive very slow in rains..

-- no1lives4ever

PS: My car is a April 2005 model and not 2003 model as I had put it above.. Mods, pls edit the first post to reflect this..

[no1lives4ever]

Today i checked with a few more dealers and i got the following additional recommendations of michelin tyres:

1. 185/70R13 XM1 @ 3500/- per tyre
2. 195/60R14 XM1 @ 4100/- per tyre
3. 195/60R14 PP @ 4100/- per tyre

I also no dealer seemed to be having Potenza GIII with 2008 manufacturing dates. The newest all the dealers had was a 2007 year of manufacture..

Now I am totally confused, my options seem to be:

1. Stick with 13" rims, get Michelin XM1 tyres
2. Stick with 13" rims and get Older Potenza GIII - I am not very keen to get new tyres that are a year or more old..
3. Upsize to 14" rims and get Michelin PP - This is going to be a very expensive option, but seems like the best in terms of getting good grip and performance out of the tyres.

-- no1lives4ever

[binz]

Originally Posted by no1lives4ever

Today i checked with a few more dealers and i got the following additional recommendations of michelin tyres:

1. 185/70R13 XM1 @ 3500/- per tyre
2. 195/60R14 XM1 @ 4100/- per tyre
3. 195/60R14 PP @ 4100/- per tyre

I also no dealer seemed to be having Potenza GIII with 2008 manufacturing dates. The newest all the dealers had was a 2007 year of manufacture..

Now I am totally confused, my options seem to be:

1. Stick with 13" rims, get Michelin XM1 tyres
2. Stick with 13" rims and get Older Potenza GIII - I am not very keen to get new tyres that are a year or more old..
3. Upsize to 14" rims and get Michelin PP - This is going to be a very expensive option, but seems like the best in terms of getting good grip and performance out of the tyres.

-- no1lives4ever

I think a set of 185/65-14 or 195/60-14 hankook ventus rs2s should suit your requirements well.

The 185/65-14 costs Rs3200 down south.It should be cheaper in your state.
These tires are among some of the best ive seen(being AD-07 replicas)

Do check your tire pressures to before you upgrade.And please check them and adjusted on a digital meter.

[Shakensoul]

With which dealer have you enquired for the Potenza G3 ? I am getting the Potenza G3 165/60 R13 for my WagonR from BK Tyres, Lajpat Nagar. Its not available right now but the dealer said that they are sourcing it from somewhere and will arrive this week, have asked them to get 2008 batch if possible. Will check from which batch the tyres are and let you know,

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by no1lives4ever

I have thought about it, but this option is frankly well out of my budget range.. Also with the car giving pretty poor mileage as it is, i wonder what kind of mileage i would get with a 205 tyre.. And finally the roads in India are pretty bad and I wonder how fast I will end up cracking a alloy rim with these lower profile tyres.. I used to frequently have bent rims on my Maruti 800 with stock tyres which I had before the baleno.. At least with the current set of tyre + alloy rim combo I have not faced the same kind of situation..

I am very seriously thinking about sticking with the current 13" alloys and getting a set of 185 70R13 tyres.. Is there any real benefit of getting a 14" rim and 195 60R14 tyres over getting 185 70R13 tyres with a 13" rims in terms of performance? I suppose the wider 195 tyres would reduce fuel efficiency of this car even further..

Now the only question is should I get Bridgestone Potenza GIII or the Yokohama A-Drive. Has anyone compared these 2 tyres on the same car?

.

what sort of mileage are you getting now? balenos arent known to give very low mileage. i suggest you get your car checked up. also you would have to drive more carefully with 15" rims but they would give you the best performance without any apparent drop in ride comfort and a marginal drop in mileage.

since you dont want to go for 15s i suggest you get 14" rims with 195/60 r14 tyres. im sure these will be the best compromise between grip and comfort.

[phamilyman]

ambar bhai,

I have nothing to add here but just a suggestion: you tried KB or the shops near LSR - opp TSF? I was getting 175/70/13 XM1 for 2600 just in Jan types. 3500 is EXPENSIVE!

and no heavy duty bargaining either

[crazydiablo]

I am running 195/60R14 on my Baleno. I might move to 15inchers later no because I am not happy with the 14s. 14s are good for hard drivers like you. I would suggest you for for Michelin PPs for you kinda driving.

[rjstyles69]

Check this thread (Baleno Wheel thread), has loads of stuff regarding the tyre upgrade for baleno's.

[ash_blore]

I heard from very reliable sources that the tyre prices are set to go up by 5-10% from sep 1st 2008. Those who want to change the tyres, this is the time