[RahulRV]

Originally Posted by zebanaff

Hi folks. Which Conti tyre would be the best sideways move from Michelin PS4s? I've run them on my 320d for around 22k and loved the ride and handling. But their life isn't more than 25k given how the tread is looking. The options I've been suggested by various dealers are CSC5 or UC6. Which is the better of the two? Can't seem to find any definitive answer to this. Also any particular manufacturing date to push for?

Hello,
I had to settle with Continental ContiSportContact 5 as the PS4 wasn't available or was too old when I was in search of new set of tyres. Have to say it is a very good competition to PS4'S (From my kind of usage). It is a pretty good substitute & not a compromise in anyway. Have covered around 4000 KMS, the grip is fantastic once it warms up a bit. Haven't driven much in rainy weather to comment on the wet grip. Try looking for PS4 in the neighbouring states as well. Regarding the manufacturing dates, the fresher the better.

[zebanaff]

Originally Posted by RahulRV

Hello,
I had to settle with Continental ContiSportContact 5 as the PS4 wasn't available or was too old when I was in search of new set of tyres. Have to say it is a very good competition to PS4'S (From my kind of usage). It is a pretty good substitute & not a compromise in anyway. Have covered around 4000 KMS, the grip is fantastic once it warms up a bit. Haven't driven much in rainy weather to comment on the wet grip. Try looking for PS4 in the neighbouring states as well. Regarding the manufacturing dates, the fresher the better.

Thanks! I did the same yesterday. Ride felt pretty nice but I think that was also just the feeling of going from worn af PS4s to brand new rubber. I have 2000km road trip coming up soon. Will update when I'm done

[Figopian]

I wanted to change my Vento's tyres and checked with a few dealers for Conti tyres. I had excellent experience with my current Conti, worked like a charm for almost close to 50K. To my surprise, in Pune, no dealer had Conti tyres available immediately, they complained about Conti not entertaining warranty claims on time and hence they supply it if customer insists. Is this the same case in all cities? One dealer suggested to go for Yoko Ble earth to get same comfort as Conti, any suggestions?

[indie_honda]

What dealers did you try? I recently replaced Conti UC6 on 3 different cars (2 sedan and one hatch). 2 of them were replaced from Maharashtra Tyres near Tata plant in PCMC (Shahunagar), one was replaced at Anand Tyres in Dapodi opp Alfa Laval. Both are highly recommended.

[GreyNomad]

Originally Posted by Figopian

I wanted to change my Vento's tyres and checked with a few dealers for Conti tyres. I had excellent experience with my current Conti, worked like a charm for almost close to 50K. To my surprise, in Pune, no dealer had Conti tyres available immediately, they complained about Conti not entertaining warranty claims on time and hence they supply it if customer insists. Is this the same case in all cities? One dealer suggested to go for Yoko Ble earth to get same comfort as Conti, any suggestions?

I recently changed to Conti UC6 at Darshan Tyres, Karve Road. The JM road and camp branches also had these tyres ready.

[Figopian]

Originally Posted by GreyNomad

I recently changed to Conti UC6 at Darshan Tyres, Karve Road. The JM road and camp branches also had these tyres ready.

Did he complained about Conti not respecting warranty claims? Or persuaded you to look for any alternatives?

[narula123]

My 2017 Grandi10 AT was due for a tyre change. The OEM Apollos had done only about 10k kms till now but the rubber, very evidently, had aged and hardened. I did not want to take a risk with aged tyres even though this car only operates with city confines as a daily runabout. The OEM tyres, though very decent, had started making the ride jarring and the grip had started to suffer.

My requirements were less noise, comfort and good grip in dry and wet (Mumbai monsoons are nasty). I was not too bothered about tyre life.

Michelin had 0 options in this size and my preferred Conti UC6 did not have stocks in 165/65 or 175/65 either. BS Sturdo, Apollo Amazer XP and Yoko Earth 1 were considered but rejected in favour of the more comfort oriented Continental CC6.

I also upsized to 175/65-14 from the stock size in favour of better grip even though 165/70-14 were substantially cheaper.

My initial drive impressions on the CC6 are as below:

Noise - The CC6 are QUIET. Period. This probably is their USP and they completely ace it. You will struggle to listen to any tyre noise at all no matter what speeds you’re doing. And No, its not placebo vs the aged OEM tyres they replaced.

Comfort - The tyres have made the ride quality supple and plush. You do not notice expansion joints or small road imperfections as jarringly as you would expect. The stock Apollos weren't bad but the CC6 do have an edge here. Is it night & day? No. Maybe I need to play around with the pressure to find a sweeter spot. I am currently running 32 Psi cold. Suggestions?

Grip - New and broader rubber so it does feel nice & grippier and has added some heft to the steering. Very marginal improvement in braking and I am looking forward to see how these fare on water soaked mumbai roads. I have not bothered (nor will) to see if there is an impact on fuel efficiency, the Gi10 AT anyways is ridiculous on that front.

Looks - average external looks bordering on boring. The Earth 1 look fancier in my opinion. The broader profile does fit the tyrewell better and the overall stance of the car looks nicer.

Overall I paid approx 21k for four tyres and valves with all services and rebates accounted for. Work was done by the good chaps at Bombay Tyres, Santacruz, Mumbai

[GreyNomad]

Originally Posted by Figopian

Did he complained about Conti not respecting warranty claims? Or persuaded you to look for any alternatives?

Not at all. On the contrary he encouraged me to go for the Conti’s over Yoko Earth1 (my first preference) citing the unconditional warranty and increased comfort.

[zebanaff]

So, quick update after around 1200km on my ContiSport Contact 5s. If you don't have previous contact, shifted to these after 4 years on Michelin PS4s, on my 320d.

I've done a mix of city roads, highways and ghats, so I think I'm ready to make a direct comparison.

The good
- nice and grippy once warmed up (but they do take a while to warm up). I usually set pressure 32psi when they're cold so they warm up to the operating range of around 34 after a few km
- nice ride, a bit more comfy than the PS4s - soak up bumps pretty effectively.

Sadly when it's bad, it's very bad
- Mainly my fuel economy has been absolutely destroyed. I'm talking a good 20% drop. Usually a Mumbai to Goa or Goa to Bangalore laid-back drive would easily get me 15-16kmpl. This time I could barely get to 13.5 (this is while consciously lifting and coasting to try and maximize mileage). The rolling resistance is absurd.
- I find it much louder than the PS4s. So much so that for the first few km on highway, I'd repeatedly try to shut my windows (which were obviously already shut) to try to eliminate the noise.

There's no performance gain over the PS4s and a marginal gain in comfort, so the downside on these tyres is pretty high all things considered. Stuck with them now. Maybe I'll try running higher pressures

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by ashis89

Thanks for the feedback

I got these installed on my Seltos last weekend. Too early to talk about the performance, I will share an update once I pile up some distance on these.

I have used the Continental CrossContact LX2 for 26k kms now and can share a short review.

Road noise: First thing to notice is how silent these tyres are. Even though the noise has increased ever so slightly after all these kms covered, the tyres are still very quiet while operating.

Ride quality: These tyres seem to have strong sidewalls. I had upsized the tyres for slightly better cushioning but the improvement has been marginal. On the upside, the tyres have survived multiple potholes and helped dismiss bad roads easily. Due to upsized tyres, the body roll increased in my car.

Grip: The dry and wet grip has been excellent so far, both in the straight line and the curved roads alike. I didn't get much chance to go off-road but they have worked well in little slush or gravel that they have seen. Due to the upsize, the steering feels heavier than the stock tyres and also observed a slight drop in FE.

Tyre quality: The tyres lose about 1 psi in a month's time and are fairly puncture resistant. Last month I had to frequent an area which was strewn by nails. Several residents in the area used to report punctures every day but I escaped unscathed. Maybe I was plain lucky or the tyres are good but they do give me an added peace of mind.
Yes, they look chunky too.

Overall the tyres were expensive due to the rare size (upsized to 215/65 R16) that I was looking for but they have proved their worth so far.

[santosh.s]

Need some quick help/validation from fellow bhpians regarding tyre upgrade for my new Innova Innova Hycross ZXO, scheduled to be delivered tomorrow.

It comes with a nice looking 18" alloy wheels and 225/50R18 Goodyear Assurance Triplemax 2 tyres. Based on my homework so far, I believe that these are a decent set of tyres, neither bad nor too good/premium. I am willing to swap them with better ones and have shortlisted Conti UC6, Yoko Blue Earth or Vredestein Vorti (in that order) based on reading some reviews and seeing available options in the market.

I have noticed that prices shoot up sharply for 18" or bigger wheels. The cost of UC6 is about 16k per tyre, whereas the same model costs about 5k for 14". Prices seems to rise reasonably up to 16"-17" but starts to shoot up beyond that (regardless of brands). I am wondering, is there any good reasoning for this premium other than just being used more for premium segment cars and not being fast moving sizes/lack of economy of scale?

That said, I am not getting more than 7k for buy back of stock tyres. I have been offered 40k for 4 same size UC6 tyres with exchange (spare wheel will be used only for emergencies hence will not be upgraded to save money). Is this a reasonable deal? I am looking to maximize long lasting silence/road noise, dry/wet grip, comfort, and toughness/puncture resistance. Wear rate and fuel efficiency are not a big concern since my running is going to be low and I have usually been replacing tyres due to age rather than being worn out (for reference, I have mostly used Falken Siceras, GY Eagle NCT5s and a set of stock tyres on Palio back in 2010). I am willing to pay some premium if difference in performance after upgrade would be easily noticeable to an average car enthusiast over the stock GY Assurance. Please guide.

BTW, 40k with exchange sounds expensive to me, but that seems to be the market rate and I believe the culprit is 18" wheel size rather than the tyre brand/model.

On another note, I was also considering the option to down size the alloy wheel from 18" to 17" in order to get a better balance between ride and handling, and also to make them safer with respect to potential tyre damage due to bad Indian raod conditions. That way, may be I would loose money on alloys swap, but tyres would get a little cheaper (now and in future). But to my surprise, both Toyota and Maruti (for Invicto) dealers don't offer such alloy wheels for this car at all! I don't want to go after-market route because they normally have bigger hub diameters leading to vibration issues and may need centering rings which are a pain to maintain, and also possible quality issues. Stock tyre height is 112.5mm from what I remember and downsizing to 17" would have added another 12-13mm (half an inch) to make it ~125mm. Would that make a considerable difference with respect to above mentioned points?

Since the delivery is tomorrow, need to make a decision by today itself (otherwise exchanging stock tyres will be an issue), therefore quick responses are highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[subbarp]

Hi Santosh,

Suggest you put out a poll with options. Put down your notes with the original fitting and the 3 options (or any other you are aware of).
This may garner more responses and initiate a discussion that may be useful. This is an important enough topic for HyCross but not much discussion on the same.

Alternately, you could request moderators to spawn a separate thread on HyCross tyre upgrade.

thanks

[amalji]

Originally Posted by santosh.s

On another note, I was also considering the option to down size the alloy wheel from 18" to 17" in order to get a better balance between ride and handling, and also to make them safer with respect to potential tyre damage due to bad Indian raod conditions. That way, may be I would loose money on alloys swap, but tyres would get a little cheaper (now and in future). But to my surprise, both Toyota and Maruti (for Invicto) dealers don't offer such alloy wheels for this car at all!

You can order the smaller alloys from the Toyota service center. I've done the same on my Innova Crysta touring sport for the same reasons you have mentioned. Downsized it from 17 inch to 16 inch. The only thing i had to give them was the registration number of a vehicle which comes with the smaller alloys. They tracked the part number based on that and then ordered it.

The other side effect is that i saved around 23000 INR for tyre replacement ( 5 Nos ). I went from 215/55 R17 to 205/65 R16

[santosh.s]

@subbarp, I don't have much doubt about which tyre to choose and what its fair price is. I would have gone with Michelin Primacy 4 ST, but can't do that as the stocks are not available. By now I have read enough on team-bhp and otherwise to conclude that UC6 is a good alternative in the market right now. What I really want to know is this:

1. Get an idea as to how much an "upgrade" would it be to go from GY Assurance Triplemax 2 to UC6, ignoring cost part. (I know it is quite subjective, but still!)
2. Is getting back 7k for stock 255/50R18 tyres a fair deal?

@amalji, I want to follow what you have done. Since Hycross and Crysta are very similar in terms of form factor, I now think may be I should consider going even lower to 16" like you did! It will add 1 inch to tyre height rather than half an inch that 17" would. I hope it won't be too small for the car?

When I didn't get a favorable response from either Toyota or Maruti dealers, I had contacted Toyota's customer care. They in turn asked a representative from the same dealership to get in touch with me (I guess he is a much senior guy as compared those I had contacted earlier for accessories, and we are familiar with each other as I had conversations with him earlier regarding my car purchase). He too said that it is possible to get any of available Toyota alloys compatible with the vehicle and that he can buy back original ones as well. I am going to discuss more with him tomorrow before delivery. But the problem is that they will need to order it and it will take quite some time (2 weeks or so). So, that may cause problems in exchanging stock tyres as I will be using them on road during that period! Will have to figure out a way out. I can't just throw them away, they are already worth ~30k as per an offer I have, not a negligible amount.

[santosh.s]

Originally Posted by amalji

You can order the smaller alloys from the Toyota service center.

I had googled on the day before yesterday and had stumbled upon this Toyota portal: https://www.toyotapartsconnect.in/, but it didn't really help. When I tried searching on that site with words like alloy or wheel, it hardly showed a couple of steel rims and rim covers! So gave up on that. Provide pointers in case you know any website/specific link wherein I can check all their alloy wheels.