[kpzen]

Originally Posted by AWD

Thanks, Im sticking to 195/60/15 for now to make the choice simpler.
Which one of these is comfort oriented & how much are these priced?

Both A drives and V550 are comfort oriented but V550 would be a little more silent than the A drives and also a little costlier as well

ES100 is more sports oriented than A drive/ V550. It grips pretty well but too noisy in comparison.

Whats holding you back from getting the Turanza ER60 ?

[AWD]

Thanks & in what range do these Bridgestones come?

Local dealer does not have Turanza ER60 in stock, says production is low & might come in a month or two.

[Safari_Beast]

Hi AWD

Now the Bridgestone ER60 is now readily available .
If u live in NCR go to BK tyres lajpat nagar or there is Haryana Tyres in Faridabad .

I was also going for ER60 but was not available so went for Michelin PLC .

[AWD]

Thanks, I've given my contact details to Bridgestone area head for him to inform me when ER60 shall be available.

Michelin PLC are on the list now, lets see if Im unable to finalize any other tyre, this will be the pick because its the most expensive tyre.

[AWD]

Was just evaluating Yokohama tires as suggested by many t-bhpians. Could gain a little only because their Oceania website is limited in scope.

Still found out that A.Drives, C.Drive & Earth-1 are Comfort oriented tires & are available in size 195/60/15. Never heard of Earth-1 though before.

A.Drive & Earth-1 have a rating of 88H, whereas C.Drive has 88V.

Now don't know which out of the three would suit best & what are their prices?

Yoko Db & V550 were not listed on Oceania specific site!

[Nikhilb2008]

C drives are available in 195/60 R15. It's a superb tyre. Extremely comfortable and silent.

BS doesnt have anything in that size to meet your requirements unfortunately! Unless you can get the Er300. Nothing else is good enough and wont compare with the C drives or the CPC2s. The CPC2s are marginally noisy though.

[khoj]

Don't ask and yet ye shall have all the info you need

That is the magic of TBHP indeed

Originally Posted by AWD

Yoko Db & V550 were not listed on Oceania specific site!

[AWD]

How much does dB V550 cost & is it more comfy than C.Drive?

[khoj]

Originally Posted by AWD

How much does dB V550 cost & is it more comfy than C.Drive?

I exchanged the OE bridgestones on my wheels for the V550s at 800/- a piece. Did not ask the MRP for either one.

Comfort wise they are very very good, I have no idea regarding the c drives as never used them, but the V550s are made in Japan and most of the other Yokos are coming from Philippines. For me Nippon is much better than Filipino.

I have completed a 1500kms drive from DEL to BOM today and the V550s were excellent. There were some concerns elsewhere in the forum regarding the wet surface handling capability of these tires. I can now say that is mere hearsay. It rained the entire way from Dilli to Jaipur bye pass and at no point did the tires give any reason to be concerned regarding carrying speed into curves, braking or aquaplaning. They were quiet over all type of road surfaces across 4 states but roared at certain stretches in MH the 5th state in my trip. Certain stretches in MH have a surface where you can see the top as if grains are pressed/compacted, basically the top finishing layers of Bitumen are missing it was only on these roads that I had to turn the volume on the ICE upwards. On the NE1 aka AMD-BRD expressway I held speeds of 160kmph over almost the entire stretch of NE1 and the tires were absolutely silent. There was one episode of hard braking to avoid a bus that pulled into the overtaking lane at the last minute I was a few hundred meters behind but then at 160kmph the 200~300 meters go by in a flash and again the tires did not give me any reasons for concern, of course the fact that my vehicle has ABS+EBD must have helped. BTW the V550 are V rated which allows you to hold higher top speeds than the H rated ones.

The only negative that I can think of, well actually it is more a reason for concern than a negative attribute that these are 'Rotational' tires. In a nutshell tires mounted on the right cannot be used on the left unless you take them off the wheels flip and remount them so that they can rotate in the correct direction. The solution is that you maintain a bidirectional tire as your spare ( I retained my OE supply) and stick to 4 wheel rotation. Apart from this little niggle I would say they are a good product.

[AWD]

Thanks Khoj, that was insightful. Overall Im inclined towards dB but being rotational is a -ve as far as Im concerned because the present tyres Im using are rotational too & they have given a fair bit of trouble.
I was quoted ~ 4.6k/Db by local Yoko dealer who was inturn suggested by Cust. care Yoko. Price point seems ok but again being rotational spoils the party for me.
Are dB's present in one model/pattern only or is there a bi-directional pattern too?

My basic choice now remains between Yoko A.Drive, C.Drive & Bridgestone ER60. I know these are H rated but I find the V rated Potenza RE88 pretty repulsive.

There's another Rim issue Im facing. One Alloy is bent & its difficult to balance it, I keep it in the boot. Can this fault be rectified?

[khoj]

Glad to be of help AWD. There are many variants of the AVS series but none are available in our markets, see attached literature. You could check with the Yoko manager as to when some of these would be available.

Regarding the ratings the V at 240kmph and the H at 210 kmph do not differ much in speed but the major difference may be there in the load index. Just ensure that you do not buy below the rating that your OE tyres came with.

As for the bent alloy I am afraid you will have to get another one. Cause while it may hold when standing free I am sure it will lose air in no time once it is fitted besides being difficult to drive with in the first place.

[AWD]

Thanks again, immensely helpful. So, here we get only V550?

Regarding the ratings, we get very few tyres in size 195/60/15 with V & 88 ratings. Potenzas are there but I don't like those particular tyres.

Maybe I've used the wrong term for Alloys condition, one of them have actually lost alignment. Its difficult to balance them right, the alloy moves very erratically on the balancing machine.

[AWD]

Finally went in for Bridgestone Turanza ER60 195/60/15. Driven ~ 100 kms.
Tyres are quieter than earlier tyres, steering effort is reduced but could be due to contact patch area decreasing. Handling is not great, was better earlier. Comfort level lower than before. Overall not a great improvement in most areas. I'd say the tyres are over-rated.

Btw, how much air pressure should be maintained in these tyres? Nobody not even the Bridgestone Engineer was able to quote correct tyre pressure for the tyres. Their mechanics suggested 35psi which I found too high & gave a deaf year. It was appalling to see the Bridgestone Selects workers knowledge. Nobody could mention the correct tyre pressures.

Tyre size is 195/60/15 88H, shod on Corolla(old).

[khoj]

Since you are running the OE size, see the tire pressure sticker on the B pillar. The same info is also there in the user's manual.

[AWD]

Will surely check. Yes, Im running O.E. size but speed ratings vary. O.E. is V & new ones are H rated.
Doesn't the pressure vary from tyre to tyre or is it size dependent?

Currently Im running 30psi on all 4.