Tyre Choice Best tyre brand for the Civ? (split topic)

[Pottsy]

Originally Posted by CivPilot

Ps. Another reason that Car manufacturers will not limit themselves (or their customers) to 1 tyre brand and type is supply, both to the factory and to customers. Say they only fitted Pilot sports and the factory making them burnt to the ground and supply dried up overnight? This would be a bad thing.

Tell me about it! When I got my Boxster (Dec 96) only Michelins were "allowed" by Porsche on the car, and Michelin couldn't supply. Bit of a nightmare.

http://www.civinfo.com/boxster/baldness.htm

[Jedi71]

Currently running Avon on civic - not bad have always been a fan of bridgestone running them on my imprezza for four years S02 pole position was the best ever as good in wet as dry - with 300bhp through wheels - as civic is only running say 165bhp now its not really an issue as to having the top performing tyre imho just a good one

[digipeep]

Just spotted this thread as it looks as though I am migrating from a Scooby to a Civic Type S, will decide Saturday, and I run my Impreza on Bridgestone S02s (now with S03s) and never had any problems with them. I did have some Goodyear Eagle F1s on at 25k, but I changed them by 30K as they were crap. As I was happy with the stones, I never have tried a different manufacturer.

I'm looking at the Type S oil burner as the missus wants yo do a lot more travelling so the Type R is out. My test drive went very well, but I completely forgot to ask the default rubber that Honda use. I'll look it up.

[Civic Fan]

I had Yokos on the old Civic and found them to be great in the dry but gave up a little too easily in the wet. My new Civic has stones but I will probably change them for Michelins when the time comes – not for along while yet I hope.

[Koen]

I read a lot of blabla here. There is not such thing as a good or bad tyre. Some brands tend to be better then others. Not to mention they all have a wide range of models, too. And then there's things like weather conditions, front or rear wheel drive, type of car, driving style,...
Yes, Michelins are generally very good. And they are standard on the Civic.

I did not like the Dunlops on my coupé. They wre good on dry, but very bad on wet. (And this is Belgium.) And they lasted half as long as the Bridgestones I had before. Now I have Bridgestones again. Pretty good on dry, and very good on wet. I lost it on a roundabout a few day ago, but I just had to lift my right foot a bit to get grip again and correct it. Impressive! And they are not even sport tyres.
In the past I had also good experiences with Yokohama's (however a bit soft), Goodyears (F1) and Firestones. I never liked Conti's, though. But again, I think it's got a lot to do with personal taste.

To ADS: don't consider yourself a tyre-expert when you don't know that the manufacturer's tyre of choice for the civic is Michelin, not Bridgestone, and certainly not run-flats. This is a civic-forum...
And don't come telling us that Pirelli's are the best on an Imprezza 'cause the WRC team uses them. The tyres they use won't be available in any shop. They are high tech stuff and customised for all kinds of road conditions and parameters. Besides that there's also non-technical (like commercial) aspects in motorsports when it comes to tyre-choice.

K.

[Sandozer]

Cost.. are doing Michelin Pilot Sport2 225:45:17Y for £101 each inc. VAT.
Just had two fitted to the rear and that includes swopping tyres front to rear and balance.... the cost of the membership fee recovered on one tyre....

[czechplastik]

Originally Posted by Sandozer

Cost.. are doing Michelin Pilot Sport2 225:45:17Y for £101 each inc. VAT.
Just had two fitted to the rear and that includes swopping tyres front to rear and balance.... the cost of the membership fee recovered on one tyre....

Thats a good deal. They were pretty expensive but I've been very impressed with the sets I've had previously.

[Sandozer]

I had a quote about a month back when I was shopping there, then it was £110, so they have gone down a tenner a corner since then..

[Civic Fan]

I and others have found them to be the cheapest supplier around for Michelin.

[minisweeper]

I have Michelin Pilot Sport 2's on my civic at the moment (it came with them) and the front are nearly up so unless i swap them with the back (they still have about 3mm on) I'll probably be swapping them with either Vredesteins or Goodyear Eagle F1's (the 2 top runners in the latest Evo tests). Vredesteins are supposed to provide for a quieter and more comfortable ride and beat the goodyears in the subjective tests plus they're generally slightly cheaper so I'm leaning towards them. I'm interested that noone's mentioned them so far but I hadn't heard of them until I read the review so hmm...

As for whether you should go for cheap or expensive tyres if you never push them to the limit...the main thing you have to bear in mind is that even if you aren't going to push them on corners or by trying to beat people off the line, there may come a time where you need to rely on them to bring you to a stop asap. In the evo test comprising of 10 well thought of tyre manufacturers the difference between stopping distances was I think 2 car lengths....when you're talking about hitting something or not hitting it that's a hell of a long way. I suspect, though i have no figures, that the difference between the winner and a number of budget tyres would be even greater. For the sake of even double the price (I found some F1's for about 100 a piece on the 18"s) I wouldn't like to gamble my civic on it and I certainly wouldn't like to gamble my life.

[StGeli]

My 2006 ES came with Bridgestones ER300s on and they have been very good. I'm finally having to replace the front ones after 25k miles which I consider to be excellent mileage for a front drive diesel with over 250lb torque.

Needless to say I'm sticking with the Bridgestones again. And the dealer price matched the best quote from the other tyre vendors I contacted.

Happy bunny all round.

[alanwalne]

Originally Posted by StGeli

My 2006 ES came with Bridgestones ER300s on and they have been very good. I'm finally having to replace the front ones after 25k miles which I consider to be excellent mileage for a front drive diesel with over 250lb torque.

Needless to say I'm sticking with the Bridgestones again. And the dealer price matched the best quote from the other tyre vendors I contacted.

Happy bunny all round.

I wish I got that mileage - after a front rear swap, I got 21,000 out of the Bridgestones on my SE, I have just put 4 x Mich Premacy HP's on that I got for £75 each - hope to get better mileage out of them!!

In fairness to the car, I do check the traction control light still works every now and again

[ritchie_perriam]

i have to admit the Michelin pilot premacies that came on my civic are pants compaired to my eagle F1s on my old car especially in the wet! they are a nightmare on any slightly slippery surface and seem to break away really easily, and its getting annoying having the amber VSA light flashing all the bloody time! i dont have much confidence in the pilots and will be swapping to F1's as soon as possible!

[Woette]

Originally Posted by ritchie_perriam

i have to admit the Michelin pilot premacies that came on my civic are pants compaired to my eagle F1s on my old car especially in the wet! they are a nightmare on any slightly slippery surface and seem to break away really easily, and its getting annoying having the amber VSA light flashing all the bloody time! i dont have much confidence in the pilots and will be swapping to F1's as soon as possible!

i agree , have the same tires on it and in the wet it can be really tricky, just to start on an uphill slope can result in wheelspin. I havent really thought about changing them but now i am considering

[alanwalne]

On wet roads, I find the Premacy HP's (replacement for the Pilot Premacies) on 16" wheels the steering feel is less than the bridgestones, but cornering grip is higher. My brother has Premacy Hp's on 17" wheels on his Mondeo TDCi and has 4-5 mm left after 36000 miles.

[ritchie_perriam]

Originally Posted by Woette

i agree , have the same tires on it and in the wet it can be really tricky, just to start on an uphill slope can result in wheelspin. I havent really thought about changing them but now i am considering

uphill starts are a right pain! but even worse if its an uphill corner! i had the vsa off and it resulted in a load of tyre smoke! i didnt notice the noise as my radio was on full blast! i just keep forgetting about the sorta torque this thing has in third at low speed!!!!!

[slick]

this has been an interesting read,

coming from the mr2 roadster forum we have had great debates like this as well, and i must admit that i have come to the conclusion that different tyres suit different cars in different ways.

my old pug 306gti6 used to have pirrellli p6000, they were an excellent tyre for the car and suited it well, (it had previously been on eagle F1's and bridgestones)

the mr2 had been on re04's and eagle f1's (swapped to toyo proxies and the car handled better)

what i have learnt so far is that bridgestone re04's are good tyres, very good in the dry, but break away can be very quick in the wet.

toyo's are good alround tyres perform well in both dry and wet, but would never be as good as yoko neo advans (i think thats the right tyre) but they are a twice the price at least.

the biggest thing we picked up from the mr2 club was not to mix tyre brands. and preforably not age of tyres as well. the mr2 was so well balanced that if you mixed tyre's it turned it in to a heat seeking ditch finder.

so when changing tyres either put the same shoes on all round, or change all at the same time.

you would be surprised at the difference between mixing tyres makes.

[ritchie_perriam]

Originally Posted by slick

you would be surprised at the difference between mixing tyres makes.

tell me about it! i had a nissan primera that had pirellies on the front and i think arrow speed or somthing like that on the back wheels! it was mental in the wet! it had amazing oversteer concidering its a frontwheel drive car, you could just hang the back out with a little let off the throttle! quite dangerous but tremendous fun!

[Woette]

had to perform an emergency stop with my michelin sports today. Some idiot decided to not let me pass, resulting in him being right in front of me doing like 5km/h and i was doing 65 The road was a little damp and i could hear the tires starting to glide, cant say if vsa system was working, was concentrating on other things (DUH). At that point however i had slowed done enough to drive around him. It scared the **** out of me

[Morris Minor]

Some survey results including the PS 2's here:

Consumer Survey Results By Category

The Michelin Pilot Sport 2 (PS2's) generally seem get good reviews. The Primacies are very different and dont get such a good press.

MM