Your Tyre Choice on Avensis and Thoughts

[Guest]

Hello fellow Avensis drivers.  I'm not imminently buying tyres but it's something I keep an eye on price wise. I'm undecided as to what I'll go for at the time on the Avensis. It's currently fitted with some el-cheapo 'Churchill' tyres in ok shape treadwise, with no damage or signs of them needing replaced yet. They seem to handle OK but I've not had the car or a car like this for long enough to really know if they're good or not.

Going around a round about this morning, the car slightly lost control / started to spin a bit into, then away from the roundabout before it was corrected out and I got on with the journey... that was a tad worrying. Dry day, cold, no ice either.... Made me think more about this.

My last car (a diesel DS3) had Michellin Pilot Sport 3's fitted from factory and when two wore, I put Pilot Sport 4's on. They were phenomenal tyres. Part of me wants to get these for the Avensis to enjoy whatever handling benefits they would deliver on a large (non sporty) saloon. Cornering, grip and all that would likely be superb. I still can't imagine how they would look on non low profile tyres as I thought that is all they were made for. The only downside being I found these LETHAL on icy / snowy conditions on the DS3, not sure if it was the size / width of the tyres on such a short but relatively heavy little car - or if it was downright the tyres being totally undesigned to cope even reasonably with ice.  We get the odd icy day / maybe a week or two of snow or ice 'bad enough' to cause disruption and truth be told, I only commute 5-7 miles away anyway.  So could I get away with this and is it worth it on a car like the Avensis?

My other option was to go with something like the Cross Climate 2's. I had two of these on the DS3 before I sold it. They drove smoother / more cushion feeling - but they were pathetic if you did anything more than reasonable speed around the likes of roundabouts or sharp curves on B-roads. e.g. you felt like you were on the edge / sidewall bending!   But the advantage being, I can drive the car any time of year with the all seasons without too much risk. Though I lose handling, but again, as above, I'm unsure how well the handling could be on a big non sporty saloon??  (is it worth 'missing out on' or not?)

Then there are the likes of the normal tyres, the Primacy 4 as an example.  One of the options for that are A and A rating on the wet handling and fuel efficiency so that's their advantage. But a summer tyre and no special focus on 'superb handling' like the PS4s. Gut feel tells me a car like my Avensis is made for the likes of the Primacy - decent quality / decent tyre that isn't too specifically focussed on pretending to be a race track car or pretending to take on a Land Rover on cold terrains.. 

 

What makes this even harder, is the price difference isn't very much between all three choices or the non Michelin alternatives. I'm not paid by Michelin or anything, but I'm quite sold on them as a brand as a lot of their tyres are consistently near the best, if not the best on tests and I've had a good experience personally. The Merc I had had Continental tyres from factory, I can't tell which model, but I sure as hell threw that thing around and it didn't miss a beat... but in that case it was probably down to the car being designed to be 'sporty', handle well and had a wealth of computers doing all sorts of things to stop me from ending up around a tree... so it's still unclear what kind of work those tyres did.

 

Tl;dr:

Keen to hear your experience with tyre brands on your Avensis, or any notable experiences with tyre choice on any of your cars worth mentioning!

[TonyHSD]

Best tyres for uk and Ireland all year around are the all season all weather tyres and the top two brands are Michelin cross climate 2 and Goodyear vector 4 seasons gen3, either of these will transform the safety, handling, comfort and efficiency of your car. Both brands have some of the best summer tyres and uhp tyres as you had experienced but indeed these are lethal for cold snowy or ice conditions. These are good for Spain, Italy or Portugal 

[Cyker]

Really depends where you live - Cross Climates are probably the best all-season tyre you can get for this country and will do well wherever you are and whatever the season. There are some more northerly parts of the country where it'd be better to have a proper winter tyre in winter, but for the most part the Cross Climates will do the job.

Where I am, I just run on summers all year round as at most we see maybe a few days of snow and it rarely lasts longer than a week, and the roads are usually cleared within a few hours by traffic.

 

[Guest]

Looks like the Cross Climate 2’s are winning so far!  It’ll probably be a few more months before I buy them. Maybe they’ll be going a bit cheaper mid year before fall / winter again 

[Auris James]

Goodyear efficient grip performance 2's on my 2015 Auris. Replaced the worn out original Continental eco 6's.

So far very happy with them. Quieter than the Conti.

19996 Volvo 940 has Michelin energy savers. A good wearing tyre. Prior had a 1989 Volvo 240 as a daily with energy savers. Had 3 sets over 73,000 miles. When sold had 6mm of tread. One set was cheapo tyres, as didn't know if car was OK, as next day after purchase/tyres drove it to Normandy, France! Best purchase at £350 in 2009, and a very good car! Winter tyres on my Volvo, have Goodyear Ultra grip 9's on separate alloys.

James👍

 

[MrAurisT]

A good 'mid range' brand is Falken; better than the cheap Ying Yang Ditchfinders but not the price of 'premium' tyres. I have used them on all my cars for many, many years, excellent quality, grip and low noise.

[2009joe]

12 hours ago, NeilAvensisT said:

A good 'mid range' brand is Falken; better than the cheap Ying Yang Ditchfinders but not the price of 'premium' tyres. I have used them on all my cars for many, many years, excellent quality, grip and low noise.

A friend told me go into tyre shop and they give u price for cheap ,medium and premium Tyres  told me don't go for cheap ones but next one's up. I bought my car front tyres were kina done so I thought I'd treat myself and bought premium Tyres was expensive enough 

[Cyker]

I tend to get Dunlop, Goodyear or Hankook as they make great tyres but not super expensive.

Used to get Continental as well back in the Premium Contact 2 days (Great tyre that), but they have gone up to Michelin prices - Both make fantastic tyres, but the cost is often near double and with my mileage and driving style I rarely get more than a couple years out of my tyres! Will look at them if there is a deal on tho' (Like that amazing Michelin ATS discount deal someone posted a month or so ago!)

Also got stung by the Conti PC5 debacle (It wore out in 7000 miles!  First time I've had to change a tyre in the same year I bought it!!)

The only ones I'd tend to avoid are Cooper/Avon, as my experience with their CS2/ZT5 was pretty terrible, and Firestone as my Mk1 Yaris had Firestone Multihawks and they were also... bad.

 

[Eddiefh]

I’ve got a set of cheap winter tyres and Goodyear summer tyres that are getting changed end of this month , this is the first time I’ve had two sets partly down to how much life was left in the summer tyres , I’d get cross climates in future 

[Harry Carri]

I bought a set of Michelin Energy to replace a set of worn Avon tyres on my previous Avensis (1998). I thought the Michelin were good, tyre noise was massively reduced in comparison to the Avon and 60,000 miles later they were all still above minimum tread depth when I parted with the car. 

My current Avensis (2004) needed two new rear tyres and I didn't specify a particular tyre, my local garage fitted Davanti which seem to me to be absolutely fine for me. 

Conclusions. Plus one for another happy Michelin customer, particularly in terms of wear and noise levels. Very pleasantly surprised by Davanti particularly in terms of noise level and value for money. No concerns with either tyre with wet or dry grip in my experience. 

[Ranoid2000]

I managed to buy 4 Michelin Primacy3 tyres with less than 1000 miles on them for £180. Only got them fitted last Saturday but so far very happy...mainly with the price.

They came on a new brand new Kia and the guy who sold me them wanted winter tyres in his Kia as soon as possible so took them off him.

[Cyker]

Oooh, bargain!