[Adrian E]

Michelins have been the preference on the last 4 cars I've owned - they've generally come with something else fitted and I have tried Goodyear, Dunlop and Continental in the past. It's so vehicle specific in terms of how well they work that I now tend to go with Michelins by default. Given tyres for me are something I buy every 2-3 years, at least, I don't want to make a 'mistake' and find I don't like what I have paid good money for.

The S5 came with Contis at 2 years old (they were actually older than the car, so think were part worns put on to sell the car) and they tramlined dreadfully. Similar experience on our C5 A6 when I fitted them new - they also wore out in half the time of the Goodyears that were on it before with noticeable edge wear that rendered them illegal well before the centre tread was below 4mm! Alignment was spot on.

We rotate winters on the S5, so the summer Michelin Super Sport 20s still have 5.5mm tread all round and are wearing evenly and still grip brilliantly, despite being 4.5 years old. I don't monitor mileage between tyres, but we do 7-8k a year in it, with plenty of town work which kills the Contis.

I'm about to finally wear out the pair of Bridgestones that were fitted to our 2015 Golf at the factory, having swapped them off the back. Put Michelin Pilot Sport 4 on the back, which will get rotated to the front, and a new pair of PS4 on the back. They are so much better in terms of noise and grip it's just silly, as the price difference isn't that marked.

I had no choice but to run part worns 25 years ago, and had a few close shaves with bulges in sidewalls and dodgy puncture repairs. Not a massive issue on a 1969 Cortina that struggled to top 80mph. The industry isn't properly regulated so standards vary massively across the country - for instance tyres shouldn't be stacked when stored, but 99% of part worn dealers I've visited do precisely that! There's a voluntary code of conduct for part worn dealers, that was written when I was involved in tyre regulation, but it never got off the ground as far as I'm aware as the industry had to change tack to fight off efforts by the waste regulators to class all part worn tyres as waste, which meant storage limits and fire prevention equipment on a massive scale. Not sure where it had got to now. Basically if you are fortunate enough to live near a part worn dealer with a good track record of not being taken to court by Trading Standards and supplying properly inspected product, not an issue. After all, every tyre in use is 'part worn' so I don't buy into the hysteria the new tyre suppliers try to push that part worn = automatically bad.

On premium vs mid-range, I tend to find the price difference doesn't balance the performance and longevity to the point I'm prepared to gamble on them being any good over a period of years of use.