what tyre ?
 

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article...Zero-Story.htm

as I have said before ...horses for courses

That's very interesting. I always wondered what the differences were in the same tyre but with the different manufacturers code on the side.

Thanks.

Great post. Thanks for sharing. +++

well of course it isn't just pirelli tuning tyres like this although they have become kings of the top of the range market as you can see by the homologation charts [ and sales apparently although the figures are a closely guarded secret in the industry ]

but can it really be correct that , for example ,BMW demand a tyre as OE which won't be available on the replacement market ?

but there is no way you can change one characteristic of a tyre in isolation , not that pirelli claim to do so ,note the ...offers a smaller improvement.....statement

It's funny cause I put Pirelli P Zeros on mine when I got the car, removing the expired Yokos and I won't be buying them again! Pilot sports or ultrac vortis I think.

One of my Pirellis had a casing error and no amount of balancing could fix, Pirelli didn't want to know, despite overwhelming evidence it was the tyre.

:-(

I am mostly using second hand tires and always check manufacturing dates. My experience with Pirellis is that hey are OK when new(ish) but performance drops off sharply as they age, 3-4 years old to the manufacturing date and the grip drops off, especially in cold and wet. My favorites are Michelin, great new, no noticeable drop off in performance as they age and lasts very long. I have recently bought a set of unused old stock Michelin Alpin A4, almost 3 years since manufacturing for our A6 for £200. I can say I would not have bought 3 year old unused Pirellis even if unused tyres are generally allowed to sell as new for 2 years since manufacturing date. I have the same aging experience with most of top tyre manufacturers including Good Year and Dunlop. Continental seem to age better but they are not that great to start with but they do last for a lot of miles of abuse and have predictable and progressive loss of grip instea of sudden loss. Really disappointed with Good Year Eagle F1 currently on S8 as well, I bought them second hand 2 years old with 7-7.5mm and they were not too great to start with and 2 years later very poor grip. I can get rear inside wheel spinning quite easily on turns, at least they have acceptable lateral grip

Interesting comment Ainars.
I'm currently looking at a couple of "old stock" unused/unfitted Pirelli Sottozero Winter 240 Series 2 tyres from 2013 which I must assume have just been sitting in an ordinary warehouse for at least 3 years.

I've asked for the exact date code which I'm waiting for, but what would your thoughts be and why?

Where do you guys buy these from?

Always interesting to hear your views on tyres, since they've saved me a fortune in the last few years. Comments on the above below:

I use (South) Korean tyres these days. It's a first world country and as I work at KIA /Hyundai training place, I can just look around and see what the latest Genesis/Sorento etc.. is shod with and have found them as good as any other - A8 has Nexen SU1 at the moment, they are CAA rated EU label.

It's different place almost every time wherever I can find what I like and for the money I am prepared to pay even better if it is not far away so that I can save on postage and often they offer free fitting. Unfortunately I don't have much choice locally. Last old stock unused set was delivered from costastyres.co.uk I can also recommend dmtyres.co.uk for second hand tyres. You can also try cheapesttyrescoventry.co.uk but my experience was not that great with them, we agreed a price on the phone for one set then they wanted a lot more when I came over to buy and the guy I had spoken to on the phone was not there, after long negotiation again we agreed on the price in the middle that was acceptable to both of us. We also on agreed a price on another set for second set, came round week later to buy and they again wanted a lot more and different guy again, this time we could not reach agreement so I took my business elsewhere.

Have not had any winter Pirellis as set or for a long time, only an odd tyre for short period of time. They were either single tyre the on car when I bought it and replaced shortly after or just in the boot as spare tyre so I cannot judge them. But summer Dunlops that i have had got hard with age and lost grip.