Tyre Recommendation
 

Having now driven 500 miles in the last 4 days on new tyres on motorway, a-roads, b-roads in both soaking wet and dry, I have to say I am impressed. I have just fitted Nokian ZLine 275/35/R20 to my 4.2tdi. I had before Dunlop sports and they were awfully noisy but good grip in wet and dry. These nokians are not only great in the wet and dry, but super quiet and with air con, stereo etc off its amazing how quiet the inside of the car now is.

I can't recommend them enough and I got them at £146 a corner from OPONEO.CO.UK. I must confess I bought from oponeo after seeing a recommendation from someone else here on the forum regarding they're competitive prices. Thank you.

I have run a number of tyres on my 2x D2s and 1xD3 over the years and have had varying results.

Dunlop - Not bad tyre, has a really nice protective rim on this that shields those love 20" FE alloys. Currently running them on the S8 and working very well indeed as an everyday tyre.

Continental - Best tyres used by far, most expensive but brilliant all round and would be my preferred choice

Cooper - OK but nothing special, not as good as the Dunlop or Continentals

Arrowspeed - 1/2 the price of the above and at £100 a tyre on 20" FE alloys they are a steal, plus much better than Taiwanese Ditch Finders. Slightly noisier and harder than Dunlops and Continental but excellent in the dry, but only average in the wet. Perfect for a spare tyre or a backup set of wheels.

I used Oponeo to buy my Michelin Pilot Super Sports for my 20's. £174 each delivered.
Only fitted on Friday, so I haven't been far enough to comment on noise etc. but they feel excellent on local journeys.

I find this such a subjective topic and dont think i push it hard enough to ever get close to the tyres limits during road driving, exception being wear rates - that much i have noticed. Vredstein Ultra Sessanta (excuse spelling) have terrible wear rates. Avon ZZ3 that came with my old S8 FE were superb with great wet tread. PZero always seemed a lot for what they are and unremarkable. I honestly cant say i have ever come across a properly crap tyre other than some terrible wear rates mentioned above. Most recent tyres i bought were Uniroyal Rain Sport 3s because of the price and their top wet rating - something i value most along with wear rates, and have put these on two cars, 1 now sold and the other too early to comment.

I'd find it difficult to spend 146/corner on Nokian tyres when the highly regarded Goodyear asymmetric 2 are available fitted for 130/corner or supply only at £108/corner.

Maybe I'm a badge snob ?

Just realised this is a d3 thread and your talking about 20" tyres :)

Myquotes were for a 245/45/18 tyre

I have a friend in the car industry and he told me that http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk is where to check if you want decent tyres. Believe me, I was wondering whether to take the leap with the Nokian tyres, but they're reviews are good on there, better than most premium marques, and I had a look at other forums for volvo, beemers, etc.... And nokian name kept popping up overall with good reviews. Plus Nokian are from Finland and thus European. I think I made a good choice and hence why I felt to mention on here, although I guess time will tell.

I had two of these Uniroyal Rain Sport 3s on the front axle of my Mondeo ST220. I'd had to replace the fronts, but the Michelins on the rear still had about 5mm left, so there was no reason to change them.

Just outside where I work, there had been trucks parked all day doing roadworks. I was driving home and hit a patch of diesel. The Uniroyals on the front gripped through it, but the back end decided it wanted to lead from the front. I ended up in the barriers and the car was a write off.

Good tyres in the wet and slippy, those Rainsport 3s.

I ran Hankooks (Korean) on the S-Max before I bought the S8. The S-Max needed an XL tyre, and they were very reasonably priced, and decent enough. Good wear rate and grip. Those were 18" - they definitely don't do them for 20" wheels though.

This goes for all cars with all tyres always.

Tyres with most tread always on the rear, where possible (i.e. tyre and wheel sizes same front & back).

Always rotate the wheels on our Mini when it gets new tyres, always put the new ones on the back. Not only does it reduce the chances of what happened to you, but it also 'breaks in' the tyre more gently with most cars. Can't do it with the M3 as has different wheel widths front to back, think you should be able to do it with most A/S8s.

I did mention this to the tyre fitter at the time, but they said with the amount of tread left on the rear, it wasn't an issue. I figured who am I to argue with professionals.