Which of these rubbish car tyres is least rubbish?

Northwind

OK, the agonising Northwind car buying process has finished... One very secondhand 2.2 TDCI Mondeo Ghia X sat on the driveway, oozing middleagedness.

Anyway- it came with 4 lovely ditchfinder tyres, which really aren't up to the job. I don't want to replace all 4 immediately though, because I need to spend a little time with the car and discover whether or not it's a total nail. So I'm going to stick new fronts on just so I'm not killed.

Iit has a pair of Autogrip F107s on the front, and a pair of Zeta ZTR10s on the back. Both have good tread. I've no reason to believe either are any good, and they're not the sort of tyres that get a lot of reviews. Anyone got any insight on which I should lose?

Swansea_Dave

Tough call. Both probably quite pants in relative terms but actually OK as you haven't exactly bought a road rocket. If they all have good tread keep your cash for beer and tricky kit.

The Northern Monkey

Which ever is on the front... Always want more/better grip at the front.

nicklouse

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Which ever is on the front... Always want more/better grip at the front.

actually the grip should be on the rear.

to give a safer car. under-steer is saver than over-steer.

Briggo

nicklouse wrote:

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Which ever is on the front... Always want more/better grip at the front.

actually the grip should be on the rear.

to give a safer car. under-steer is saver than over-steer.

It won't be oversteering anytime soon.

Get the fronts changed over.

Northwind

Swansea_Dave wrote:

Tough call. Both probably quite pants in relative terms but actually OK as you haven't exactly bought a road rocket.

Nah, not so much... It was a family car/shopping trolley before and they'd be fine for that I reckon, though even then the wet weather braking is pretty horrible. But it spins up in 3rd in the dry, and cornering's pretty erratic too. Takes a lot of the fun out of things when you have to tiptoe everywhere. Bearing in mind it's basically an ST with middle-age spread, it deserves better I reckon. Albeit the slow ST

Sorta half agree with Nick, but oversteer really isn't on the radar just now. If it turns out adding more front grip brings out a rear end problem I'll sort that then but IMO there's no point sticking better tyres on the back when the front is struggling so much. (Monkey- if I decide to keep the current fronts I'll just swap them round)

Briggo

Northwind wrote:

Swansea_Dave wrote:

Tough call. Both probably quite pants in relative terms but actually OK as you haven't exactly bought a road rocket.

Nah, not so much... It was a family car/shopping trolley before and they'd be fine for that I reckon, though even then the wet weather braking is pretty horrible. But it spins up in 3rd in the dry, and cornering's pretty erratic too. Takes a lot of the fun out of things when you have to tiptoe everywhere

Sorta half agree with Nick, but oversteer really isn't on the radar just now. If it turns out adding more front grip brings out a rear end problem I'll sort that then but IMO there's no point sticking better tyres on the back when the front is struggling so much. (Monkey- if I decide to keep the current fronts I'll just swap them round)

It's a pretty torquey engine for what it is, not surprised you spin that far up on shoddy tyres.

Trust me, you wont be oversteering the car unless you epic fail, the mondeo is very predictable and handles well in that regards.

You're right about it not being far off an ST in terms of what you get gadgets wise, except the bodykit on the Ghia is fuggin ugly compared to the ST, plus the suspension is stiffer and lowered.

Northwind

TBH mate, the main cosmetic feature of this car isn't the bodykit, it's the dents. To which I shall soon add an attractive protective coating of mud. I did have my eyes on an ST but the extra bounce should be a benefit for some of the unsurfaced roads it'll have to go up.

Briggo

Good effort, as a workhorse it's spot on regardless what model you have.

allthegearnoidea

i'd be tempted to have a nose on the mondeo forums as am sure they'll be peeps with sets of wheels to get rid of after upgrading, much like here!! may be able to get some wheels with decent rubber to go on instead, or a nip around the local breakers yards will often throw up some good wheels/tyres cheap! i know the local yard in the village has Piles of them, and the breakers the other end often asks £120 for a set of alloys with decent rubber, - even if you find good tyres on alloys that wont fit, you can eight the alloys in as theyre fetching half decnet money in the yards at the mo!!

if its spinning up in 3rd then theres an issue witht eh tyres for sure!! try swapping the fronts for the back and see if it makes any difference?? chances are they are the std budget style of Hard compound to last, but limited grip!!!

Northwind

That's good thinking on both counts, ta. To be fair to the tyres, it's a big car and it does (or did, when fresh) knock out about 265lb/ft so I can't really fault them for giving up- particularily since I have no finesse at all

YeehaaMcgee

I've found budget AVON tyres to be really good in the past.
I have to say though, I know what you're talking about with dangerously crap tyres. I once bought a Peugeot 306 which couldn't make it round a slightly inclined roundabout at walking pace without losing the rear end. The traction was so terrible that I thought the chassis was bent - but as I couldn't afford another car at the time, I stuck some new tyres on it, and it was perfect!

Tim.s

Aha my thread has finally arrived!!

To be brutal it has crap tyres on both ends, however the Autogrips (or Autoslips as they are known) are slightly better. We have had Zetas that have not even survived the fitting process.

The industry recommendation is to have your best/newest tyres on the back for the reasons others have mentioned, however this is slighty outdated as with modern roads and vehicles if you are skidding then its more likely driver error than anything else. Ideally you would have decent tyres in good condition on both ends!

Northwind

I'm glad I could give you this perfect moment Cheers for that, the Autogrips have the most tread too so that's ideal, I'll switch the wheels around tomorrow.

bennett_346

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

I've found budget AVON tyres to be really good in the past.
I have to say though, I know what you're talking about with dangerously crap tyres. I once bought a Peugeot 306 which couldn't make it round a slightly inclined roundabout at walking pace without losing the rear end.

:shock:

How is that possible?

YeehaaMcgee

bennett_346 wrote:

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

I've found budget AVON tyres to be really good in the past.
I have to say though, I know what you're talking about with dangerously crap tyres. I once bought a Peugeot 306 which couldn't make it round a slightly inclined roundabout at walking pace without losing the rear end.

:shock:

How is that possible?

Well, it wasn't. That's kind of the point
If anyone here knows the entry into Morrisons car park in Caernarfon, then you'll know about that slight off-camber bend on the entry from the roundabout?
Well, it used to slide out 90degrees there all the time, and no amount of counter steering would help - and yes, it was at walking pace.
I once slid backwards down a hill whilst waiting (thankfully at the end) in a queue of traffic.

The Northern Monkey

nicklouse wrote:

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Which ever is on the front... Always want more/better grip at the front.

actually the grip should be on the rear.

to give a safer car. under-steer is saver than over-steer.

Doh, I meant rear! Was I asleep when I wrote this?