Page 19 of 23

Re: Continental Tyres

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 2:02 pm
by jstallan
Spoke with my Tyre dealer friend who cannot get Nexens through his supply chain. He did confirm that all prices did seem to be on the increase and retailers were starting to stock pile in light if the devaluation of the pound (rightly or wrongly) and all he could offer were some Jinyu or Contis but advised me to sit down if I wanted to know the price of Contis.

I mentioned that the Nexen were available online for about £100 each and he suggested to get them now and drop the car down for fitting when I'm ready.

I'm in 2 minds about keeping the QQ following redundancy and now a potential career change (at the wrong age of 51) so for me the Nexen route is one I'm happy with. Ordered a pair from BossTyres for £192 delivered.

Re: Continental Tyres

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2016 8:37 am
by chee
I've had the Nexens on the car for a couple of weeks and have to say I'm really happy with them, not noisy at all, very grippy and with the weather we've had recently they stop in the rain very well (did a few emergney stops when there were no cars around!). I can't complain for £85 per corner

Re: Continental Tyres

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2016 9:27 am
by Deleted User 759
Now we have a number of people who are reporting that Nexen's are good tyres and have a few minutes to catch up with the forum, I just want to pick up on a few things
I am not making any criticism of Nexan tyres, just a great believer in the quality of Conti's or Michelin tyres. I suppose it goes back to my working days of company cars where I did 30k plus miles every year for over 30 years. The company always insisted either Conti or Michelin tyres were fitted, and in all those years only ever had one puncture, good mileage and felt safe with them.
There could be several reasons for this.... one I recently picked up at work!

1. The company could had a stonkingly good deal with a supplier.
2. It maybe one of those things where the company want quality, but don't want to invest a huge amount of time/effort
3. Have been burn once or twice before, forcing a decision to stick with 'brand names' just because..... which kinda merges with my 4th comment....
4. Some sort of personal incentive? The decision maker getting some sort of kick back? I have seen this at work in the past where we were 'forced' to use a particular supplier for toner cartages for printers. Refill units of lower quality. It later transpired the person who pushed this 'policy', her husband was the manager of the particular branch of the printer supplier!!!

5. This is where I got stung recently. I was looking at provisioning a new internet feed at work a couple of months back. At work, we usually play with 'the big boys', so that's the likes of Virgin and BT. In the past, both of these big boys have been problematic for me, causing untold trouble and billing issues. In a previous line of work, as well as personal experience running a business line, I put forward another company called Zen.
Zen came in 40% cheaper than either BT or Virgin, but have come with 'great recommendation' from not only myself but others.

It was turned down and my boss gave me some advise.... "always play with the big boys regardless of past experience, if a smaller company was to fail, no matter for what reason, you decision for not playing with the big boys would be questioned and frowned upon, even if it was not directly related to that company".

Now, at work, we are not a massive company, but do work with some large multi national insurance partners so I understand what he is saying, however despite this, Virgin decided to provide us with countess problems soon after the new order was put in!

Essentially, its not all down to 'picking quality', but picking 'a good name to prevent your decision being questioned'
My wife had a bad experience once after being talked into budget tyres with a major blow out which split the inner wall, the fitter checked the other tyres and found two of out the other three also had bulges that could have gone the same way.
Personally, I don't see that Nexen are budget but more high mid range. They may cost less than Conti, but they have certainty held their own. Yes, its taken a few brave people to trust their car with an unknown tyre, but now we have a good number of members on them, I think they have been proven to be of good quality. When you have Ford who have used them as OEM tyres supports the claim as well.

As for those tyres your wife used, how 'budget' were they, had they been miss treated by your wife (no disrespect intended) or tyre fitter? With this respect though, I completely respect your decision on ensuring that this never happens again but going in the direction you have chosen regarding "stick with known brands".

Nexen's are not right at the bottom of the pile when it comes to cost, and the tyre labels don't seem to suggest any poor results either! Nexen have however been around for a decent chunk of time, around 70 years but are one of the lesser known brands which are slowly finding their way onto the market.
Unfortunately I can't seem to get my head around how a tyre can be nearly 90% cheaper than a similar one when the same size etc.
See point 5. Because they are relying on their name to keep the price up. The same internet service I proposed was 40% less expensive for exactly the same product, but I was more or less forced to use Virgin because of the name.

Similar to what the cheaper Whirlpool tumble drier buyers are seeing with them catching fire.
Design flaw....
What about the Ferrari's and Porches who catch fire when they are filled up with petrol....

Can I point out the issues with the 1.2DIG-T and the 1.6DCI CVT gearbox? Yet Nissan is seen as a quality reliable brand (although not by me any more, my future with Nissan as a brand is in serious doubt recently but that's another story)

Just because something costs more, does not make it better or invincible
Interestingly, I wonder if anyone has been tempted to put a taller profile on the 19" tekna wheels as they look like they would wear them well and fill the arch better - I suspect you'd also start to enjoy some of the benefits the 17" owners have in them being less crashy etc.
Changing the tyre profile size is not a recommended action. Older cars you can get away with it, but given there is so much technology on these cars, I would not be surprised if it throw some sort of error or cause a function such as the stability control to go a bit funny.... only one way to find out though!

Re: Continental Tyres

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2016 11:35 am
by Deleted User 3871
I changed the profile on my mini coupe as the ride is very harsh on the runflats.

Original 205/45R17 V 84
Current 205/55R17 V 84 (non runflat)

The mini is 4 years old, so has lots of tech/ driving aids and has not had any problems, with a bonus that the speedo is nearer true. The ride is softer (better), now does not skip going around a bend hitting a bump or pothole, but also it has less response in the stearing.

I will probably do the same with the QQ when the time comes, although I'm happy with the ride so its up in the air at the moment.
SplanK wrote: Changing the tyre profile size is not a recommended action. Older cars you can get away with it, but given there is so much technology on these cars, I would not be surprised if it throw some sort of error or cause a function such as the stability control to go a bit funny.... only one way to find out though!

Re: Continental Tyres

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2016 9:20 am
by rm0rgan
Daewar wrote:I changed the profile on my mini coupe as the ride is very harsh on the runflats.

Original 205/45R17 V 84
Current 205/55R17 V 84 (non runflat)

The mini is 4 years old, so has lots of tech/ driving aids and has not had any problems, with a bonus that the speedo is nearer true. The ride is softer (better), now does not skip going around a bend hitting a bump or pothole, but also it has less response in the stearing.

I will probably do the same with the QQ when the time comes, although I'm happy with the ride so its up in the air at the moment.
SplanK wrote: Changing the tyre profile size is not a recommended action. Older cars you can get away with it, but given there is so much technology on these cars, I would not be surprised if it throw some sort of error or cause a function such as the stability control to go a bit funny.... only one way to find out though!
Yup - this was my experience with my Range Rover Sport - I put on a higher profile and it improved the ride comfort no end - I think this is about moderation. You'd not want to go mad but another 10 radius should be fine. Wish I'd tried it now as have just fitted 4 new Nexens :-)

Re: Continental Tyres

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2016 12:55 pm
by chee
SplanK wrote:Now we have a number of people who are reporting that Nexen's are good tyres and have a few minutes to catch up with the forum, I just want to pick up on a few things
I am not making any criticism of Nexan tyres, just a great believer in the quality of Conti's or Michelin tyres. I suppose it goes back to my working days of company cars where I did 30k plus miles every year for over 30 years. The company always insisted either Conti or Michelin tyres were fitted, and in all those years only ever had one puncture, good mileage and felt safe with them.
There could be several reasons for this.... one I recently picked up at work!

1. The company could had a stonkingly good deal with a supplier.
2. It maybe one of those things where the company want quality, but don't want to invest a huge amount of time/effort
3. Have been burn once or twice before, forcing a decision to stick with 'brand names' just because..... which kinda merges with my 4th comment....
4. Some sort of personal incentive? The decision maker getting some sort of kick back? I have seen this at work in the past where we were 'forced' to use a particular supplier for toner cartages for printers. Refill units of lower quality. It later transpired the person who pushed this 'policy', her husband was the manager of the particular branch of the printer supplier!!!

5. This is where I got stung recently. I was looking at provisioning a new internet feed at work a couple of months back. At work, we usually play with 'the big boys', so that's the likes of Virgin and BT. In the past, both of these big boys have been problematic for me, causing untold trouble and billing issues. In a previous line of work, as well as personal experience running a business line, I put forward another company called Zen.
Zen came in 40% cheaper than either BT or Virgin, but have come with 'great recommendation' from not only myself but others.

It was turned down and my boss gave me some advise.... "always play with the big boys regardless of past experience, if a smaller company was to fail, no matter for what reason, you decision for not playing with the big boys would be questioned and frowned upon, even if it was not directly related to that company".

Now, at work, we are not a massive company, but do work with some large multi national insurance partners so I understand what he is saying, however despite this, Virgin decided to provide us with countess problems soon after the new order was put in!

Essentially, its not all down to 'picking quality', but picking 'a good name to prevent your decision being questioned'
My wife had a bad experience once after being talked into budget tyres with a major blow out which split the inner wall, the fitter checked the other tyres and found two of out the other three also had bulges that could have gone the same way.
Personally, I don't see that Nexen are budget but more high mid range. They may cost less than Conti, but they have certainty held their own. Yes, its taken a few brave people to trust their car with an unknown tyre, but now we have a good number of members on them, I think they have been proven to be of good quality. When you have Ford who have used them as OEM tyres supports the claim as well.

As for those tyres your wife used, how 'budget' were they, had they been miss treated by your wife (no disrespect intended) or tyre fitter? With this respect though, I completely respect your decision on ensuring that this never happens again but going in the direction you have chosen regarding "stick with known brands".

Nexen's are not right at the bottom of the pile when it comes to cost, and the tyre labels don't seem to suggest any poor results either! Nexen have however been around for a decent chunk of time, around 70 years but are one of the lesser known brands which are slowly finding their way onto the market.
Unfortunately I can't seem to get my head around how a tyre can be nearly 90% cheaper than a similar one when the same size etc.
See point 5. Because they are relying on their name to keep the price up. The same internet service I proposed was 40% less expensive for exactly the same product, but I was more or less forced to use Virgin because of the name.

Similar to what the cheaper Whirlpool tumble drier buyers are seeing with them catching fire.
Design flaw....
What about the Ferrari's and Porches who catch fire when they are filled up with petrol....

Can I point out the issues with the 1.2DIG-T and the 1.6DCI CVT gearbox? Yet Nissan is seen as a quality reliable brand (although not by me any more, my future with Nissan as a brand is in serious doubt recently but that's another story)

Just because something costs more, does not make it better or invincible
Interestingly, I wonder if anyone has been tempted to put a taller profile on the 19" tekna wheels as they look like they would wear them well and fill the arch better - I suspect you'd also start to enjoy some of the benefits the 17" owners have in them being less crashy etc.
Changing the tyre profile size is not a recommended action. Older cars you can get away with it, but given there is so much technology on these cars, I would not be surprised if it throw some sort of error or cause a function such as the stability control to go a bit funny.... only one way to find out though!
I completely agree with you, I tend not to follow the tyres recommended by car manufacturers and go off online reviews and a local tyre company, I've had really good tyres on other cars like Kumho which i would not have even considered except for the advice of forums and local fitter (who happen to fit the tyres of the local Bentley dealership virtually next door to them). I'm super happy with the Nexens, still got about 5mm tread on the rears but hopefully by the time they need replacing the price of the Nexens wont have gone up too much!!

Re: Continental Tyres

Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 5:16 am
by simmo400
I don't know how people drive their QQ,s but if they stick roughly to the speed limits and allow enough room for braking I think any tyre ,which is compatible with their car, would be adequate. Having had a few cars and different makes of tyres I cant honestly say any have not done what they say on the tin. The 4 inch screw which went through my continental tyre recently im sure couldn't distinguish what tyre it punctured.

Re: Continental Tyres

Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 9:02 am
by switchback
simmo400 wrote:I don't know how people drive their QQ,s but if they stick roughly to the speed limits and allow enough room for braking I think any tyre ,which is compatible with their car, would be adequate.
What about in an unplanned emergency where you might need to take evasive action and/or use maximum braking effort in the wet? Could be the difference between avoidance or collision.

Re: Continental Tyres

Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 11:50 am
by rm0rgan
All tyres have to comply with a minimum standard and that bar is set fairly high and mostly subjective in my view....It's not like you are comparing solid rims with air inflated ones.

Re: Continental Tyres

Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 4:44 pm
by Deleted User 3871
Some of the stopping tests, especially in wet weather show a large difference in performance between tyres. I'm sure 1 metre can been the difference between an insurance claim & not. But its not just a metre or two, in some cases it can be 10 - 20 metres.

Watch this http://www.tyresgalore.co.uk/stopping-d ... get-tyres/