Well the weather the last few days decided it I better get some new front tyres down to 2mm after 36000 miles.
So decided to complete the set of Toyo Proxes (I fitted rears about 10000 miles ago).
Ordered on line yesterday they get fitted wed thought £201.98 for the pair all in wasnt bad.
Looking forward to seeing what difference they make.

 

I must admit I had no idea who to contact for reasonably priced tyres. The first places I think of are ATS or KWIK FIT. Last month I noticed one of the rear tyres had developed a puncture. I took the car to ATS who quoted £292! KWIK FIT have a web site in which you can can choose your tyres and book a time for fitting. Their site quoted £258 for one continental tyre but £417 for two. I went for the two and got them fitted with no hassle. But somehow I still feel I've been stung!!

 

Loads of places on line but I dont think you paid much over the odds for the rears I paid a similar amount for the rears you can get cheaper but it depends what you use your car for.
So you were not ripped off I believe so dont worry about it.

 

If you are determined to stick with Michelins then you are going to nhave to pay the price, but there are loads of equaly good tyres around for half the price. ATS and Kwik fit are a rip off and rely on folks who dont want to shop around and can aford there prices. Also, they know nothing about fitting tyres to high performance cars. Check out www.blackcircles.com, or, www.mytyres.com, they deliver to your door and you can arrange fitting your self or choose form their appointed fitters and do it all on line.
Much much cheaper, I saved £150 with my last set of Conti Contact Sport 3's, which are also fitted as standard equipment.

 

Good advice Steve

The two links you provided are exactly the links I use. As far as I am aware mytyres used to deliver tyres to a location of your choice so you don't have to carry them around or be in when they are delivered, could be the tyre fitting garage for instance.

What I always do is ring up Gordens tyres in Wakefield, tell them the price on mytyres and to date they have always matched this price. Of course fitting and balancing is extra at around £10 to £12 but you would have to pay this anyway, this method has always worked for me.

You just need to ring various tyre-fitting dealers until a one pops up and matches your lowest price so shop around until you find a good one.

Alan.

 

I also use blackcircles, they use a network of franchise operators around the country. Once you have been to your local one then have a chat and go direct to them. They will provide the same service but without the additional charge that Blackcircles make, so are even cheaper. My local "blackcircles" place is superb. My car has a booked in time, I don't wait around and have never been there longer than 20 minutes. The only disadvantage is that most don't carry any stock so you can't juist go there on spec. This isn't usually something that Kwik Fit or ATS do anyway for these cars, so not much difference. When I first had my xfire I had a puncture and it took Kwik Fit 3 days to find tyres !! I gave up.

Just linking this to the thread on warranties. When I had my puncture ( more like a gash, probably caused by the metal roads they roll out across the fields) at Goodwood last year on the Friday, getting a tyre almost became a nightmare. Chrysler couldn't source one until the Monday and was going to have my car recovered to a dealer near there and give me a courtesy car. After explaining I really needed my Crossfire because I was meeting a bunch of fellow Crossfire owners at Chatsworth the service manager at the local dealers found some at a local specialist performance tyre centre. From calling Mondial Assist from a field being recovered and being on my way took less than 2 hours. The best thing was that both my rears were down to nearly 2 mm anyway so had both changed and got the Chrsyler trade discount for Sport Contact 3s. This was the sort of situation that you expect to be ripped off, stuck in a field at the mercy of Chrsyler and needing new tryes. I have since bought a set of spares from e-bay to keep in the garage. As I have personal RAC cover as well from my other car I could choose to be recovered home through the RAC as the Chrysler option doesn't do this. As I bought a set of 4 wheels with almost new tyres I will be selling a pair eventually when the tyres wear down. I got all 4 wheels and tyres for £430 !!

Just as an aside Goodwood provided free AA cover at the event. They were very nice but ineffective. their best option was to leave my car in the field for 4 days and get a tyre fitter out on the Monday because no-one within 50 miles or whatever the AA man said, had a tyre for my car that could be fitted on the Friday or Saturday !!!

Personally reccomend being prepared with a plan for what you would do if you have a puncture and are miles away from home and your tyre can't be repaired. It's happened to me twice in 18 months covering over 20,000 miles !

I have calculated that my rear tyres on their own have cost me 4.5 pence per mile that I have driven !! I'll stop now.... otherwise my tyre stories will turn into a novel.

regards,

Paul ( punctured ) Gough

 

I managed to get 4 Dunlop SP sports for £465 fitted last year.


Norrie.

 

I think we have learned from our experiences and those of others (beeblebrox) Im not in any of the breakdown services so Im on my own at the moment. I have extra kit on board for this, ie

1:The standard repair kit.
2:An additional "Airman" kit with compressor and repair fluid. This is a better quality kit than the standard.
3:"Tyreweld" Heavy duty tyre repair canister.

Despite going over the top with 3 kits on board Im still worried about big holes which the kits wont mend. Im after buying a fourth kit where you insert a piece of rubber ito the hole first with a special tool, then inflate with the on board kit.

Over the top or what!

 

Steve,
I would be interested in hearing more about a kit for repairing big gashes. I did see an interesting demo at the Top Gear show in November where you pre-filled the tyre with some liquid which immediately seals any holes that appear. He was doing impressive demos with a knife and screwdriver repeatedly stabbing a tyre filled with this stuff. He did say that the lowest profile you can use is 35, which is right on the limit.

Has anyone got any experience of these sorts of solutions ?

cheers

Paul

 

Sounds like you talking about Ultraseal.
I know a lot of people that use it on there motorbikes.
I'm not keen on using something where you don't even know that you've had a puncture also the tyre fitters hate it as it makes a lot of mess when you get the tyre replaced.


Norrie.

 

Just some feedback on my first post I am very pleased with the Proxes car feels a lot more sure footed especially in the wet.The car feels more balanced in the dry but this is probably due more to the removal of the mix in tyres fore and aft.
Car tramlining seems reduced even on the parts of the M3 that have more rutts than a farm yard not much difference in road noise levels.
Fitter checked rears and have lost about 2 mm for 10k miles which is reasonable.
So overall I must say I am impressed.
I sourced them from tyretraders.com who I have used before and seem pretty good.

 

I’ve made a note of the Blackcircles site - which is an all new experience as I’ve always been to KwikFit in the past for tyres. When I need a tyre change on Marlene, I’ll give them a go.

 

Paul, its also worth looking at www.mytryes.com. Similar set up to Blackcircles, and very good from my experience, very efficient and cost effective.