Which tyres? Pirelli Vs Kumho for S6?

[reggieroo]

I'm in the market for a new set of tyres but do have a budget of around £500 so I won't be spending £900 a set. I've been looking at new mid range tyres or nearly new part worn top range.

I have found 4x brand new Kumho KU39 for£555 delivered. The Kumhos have good reviews & people seem to love them. Very good comments, even people saying they are better then top range tyres they have had previously.

I have also found some Pirelli P-Zeros, two with 7.8mm, one new & one with 7.5mm total price= £515 delivered. Reviews on these haven't been as good as the Kumhos would you believe with some people saying wet grip isn't that good. From what I've read on the Pirelli website these are their best tyres for supersport & high performance cars.

Also found some P-Zero Rossos, two with 7.3mm & two with 7mm total price= £530 delivered. From what I've read on the Pirelli website these are their tyres for mid - high performance cars. Again reviews on these haven't been as good as I expected.

I will also be leaving these on all year round so they need to be good in bad weather also inc -temps, snow & ice. I'm expecting the car to do most of the work being Quattro so hopefully tyres won't be as much of a concern as a non 4wd car. Naturally you would go for either of the Pirelli tyres but it is always nice to have brand new tyres delivered with the stickers on so the Kumhos are saying buy me I'm new. I'm also thinking Pirelli should be a better tyre though being top of the range.

What are people experiences with any of these tyres on our Quattro 6's?

[Gavin0478]

i went for continentals on my lemans as got pairs of part worn 7.5mm at 200 a go so was lucky.
their are a few ao (audi original) tyres about so its 50/50 budget and recomendation i think.
regarding snow and ice... only tyres that are any good are soft compound winter tyres as quattro means you can go back and forward fine but laws of physics take over when cornering or stopping.
i used kuhmo previousally on a couple of cars and cant fault them for price wear or grip.

[reggieroo]

We had some crap Wanli fitted to our old allroad & that was still great in the snow so it's a fair assumption that the Kumho will be ok as they are a much better tyre.

[Mudplugger]

Reviews on these haven't been as good as the Kumhos

If you're talkning about the online reviews (such as I cited in Recommended Tyres for Allroad?) then consider that, as with any consumer-authored review, it is merely the purchaser's opinion from their own perspective.

By which I mean that if the buyer of Product A is shooting for the moon he'll be disappointed if his shot only hits a passing aircraft at 30,000 feet, and give a bad review accordingly. OTOH if the buyer of Product B buyer is only aiming for a streetlamp and manages to hit the top of a skyscraper, he'll give brilliant reviews. Product B will thus appear far better in the consumer reviews than Product A, even though it wouldn't even come close in a properly controlled test (as the skyscraper is far lower then the aircraft).

I hope I've explained the principle well enough to put your tyre comparisons in perspective?

[Allroader]

Very good point about consumer reviews, but this one caught my eye. I need someone to tell me if Nokian tyres are actually any good.

Nokian Z G2 - tyre reviews, the online tyre guide

[Mudplugger]

Depends what car you're fitting them on (i.e. tread pattern doesn't look much good for an Allroad) and whether or not the (unusually long) "consumer review" was written by a knowledgeable driver or Nokian's PR guru...

[reggieroo]

I've bought 4x Continental sport contact 3, got them part worn with 7-7.5mm tread for £407 inc delivery.

[Fraser]

seems a good deal that, was that a local outfit or ebay?

[reggieroo]

I bought three separately via eBay, one on an auction for £88 (done 500 miles), one other for £75 & another "buy it now" £115. The other one I found on a used tyre website for £100, total= £407 inc them all delivered. I have called a the Halfords Auto centre & they will fit them for £7 each, valve & balance.

I had called another local back street garage first who has charged me £15 per wheel in the past & this time he wanted £30 per wheel to fit..........WTF! I said to him "why so dear when last time you charged me £15?" He tried to spin me some yarn that 19" tyres are the mother of all tyres to fit because there so big & needs three guys to fit one tyre. Last time he fitted 20" tyres for £15, now he wants £30 for 19's?....................& these people wonder why business is not so good when they try & rip you off & feed you a load of ****!

[Fraser]

odd that, my local specialist says £20 +vat for 18's per corner, they said they would throw on some spacers for free though