Which tyre do I buy?

[Faust66]

I’ve decided to treat my car to a set of new tyres and I’ve narrowed my selection down to 3 choices:

• Kumho Ecsta KH11

• Nexen N6000

• Falken Ziex ZE 912.

There’s only a couple of quid difference between the brands on a certain well known tyre ordering website so making the decision based on price doesn’t really come into it that much (they come in at about 80 quid each fitted).

I've had Kumho's before (KU31 IIRC) and was fairly impressed with them so I'm inclined to go for the same brand again, but as it's a fair some of cash to splash by my standards I want to make an informed decision, so any advice given on the best of the above would be appreciated (for the record they’re going on my Sierra XR4x4 and the size will be 205/45/16).

[Classic Grad 98]

I chose these for my Mondeo and believe it or not they're excellent. Highly recommended.
http://www.camskill.co.uk/m62b0s344p59832/MATADOR_...

ETA: In fact, have some reviews:

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Matador/MP-46-He...

Edited by Classic Grad 98 on Wednesday 4th January 18:47

[vit4]

Falken ZE912's seem to be pretty well rated on here? Thought about Uniroyals? They're usually pretty similarly priced to the Falkens for me, can't imagine it would be any different a few sizes up

[Moar]

You're prob thinking of the 452, the 912 are utter garbage compared to the 452. I would genuinely put the 912 in the triangle category.

[jagnet]

Isn't the Kumho tyre getting on a bit now? Don't know about the Nexens and the Falkens are the touring tyre rather than the more high performance version.

Is stretching to another £15 per tyre and getting some Vredestein Sportrac 3 fitted really going to be beyond the budget? Wet weather is where you need the grip most and the Vreds are very very good in that respect, something that the cheaper tyres suffer more with than dry grip.

[nakulan7]

Really scraping the barrell with that lot. I would try Hankooks.

[vrsmxtb]

Another vote for Uniroyals if available in your size. Rainsport 2 model is excellent by any standards and very reasonable on price.

[Nick3point2]

nakulan7 said:

Really scraping the barrell with that lot. I would try Hankooks.

Hankooks are no better.

Of all of them I'd say pick a name out the hat, whichever one you go for is a cheap st tyre.....

[Special K]

My Clio came with two of those Nexen things on it. I replaced them as soon as I could, they were terrible. My experience of them was that they have no lateral grip in the dry and no grip in the wet. I don't have any experience of the others though so can't comment on those but I would say get the best you can afford

[LuS1fer]

I've always liked Kumhos but they are rubbish in snow. I have Dexteros on the front of the Golf which work well in snow and are OK in the dry too.

[R300will]

I had some Kumho Ecstas on the swift and they were brilliant

[Faust66]

Thanks for the replies.

I'd like nothing better than to spend an extra 20 + quid per corner to get some really decent rubber fitted to my car but I'm on a bit of a budget (plus I'm just about to fork out £460 to get the carbs sorted on my Amazon).

Besides, it's only a relatively quick Sierra so I'm not sure putting top of the range tyres on would be worth it! Now, if it was a Sierra Cosworth, then it'd be a different situation...

I'll probably fork out a wee bit extra an go for the Hankook Optimo K415 option as they seem to have ok (for the price) reviews.

Once again, I appreciate everyone's opinions.

[Leicesterdave]

Are premium tyres much more expensive?

[Faust66]

Leicesterdave said:

Are premium tyres much more expensive?

The come in at about £105 up to £147 so a fair bit more pricey...