The chaotic and costly tyre situation for Artura :-(
Discussion
Its only fair that people contemplating an Artura purchase know of the awful tyre situation. These cars have a proprietary embedded Pirelli 'CyberTyre' TPMS sender and I have drawn a complete blank trying to source rears from my usual and local outlets.
McLaren seem to be hogging all Cyber Tyre production by Pirelli according to their distributors and are trying to charge over £900 per rear via dealers only - my dealer is 120 miles away
. Many of us would actually prefer PS4S which are £330 but they don't have this proprietary TPMS sender system.
Some owners received this from one dealer recently which is a bit better but still terrible. "Don't miss your chance" - what an approach.
Many run their cars on PS4S or std Pirellis and do without the TPMS now - a supercar with no TPMS and liable to MOT failure Sh show.
McLaren seem to be hogging all Cyber Tyre production by Pirelli according to their distributors and are trying to charge over £900 per rear via dealers only - my dealer is 120 miles away
. Many of us would actually prefer PS4S which are £330 but they don't have this proprietary TPMS sender system.Some owners received this from one dealer recently which is a bit better but still terrible. "Don't miss your chance" - what an approach.
Many run their cars on PS4S or std Pirellis and do without the TPMS now - a supercar with no TPMS and liable to MOT failure
Sh show.I have stripped my low miles Cybertyres and fitted PS4S ... I'll keep the Cybertyres for the MOT.
Bell and Colville were doing better prices ... and rears are available from Protyre at around £500 ... fronts are still a problem.
But talk about a Pirelli shooting themselves in the foot, PS4S are probably better tyres and check out the best price for a set of 4 ... £1200 ish less £100 recent tyre promo from Michelin ?
The car just gets better and better ... particularly on MPS4S tyres (Pirelli take note !)
Bell and Colville were doing better prices ... and rears are available from Protyre at around £500 ... fronts are still a problem.
But talk about a Pirelli shooting themselves in the foot, PS4S are probably better tyres and check out the best price for a set of 4 ... £1200 ish less £100 recent tyre promo from Michelin ?
The car just gets better and better ... particularly on MPS4S tyres (Pirelli take note !)
Edited by ChrisW. on Saturday 12th July 20:41
Ken Figenus said:
Its only fair that people contemplating an Artura purchase know of the awful tyre situation. These cars have a proprietary embedded Pirelli 'CyberTyre' TPMS sender and I have drawn a complete blank trying to source rears from my usual and local outlets.
McLaren seem to be hogging all Cyber Tyre production by Pirelli according to their distributors and are trying to charge over £900 per rear via dealers only - my dealer is 120 miles away. Many of us would actually prefer PS4S which are £330 but they don't have this proprietary TPMS sender system.
Some owners received this from one dealer recently which is a bit better but still terrible. "Don't miss your chance" - what an approach.
Many run their cars on PS4S or std Pirellis and do without the TPMS now - a supercar with no TPMS and liable to MOT failure Sh show.
I agree, talk about rubbing owners noses in something not very nice .... were I McLaren having trusted Pirelli with this bluetooth comms solution I would be spitting feathers. Time for a better solution me thinks ... available off the shelf from almost every other car manufacturer.McLaren seem to be hogging all Cyber Tyre production by Pirelli according to their distributors and are trying to charge over £900 per rear via dealers only - my dealer is 120 miles away
. Many of us would actually prefer PS4S which are £330 but they don't have this proprietary TPMS sender system.Some owners received this from one dealer recently which is a bit better but still terrible. "Don't miss your chance" - what an approach.
Many run their cars on PS4S or std Pirellis and do without the TPMS now - a supercar with no TPMS and liable to MOT failure
Sh show.What does the the Cyber Tyre sensor actually measure?
From the Pirelli website it mentions temperature and pressure as well as communicating tyre type.
If that’s the case it sounds like a very expensive way to do it.
Many performance cars allow you to input the tyre type and when you change them, cheap TPMS sensors already exist and tyre temperature is better measured from the outside using an infrared array that gives you temperature at different parts of the tyre to help you optimise camber etc (and which doesn’t get thrown out with every new tyre.) VBOX sell a system for about £3k which does this for example giving 8 readings per tyre.
If it was somehow measuring strain within the carcass or something it might make sense, but then you’d surely need multiple sensors per tyre?
It sounds like a money making scam to me!
From the Pirelli website it mentions temperature and pressure as well as communicating tyre type.
If that’s the case it sounds like a very expensive way to do it.
Many performance cars allow you to input the tyre type and when you change them, cheap TPMS sensors already exist and tyre temperature is better measured from the outside using an infrared array that gives you temperature at different parts of the tyre to help you optimise camber etc (and which doesn’t get thrown out with every new tyre.) VBOX sell a system for about £3k which does this for example giving 8 readings per tyre.
If it was somehow measuring strain within the carcass or something it might make sense, but then you’d surely need multiple sensors per tyre?
It sounds like a money making scam to me!
ChrisW. said:
I agree, talk about rubbing owners noses in something not very nice .... were I McLaren having trusted Pirelli with this bluetooth comms solution I would be spitting feathers. Time for a better solution me thinks ... available off the shelf from almost every other car manufacturer.
Quite agree. Sadly Mclaren don't seem to have yet grasped how important looking after owners is. None of their car range are essential purchases. Generally bought with the heart by an individual who loves their cars and driving them. I am on my second mclaren. I love them and think they drive better than all the competition. But even then I can't say anything good about the experience of being a mclaren owner. The care for the owner after purchase is very lacking. Mclaren design and engineer brilliant cars. They just don't put them together very well. I don't actually hold that against them. But if you have a product with some inferior components (sports series door hinges or springs for example) then in order to keep your fan base and customers invested in your product you've got to ensure and police your dealer network (which is the direct interface between your company and brand and the customer) to ensure that customers are looked after, supported to find solutions to the factories failings. Essentially encouraged to be part of the brand. They amount that would pay back in terms of brand loyalty and an army of delighted customers out there promoting McLaren to all their supercar owning friends would pay dividends.
Instead all you get when talking with friends and other current or previous owners is a slagging of the brand. I've done it myself and yet I still love the cars.
Was supposed to be on a closed supercar owner track day a few weeks back. Only the mclaren went a bit funny with error codes when first started. Dealer on the phone couldn't give a f
k. No opportunity to talk with someone who knows the cars, possible solutions or work around. Just. "You'll have arange to have it recovered to us to investigate" no workshop time for circa 3 weeks. So there i am at the track day later that day, with my track slag in amongst all the Ferrari/lambo/other mclaren, and instead of me stood there effusing how wonderful mclaren cars are , I am sharing my tale of woe, only to be joined in with by other current and previous owners slagging off their experience of mclaren ( all experience is facilitated by the dealerships and they could go a long way to improving brand perception if the where given some leadership from "head office" ) I can guarantee all other attendees that day who haven't previously bought a mclaren aren't going to in future.
The cyber tyres and the snide supply through the dealer only is another demonstration of how they see owners and enthusiasts as expendable cash machines.
I wish they didn't make cars that drove and interacted this good, then I could be free of parasitic relationship
Edited by Pouhon on Saturday 12th July 22:47
Wow what a bunch of wkers - and what happens in 20 years time when Pirelli inevitably don’t make that tyre and this ‘technology’ (I use the term loosely) is obsolete?
In the meantime, can’t the sensor be ripped out of the old tyre and kept connected to the car somehow? Someone needs to clone it.
kers - and what happens in 20 years time when Pirelli inevitably don’t make that tyre and this ‘technology’ (I use the term loosely) is obsolete?In the meantime, can’t the sensor be ripped out of the old tyre and kept connected to the car somehow? Someone needs to clone it.
And this is where anybody with unhappy McLaren experiences will chip-in .. some with justification particularly before Thorney Motorsport and V Engineering started looking after weary MP4-12C, 650S (which were much better) and Sport series cars + others ...
I would like to believe that McLaren are turning a corner, my Leeds McLaren dealer has been very good for me and they have two McLaren Master Technicians who I have seen talking through apparent issues with owners ... my own have been a lack of familiarity with the car which just needs a little time to set all the systems before driving off ...
The original story with the Cybertyres was that Pirelli had had to stop manufacture due to the potential to hack high data flow bluetooth systems ... though I can't imagine what more intelligence anybody could obtain from them than from the 'assumed' hacking of all the existing sat-nav data !
As regards critical tyre temperature and pressure information, tyre pressures are easy to monitor for trackdays (been doing it for years) and tyre wear is a sure indicator of geo set-up ... as-if anybody is going to change that on the hoof (other than a race team) ... but I guess it looks impressive on the car.
As for really pressing-on ... there is far more to warm up than just the tyres ... tho' I guess the information could be useful in very wet / cold weather when most will not be pressing-on ...
Yes McLaren need a solution ... it could be Pirelli if they would manufacture and sell the tyres at a sensible price !!
I would like to believe that McLaren are turning a corner, my Leeds McLaren dealer has been very good for me and they have two McLaren Master Technicians who I have seen talking through apparent issues with owners ... my own have been a lack of familiarity with the car which just needs a little time to set all the systems before driving off ...
The original story with the Cybertyres was that Pirelli had had to stop manufacture due to the potential to hack high data flow bluetooth systems ... though I can't imagine what more intelligence anybody could obtain from them than from the 'assumed' hacking of all the existing sat-nav data !
As regards critical tyre temperature and pressure information, tyre pressures are easy to monitor for trackdays (been doing it for years) and tyre wear is a sure indicator of geo set-up ... as-if anybody is going to change that on the hoof (other than a race team) ... but I guess it looks impressive on the car.
As for really pressing-on ... there is far more to warm up than just the tyres ... tho' I guess the information could be useful in very wet / cold weather when most will not be pressing-on ...
Yes McLaren need a solution ... it could be Pirelli if they would manufacture and sell the tyres at a sensible price !!
Definitely
I still fail to understand what extra information these tyre sensors provide that is either not already available or which couldn’t be done better with sensors in the car.
For context my 12c had a passenger airbag sensor fault shortly after I bought it.
The load sensing bolts that McLaren in their wisdom use istead of the simpler seat pads had failed (a common problem)
The solution ought to be simply to replace them but they no longer supply these.
Plan B would be to retrofit a seat pad and flash the control module to accept this input, but as taking the seat apart is deemed too labour intensive they don’t supply these kits any more.
So Plan C is to order a whole new seat which they have done but 6/12 later I’m still waiting as they are struggling to match the leather!
The latest plan is to take delivery of a seat in another colour, take it apart and swap the leather in from my seat! In the meantime swap the seat from one of their cars to pass the MOT.
Madness, but luckily it’s under warranty.
I still fail to understand what extra information these tyre sensors provide that is either not already available or which couldn’t be done better with sensors in the car.
For context my 12c had a passenger airbag sensor fault shortly after I bought it.
The load sensing bolts that McLaren in their wisdom use istead of the simpler seat pads had failed (a common problem)
The solution ought to be simply to replace them but they no longer supply these.
Plan B would be to retrofit a seat pad and flash the control module to accept this input, but as taking the seat apart is deemed too labour intensive they don’t supply these kits any more.
So Plan C is to order a whole new seat which they have done but 6/12 later I’m still waiting as they are struggling to match the leather!
The latest plan is to take delivery of a seat in another colour, take it apart and swap the leather in from my seat! In the meantime swap the seat from one of their cars to pass the MOT.
Madness, but luckily it’s under warranty.
Pouhon said:
ChrisW. said:
I agree, talk about rubbing owners noses in something not very nice .... were I McLaren having trusted Pirelli with this bluetooth comms solution I would be spitting feathers. Time for a better solution me thinks ... available off the shelf from almost every other car manufacturer.
Quite agree. Sadly Mclaren don't seem to have yet grasped how important looking after owners is. None of their car range are essential purchases. Generally bought with the heart by an individual who loves their cars and driving them. I'm half expecting them to announce Greg Wallace as a Brand Ambassador next week.
I think the problem is that some are trying very hard to provide backup to match the potential of the cars. That such silly things should become (a) serious issue (s) is extraordinary.
In my case keeping the Cybertyres for the MOT and using MP4S tyres in the daily drive is actually saving me money ... with which McLaren Leeds are helping me. There are some good guys out there !!
In my case keeping the Cybertyres for the MOT and using MP4S tyres in the daily drive is actually saving me money ... with which McLaren Leeds are helping me. There are some good guys out there !!
ChrisW. said:
In my case keeping the Cybertyres for the MOT and using MP4S tyres in the daily drive is actually saving me money ... with which McLaren Leeds are helping me. There are some good guys out there !!
How does that work - do you just ignore the TPS most of the time and then get someone to swap the tyres back ond forth come MOT time? I'd have thought 2 x tyre swaps was costly.TwoMinds said:
I left my contact details with McLaren at the FoS on Thursday as I've always liked them, never driven one but thought I should to see what I'm missing out on. Then I read threads like this and decide I'll pass, again.
I doubt you did. If you left details and were looking at a new car, this wouldn’t stop you. There’s worse issues out there TwoMinds said:
Oh I did. I got a follow on email on Friday from Christopher Hewitt from Ascot.
I guess the clue is in your moniker! I was the same, procrastinated for a couple of years while steadily getting more mutton jeff in a GT3, every time I read a thread with tales of woe I'd forget it for a while. Then I realised that time was running out so bought a 570S Spider for £90k, now we look for excuses to go for a drive somewhere, the issues are far outweighed by the advantages, don't let the forums put you off!Gassing Station | McLaren | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff