Accelera tyres - worth avoiding??

[RSTurboPaul]

cerij101 said:

According to ASDA Tyres:

Accelera tyres are produced by PT. Elangperdana Tyre Industry in Indonesia. Established in 1996 Accelera tyres are manufactured in a well-planned factory located three kilometres north of the Sentul International Circuit.
The factory contains all the latest technology and machinery and the majority of their tyres are produced for the European market. They aim to produce safe, innovative and customer focused tyres.
Accelera manufacture low cost tyres which perform best in dry conditions.

I am not sure how they are related to Contenental?

Second post in 10.5 years - top lurking!

Edited by RSTurboPaul on Friday 6th September 11:35

[AlexGSi2000]

I have just purchased a pair of Accelera Phi2 in 275/30/19 for my winter car (2005 525d).

Normally I would never opt for a budget tyre, however, as I have other projects and the car doesn't get used in anger, I thought I would give them a go.

[anonymous-user]

AlexGSi2000 said:

I have just purchased a pair of Accelera Phi2 in 275/30/19 for my winter car (2005 525d).

Normally I would never opt for a budget tyre, however, as I have other projects and the car doesn't get used in anger, I thought I would give them a go.

It's exactly the weather for st tyres too

[Evercross]

Holy thread resurrection etc...

I'm coming out in favour of the Accelera Phi-R as I put 4 of them on my XF 3.0dS in the spring-time and experience so far in a variety of conditions from hot dry tarmac in Italy through Swiss mountain passes and several weeks of Glasgow torrential rain has been nothing but positive.

The car is putting out over 500 lb-ft of torque through the rear wheels and I've never scared myself once with them. Yes I can put the back end out on a particular roundabout in Govan that has had more than its fair share of diesel spills over the years but that is no different to the Dunlop SP Sports that came with the car. An annoying 'hopping' the car had when steering on full lock with the Dunlops has also gone with the Acceleras.

I know the older generation Phi got some bad reviews but the Phi-R is a different compound and a modified tread pattern specifically intended to improve water dispersal (according to the web site ) and although I never used the Phi's I've got to believe that the R is a better proposition.

I make no apology that I chose them on price (and a good experience with a set of Accelera Alphas on a wee hatchback many years ago), but I can say for certain that they are a match and in some way an improvement on a tyre that costs three times as much. There might be better tyres than the Phi-R or the SP Sport but no-one is going to tell me that the Acceleras are substandard or 'dangerous'.

Edited by Evercross on Friday 11th October 14:56

[RicksAlfas]

Evercross said:

An annoying 'hopping' the car had when steering on full lock with the Dunlops has also gone with the Acceleras.

"Crabbing" or "skipping" is an unfortunate feature of some steering geometry. It's very common on Mercs, especially some of their four wheel drive models. It's exaggerated when the front tyres are worn and/or when it's cold weather. Swapping old tyres for new ones will have made a big difference, regardless of the make.

[Countdown]

RicksAlfas said:

Evercross said:

An annoying 'hopping' the car had when steering on full lock with the Dunlops has also gone with the Acceleras.

"Crabbing" or "skipping" is an unfortunate feature of some steering geometry. It's very common on Mercs, especially some of their four wheel drive models. It's exaggerated when the front tyres are worn and/or when it's cold weather. Swapping old tyres for new ones will have made a big difference, regardless of the make.

That's a very good point. People often comment "I swapped Brand X for SuperPirelli P Zero Sotto Voce 3 and the difference was night and day" disregarding the effect of swapping any tyre that had 2mm tread with a tyre that has 8mm tread.

[Evercross]

Countdown said:

RicksAlfas said:

Evercross said:

An annoying 'hopping' the car had when steering on full lock with the Dunlops has also gone with the Acceleras.

"Crabbing" or "skipping" is an unfortunate feature of some steering geometry. It's very common on Mercs, especially some of their four wheel drive models. It's exaggerated when the front tyres are worn and/or when it's cold weather. Swapping old tyres for new ones will have made a big difference, regardless of the make.

That's a very good point. People often comment "I swapped Brand X for SuperPirelli P Zero Sotto Voce 3 and the difference was night and day" disregarding the effect of swapping any tyre that had 2mm tread with a tyre that has 8mm tread.

It's a fair point, but the SP Sports had plenty of tread on them and I changed them precisely because of the hopping after I had ruled out suspension/steering issues as the cause, plus I was getting the wheels refurbished, new TPMS sensors fitted and four-wheel suspension alignment done so I thought I might as well go for all new tyres as well. The Dunlops may have been age-hardened but they certainly weren't worn and I kept them as a fall back in case the Acceleras proved to be rubbish.

Six months on and I won't be putting the Dunlops back on the Jag, but despite them having plenty meat on them I don't have the nerve to stick them on ebay either as I wasn't happy with them so I don't want to be passing my problems on to someone else, so they'll be going on Facebay for a free pickup with full disclosure.

Edited by Evercross on Friday 11th October 18:03

[Weekendrebuild]

These topics are crap for the way your missis is likely to drive she will never find the limits of these tyres. Few of my cars are running nearly 700bhp so doesn’t matter what tyres are on rear they can always be spun an even crap tyres are ok once warm

[llcoolmac]

Weekendrebuild said:

These topics are crap for the way your missis is likely to drive she will never find the limits of these tyres. Few of my cars are running nearly 700bhp so doesn’t matter what tyres are on rear they can always be spun an even crap tyres are ok once warm

Another thread resurrection here.

I don't understand the above attitude. In an unplanned emergency situation your car, regardless of who is driving is very likely to be at the limit of adhesion. And that limit is vastly lower on a tyre like the Accelera.

Anyway, I just removed these from the front of my ISF. Incredibly low grip and prone to aquaplaning. It's like a totally different car with the Goodyear F1 AS5 all around now. But the Accelera were so bad I felt I should add to this thread so that maybe even a handful of people avoid buying them for a performance car.

[Evercross]

llcoolmac said:

Anyway, I just removed these from the front of my ISF. Incredibly low grip and prone to aquaplaning. It's like a totally different car with the Goodyear F1 AS5 all around now. But the Accelera were so bad I felt I should add to this thread so that maybe even a handful of people avoid buying them for a performance car.

I've got to chip in and say that my (now extended) experience of the Accelera Phi-R is still very positive. As I said previously they replaced Dunlop SP Sports on an XF 3.0dS - a very torquey car - and the roads up here in West of Scotland have been constant rivers of rain for several months now I have had no aquaplaning and no recourse to using the winter mode on the transmission to avoid breaking rear traction which was commonly the case before at this time of year.

Your Goodyears are almost certainly a better tyre but by the sounds of things you were running mismatched tyres front and rear when using the Acceleras so how much of your issues were down to that?

Edited by Evercross on Friday 21st February 12:07

[u33db]

The problem with this thread is its entirely subjective.

What some people think is good grip is what someone else calls rubbish. Add to that people are largely ignorant of checking the ages of tyres, the tread, condition before they make an informed decision as to tyre A being better than B. And people drive at different speeds and in different weather.

Really the only thing you can go off is a tyre rating or review.

If you check https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/ the Phi-r is 50% rated for wet grip and only 83 for dry.

Its also in the budget category - 2 categories BELOW what the much despised likes of Nankang are!

In other words they'll get you from A-B but are basically cheap crap.

Can't believe anyone would argue otherwise.

Put it like this i bought some used alloys off ebay with PHI's delivered for £150...the tyres were only a year or so old (DOT date) but were only good enough to be described "free with wheels"...says it all LOL

[Ron99]

Last place out of eight in this test:
https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2019-Tyre-Re...

44th out of 50 in this test:
https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2014-Auto-Bi...

Last place out of ten in this test:
https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2012-EVO-Max...

[xjay1337]

u33db said:

The problem with this thread is its entirely subjective.

What some people think is good grip is what someone else calls rubbish. Add to that people are largely ignorant of checking the ages of tyres, the tread, condition before they make an informed decision as to tyre A being better than B. And people drive at different speeds and in different weather.

Really the only thing you can go off is a tyre rating or review.

If you check https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/ the Phi-r is 50% rated for wet grip and only 83 for dry.

Its also in the budget category - 2 categories BELOW what the much despised likes of Nankang are!

In other words they'll get you from A-B but are basically cheap crap.

Can't believe anyone would argue otherwise.

Put it like this i bought some used alloys off ebay with PHI's delivered for £150...the tyres were only a year or so old (DOT date) but were only good enough to be described "free with wheels"...says it all LOL

Exactly.
Subjective is fine but many people don't understand physics of cars or the minute feelings from underneath you.

The best way is to put the cold hard facts infront of them (ie the test data). But even then many will argue.

- you can just drive to conditions [ignoring the fact some emergency might happen infront of you, or ignoring that these tyres do not grip consisently]
- only do a few miles so having a good tyre is a worthwhile investment [completely ignorant to the logic of such a statement]

typical favourites!!!
myself always put on good quality tyres. they last longer, give better , more consistent grip and help contribute to my driving pleasure.

Edited by xjay1337 on Friday 21st February 13:33

[Evercross]

Ron99 said:

Last place out of eight in this test:
https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2019-Tyre-Re...

44th out of 50 in this test:
https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2014-Auto-Bi...

Last place out of ten in this test:
https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2012-EVO-Max...

All three of those reviews are testing the Accelera Phi. The Phi-R is a different tyre (compound and tread pattern) and a whole generation newer (and I mentioned that in my original post above). Maybe Accelera should have made the nomenclature change more obvious to prevent the newer tyre being tarred with the older one's brush.

Edited by Evercross on Friday 21st February 13:44

[Ron99]

u33db said:

The problem with this thread is its entirely subjective.

What some people think is good grip is what someone else calls rubbish. Add to that people are largely ignorant of checking the ages of tyres, the tread, condition before they make an informed decision as to tyre A being better than B. And people drive at different speeds and in different weather.

I think the car a tyre is fitted to has an effect.
In my experience, large, wide tyres seem to partially compensate for poor quality rubber, except for aquaplaning.

Or, to put it another way; if I fitted the same type of tyre to my Insignia and my Viva, the Viva would slide due to lateral G-force long before the Insignia (e.g. a corner which the Insignia could take at 60mph, the Viva would only manage at 50mph before sliding).
On the other hand, the Insignia would be more prone to aquaplaning (245 width tyres compared to 185).

[xjay1337]

Ron99 said:

Last place out of eight in this test:
https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2019-Tyre-Re...

Nearly 20 meter longer stopping distance in the wet from 62mph.

If you put your arm out, and then measure from your opposite shoulder, to the tip of your extended hand.
That is 1 meter.

Imagine that multiplied 20 times.......

How anyone can justify such a poor performance is beyond me.

[TurboHatchback]

They're still utter st. The partners car had them until a couple of weeks ago (a mighty Clio 1.6) and whilst fine in the dry, in the wet it was like driving on ice. When you can buy them for about £30 it's hard to see how they can be made of anything other than recycled biscuit trays and still make a profit.

[Ron99]

Evercross said:

All three of those reviews are testing the Accelera Phi. The Phi-R is a completely different tyre and a whole generation newer (and I mentioned that in my original post above). Maybe Accelera should have made the nomenclature change more obvious to prevent the newer tyre being tarred with the older one's brush.

Perhaps.
But recently it was shown that of the two similarly-named Michelin Pilot tyres (PS4/PS4S) the best one for general road use is actually the one with the lower perceived quality.
Very sport-focussed tyres seem to be pretty sh!t as general road tyres when the roads are cold or greasy.

[xjay1337]

Evercross said:

All three of those reviews are testing the Accelera Phi. The Phi-R is a completely different tyre and a whole generation newer (and I mentioned that in my original post above). Maybe Accelera should have made the nomenclature change more obvious to prevent the newer tyre being tarred with the older one's brush.

Edited by Evercross on Friday 21st February 13:34

While some improvements may have been made do you really think they will be substantially better?


They aren't

https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2020-Tyre-Ma...

Accelera Alpha PHI R. 49 out of 50. Great score.
80 KMPH to 0 wet braking - 40.5 meters.

Compared to Michelin PS4 (my personally daily/sport tyre of choice, which wasn't even first) - 29.8m

[Evercross]

TurboHatchback said:

They're still utter st. The partners car had them until a couple of weeks ago (a mighty Clio 1.6) and whilst fine in the dry, in the wet it was like driving on ice. When you can buy them for about £30 it's hard to see how they can be made of anything other than recycled biscuit trays and still make a profit.

It's always the same with these tyre threads - people will generalise and say 'they are st' without actually specifying which model 'they' are talking about.

FYI EP Tyres who make Acceleras are based in Indonesia (where most of the tyre manufacturers buy their rubber from) and own one of the largest rubber plantations in the world. Could it be their access to cheap and plentiful raw materials means they can reduced prices and still make a profit?