How do you shop for tyres?

Ran them for a couple of days before. Annoyingly they’ve started to breakdown between the groves and are now causing wheel wobble.

I’ll get a photo later.

I will need to check the silage pit for a suitable replacement for this one sooner rather than later I think.

I could spend ages talking about this, but it boils down to a few things:

-Previous experience; For this reason I won't touch some brands again and I've bought some brands twice thinking 'they can't be that bad'. After 40 cars you begin to get an idea of what works and what doesn't. And at one point doing 5,000 miles a month.
-Reviews; I do take these with a pinch of salt; after all, you don't know what kind of a weekend the reviewers had to make them write that review; reviews are also subjective.
-Mate's views; I have an idea of what they like and they know what I like. We drive each others cars now and again and can formulate a review off that.
-Forums; again, it's subjective.
-Tyre shop reviews; same caveat; most people will sell a decent(ish) brand they can make their cash on. That doesn't really happen with the larger brands. My tyre shop is less biased and pretty honest! But even he'll at times have his 'preference'.

But I will say two more things.
-Cost is a very funny one. It's good being principled but not at the cost of missing the big picture. Sometimes you have to spend more to spend less. My Falken FK453s barely did 8,000 miles before I was risking 3 points a tyre. The Michelin Pilot Sport 4s have done almost 12k and aren't down to the markers. They grip better and per mile work out less. Falkens were £150 each, Michelins were £190. Tyre size for the M3 is 255/35R19 for those wondering; far from a cheap size. Per mile the Michelins are cheaper and come sale time I used to always get haggled as my tyres would be worn. I've lost that, and premium tyres do fill a new owner with confidence for the car.

Mercedes was the same. 10k from Nexens on the front vs barely worn down Goodyears after 6,000 miles. Price difference? £47 vs £57.

These days I hate going to garages too. Maintaining 2/3 other family cars does that to you.

-EU ratings IMHO aren't relevant, especially when you truly see how they are tested. For one the tyres are tested by the model. So a Rainsport 3 will be tested against another RS3 but one with is a 'worst' case side profile vs 'best case' for MPG. That can really skew the ratings. Goodyear only make Eagle F1s in low profile sizes while the Uniroyal RainSport 3s are in pretty much all sizes.

Which Clio do you have? Even my 2CV tyres start at £80 thanks to no one making them anymore bar Toyo and Michelin; many UK vendors are now refusing to sell the Chinese Michelin knock offs due to issues with them. For the BMW I'm lucky I spend less than £700 if all 4 are worn. Even budgets are £400 all round.

I am on very good terms with my local tyre centre to the point that if they happen to accidently damage the finish on a wheelrim / alloy -then they send it me to sort out - it's one or two a year and is bound to happen when you are supplying & fitting 25,000 + tyres a year - they have been at it 50 years + so they know their stuff inside out - so I go and talk to them and listen to what they have to say when I need tyres on the moderns - whilst I am a value for money man - I am also you get what you pay for man and completely agree with what ChasR states above


On the classic & vintage tyre side I go and talk to the chaps at Longstone Tyres - again what they don't know about the product that they stock & sell is not worth knowing in the first place - again you get what you pay for with tyres

I didn’t expect so many responses to this tbh so thanks guys!

Everyone seems to shop in the same way I usually do. I buy for three different causes.

Mini - weekend summer car - I’ll buy premium without worrying, the tyres for it are so cheap it isn’t worth worrying about and a set will easily last me years (I think it’s only had 2 sets in the 10 years I’ve owned it!).

Clio 172 - Hillclimb car - I can only buy tyres off the MSA lists so I just read all the reviews and bought best ones based on my budget. I may have been stung by them but I’m hoping they’re going to bed in!

CLK - daily, current concern - ideally I don’t want to have a lot of money tied up in the tyres in case I decide to sell it. I used to do massive miles in it for work so I would have naturally gone for a premium brand and eventually my fuel allowance would pay them off! However now I only do 11 miles a day each way. I was thinking about it last night, the current tyres have caused me no issues, grip well, have lasted a good while. The only time I’ve had problems is in the snow where the car won’t move at all, I think that’s more the car’s fault than tyres and I have a Pajero for winter so it’s no problem. With that in mind, I’m going to look at what is currently on it and price them up as direct replacements. I think it’s got Nankangs on the front and a Pirelli/Chinese on the rear, so hardly at either end of the plectrum.

I’ve also considered just buying some smaller wheels for it! Haha

The Proxes have quite a soft sidewall, have you tried a few extra psi?

Edit - you don’t say which proxes - some are 1a, some are 1b?

Yeah, although they are rubbish, it’s a very predictable rubbish. Makes the drive more fun being able to get sideways into a bend in a FWD car, but is more annoying when it won’t pick up on the exit!

Your first mistake OP is I assume by proxes you have the T1R?

This is the devil of all tyres and with hard drving wont even last a day.

If you want bang for buck track tyre that you can use on road in all seasons my personal favourite is the Federal RSR in 15" about £50 a corner and 17" about £70. Also Nankang NS2R and Yoko AD08R have similar grip reviews on road and track. I have used federals on anything from 160BHP Civics to E36 6pots, imprezas and skylines with no issues.

My biggest advice is don't use normal road tyres on track. Semi slicks are fine until there is a lot of standing water. Save for a 2nd set of wheels and stick some uniroyal rainsports on for the wet days they are cheap and effective in the wet.

R32 Skyline on RSR's


Impreza RA on RSR's

My cars are lighter and RWD so don’t really compare - but I run 32 all round on the road cars with T1-R. The RS3 (again 800kg with only 110 BHP and RWD) are 28 all round but I’ve removed the rear ARB and have played around with the dampers and springs a lot.