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'& Son' managed

Third Party
Mar 2, 2018
270
89
South Coast
The basic handling balance of the car can be a factor, (205 GTi anyone?) - but mostly for those who
can actually drive you want whatever wheels providing the traction on a 2WD car to have the better tyres.
 

RUM4MO

Active Member
Jun 4, 2008
7,964
1,058
South Scotland
I'm old enough to remember the shock/horror feeling when getting 2 new tyres fitted to my wife's Polo at Costco - and returning to collect the car only to find the "wrong" pair of tyres had been changed - not so, Costco had swopped the new fronts to rear etc! That was round about the time the tyre fitting trade had had a rethink about which end to fit any new tyres.

Edit:- actually the next time I got a new pair of Michelin Exaltos fitted to that car at Costco, the tyre fitter said, "I hope that you don't plan to use these tyres in winter" - luckily by that time I had worked out that many summer tyres had evolved into summer only tyres, so I had bought a set of steel wheels with Alpins fitted for winter use, a trait that I have carried forward to this day.
 

womble68

Active Member
Aug 8, 2009
119
8
Bebington, Wirral
If they are decently priced I wouldn't turn my nose up at kwik fit. If costco haven't got an offer on they are usually one of the better ones along with tyresonthedrive.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk
 

martin j.

Active Member
Feb 11, 2007
1,997
893
Fife
Just googled this, several tyre manufacturers confirm new tyres to the rear, regardless of fwd or rwd.
 

Damo H

Remind me, what's an indicator?
Staff member
Moderator
Oct 3, 2012
4,715
2,820
Car Length In Front
I dunno about you guys, but I can much easier save a car that is oversteering than one that is understeering.
A lot of people in the UK aren’t accustomed to driving in snow so aren’t used to a rear end sliding out. A car that is under steering someone can just hit the brakes in a panic. Oversteering slamming into the brakes in a panic isn’t going to help.

With oversteer there is the point of no return where no amount of opposite lock is going to save you. Again if you under cook it into a corner with understeer you can still bin it obviously, but there is more chance of saving it.

And that’s all assuming a well balance car, not one with different tyres front and rear.

Auto manufacturers generally set car up to understeer now as they know it’s the safest option.
 
Last edited:

Legojon

I only wanted a remap
Staff member
Moderator
Jul 7, 2015
5,309
2,739
I think another point is... I believe when manufacturers say put the new tyres on the rear. What they are referring to is not mixing brands (although of course they prefer you have 4 of theirs). But don't have eg 7mm on the front and 2mm on the rear. I'm running 2xUniroyals and 2xPS4S at the moment. But all 4 tyres are on 7mm. And I would have felt comfortable with either on the front or rear.

However, I'm trying to wear out the Uniroyals so I can try PS4S all round. Therefore I put the tyre I want to wear quicker on the front.
 
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RUM4MO

Active Member
Jun 4, 2008
7,964
1,058
South Scotland
In the past, what smart people did if using KwikFit, was to check up on the price and deals on the KwikFit website, if good prices, print off the quote and use that to either get your local KwikFit place to match, or as a bargaining tool if using an independent tyre place - obviously some places would equal/beat that KwikFit occasionally, if time permits buying online form most places beats the "walk in" prices, even getting prices from Asda or the AA etc etc.
 

Jaco2k

AWD FTW
Mar 11, 2018
1,042
638
Tampere, Finland
www.youtube.com
Yes, but on a FWD car, the front wheels need to steer the car and provide power - I would assume that grip would be more important in that axle, but if the whole of the industry says otherwise... ;)

I don't have time right now to make calculations, but I would say that following their recommended approach you would need to buy tires more often.

Here in the North, we have the luxury of having 2 sets of wheels that get changed twice a year and being able to rotate tires with every change, so at least I get pretty consistent wear and when I need to buy, I always buy 4 tires at a time since the wear is quite even.

I think a better medicine for all of you is to get used to tire rotation practice, which in the South is quite rare thing to do.
 
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RUM4MO

Active Member
Jun 4, 2008
7,964
1,058
South Scotland
It sounds like my sister in law had a puncture on her BMW 3 series the other day and left the tyre fitting place 90 minutes later with a full set of new tyres, very handy for her at this time of year as she lives in the South of England and travels up to Central Scotland frequently, now if their garage does not comment on tyres then they will just keep on driving until they get a puncture, like what happened here, so if she has been ripped off I can't say, as long as she bought or got sold a reasonable brand of tyre that will keep them out of trouble in winter as well as summer.
 
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