New rubber - Toyo T1-R's orderd..

[brad]

I'll also add to the T1R-is-Rubbish debate. If you can back out of the purchase, I'd strongly recomend it.

On the forum I help run, we've had 3(?) guys with T1-R on their cars. 2 of them consider them lousy tyres. The third thinks they are good but I wouldn't rate his opinion anyway.

The biggest issue appeared to be that there was no feedback about what the tyre was doing. In cornering, they seemed to hang-on, but would then let go without any warning...... but not consistently. So the speed would vary & sometimes the front would let go and others the back would let go but there was no telegraphing of what was going on.

Among the cheapies that seem to give good service - Marangoni, Falken FK452, Federal 595RS.

Also, Tempe Tyres in Sydney have big specials on Hancook at the moment. 225/40x18s are $150 (directional or assymetric). You just need to allow for freight & fitting.

[woofy]

Just realised that the ones on my car are the Michelin Exaltos, so far so good, but no idea how they will hold out. I'm guessing they are really pricey?

[DanSA]

re PE2's - Yep.. If you can find them at all. Expect to pay approx $430 ea, unless you get em from tire rack when/if the dollar improves. They are a great tire tho.

[DanSA]

Bought & Fitted

Well, I hedged my bets ,and on advice from the workshop, only replaced the 2 fronts - rears have another 5-10,000k in them , so will re-evaluate come rotation time. I don't usually like to mix tread patterns, but this will give me time to see if these cut the mustard.

All done for $550 fitted & balanced, and I can confidently say that they are great bang for buck. Obviously long term will tell as to how they perform past the 6 month issue, but seeing as my Contis gave up after 9 months and 23k, I'd say they should stack up well.

I should preface the following with stating I'm not into the traffic light grand prix, I'm more of a sprited hills driving man with an equal amount of long freeway commutes ..

Fist hills drive was good this morning -

Comfort 5* (better absorbsion of bumps)
Noise 4* (i was expecting them to be bad in this area, but they are better than the CS2's)
Grip 4* (Seem to hang on well , progressive when limit is reached)
Sidewalls Stiffness 3.5* Could be marginally softer here than CS2, but not by much, need to drive em more to tell really)
Feedback 4* (again, need to drive more to know)

So overall, at this stage, I am happy with them, and will post again with any updated feedback after a few weeks.

Cheers for all the feedback guys, hope this is of some use to others..
Dan.

[brad]

but seeing as my Contis gave up after 9 months and 23k,

Bloody Hell!
I've done 10,000km on mine & they've only worn 1mm-2mm. At current wear rate they should be good for 40,000km.

[DanSA]

What do you drive Brad?

[brad]

What do you drive Brad?

1.8T Octavia. 118kw/250Nm. Tyres are CSC2 205/55x16 (which are about right for the torque produced).

I know why mine are lasting - 400km a week of near straight highway. Only about 3000km of my 10,000km usage has been "spirited", the rest I have no choice but to kick back, put on some music & go with the flow.

[woofy]

Its all in the driving and maintenence sometimes, my wife and I drive our cars a mix of hard and gentle, my 6 has the supposedly really bad yet expensive Bridgstones that come on it from factory, yet they are wearing well and have done nearly 40k and still have heaps left. Sometimes all it is, is regular rotation, but the Skodas only get serviced potentially once a year so I might do them myself. I factored in replacing them a year ago but in the end the money saved went towards the Skoda. I guess I get mine as a tax deduction in the end but still prefer bang for buck.

[DanSA]

Rotation is definitely the key. I should have done mine at 7.5k, but it didnt get done till 15k ish (around 6 months)
Hence why my front faired so badly I think.

[brad]

I rotated the RHS at 5000km, then it started raining & didn't get around to doing the LHS.

Then I decided to finish the job last weekend.

Some how or another I wanted to incorporate the (same size tyre) spare into the mix at some stage as when I had the Liberty it was the same 4x alloy, 1x steel setup & the spare never hit the road in 10 years / 140,000km (and it was probably unroadable by 6 years).

So I'm leaving the LF where it is until it's buggered and I put RF-->RR; RR-->LR; LR-->RF. Will repeat at 15,000km.

Hopefully by shifting them about a bit more they will last & eventually I'll be able to put the new spare on the car for a while. I assume by the time the tyres are worn, the CSC2 won't be made anymore.

[DanSA]

Already happened, CS3's now, I was quoted $539 a pop

[woofy]

yeah I wanted to do that with my last two cars...never happened with the one I sold recently, and the 6s spare which is identical is still in the boot.

The Skoda can't really do it as its a smaller size rim, and a different tyre. ALways seems a shame to leave a brand new tyre to rot.

[GoLfMan]

ive heard the TR1's are good, a friend of mine with a Laser TX3 AWD said that they stick really well and have an awesome wet tread
I was going to get them for my new wheels but will now have a good look around