<SPOILER!> ECOTY 2016 - GTI Clubsport S

[Watts]

Can we have 1 thread without bridgestone tyres coming up.    I have never read a forum with this much fuss over 1 damn tyre.

Surely that would be 4 damn tyres

[LRWmotorsport]

I swear by LingLong Ditchfinders

[Jackie Treehorn]

Can we have 1 thread without bridgestone tyres coming up.    I have never read a forum with this much fuss over 1 damn tyre.

Surely that would be 4 damn tyres

I swear by LingLong Ditchfinders

 

[volkswizard]

^Nope, Had 18" S001 on my GTD and it was tramptastic with lots of tyre noise. Then I got my R on 19" wheels (RE050A) and although no initial traction issues due to the haldex, the grip going slowly around roundabouts in very mild winter weather (9C ambient temp, morning dew, not wet) was poor, the ride was poor as the compound is rock hard too. Switched to Michelin PSS after 6k miles and the diffrrence is night and day in all conditions grip. Bridgestones sat in my shed to go back on when I sell the car.

235 35 19 91Y XL prices from Mytyres.com
£184 for PPS vs £140 for RE050A

Not really going for the same market with that price difference and the bean counters at VW will never spend the extra.

Durable tyres could be more important for VW than ultimate grip especially now tyre maintenance is included frequently with finance deals (and if you crash because of low grip tyres, VW will either sell you a new car, or sell you very profitable repair parts, either way they win!).

Ford allow you to specify the tyres you want from a limited range on the lowly Transit van - surely VW could do something similar and make a bit of money out of their customers at the same time. I'd rather have paid VW an extra £100 for them to have fitted PSS than have to pay £600 for 4 and have a £500 set of Bridgestones sat in my shed.

Some people here lavish a lot of money on their performance Golf initially (kit and options) and frequently, that's not me - if not for my strongly perceived ugliness of the Cadiz wheel design i'd have happily stuck with 18" wheels and saved £900 as I am of the opinion that options are dead money and generally not worth the money lost over a 2 or 3 year term of ownership.

You can imagine then that I wouldn't have spent £600 on new tyres without a second thought if the Bridgestones weren't so poor at their job (grip) on the R. The Haldex flatters the tyres on initial traction, but that can't save poor grip. As they are hard as nails, my Bridgestones have hardly any wear on them.

Considering how much better my R is on both grip and ride comfort on PSS, it's a huge shame that VW didn't consider better rubber at the time. Recent owners are often seeing factory orders come through on better tyres.

What tyres are later cars coming on?

My point earlier was that PSS is a specialist tyre and not just a good big brand tyre like RE050A (yes!), Pzero, Sport Contact 5, Eagle F1, Pilot Sport etc which is all VW feel the need to fit to this car, at the end of the day it's just a VW and their margins are tight.
So even a Euro difference would make a difference to the bean counters, just look at how little paint they apply now

[monkeyhanger]

^ I would have been happy with any of the Tyres you mentioned apart from Bridgestones - I went for PSS on replacement as they were as cheap in Costco as Conti 5 etc are elsewhere. Plenty of GTD/GTI owners from launch models here (there was an assortment of tyres going on 2013 built cars) that didn't get Bridgestones and didn't really suffer from tramping. My point is not that PSS should have been fitted, but that pretty much any other tyre in that retail price bracket would have done a far better job of giving grip and traction.

Some recent Golfs on 19" wheels have come on Contisport 5.

My Dad's GTD came on Dunlop SP01s and you couldn't get it to tramp at all, excepting icy conditions. 8 VWs from new (4 Golfs, 2 Sciroccos and 2 Polos) and 3 of them came on Bridgestones and the 2 that were 2WD tramped easily (all 3 had poor damp grip, dry grip on a par with a mid-range brand), the others came on Pirelli P7s, Goodyear Eagle, Dunlop SP01, Continental etc and didn't tramp.

Are Bridgestones markedly cheaper than their peers at a bulk level? It might be as much down to reliability of delivery in those numbers as raw cost - we'll never know.

Everyone within VAG is at it, Audis can come on Hankooks now (the wife's A1 did, and i've seen a new S3 at the Audi garage on them too).

I fully agree with your paint comment - the paintwork appears half the thickness it was in the solvent based paint days when you look at your chips and how deep they are before you're into the primer or even the metal, with a lack of gloss lacquer anywhere that is considered out of sight.

[volkswizard]

^ Sounds like you've done some testing, TBH I drove my R from March to October so not really the best tyre testing weather.

There are probably variations in the compound too that will mean all RE050s do not perform the same.

I was surprised Toyo got OE approval for TT RS and B8 RS 4 for T1-R a few years back and how 8P RS 3 came on some low spec Contis and then got panned for its understeer, I really do think the accountants rule the engineers - which probably explains why VW had to take things out of the CSS to offset the cost of the engineering modifications - just happened to save weight.

[phope]

Why surprised about Toyo?

My TTRS had the T1-Sport (R01) from new, and never had any complaints about grip or handling in a wide variety of north Scotland weather conditions (ice, snow, rain, damp and dry...and that was just a summers day  )

I can imagine a 2nd tier brand like Toyo would have approached Audi to let them develop a suitable tyre for certain S and RS models and like any two companies, would have agreed commercial terms for such an arrangement

Audi get a good price on a batch of 60,000 tyres for example...Toyo get publicity and brand kudos for being rated for prestige models.

[volkswizard]

Why surprised about Toyo?

My TTRS had the T1-Sport (R01) from new, and never had any complaints about grip or handling in a wide variety of north Scotland weather conditions (ice, snow, rain, damp and dry...and that was just a summers day  )

I can imagine a 2nd tier brand like Toyo would have approached Audi to let them develop a suitable tyre for certain S and RS models and like any two companies, would have agreed commercial terms for such an arrangement

Audi get a good price on a batch of 60,000 tyres for example...Toyo get publicity and brand kudos for being rated for prestige models.

I mentioned them because at the time, it was unusual for Audi to use a 2nd tier company, I don't have an issue with Toyos at all.
Before that I can only think of TVR that used them as OE, I guess that means they must be good seeing as there were zero drivers aids

[GT4]