2019 Vitara two wheel drive, 48k miles.
DOT code on rears is 1819 so the originals…ContiEcoContacts. Tread now circa 2.0mm and a bit, just noted a few tiny cracks appearing on both.Nothing too alarming but a few nonetheless, but you need to get close up and personal to see them.
Obviously time to replace if one is sensible.
Fronts were replaced when I bought the car 2.5 years ago, ContiPremiumContact 7s, still with 4/5mm tread depth.
Ideally i’d swap them to the rear and put new ones on the front, but i’ve had excellent experiences previously with both Michelin Alpins on my old BM330 and CrossClimates on a later car.
Mixing summer & all seasons is frowned upon, according to what I’ve read.
I’m thinking I should just buy 2 new ‘summer’ tyres, because although all seasons could be very useful here in the YDales, if it snows, being retired, I don’t need to get to work, and 50% of my annual mileage is on my two European motoring holidays.
Thoughts please..and should i mix the ContiPremiumContacts with other brands, albeit on another axle ?
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I replaced the front ContiEcos on our Vitara with a pair of Hankooks, I would have done the same with the rears eventually ... if we had kept the car.
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just throw some new ones on the back. any decent brand of your choice.
keep makes matched per axle, never mix summer / winter / all season tyres per car
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That’s what I thought.
Thanks for confirming Z…I normally use Black Circles so will check them out.
I’m impressed with 48k miles despite light use & long distance trips without harsh acceleration.
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I recently got a new set of tyres for our Vitara. If yours has got the 17” wheels, like ours, you might find it hard to get a midrange or premium tyre for less than £100 each fitted. In the end I reckoned it was worth the extra cost for a set of all season tyres (Goodyear) and shelled out £500.
After a lot of shopping around I found Halfords on the drive offered the best prices and avoided the hanging around in a tyre fitters. As you will appreciate prices change all the time and other cheaper deals may be available now.
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Just replaced 2 rear tyres on my 2wd vitara . Sumitomo make worked out at £95 each .
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Living in South Midlands, where proper winter seems to be a thing of the past, I'd just stick two decent quality tyres on the rear. I tend to go for Michelin but if Conti are what the factory fits I'm sure they're fine.
Having been raised on the fringes of where you are I can of course see that YMMV.
If fitting 'all seasons' at the front but not rear is bad ruling out swapping fronts to rear as you sort of contemplate then (obvs) you'll need 4 all seasons.
Seoras the Skoda is prone to scrabble the front wheels with a bit too much accelerator on damp/salted roads even when not, as he was today, towing. I doubt different tyres would stop that.
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Having had a vitara with contis I'd replace like for like, they suit the car perfectly .
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>> Having had a vitara with contis I'd replace like for like, they suit the car
>> perfectly .
>>
The ContiSportContact 7s I fitted on the fronts when i bought it 2.5 years ago are wearing really well…in all likelihood I’ll put the same on the rears…not cheap mind, and currently no deals on Black Circles.
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>> Having had a vitara with contis I'd replace like for like, they suit the car
>> perfectly .
>>
Replaced with Conti EcoContact 6, same as the ones fitted to the rear originally. Almost 48k miles on them, week 18 2019, still plenty of tread but minor cracking has recently appeared on the sidewalls.
Black Circles £135 a corner, 215/55 R17.
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The Premium contact 7's would have been a better choice. A far superior tyre in the wet.
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>> The Premium contact 7's would have been a better choice. A far superior tyre in
>> the wet.
>>
But only a C rating on mpg, compared to A for the EcoContacts. 80% + of my annual mileage is in Spain…two x 8 weeks road trips May/ June and September/October. Minimal rain the past 5 road trips, even in the Picos & Pyrenees…lucky me.
Bus ( free) and train whenever possible in the UK, hence my tyre decision.
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I'll be fitting something like Crossclimate All seasons to my Suzuki Swace when the time comes as a set of 4 to replace the original Bridgestone tyres. They have always been particularly great in the wet stuff which is what we get a lot of in Yorkshire.
In addition when I first ever fitted them to my Superb mkII the reduction in tyre noise was rather noticeable - but now slightly worried as the Crossclimate 3's seem to have a higher db figure than the 2's. I've had Bridgestone Turanza All Season 6's recommended to me so I'll research closer to the time. It might be a while - I've done over 16k miles now and the original tyres are looking as though they will last a long time.
Ironically the worst tyres I've ever had in colder/ wet weather were also Michelins - the Energy Savers.
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>> ... when I first ever fitted them to my Superb mkII the reduction in tyre noise was rather noticeable - but now slightly worried as the Crossclimate 3's seem to have a higher db figure than the 2's. >>
I would have thought a reduction in noise would be expected - assuming the replaced tyres were getting near the limit ? Rubber tends to harden with age anyway ?
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>> I'll be fitting something like Crossclimate All seasons to my Suzuki Swace when the time
>> comes as a set of 4 to replace the original Bridgestone tyres. They have always
>> been particularly great in the wet stuff which is what we get a lot of
>> in Yorkshire.
One of the two things I remember from school geography is that Yorkshire has half the rainfall of Lancashire because of "rain shadow". I have since found out this was wildly inaccurate. whilst Leeds is comparatively arid, Huddersfield gets more rain than Manchester.
The other thing I have retained is SUNWACD, the rivers of the eastern Pennine watershed.
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While crossclimates are undoubtedly a good tyre I have seen them with quite badly feathered edges, my son in Scotland loves the Goodyear vectras he's got fitted, apparently the tyre of choice up.his way.
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>> While crossclimates are undoubtedly a good tyre I have seen them with quite badly feathered
>> edges, my son in Scotland loves the Goodyear vectras he's got fitted, apparently the tyre
>> of choice up.his way.
>>
I've never really encountered feathered edges with numerous sets of Crossclimate tyres on my previous Superb mkII although it always wore rear tyres slightly quicker on the inside edge(as it did with any make of tyre) . Saying that I generally still got 35k+ miles out of a set of 205/55R16 Crossclimates with that car.
Some VW group cars with independent rear suspension and low profile tyres are known to feather the outer edges of their rear tyres - frequently mistaken as wheel bearing noise.
We have Goodyear Vector gen 2 tyres fitted to Mrs BJ's Panda and they are very good and the handling/grip seems excellent even in cold/wet weather however it seems a touch prone to wheelspin on setting off from a junction - it's only a low powered 1.2 8 valve engine!
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Suzuki - Tyre question - Dog
