We’re holidaying in southern France for a couple of weeks.
Strolling around various towns, the differing tyre preferences of French motorists is very obvious. At home, it never ceases to amaze me how many people will spend a fortune on a premium motor, only to fit Chinese ditchfinders when the factory fit rubber wears out.
Over here, there are plenty of 20+ year old cars, still shod with four matching Michelin, Good Year or Continental tyres. Very few makes you’ve never heard of and it looks like Michelin have a very strong market share!
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The French tend to be very Nationalistic so that might explain the popularity of Michelin. Maybe their equivalent of the MoT is stricter and you've got to have original branded tyres. There used to be a member on here who lived in France, he may know.
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In the last 2 years I have come across 3 people who have all experienced the same thing when suffering from a single unrepairable tyre, garages will only supply and fit on a per axle basis. ie 2 tyres. Not sure if this is strict legal requirement. Whilst it is good practice if the tyres are more than 30% worn, or are the garages just maximising income?
And this in a country where up until recently,(or may even be current?) puncture repair using external loop lenthg of rubber was common place. About 10 years ago I had a puncture and the garage could not understand why I wanted the repaired tyre putting on the rear.
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>>Whilst it is good practice if the tyres are more than 30% worn, or are the garages just maximising income?
Probably the latter. I bought a CRV a few years ago which was shod with 3 x Dunlop tyres and 1 new Chinese thing on the rear which, while not being ill legal, was verboten according to the Honda handbook.
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Spain has a law where all four tyres must match by brand and tyre model. Maybe France has the same. I did an early change on my non-matching fronts before a Spanish holiday in 2014 to ensure I complied. Needless to say, looking round once I arrived, many local cars did not conform.
On the plus side I got a slow rear puncture and while you wait repair on a Sunday by a one man band local fitter cost me ........5 Euros.
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on a Sunday by a one man band local fitter cost me ........5 Euros.
Undoubtably an outside in repair - illegal in the uk?
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We'll, you say that Sherlock, but, three or four years ago I was in deepest, darkest rural Ireland and needed a puncture repair. Only place for miles was a tractor garage but they did a proper tyre off plug job for €7.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Fri 24 Jul 20 at 10:08
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Sherlock,nope. 5 euros was for a tyre off job. He even marked it up to put it back on the rim in the same place so no need to balance.
Last edited by: martin aston on Fri 24 Jul 20 at 12:20
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>>He even marked it up to put it back on the rim in the same place so no need to balance.
What effect would a mushroom plug have on the tyre compared to a balance weight on the rim?
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Tom, there might be a theoretical risk of the plug unbalancing the wheel. All I can say is I ran that tyre for another 20k or so without vibration or uneven wear.
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The French requirement on tyres is THEIR interpretation of EU legislation which requires tyres on the same axle to be of the same type.Other countries interpret this as both being radial, cross ply or bias.France interprets this as being exactly the same!
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Yes, I got an irreparable puncture in a rear tyre on a business trip to Paris last year. Thing is, the tyres on my car are an unusual size. My hotel was a couple of blocks away from a Merc dealer. ( not my first choice of tyre supplier of course, but I had meetings to attend and just needed someone to sort it all out, and so left it with them )
Anyway, eventually, they tracked down a replacement tyre but could only find one available that day. Much discussion ensued with them claiming they couldn't just fit one tyre etc as mentioned above. Lots of agony about it being a matching brand too.
I managed to persuade them to do it in the end, on the basis that my next stopping point after leaving them would be at the Eurotunnel, before leaving the country. Still cost a small fortune though.
Classic example of why a spare tyre or even an emergency spare would have saved a lot of bother and expense.
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>> The French requirement on tyres is THEIR interpretation of EU legislation which requires tyres on
>> the same axle to be of the same type.Other countries interpret this as both being
>> radial, cross ply or bias.France interprets this as being exactly the same!
>>
Frankly thats no bad thing
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Whilst not a bad thing for those that can afford a pair of decent tyres, (and do not understand things mechanical), is a pair of ditchfinders better or worse than a slight wear mismatch of premium tyres.
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>>The French requirement on tyres is THEIR interpretation of EU legislation which requires tyres on the same axle to be of the same type
I believe the Honda CRV handbook states the same but, I had 3 worn Dunlop Grandtrek tyres + the new Chinese thing - all all-season tyres of course, the Chinese thing looked completely different to my eyes.
Another pain dealer (not Honda) to be avoided.
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>> I had 3 worn Dunlop
>> Grandtrek tyres + the new Chinese thing - all all-season tyres of course, the Chinese
>> thing looked completely different to my eyes.
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>> Another pain dealer (not Honda) to be avoided.
How do you know that "The Chinese thing" was by definition, inferior to the Dunlops?
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>>How do you know that "The Chinese thing" was by definition, inferior to the Dunlops?
Tests have shown that Chinese tyres don't perform as well as premium rubber.
My thinking is that in an emergency braking situation, especially on say wet or icy roads, the braking performance would suffer.
I must admit it didn't really bother me at the time as we weren't doing many miles PA, otherwise the 'Chinese thing' would have gorn straight in the bin.
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Have seen tyre tests where the Chinese brands are fairly competitive with one aspect, ie. dry grip, or snow grip, but invariably they are weaker with the others.
It would appear they are not as grim as they were a decade ago but cheap tyres tend to have lower quality chemistry (usually less silica) leading to more compromise.
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There were 4 x new Runway Enduro tyres on my old Forester when I picked it up from the car dealer.
I swopped them for Vredestein Wintrack Extreme tyres. Waste of money TBH as the car hardly went anywhere :)
My wife liked that cottage you linked to the other day = £300k + down 'ere!
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One of my non-negotiable priorities in choice of a car is a proper spare. None of this sealant nonsense or silly 'scooter' wheels. No proper spare, no deal. It does mean that in the case of my current car the boot floor as a hump in it but these days I tend to leave the full spare in the garage unless I'm travelling abroad or a long journey in this country.
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So you insist on having a full spare wheel, no space saver, no pump 'n goo, no run flat. Non Negotiable.
And then you leave it in the garage? so you have nothing?
Hmmmmm
< strokes beard thoughtfully >
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Is that like the folk who leave the locking wheel nut key in the kitchen drawer?
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Tyres on cars in France - The Melting Snowman
