Friday, June 11, 2004
Tyring day
Yesterday I had my car serviced. It's an Audi, so it's always best to take out a large bank loan before getting it done. By the time you've added all the extras that they didn't tell you about when they quoted £340, it gets to be quite expensive.
I was informed at lunchtime that both front tyres were verging on illegal and the dealership could replace them. I was given a choice of Michelins like the ones I already had (expensive), Pirellis (less so) or Dunlops (cheap). The price quoted for the Michelins was only £10 more than I had paid to have the rear tyres replaced at Kwik Fit only two months previously, so given that it would save me a trip to Kwik Fit on saturday morning, I said put the Michelins on.
Somebody once told me that Michelins were the best and I don't think tyres are something you should compromise on. OK, there's some inconsistency there in that I was prepared to let the previous set of Michelins get into an almost dangerous condition, but I reckon bald Michelins must be better than bald Dunlops any day.
Later the same day as I came out of PC World following an unsuccessful search for a graphics card, I decided to inspect my tyres. There's something deeply satisfying about a new set of tyres with an abundance of tread. What I saw deeply disturbed me. To be fair, the Audi dealer did only say Michelins like the ones you've got. They didn't say "exactly the same", I admit, but the implication was "the same but with some rubber on them". The new tyres were 205/55R16 91V not 205/55R16 91W as previously specced on the old tyres. I'd been ripped off.
"What's so worrying about one measly letter?" I hear you say. Tyre specifications are bizarre in the extreme and use three different measuring scales. The 205 refers to the width of the wheel in millimetres. The 55 is the height of the tyre wall as a percentage of the width. A low number here means low profile. The R says that the tyres are radial. The 16 means the diameter in inches (mixing Imperial and metric Tsch!) . The 91 is the load rating. The letter is the speed rating. W rated tyres are good for 170 mph. V rated tyres are only good for 150 mph. My car is no longer safe at speeds above 150 mph! It's a death trap.
Actually, the handbook says my A3 is not even capable of 150 mph and I myself have only ever done half that (ahem), but I bet V rated tyres are cheaper than Ws.
I was informed at lunchtime that both front tyres were verging on illegal and the dealership could replace them. I was given a choice of Michelins like the ones I already had (expensive), Pirellis (less so) or Dunlops (cheap). The price quoted for the Michelins was only £10 more than I had paid to have the rear tyres replaced at Kwik Fit only two months previously, so given that it would save me a trip to Kwik Fit on saturday morning, I said put the Michelins on.
Somebody once told me that Michelins were the best and I don't think tyres are something you should compromise on. OK, there's some inconsistency there in that I was prepared to let the previous set of Michelins get into an almost dangerous condition, but I reckon bald Michelins must be better than bald Dunlops any day.
Later the same day as I came out of PC World following an unsuccessful search for a graphics card, I decided to inspect my tyres. There's something deeply satisfying about a new set of tyres with an abundance of tread. What I saw deeply disturbed me. To be fair, the Audi dealer did only say Michelins like the ones you've got. They didn't say "exactly the same", I admit, but the implication was "the same but with some rubber on them". The new tyres were 205/55R16 91V not 205/55R16 91W as previously specced on the old tyres. I'd been ripped off.
"What's so worrying about one measly letter?" I hear you say. Tyre specifications are bizarre in the extreme and use three different measuring scales. The 205 refers to the width of the wheel in millimetres. The 55 is the height of the tyre wall as a percentage of the width. A low number here means low profile. The R says that the tyres are radial. The 16 means the diameter in inches (mixing Imperial and metric Tsch!) . The 91 is the load rating. The letter is the speed rating. W rated tyres are good for 170 mph. V rated tyres are only good for 150 mph. My car is no longer safe at speeds above 150 mph! It's a death trap.
Actually, the handbook says my A3 is not even capable of 150 mph and I myself have only ever done half that (ahem), but I bet V rated tyres are cheaper than Ws.
# posted by JeremyP : 9:39 pm
