In search of cheap and affordable tyres for everyday town drive to work,
came across this Indonesia made branding when I research for replacement tires.
Need user opinions in terms of:
- grip
- noise level
- lasting / durability

size 195/65R15, for my 12 years old accord. Not considering Yokohama or Michelin due to costing.

Previously were GoodYear, the current ones are Sumitomo (Japan made), not particularly impressed with both, in terms of noise and grip. in fact i reckon the goodyears actually provided better grip.

Please share your thoughts..

unless you are talking about goodyear GSD F1, if not i wont recommend you to use any goodyear tyres, especially NCT series

if you dont want michelin and yokohama, you can consider about falken Ze912, not that expensive compare to michelin....

what are the problems with goodyears?

bad experience with NCT5, performance level is at the lowest, noise intrusion very strong, no grip for cornering....

thi is a relatively new brand here and not amny tyre shops are selling it...

It is advisable to look into other alternative brands such as Falken 522 or Yokohama A-drive...

with a difference of RM80 (per piece!), i've plunged in..
so far all quiet and smooth ride, can't say that in the long run, but so far so good.
i've tuned my driving habit from heavy foot to light foot smooth ride style ever since the petrol price hike back in one two years ago, so i was eager to rule out performance tires and to give low cost tyres a try.
it's indeed new brand that is trying to penetrate the market, the tire shop boss admitted that himself.
he tested it on his own cars (van) and find that it's good, and lasting too. the shop carries a lot of Michelin, also 4 pcs of 2nd hand michelin of the right size at ~70% tread, but are not within my consideration this round.
i found limited reviews on the thing, it's at the two extremes, where some claim that it's quiet with good grip and wet control, while some bash that it can't last long / no grip.. some just bashed it without giving good reasoning of what the "not good" is..

how much u bought those tyres?

RM170 per pcs..

I do agree not to use any GoodYear tires besides the F1 tires. They are just excellent in wet condition, but good in dry conditions. You can checkout www.tirerack.com for its test results.

Since tires last around 30,000 to >50,000 km, I'll guess a better tires for safety is good. You might not drive fast, but you'll need the braking power during emergency. I've used SimeTires before, and it last >100,000 km w/o grip.

This post has been edited by jex-koi: May 7 2009, 10:10 AM

grip for driving vs. grip for braking?
the simetires gives u no grip during driving or braking?

hmm rm170 per piee is a good bargain.. whr u bought it? thinking of changing my 195/60/15 tyres also...

I'm in Bayan Lepas, Penang.
somewhere near the old Southern Bank (now CIMB) row of building, if u r familiar with the neighborhood.. need to negotiate a little to get that price.

Grip for braking is the most important one, especially in wet conditions.

SimeTime has no grip during braking and cornering. My car is too underpowered to test it during acceleration. Taxis use it cause it is cheap and can last (too) long...

will soon travel back hometown, guess there will be opportunity for me to test out the grip.
still too early to tell for now, as i just did the change yesterday.

im bout 2 change my tires, n ive come across this brand coz its cheap.. quite tempted too, but quite skeptical.. my car dont have abs, so i need tyres that r good in the wet as well..

wet performance would depends on the tread design, no? that it needs to drain the water fast enough when driving, to avoid hydroplaning / aquaplaning..
while there are so many of them on the road, all the time, u don't see a lot of taxi drivers with cheap tires involve in accident, do u?

i'd say, for wet driving, the first rule of thumb is the keep the distance from the car in front (yes, keep as far as you can), difference in braking performance under wet condition comes only as 2nd priority. it's the driving attitude that matters .. but that's just me saying.

This post has been edited by weeluvmal: May 7 2009, 11:59 AM

i use sime tyre...at least it grips better than goodyear ducaro during braking and cornering...

This post has been edited by xshiro: May 7 2009, 12:05 PM

especially genting taxis. those tires made them drift. some taxis don't use them now. they said it screeches every time they throw their car into a corner.

well.. another cheap alternative u guys can opt to is federal 595ss.

V threaded design similar to eagle f1 but its more aggressive.

in kl; 195-55-15 ranging roughly 200 bucks per piece
205-45-16 ranging roughly 210-225 bucks per piece.

slightly noisy due to the V shape design; all V shape design aint exactly quiet tires.

comfortable grip both in wet n dry. bargain for $$

screeches when i cornering on the simpang pulai route to cameron highland was the reason y i take sumitomo (with screech) having worse grip than the goodyears i had.

#19,
the V-shaped tread was indeed known for its noise..
the federal tires are made in..?

This post has been edited by weeluvmal: May 7 2009, 12:58 PM