Q7 needs new tyres every 20k - suggestions?

[nightphotographer]

Hi guys - bumping this again as we're about to fork out for new tyres (again) - sizes are 295-35-21

Options are:
Pirelli P Zero which are currently on the car - very fast wearing.
Continental Cross Contact
Michelin Latitude Sport
Dunlop SP Sport Maxx (heard they are very loud road noise wise)
Yokohama Advan Sport

Does anyone know which brands here are harder wearing and will last longer?

[nightphotographer]

UPDATE:

Just read there's people getting over 80K off Hankook Tyres on the Q7 in the UK - not just one person, a few! So just called to get a quote on some in our size and they're only $445 a corner which is about $300 cheaper than the Pirellis - so $1200 cheaper all up. Anyone got anything to say about the Hankooks before we go ahead?

[brad]

What pressures do you run and waht are the recommended pressures on the fuel flap? (PSI would be nice as I can't get my head around metric pressures)

What is the Tread wear rating on the Pirellis? (I think you'll find it's TWR160 which is very low)
For the other tyres you listed:

Continental Cross Contact - TWR 280 $430
Michelin Latitude Sport - TWR220 $530
Dunlop SP Sport Maxx (heard they are very loud road noise wise) - TWR240 $450
Yokohama Advan Sport - TWR280 $420

There's also a Michelin Latitude Tour which is TWR 440 - they are $550 at Tempe Tyres



Are the tyres showing any abnormal wear patterns?

Have you had an alignment by a specialist (not just somebody that can operate a machine and set the adjusters). Did they inspect the old tyres before doing the alignment.

What type of rotation are you doing?

What type of driving are you doing (towing? Course chip roads? Lots of corners?).

[nightphotographer]

Thanks for the additional info Brad.

It's at about 38PSI which I think is the recommended pressure. People in the UK are running 40 to try and get extra miles out of the tyres.

It hasn't been aligned, that's something I'm going to get done now probably when it's in getting tyres. It does pull to the left slightly, but there's no noticeable difference in wear on the inside or outside. The front's are wearing about 20% faster than the rears, these were rotated and now it's back to even sat with maybe 2.5mm left.

Driving is a wide range, we've done a lot of snow trips so plenty of corners. It does a lot of freeway driving too, a lot of general country driving and then town driving too - roundabouts etc. Nothing out of the ordinary.

I really want to find out more info on the Hankooks for people in the UK to be getting 80k+ compared to maybe 30k out of other brands is definitely impressive. Those prices you've quoted are really good - but we're in Albury/Wodonga so freight and fitting is a bit of a killer - might as well buy local.

[brad]

I would be running somewhere between 42-45psi in a vehicle that size. It will help a bit but if a tyre has a TWR of 160 it will disapear pretty quick no matter what you do when it's suporting a 2.5tonne vehicle (they are around that aren't they?).

I think the TWR on the Hankook is 340. While it will give you better mileage, i really doubt it will give 80,000km unless there are aspects of handling & braking that are severely compromised. It could be that the high milers drive like pussies too.

freight on a set of tyres is $60. Fitting will be $80-$100. Knowing this, get your local guy to price match. BJs will price match off a web price or try & get close.

Personally, I'd take the punt & go with the Michelin Latitude Tour because I think Michelin make great tyres.

The only other alternative is to get on eBay & Gumtree & look for some 20" used Q7 / Toureg / Cayenne wheels with tyres for around $1k-$1.5k and keep the 21" for when you sell the car.

BTW: if you just want cheap you can get yumcha tyres for <$200

[nightphotographer]

Thanks again for all the info - it really helps and it's something you don't really think about when you've only owned 1200kg cars, but this is twice the weight!

I'll look into those Michelins, they're $550 so that's $420 more when it comes to 4 tyres but you're confident these will last longer than the Hankooks if it comes down to their TWR?

I'm confident it'll make a significant difference to the life of the tyre - if you consider there's people in the UK who've got 18k miles from their stock Pirellis (which is still about 50% more than me) then they get over 50k miles from swapping to a different brand that means I'd be expecting to get about 25-30k miles which would be more than double the 12.5k miles we're getting now.

[brad]

Nope, not confident at all but I prefer Michelins & I think they are more suited to a $100k (?) motor car.

NB: Latitude Tour seems to be exclusive to Tempe Tyres - it doesn't appear on the Michelin website - so it might be a parallel import or maybe they've cocked-up the size.

Either way, both tyres will give you a better run than the Pirelli. roll the dice.

[nightphotographer]

Yeah I see where you're coming from but I'm going off what people have actually run on the Q7 - all I want is something that's going to last longer than the Pirelli's without compromising grip, comfort, handling or road noise. So yeah it'll come down to either the Hankook or the Michelin. But that being said, I was under the impression that they share the same R&D and are a similar product anyway - similar to VW and Audi's relationship.

[brad]

While they may share R&D, I think Pirelli are too variable in quality. I'm not a fan and they would have to be mega-cheap before I'd fit them on my car.

Maybe Michelin get the good part of the R&D?

[nightphotographer]

We bit the bullet and changed tyre brands - we went with Hankook after all. Mainly as a trial, if we can get 30k+ out of these then we've pretty much doubled our mileage dollar for dollar. But also if we had gone Michelin then we wouldn't have known how good Hankook were, so maybe Michelin next time as a comparison.

I got an allignment done, according to the paperwork the front left was out by 1.5 - I really have no idea what that means but they've set everything to 0.5 now? Unsure if that's good or bad haha. I also got nitrogen put in for good measure haha.

Turns out the tyres we're wearing probably about 30% more on the outer edge, you could really tell once the tyres were off.

Now this is how the new tyres look after about 100kms -


Anything to be concerned about?