A word of warning to anyone buying a Scala…
My Scala has unicorn tyres - 205/45-18. I copped a sidewall bubble in one tyre but found replacing it like-for-like impossible. There are literally NO OEM (Goodyear Eagle F1) tyres available in Oz or even available for order. The car is only 6 months old and there are no other brands making this unusual size. This means I have needed to replace all the tyres with a 215/45. Seems like a ridiculous move from Skoda a leaves a bad taste. Interested to see if anyone else has experienced similar.
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Did you try Skoda, the parts department stock tyres and the importer is responsible to have access to spare/replacement parts.
Flipper Dog
Now - T-Roc R, Audi Q5
Past VWs- T-Roc R-Line, Golf 6, 7 and 7.5, Touareg 7L and 7P, Passat B5.5, Polo MK3, Polo MK4 and GTI
Thanks - unfortunately Tyroola did not have stock when I needed it. Probably for the best anyway. 215s are far more common.
This is more common than you might think. About 10 years ago we had a Mazda SP25 and got a puncture when the car was only about 6 months old. The damage was too close to the sidewall so it needed to have the tyre replaced. It was a 215/45/18 which is not a very common size tyre. I wanted the same brand tyre to match up with the others and had to wait over a week because it had to be brought up from Victoria.
Same story with our current car, Audi SQ5. It comes with a 255/40/21 from the factory. Once again, not a very common size so prices are high and not many brands to choose from. Many people with these cars move to a 265/40/21 which are not only about $50-60 cheaper per tyre, but because its a more common tyre size, there are more brands to choose from.
Why manufacturers decide to choose these unusual and unpopular tyre sizes is beyond me.
Would a logical answer be that these tyres are common overseas and as we are only a pimple on a pumpkin in the scale of market size they probably dont care much about what happens here
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Well...possibly. But im on several global owners groups for the SQ5 and people all over the world are going to the 265/40/21 size for the same reasons. Id say 80% of the group members are in Europe. So in the case of the SQ5 tyres at least, it seems to be an odd size tyre in most parts of the world.
I wonder whether Skoda (and others) negotiate special deals with tyre manufacturers. Then any replacement has to be a certain brand and they can charge exorbitant prices. The original Good Years on my Scala were great, but there's little noticeable difference between them and the 215 Michelins I replaced them with. VERY slight decrease in economy, but improved ride over rough Melbourne roads. Speedo no longer has a margin of error due to small increase in overall tyre diameter- the displayed speed is the actual speed. The replacements were literally less than half the price OEM Good Years would have been if I could find them. Since my original post, I was told by several tyre retailers and Skoda themselves that the OEM tyre was simply not available and Good Year confirmed they were no longer manufacturing them.
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