Champiro GT tyres

BrianD3

I want to put in a good word about these. I've had them on the front wheels of the Laguna for 32k miles and have not swapped them with the rear tyres at any point. There's still a fair bit of life left in them before they're down to the legal limit. I don't think they'll make it to 40k but won't be far off. The spec. on them is is 205/55 R16 91V with treadwear 260.

I think that's good going considering the Laguna is a heavy FWD car and is not a total slug (engine is a 1.6 with 110 bhp) In terms of grip and road noise I don't think they're any worse than the Michelins that were on the car previously. The major difference is that the front Michelins were worn out at 27k and are priced around 60-70 euros more per tyre.

PS I'm also well on course to get 100k miles out of a set of front brake pads. If I don't suffer something like a stuck caliper or piston or a fluid contamination I should make it. It will be obvious from this that I'm not an aggressive boy racer type however I don't drive like a granny either

BrianD3

Furp

where did you get and how much, I've heard about these tyres and I'll need to get a set soon for my Primera I think I need 205/55 R16 V's also.

ambro25

Good Figures.

I've always had old little crappy runabouts before the current two, and always worried about such things (tyre wear/brake pad wear and servicing intervals and the like, which used to be -respectively- a lot worse and a lot shorter than with modern cars).

Constantly amazed at increasing 'durability' of components - I think I've read in a thread about the Citroen C4 that its serviuce interval is 20k miles!

impr0v

I only got 17000 out of my front two (not Champiro)

BrianD3

where did you get and how much

Got 'em in Advance pitstop and paid 90 euros per tyre fitted.

BrianD3

Seth Brundle

http://www.autoweb.com.au/cms/A_51782/newsarticle.html and
http://www.imoc.co.uk/tyres/TyreDetails.asp?ID=117 (public review of the Champiro 50)
Just because tyres wear out quickly does not mean that they are crap. Are you hard on your tyres? Tyres are designed to balance grip against longevity. The more grip the ess longevity and vice versa.

ambro25

Re. premature tyre wear. Don't want to phrase the obvious, but have you had your parallelism checked lately? What's been posted above in relation balance etc. is very good, and you also want to check that your wheels are actually parallel (and given the amount of potholes and un-levelled patching sections around, I'd do that often!).

I've got 30k so far on my GoodYear Contacts on a 1.8 MX-5 - same as BrianD3, not Schumacher but not Victor Meldrew either . Perhaps it's because it's RWD?

BrianD3

Just because tyres wear out quickly does not mean that they are crap. Are you hard on your tyres? Tyres are designed to balance grip against longevity. The more grip the ess longevity and vice versa.

This is true of course but most people driving on a public road would find the Champiros offering perfectly adequate grip while at the same time getting good longevity. These are not ultra cheap ultra hard tyres and the treadwear number of 260 is not excessively high (the higher the number the harder the tyre, I have seen tyres with treadwear no. of 380) I have driven on my fair share of horrid cheapo tyres with terrible wet weather grip, the Champiros are very different to these. I have also driven on Pirellis which despite being quite soft and wearing out quickly (treadwear no. of 180) still gave pretty crap grip.

Oh yeah, and a good tip to maximise tyre life is to always keep your tyres at the right pressure. This is easy with the Laguna due to its tyre presure sensors which will detect a couple of psi deviation from correct pressure and give a warning on the dash.

BrianD3