New tyres
 

Treated the Big V to some love and the credit card to some abuse today.

Had 4 new tyres fitted, but I was tempted to be a cheap skate and keep the best of the lousy Runway Enduros on the front, but bit the bullet as they are lousy tyres and were more than half worn anyway as well as perishing/cracked.

I bought Avon ZV5's for £200 all in from a local tyre place. That was £30 less than Nationwide despite their buy 1 get 1 free offer!!

Checked tha date code on the tyres and they're all made within the last 3-4 months.

Seemed like a good price and I love the Avons ZT5s on my Corolla. Glad I didn't go budget like I was tempted on an earlier thread. They makes the car look soooo nice and I'll have a nicer ride and more confidence in the wet, when she returns to the road anyway!

Right now its another job off the list.

It does make my spend over the 15k miles I've driven the car £1,650 and that doesn't include the cost of the car. I could by lots of 940s for that :)


It WAS a PITA however as the cars on SORN and not insured, so I had to use the cars wind up jack ....

... to raise one rear wheel, put the spare on
... let the jack down
... to raise the other rear wheel, support car on axle stand
... let the jack down
... scoot to the tyre shop in the corolla with the wheels in my boot
... wind up the jack, fit the wheel, remove axle stand
... let the jack down
... scoot to the rear with the spare wind up the jack, take of spare, fit the wheel
... let the jack down
... cross legs as busting for a pee!
.. wind up jack to raise one front wheel, put the spare on
... let the jack down
... to raise the other front wheel, support car on axle stand
... let the jack down
... race inside trying not to get black muck in the house and have a pee .... ahhh simple pleasures
... scoot to the tyre shop in the corolla with the wheels in my boot
... wind up the jack, fit the wheel, remove axle stand
... let the jack down
... scoot to the front with the spare wind up the jack, take of spare and fit the wheel
... let the jack down
... sweating like I've done a workout!!!!!

I guess for me it was!

Guess where all my tools are rolling about? Yup under the boot floor, which even made getting the spare out and back in a pain, so it forced me to tidy that as well.

I bought some Avons the same as yours, which i was very pleased with and thinking, just like the last Avons i bought, that they were made in England. I had a shock to see that they were in fact made in China!
Only time will tell now if they are of the same quality.

They'll be fine! My other Avons Zx5's say engineered in Britain, so I guess these do as well. Not fussed where they're manufactured as long as they they are engineered properly. If they cut corners on that they'll lose there reputation as a decent medium-premium tyre and go down the pan.

That is my thinking/hoping, now i've got them fitted to my car.
Lets face it, Avon would surely not make them to the same low standard as chinese budget tyres, due to the fact they're made in China would they?

Absolutely not - low labour - yes, same materials and design - no. The difference is night and day between Avons and budget chinese ditch finders. The Runways on the Volvo were down right scary in the wet, the Avons hugged like glue on the Corolla at least.
I'm comfortable with the Avons. I think they're owned by Coopers Tires now as well.

The thing to remember about anything made in China is this...

When you see "made in China" on a product, that in itself is no indication of cheap and shoddy manufacture.
The Chinese are perfectly capable of manufacturing things to the same standards as everyone else if that's what they're asked to do, but more often than not the design brief they're given is "make 'em cheap", so "cheap" is what you get.

Any Western industrial moguls would do well to remember what happened to our manufacturing industry when we dismissed the Japanese a mere 40 years ago.
That short-sightedness cost us our car and bike industries.

I've had Avons on a couple of cars recently, including my Alfa 156 and it cornered like it was on rails with them fitted, so I'd rest easy. ;)

Got 4 Barum tyres on my 2.0 09 V70 & just put 4 on the 57 V70 D5. 4 X 225/50/17/98W XL Barum Bravuris 2 £380. all in @ National tyre there a med range tyre & im very happy with there perfomance. Barum are part of Continental & the tread is same style as the continentals don't take my word for it google barum tyres & read the reveiws hope this helps regards mick

Yeah the Bravuris 2 are a good tyre and were my alternate, but were more expensive than the Avons.

If the Avon's have "Made in China" written on them then they will be made at the Cooper factory there. They're made to the same spec and quality and use the same rubber as the ones that come out of our place in Melksham so no need to worry that they may be of a lesser quality.

Some of them get made there as the UK factory isn't cut out for meeting the production demands and it's cheaper to do that than to expand the factory.

Its interesting to hear from someone who actually knows what goes on. Buying tyres is always a bit of a guess. I bought a set of Goodyears for my car after having a set of Pirellis whos sidewalls cracked after a few years.
They haven't done too bad but are starting to get a bit low now and I wonder what to get next.