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EU Tyre Labels – useful?
softfeet - 10/9/14 at 11:05 AM

Are the new EU tyre labels useful?

My road car needs new tyres. The size is 165/55R13 and the choice is:

Pirelli P700Z £57.90 EU Wet Grip Rating: E
Nankang XR611 £31.95 Wet Grip Rating: C

So the Nankang looks like better choice than the Pirelli. I realise there are other things to look at apart from wet grip but the EU tyre label does not give much more information.

What’s the general view on buying a Nankang instead of a Pirelli?

britishtrident - 10/9/14 at 11:18 AM

In my experience Nangkang's (185/55x15) are not good in the wet, my last experience with Pirelli was the original Cinturato so I can't comment on their tyres.

Any tyre you buy in that size is likely to be more focused on low wear and low fuel consumption than grip.

MikeRJ - 10/9/14 at 11:40 AM

The EU ratings are all self certified by the tyre manufacturers, so they aren't very useful at all IMO.

Not to mention that the wet rating is purely for wet braking, and it's entirely possible to have a tyre that brakes well in the wet but isn't great at cornering in the wet or aquaplane resistance.

mcerd1 - 10/9/14 at 11:54 AM

IMHO just like the CO² emissions on the cars - now they have a standard system to work to all the tyre manufacturers are focused on ways of making the tyres look good on the tests rather than actually performing


but even ignoring the label those Pirelli's are quite an old design and not exactly cheap...
were as the Nankang's are cheap enough that they might be worth a try - you can always get Pirelli's next time

mark chandler - 10/9/14 at 11:56 AM

Nankang ditch finders in my experience, I buy mainline tyres these days.

Alfa145 - 10/9/14 at 01:55 PM

A quick look on MyTyres.co.uk gives a bigger choice than just those 2, in similar prices, plenty of top name brands with B as wet rating.

mcerd1 - 10/9/14 at 02:09 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Alfa145
A quick look on MyTyres.co.uk gives a bigger choice than just those 2, in similar prices, plenty of top name brands with B as wet rating.

are you sure you put the right size in ? (165/55 R13)


I only got the 2 above + other nast budget tyres like: Minerva, Rotalla, Tristar and 'Performance Tyres' - some of which don't even have EU labels and none have more than a 'C' rating

Alfa145 - 10/9/14 at 02:20 PM

Apologies, must be my mistake, just done the search again and got those 2 (and the crap ones) must have put something different in when I looked before.

Is there a slightly different profile/width you can change to that gives you the same rolling circumference but a better selection of tyres?