Tyres

[Parian]

G'day All

Just wondering what tyres you are running on your Levorg now days and any review in comparison to the Dunlops would be appreciated.
How many km's did you get out of the factory issued Dunlops?


Had to change mine after 37000km's, replaced with the same tyre due to already having a brand new tread on a full size spare so 3 new tyres worked out cheaper than 4 of a different nature.

I'm strongly leaning towards Bridgestone RE003's for the next tyre exchange.

Will be good to read what choices people have made.

 

[Keithb]

Had a screw in the side of one of my sport Maxx 050s so unfortunately had to replace all 4 tyres at a cost of GBP 540 as Dunlop no longer make the tyres. Really hacked off as all tyres had 6mm of tread left after 20000 miles. Replaced with sport Maxx rt2s. Have 3 good 050s in my garage if anyone's interested!

 

[Stumpvold]

We have great prices on goodyear/dunlop at work, so I've been running dunlop's. Never tried the stock ones, so can't say anything about them.
Wear on the 255/35R18 I have been using seems to be normal, or what I expect to be normal.
Grip and feel is excellent, both in wet and dry.
Noise wise they could be better, alot better. They get a bit less noisy after being driven and heated up a bit, but not by alot.
Don't know what i will be running this summer, but I have to find out pretty soon.

 

[Luke Rado]

Also keen to hear your thoughts forum pals... I’m still running Stock tyres on Factory optioned STI wheels

 

[nicodache]

Running with Dunlop Sport Maxx RT 2 225/45r18 on Rota Gravels. Not too noisy, grippy enough to have fun and almost slide out of my seat. I chose those tires for their (reported) performance on the rain, since it rains 200 days/year in Belgium, and also because they got rim protector (for my new rims. Which I managed to scratch nonetheless :/)

you can see pics of rim/tire combo on http://levorgclub.com/threads/grovel-express.314/

 

[moojy]

Like @Keithb I also came to hate the stock 050 fitted on European cars. Impossible to get hold of the tyres here unless you pay the single supplier a fortune (200 GBP per tyre) and wait a week. And the delicate little things seem to be screw magnets - I lost 2 tyres within a month of getting my car. When I found a tiny sidewall hole in a third recently (probably a pot-hole) I just decided to rid myself of the lot and also spent £500 on a new set of something else. Having been put off Dunlop by now, and considered the usual suspects of Michelin, Conti, Pirelli, even Vredestein, I would have preferred to go back to my usual Eagle Asymmetrics (used on previous Imprezas) but as the Levorg has so much less responsiveness than my previous car (at the price of occasional better fuel economy) I just decided to carry on with that theme and opt for tyres that have (a) better fuel economy and (b) stronger sidewalls so I don't keep losing tyres. (I also live in Scotland so I needed better wet handling than Dunlops or wet-disaster-Bridgestones). I ended up with Goodyear EfficientGrip XL (yeah, I know!) But it meant I had stronger sidewalls (oh and the retailer also offered me tyre insurance for extra peace of mind for a very small charge) and a much much quieter tyre. In fact the whole crashiness of the Levorg on UK roads has vastly improved with these tyres. The car is also a lot more setlled, it used to get quite nervous on cornering with the slightlest unevenness. Combined with significant improvement in grip (wet and dry btw) the overall pace of the car has vastly improved. [now I just need to sort that wallowy suspension rebound so everyone isnt throwing up in the back...]
The downsides are:
1. The steering feels more mushy than the previous set and the Levorg never did have decent feedback to begin with. But I can live with it for the huge improvement in grip, noise and stability. And the Levorg isnt exactly good on feedback anyway so going from mediocre feedback to slightly-more-mediocre grows on you.
2. However the big downside is so far I have NOT seen an improvement in fuel efficiency despite these being amongst the best rated on the market. Maybe the ratings only apply to 2 wheel drive tests. If anything the fuel economy may have gone down, sometimes it feels like it. :-(

So do feel a little hard done by as the main reason for putting up with the sleepy Levorg is the claimed fuel efficiency and I seem to have defeated that a little. But overall I much prefer these tyres for UK roads over the Dunlop-impossible-to-get-weirdos that Subaru UK fit on the stock car.

 

[AKKO]

Bridgestone RE03 here, great value performer.

 

[moojy]

I find Bridgestones very predictable and good in dry but very poor in the wet. Gave up on them a long time ago. I also seemed to eat them very fast, they didnt last. 6 months at best.

 

[AKKO]

I find Bridgestones very predictable and good in dry but very poor in the wet. Gave up on them a long time ago. I also seemed to eat them very fast, they didnt last. 6 months at best.

Bridgestones generally or the RE03?

 

[moojy]

I have mainly used the RE040 cannot comment on 003. Perhaps they have quite a different compound.
I found the "grippy" compound on the 040 wore out very fast. (Of course it depends on the car and driving style but was comparing against Eagles on same car/driver=me).
I did find the 040 very progressive. They started to lose traction earlier but they were easy to predict and bring back under control - basically lost traction "linearly" if you know what I mean. Whereas the Eagles held on for longer then when they lost traction it was sudden and harder to feel it coming. Not dangerous sudden just "less fun" as you didnt know when you had reached limit and were always on-edge. Whereas the Bridgestones were a glide-fest in roundabouts and corners but in a fun kind of way.
But combine that with water and the 040s were way too slippy in the wet compared, while being better in the dry.

Everything is a compromise and I dont do track, only road so I needed a better all-rounder. And after 4 or 5 sets of Bridgestones I moved on.

Perhaps the 003 behave quite differently would be interested to try them some day. Shame it costs so much money to fit a whole set then get "buyers remorse"...

 

[moojy]

Ok - quick update. Had been worried about trouble with my brakes around same time I changed tyres and wondered if they were interfering with my mpg. Had them looked at and adjusted and it seems so... as on these new tyres I now get up to 50 mpg on motorway (=extra-urban) driving! And around 39-40mpg mixed urban/extra which is spookily the Subaru published spec.
So other than the slight mushiness of the feel (which you get pretty used to in a Levorg) everything else about these tyres is great and I can thoroughly recommend them - Goodyear EfficientGrip.