Had the pilot sports and hated them. Now have the OEM contis and love them.

 

Hey Peter,

We were in Durango Colorado when the OEM Contis delaminated. It was a scary thought if you have seen the road between Durango and Ouray. In Durango, the only tires the Discount tire had to meet the OEM spec speed rating were the Eagle F1's.

The Eagles ran fine for a couple thousand, but then started to sound like, well, off road knobies. They handle fine, seem to wear well, but are the loudest tires I have ever used...and that includes my 4WD trucks! I do rotate them every 5k miles when I change the oil, but the noise persists. I used to swear by Good Year, but the last 3 sets I bought had issues (noisy, occasional delaminating)...so I think they have lost their edge they had for so long.

I see since my last post, there are a lot of Conti fans. I have never had any complaint about the way the Contis ride, handle, or sound. My complaint is that I have had 6 of them delaminate. That is 6!! I place them in the same category as Firestone. In the late seventy's my Father bought a new Montego (how's that for old?), with all firestones. By the end of the first year all 5 OEM tires blew out. I will not ever trust Firestone after that...and I will not trust Conti after my experience.

Currently, the quality control on Michelin and Pirelli are the top of the industry. Pirelli has invested in technology where their high-end tires are totally built by machine, with no chance for human error, but you pay for it in the price. They are my current favorites for road tires, and I have yet to have any problems with these two brands, other than my driving wears them out too fast!

John

 

Thank you John for the more detailed information. I have never had a tire delaminate on me and do not want to find out what that is like.

Argh, I still am not confident in my choice. This issue gets a bit complex as I have agreed to do my work through a friends shop (Goodyear) and he is a bit thick sometimes, but so far he has beat Sears and GoodYear by at least 33%.

Thank you.

P.S. I work for a Trucking company out of Las Cruces, and lived out there for almost a year in my RV, and made the trip up to Telluride in January of 2010 , so I do know OF the ride between Durango and Ouray and to tell you a quick story while on that journey in my F350 Super Duty, I made it all the way to Durango Mountain Resort AND THEN came up the Road Sign saying "Commercial Vehicles: CHAINS REQUIRED, all others, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED"... . Yeah, I decided to go for it, and I made it but man that was borderline DUMB! Coming down a few of those 'Hills' @ 60 mph, coasting and sliding anyway was NUTS! and one wrong jerk of the wheel and i am in a ditch (BEST CASE), rolled over (Second best) or DOWN THE MOUNTAIN!

Take Care!

 

Bit if a confession here ( three Hail Marys for a penance, probably!!). When the garage I bought the car from swapped my wheels for me to 18" in mid-2010, they had Pirellis on the front, so I replaced these like for like in 2011. Then early this year the rears were getting low. These were Acceleras, and I had not had any problems at all with them at all. My local shop said why not just put another pair on, so I did, and they cost less for two tyres than one of the Pirellis. SO far, nothing untoward at all, so.......

Did I do the right thing ?

 

Like you, I've been there...sliding downhill on ice, and wondering the whole time why I put myself in that position! Be sure to update us on your tire choice...

Fraser, I'd never fault you for your tires. As long as they are working for you, that's all that matters. I love pirellis, but can't bring myself to spend that much either! I have always put tires back that are rated the same as the OEM were. But I often wonder why I bother spending the extra for a tire rated to cruise at 150 mph, when I'll never go anywhere near that fast!?!

John

 

My review is in here January 27th 2012. Most reviews are good, with the ocasional bad one. A lot of people don't seem to realise that new tyres need to be run for about 100-200 miles before full performance is acheived, (a bit like new brake pads, really)

Accelera PHI | the Accelera PHI reviewed and rated | Page2 | the online tyre guide

 

Just got the Jag back from my mechanic Friday @ 3pm, and right to my tire guy this morning. I do trust him so with that we went with the Falken Azenis PT-722. He was saying it is a solid tire, no issues with odd wear or other problems like the hankook have (was looking at the Ventus v12).

Thank you all for your input. It did help. I will try to keep us all informed as I go along, but my only concern with these tires will be in the rain. When it does rain here, we can get 1+ inch an hour so wet handling is most important and these tires are listed as All Season...

Falken Azenis PT722 | the online tyre guide

 

My 2004 XJR came with 20 inch Sepangs and Toyo Proxes 4. Great handling tire, but clearly noisy. I plan to swap them out when they get worn out. They are all weather tires and the car came with another set of winter wheels, 18 inch Dunlop SP Winter Sport tires, which are quieter than the Toyos.

 

A warning from 2008 XJR, optional 19" wheels:

This car came with Pirelli P6s, a tire with no know merit and very noisy after 15,000 miles. Several months ago I replaced the tires with Bridgestone Potenza RE970AS Pole Position "an ideal blend of ultra-high performance handling with the added benefits of enhanced wear and all-season traction. " Possibly true if you live in the tropics.

Noise: Not as quiet as Yokohama AVS DB which I had on a Infinity Q45. Much quieter than P6s.

Wet roads and rain: When moderate temperatures unbelievably good, the best I have ever had.

Packed snow and ice: Terrible. Really bad. You have minimal traction and when you lose that you have next to none. In any direction. DCS is based on the idea that something has traction so it may or may not help.

If you have to drive on snow or ice get something else.

On the Q 45 I had Michelin Pilot Alpine Sport winter H-rated tires which were quiet for a winter tire and really good overall. Much better that some Pirelli winter tires I had previously.

 

still on the jaguar spec pirelli p6000 J tires

 

i'm currently running on 255/40/19 pirelli p zeros on my '05 4.2 xj lwb. not impressed, tram lining something awful as did the pirelli p6000's on my 2000 xj8. having ACCELERA PHI XL fitted all round tomorrow read some good and some bad reviews on these. anyone here have any experience of these tyres?
will update further when in use.

 

Yes, and all positive !!

When I bought the car in May 2010, it had 20" Sepangs and I found the ride awful, so when the dealer offered a swap for 18", I said "yes please !" The new wheels included 2 Acceleras on the rears. I then ran the car for quite a while, replacing the fronts with Pirellis in 2011, then when the two Acceleras came up for renewal, my mechanic who does all my cars said "if they've been OK, then why not put two more on, I can get them for a very good price". Well the fact is they HAD been OK and NO trouble, so I took his advice and fitted two more and got two tyres for less than one Pirelli.

Since then, (Oct last year), no troubles at all. OK, they're not the top-notch tyres you might need if you are a wheel-spin to wheel-lock merchant, but most of us, I suspect, mostly tootle around town and go for highway trips at "normal" speeds. I am not in the habit of attending track days !!

These tyres are much more than adequate in my opinion. However, a word of warning. Before the Jaguar, I had a Rover 75 and put on two Wanlis made in China. Nothing wrong with the tyre performance at all, but the noise !! A constant high-pitched drone at speed, so in the end, after two years I junked them, I had had my moneysworth by then. However, the Acceleras are quiet and OK for most people, I would think.

No doubt I have now opened a can-of-worms here !!

 

I put new Conti DWS tires on my 2007 XJ8L and am very happy with them. They are quiet, good in the wet, and should be long wearing. I have put 18,000 miles on them and looks like they should go another 20,000.

Regards,

Don

 

I've been happy with the Continental PRO Contact's and will probably stick with them (need to replace them this fall). Also like the Michelin Pilot Sport but there is quite a different in price. Usually go to Sears since they can get about any tire and price match.

 

well all four acceleras fitted yesterday and only had time for a few miles run but everything felt fine on the corners and some (deliberate) hard braking. obviously will bed them in and then report back my findings. if they are good then that's a saving of nearly £500 (gbp) over the pirellis.

 

I was looking for the lowest price. I found a 235/50-18 Falken Ziex ZE-612 at Discount Tire for $125. Discount Tire offered a $75 rebate card for the set of tires plus excellent balancing, rotating, and replacement insurance. I have been pleased with their performance, especially when you consider the wet and snowy conditions we've had lately.

 

I have just replaced my Pzero's with a set of Kumho KU31's

Price wise I got all for fitted for less than one Pzero
Performance wise I find no real difference. They may be slightly less noisy as well

I cant comment yet on wear as they are new but time will tell.
Assuming they wear at the same rate, im 4 times better off on price.

Cheers
34by151

 

well, took the new acceleras out for about 120 miles yesterday, half in the dry and half in very heavy rain. what can i say, excellent is what. all tramlining/whitelining gone. some deliberate hard braking and hard accelerating, spot on. only moan is that they are slighty noisier than the pirellis but not by much so overall i'm a very happy chap. less than half the pirelli price too.

 

How are the Falkens for noise? I just realized yesterday that my car is wearing the original Contis with 58k miles!! Still have tread left, but feel a bit hard and the noise is terrible. I didn't realize it until I had a Nissan Sentra rental and realized that car had no tire noise...

 

I'm not sure how the Falkens compare for noise. For all I know about tires, they could be the noisiest things out there! The car seems quiet at all speeds. The tires are very new at this point, so it will be interesting to see how they fare.