I just had Nexen 672's installed on my 05 XJ8. I researched tires and these seem to be optimal. They have weak sidewalls but I don't intend to clip many curbs. The ride and grip is nice. I paid for an alignment as I felt it was needed with new tires. The tow in was off slightly, (peace of mind).

 

I had 4 new tyres priced up at Costco recently, come to near on £900!! ... Stumbled upon a possible great idea. Poss buy on Ebay and get local tyre chap to fit them. I found one 245/40/18 going for £25. Not brand new but only slightly run in.

 

I can never resist chiming in on a tire discussion.

I'm on my second set of Yokohama Advan S.4.s on our '93 XJ and that's what I'll be putting on our '04 XJR when the Pirellis wear out. The Yokos aren't the least expensive tires you can put on a Jag, but they offer an excellent combination of wet/dry/all-weather traction, quiet and comfortable ride, great handling and steering response, proper speed/load rating and sidewall strength, and very good treadlife (I think we got about 45K on our first set, but I don't baby them). The dealer that services my brother-in-law's Bentley Continental GT recommended and installed Yoko Advan Sports, so they might be worth a look if the come in the right sizes for S-Types.

For a more affordable tire, I'm running General Altimaxes on our BMW and they've been terrific. I think they were only $85.00 each from TireRack a few years ago. I also had excellent performance from a set of Kuhmo Ecsta summer tires, but they couldn't be driven in snow and I wore them out in just over 20K.

The previous owner of our BMW had installed new Nexens to sell the car, and aside from short tread life (about 20K), they had a tendency to flat-spot every night. The spots would smooth out after driving 10 miles or so, but it got old. This might not be a problem if you have 17 inch wheels, but could be if you have 18's. Based on the recent positive experience of Sue'sJag, perhaps Nexen has improved in this regard.

Cheers,

Don