It’s that time of year again people! Time to buy new shoes for the Big Cat — she’s an X300 Daimler/Vanden Plas Majestic. What do you guys run on your Jags? I’m open to new ideas. I’ve had good experience with Pirellis, Michelin and interestingly, a budget brand called Sailun.

I never had the Sailuns on my Jag, but rather on my old Merc — I would never call them amazing, special or anything like that, but for a college student on a shoestring, they did the job quote adequately. Very comfortable and long lasting, though perhaps not the most feelsome.

What do you guys like? Any experiences to share?

 

I have Toyo Proxes T1-R 245/55/16 100W on my stock KIWI rims.

 

I have been running 225 60 16 Michelin Defenders for 4 years and they have been great. I found that the Pirelli's made a lot more road noise, but they were old and on the car when I bought it.
Other brands I considered were Continental and Bridgestone, mainly because I was looking for a quiet ride with decent dry and wet grip.
If you can stretch to nearly $180 per corner then I would suggest going to Michelin, I read that the Pilot Sports are supposed to be a better option than Defenders, but there might not be much in it apart from the higher speed rating.

 

Ahhhhh the Morocco Red Pearl. I love that colour (though mine is the same colour so perhaps I’m biased!)

So are you altogether happy with your choice? Do you enjoy those tires?

 

I too have heard quite a lot of good things about the Pilot Sports. But your experience with Defenders also intrigues me. Would you get them again?

 

The Defenders have been reliable in all conditions and are very quiet on the road. They've done around 39k miles and could have another 10k left if I'm careful. Luckily no abnormal wear from the car. When it comes time to change them I'll probably stick with the same, unless any better options come up.

BTW - It looks like they don't do Pilot's in 225/60 16, only Defender, X-Ice and Premier A/S.

 

I use these tires on both my XJS and X300, the second set on the X300, totaling about 60,000 km on the X300. Very satisfied and never regretted it.

 

The dimension 225/55r16 or 225/60r16 is kinda weird and it's mostly used by vans so there aren't very good options to choose from, the best probably being the pirelli p7