Given
39%
while driving a
Volvo V40 D3
(225/40 R18 W) on
a combination of roads
for 15,000
spirited miles
Long story short, please don't ever think about to buy these tires. Absolutely rubbish. Let's say this was a short 1 year "performance" test for a "performance" tyre and the tyre failed. Not really understand how they managed good ratings/reviews for this tyre.
Buy Michelin Pilot Sport, Conti SportContact or Good Year Eagle or any other premium brand for nearly same price. However, if you driving 20mph everywhere that should be fine, but I'm sure if someone wants to buy these kind of tires they are expecting good performance specially at the limit. When all other tires are failed these ones has to be on top. Remove this tires from your list.
I bought these tires in March 2019 as I thought these tires supposed to be the best on wet road in rainy days. I wish I could test it before. I would pay the £5-10 differences for the other premium brand. Such a shame...
After not even one year and 15.000 miles the front tires are nearly gone, threads are 3.6mm! Yes, I know, tires needs to be rotated 6-8.000 miles...so my fault. The rears are still have 7.3mm, so if I did rotated now I need to replace 4 tires - after one year - not only 2, thank you for the advice Uniroyal.
Black Shark...haha...definitely not...terrible experience, lots of struggle with under-steering on wet roads and corners even on dry road.
I had a factory fitted Pirelli Cinturato before on this car, fitted from 0 until 48.000 miles and still had 3.8mm on each. Just too see the full picture I bought the car with those Pirelli tires at 33.000 and 5.5mm thread, after 1 year at the next MOT at 48000 still had 3.8-4.0mm
So let's face it the cheapest eco Pirelli basic factory tires made 15.000 miles with 1.5-1.7mm loss
Uniroyal Rainsport 3 made 15.000 miles with 5.0mm loss with the same driving attitude.
I had Conti, Falken Ziex, Yokohama etc. on my previous cars, so I know what can I expect after 20 years on the road, specially from a "performance" tires.
Dry grip - ok, only if the road is real dry! When the road gets wet - not even with rain - the tires start slide and you have to reduce your cornering speed and you need to slow down in the middle of a roundabout which is silly.
Wet grip - ok, if you brake in straight line...
Road feedback - ok
Handling - as per above, these tires are not designed to drive at the limit. So don't try or you fail and crash your car.
Wear - not lasted a year with 18.000...
Comfort - noisy and if you run through on a 50Pence you can feel it was heads or tails...
And by the way, the car is a normal D3 engine with 150PS, no modifications, no racing boy equipment etc. I had think about the Polestar upgrade, but the tires needs an upgrade first...not the car. Used mainly on motorway and in town, not on Brands Hatch...I wish I could. Driving with normal speeds within the limit so 70 is 70, 60 is 60 (yes, 60 not 30 or 35...unbelievable isn't it) and so on...
Also we have Smart fortwo with Kumho tires with much better handling...so no more comment.