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A Pleasant Experience Today


Catlover
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I arranged with my local Toyota dealer, Chester/Deeside area, to have 2 new tyres fitted today.   All 4 tyres were hanging around 3 mm but I decided to have 2 new on the front. I have a Gen 4 Prius Excel with 15" wheels. Originals were Toyo and the dealer quoted me about 2 months ago £50 per tyre, that included balancing, new valves, disposal etc and included VAT.  That matched any price I could see on the internet so booked in for today.

When done I started chatting to the service guy about satnav map updates, and he offered to update today if I had time to wait for about an hour - it takes that time for the software to do its job.  Job done, just had to hand over the £100 for 2 tyres. 

If there is another map update before my car is 3 years old end of September then they will do that freebie as well.

I know some on this forum are not too impressed with their local Toyota dealer, so I thought I would give a good comment about my local dealer.

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8 minutes ago, Catlover said:

I decided to have 2 new on the front

I know that it is counter-intuitive, but you should have your best tyres on the back axle. If you lose grip at the rear, the car will spin 180°

In my younger days, I spent some time 'driving' vehicles (cars and trucks) on a skid pan. You drive at full tilt onto the wetest part of the track (with ABS disabled), and the instructor pulls on the handbrake. You had absolutely no control of the vehicle. Scary!

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Yes, that's advice that has become more prevalent in recent years, but by no means do all people in the tyre business acknowledge that.  I'm a member of RoSPA's driving section and they certainly recommend best tread on rear.

Fortunately for me, my (also excellent) dealer makes the same recommendation, but a tyre shop my ex-partner went to last year was adamant that for front drive cars the new ones should go on the front.  As the others had good tread and she does mostly local driving at or below 30 mph we decided they could stay like that until the next service when the dealer could do a swap for her.

I've done a couple of skid pan courses over the years and think they are great for helping to reduce the risk of skidding in the first place and to help make recovery instinctive if once does.  One was on a car with a frame around it where trolley-type wheels could be jacked up hydraulically, and it could simulate lots of different types of skid.  The other, on an old airfield, used bald tyres and lots of water with an additive to make it slippery, with time split between front and rear wheel drive cars.

 

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In days gone by, I'd have put new tyres on the rear, but that was when I drove more enthusiastically and ran a greater risk of the car losing stability on a wet corner. These days I'd put them on the front. I'd rather have better traction pulling out on a wet roundabout and better aquaplaning resistance on the steering wheels. If the rears are really bad enough to cause a loss of stability under braking - even when we have ABS and stability control to keep the car in line - then I'd say those tyres need changing as well!

 

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