I just bought some secondhand alloy wheels for my Volvo 850 so I thought I would buy a new set of tyres for these and keep the old tyres on the steel wheels for winter. Previously I have had Pirelli P6000, and then Continental Ecocontacts (which showed a loss of grip pulling away hard from some junctions where the road surface is worn). The Ecocontacts also wore away surprisingly quickly.
I replaced the Ecocontacts with Toyo Roadpro R610s as I had heard a few whispers that Toyo were quite good. These were as grippy as the other tyres and wore surprisingly well, the roadholding being quite good too.
I therefore went to my local stockist (found from a postcode search at Toyos UK website) and asked for the prices of the R610s in the size 195-60-15. Unfortunately they only had three tyres in, but they did have four Toyo Proxes T1s 205-60-15 for only £5 extra each. Prices obviously vary depending on the wheel size and what deal you can strike - again the Toyo UK website has a guide on what size tyres will fit your car. The Proxes are much higher performance tyres than the Roadpros, and again I have heard good things about them. A deal was done. Just under £300 for four tyres, balanced, new valves, and a tracking check.
If you do have new tyres fitted, make sure they use a torque wrench to tighten the wheel nuts rather than an air gun....some cars can get warped brake disks if the torque isn't correct.
So far I have covered about 5000 miles in the Proxes. The car has much better grip than any tyre I have tried before. On junctions which I know are worn the tyres just grip and grip. This gives much more confidence when pulling out in to traffic as the traction control doesn't activate.
Wet weather grip is also excellent. They seem quite resistant to aquaplaning. General handling is very good, and I've tried slinging it round a good few sharp corners....my bottle would go well before the Toyos lose grip. Their control under braking is also very good.
I haven't tried them in snow yet, but that is a completely different driving style.
Overall I will certainly be buying Toyo Proxes T1 again.
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Jul 22nd, 2004
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