Citroen XM Forum

russ92xmsed wrote:Have you tried Black Circles? They are good.

They are Russ..

There seems to be about a £20 difference each in the supplied and fully fitted cost..

That seems excessive to me. I must see what our local place will charge for just fitting and considering he doesn’t have to dispose of the old tyres as they're already sold...

Last time he charged me a tenner a corner when I supplied my own which is a lot less than Black Circles..

The minefield gets worse...

This is exactly what I have been weighing up. How much would a fitter charge to fit just the tyres. But then you have valves, alignment ect with black circles.

I looked at many sites and £20 per tyre fitting is the average rate it seems.

It is a minefield.

V speed rating.....240 km/h what's sufficient for a 2.0 injection 16v, never even tried the top speed (ridiculous in Ireland anyway!) 190 km/per hour? 20 pounds for fitting is ripp off, I think anyway. Sadly 'my' tyre man has retired and I am trying to find a new reasonable one.

Note sure what yours needs Jaap but mine needs V rated tyres. H rated (130mph) ones are cheaper but the problem is as I see it is if the worst happens and you are involved in a crash and they find H rated tyres fitted and the correct specification is V then insurance might be void and all kinds of other mischief might descend...

H rated ones for me would be perfect as there's no way I'll do 130mph or anything even remotely close but the car can (allegedly) and that's what seems to be important. Gosh for me N rated tyres would be adequate (87mph)

Didn't someone get into a bit of bother over the fitting of winter tyres a while back for much the same sort of reason... Not approved and/or correct type for the car and so on.

For that reason alone it's worth fitting the correct specification.

For round black rubber things they don't half cause a lot of bother

I would see about getting a set of good part worn Michelins, or new ones. They cost more but last longer, so actually work out cheaper and are better tyres.

I shall put the best I can justify affording Will... No el-cheapo specials that's for sure...

Tyre life is not the first considerate as I normally end up replacing because of perishing and not tread wear..

My life is important though and after what I've just found out...

I discover today the tyres on the car are T rated. That's 118mph. Basically, the person who put those on should be put against a wall and shot. 118mph tyres on a V6 is just plain dangerous and foolish

I suspect they're van tyres...

And an illegal fitment on such a car,...

Did she get an MOT with those tyres I wonder

T is up to 190 KM/H I think it should be sufficient for the UK's speed limits so disregard my last post.

http://www.eiretyres.com/?pk_campaign=N ... _1303_alle

Seems it's a bit of a grey area. Some say it invalidates insurance, others say it won't and others say something else but it all boils down to a risk..

MOT is not a problem. They are only looking for same size on all wheels and ones that are legal from a tread and damage point of view. Speed and load ratings are not checked as far as I understand.

Anyway, it's all academic now as I've haggled a good deal with my local tyre place for a set of BF Goodrich. I've had a lot of BFG's on many of my cars and I'm happy with them. My V6 Xantia currently has a pair on the front.

A bit more reading suggests that whilst a T rated tyre is fine at 70 mph one also needs to consider the braking, steering and acceleration loads too - all of which on a powerful and heavy car might well exceed what the tyre is capable of.

Michelin's for me all day long. Even on the motorbike. Tried some Firestone's on the 407 because they were significantly cheaper than Michelin. I soon discovered why. In a word-awful. Actually two words-bloody awful!!