Best All Season Tyres for MG4

[SteveO]

I'm really puzzled by some of the responses to my question. I do appreciate that some do not need tyres other than those that are standard, and I'm not advocating that everyone should either change tyres or come to the same conclusion as we have. Also, with the regard to whether the journey is necessary or not, that depends on many things, including such things as whether you have a shop to which you can walk, or whether you are happy for your business to close down in winter.

However, just to give some inkling of where different tyres can help, here is one part of the journey to the nearest village. The middle top shows where the road goes, and it actually climbs beyond that point. The road on the other side of that hill is quite significantly more steep. And that is a blind 90 degree bend at the top of the single track. When you're coming down there, even at slow speeds, and someone comes around unexpectedly (and as Terry Pratchett noted, million to one chances occur nine times our of ten) you really want to know your car will stop or at leats retain control. We have seen some shockers along that stretch of road, and seen cars unable to progress at all or which slide gently across to the ditch on the side. We do not want to be that car.

Yeah you need reindeer I reckon

 

[tsedge]

Just been in a drive across Dartmoor back and forth, over lots of cattle grids, medium rain at 21C, and on every grid the standard tyres are scrabbling whether I am accelerating or not, which is a reminder that grip is poor in wet conditions.

I don't remember previous RWD cars doing this, but it is a while since I had a RWD car.

 

[Deleted member 10041]

I'm really puzzled by some of the responses to my question. I do appreciate that some do not need tyres other than those that are standard, and I'm not advocating that everyone should either change tyres or come to the same conclusion as we have. Also, with the regard to whether the journey is necessary or not, that depends on many things, including such things as whether you have a shop to which you can walk, or whether you are happy for your business to close down in winter.

However, just to give some inkling of where different tyres can help, here is one part of the journey to the nearest village. The middle top shows where the road goes, and it actually climbs beyond that point. The road on the other side of that hill is quite significantly more steep. And that is a blind 90 degree bend at the top of the single track. When you're coming down there, even at slow speeds, and someone comes around unexpectedly (and as Terry Pratchett noted, million to one chances occur nine times our of ten) you really want to know your car will stop or at leats retain control. We have seen some shockers along that stretch of road, and seen cars unable to progress at all or which slide gently across to the ditch on the side. We do not want to be that car.

Stunning part of the world mate, did some hills up that neck of the woods, love it.

 

[Tangoed Man]

Good to know.

I always thought it was interesting that I never noticed any real fuel consumption difference when changing tyres in my ICE cars over the years. I wonder if that would be true of EVs too.


Looked like Golfs, so front wheel drive.

Bit of an extreme example, but I have just changed my awful ultra low profile run-flat tyres on my Mercedes by dropping down one wheel size and putting on Davanti 640XL tyres. An immediate improvement over over 12% fuel economy over a known tested route, they are whisper quiet, and £150 cheaper per tyre than the run-flats. For all-season tyres I had some excellent Vredestein tyres in the past that had remarkable grip in of snow, rain, and dry.

 

[Deleted member 10041]

Bit of an extreme example, but I have just changed my awful ultra low profile run-flat tyres on my Mercedes by dropping down one wheel size and putting on Davanti 640XL tyres. An immediate improvement over over 12% fuel economy over a known tested route, they are whisper quiet, and £150 cheaper per tyre than the run-flats. For all-season tyres I had some excellent Vredestein tyres in the past that had remarkable grip in of snow, rain, and dry.

I remember the first time I swapped runflats out for normal tyres the difference in ride quality was huge

 

[tsedge]

I remember the first time I swapped runflats out for normal tyres the difference in ride quality was huge

Yep, that stiff sidewall ruins the ride. Silly idea, BMW deserve shooting for popularising this fad.

 

[Rolfe]

That's a little unkind. If you know the area, you'll know that in order to go anywhere we always have to go both higher and inland. But maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to say.

I'm sorry, sarcasm doesn't come over well on the internet. I do know the area and I don't think I'd tackle the road between you and your public charger in winter without caterpillar tracks.

 

[MartinSEsr]

Three cars ago I had a BMW 1 series. It was lethal in the snow or ice as it had rear wheel drive, terrifying with rear end drift. I replaced the standard tyres with winter tyres and wheels Nov-March (the standard were runflat so just the tyre couldn't just be swapped). It then handled as well as a Golf.

After that I had two GTi Golfs. Standard tyres were ok, but very noisy. On both cars I swapped the standards for Michelin Crossclimate. They were MUCH quieter, they had 68Db as their rating, so about 1/4 of the usual 72/73 Db tyres. The car was then really quiet whatever the speed. In the snow and ice I was much more confidant as grip was amazing. I drove about 25k miles on both and the tread dropped from 6-7mm to 4-5 so not bad for wear.

In my MG4 it is both rear wheel drive, and has huge torque. I drive along a lot of lanes, and have to go to work even in snow and ice. I am swapping the standard tyres (anyone want them?) for Goodyear All Season as I got a good deal on them nearly-new.

However, tyres are really expensive on the MG4 - the crossclimates were about £105 for the GTi (and obviously low profile, high speed and high performance). But for the MG4 they are £160 each.

 

[Rolfe]

One of the reasons I decided to part with my GTi in April was that it needed a new set of summer tyres...

 

[CooperS]

Does the MG4 have a foam sound deadening insert in the tyre? The EV6 does and this, in theory, needs to be taken into account when repairs or replacement is carried out. Sorry if the answer has been mentioned before, I did do a search.

 

[fnegroni]

another contender for all-season (not all weather) tyres might be the new Bridgestone Turanza 6.
Apart from great performance in the rain, it has much lower rolling resistance than most competitors and it seems Bridgestone are targeting EV owners in this regard.

Two reasons I bring this up
1) the tread pattern of the Turanza 6 is spookily similar to the stock Conti PremiumContact C on the base MG4. Really, at first glance they look identical
[edit]
Except… the sipes between tread block look suspiciously similar to the sipes you see on winter tyres, that traditional shark tooth pattern that locks in the snow and helps the tread blocks move more freely. Bizarre!

2) according to a couple of sources I found on the ‘net Bridgestone is shifting their compounds to perform better when cold and essentially reducing the need to swap for all-season tyres in the colder months.

Food for thought

 

[bowfer]

FWIW I only go for all-season tyres that have the 3PMSF markings, as per screenshot.
Without this I’ve no guarantee they’ll be any good in snow, and that defeats the purpose for me.

 

[QLeo]

I'm afraid the report-back about Goth Leo's new Goodyears will have to wait. Today was the day they were supposed to be fitted, but also turned out to be the day that my Novid was lost. As I know one of the tyre supplier's owners has not been at all well lately, I'll not risk anyone else's health for the sake of a week or two.

 

[securespark]

Our MG4 has FF tyres, but I have had both Bridgestone Weather Control Evo A005s and Mich CC2 on our ICE cars.

I fitted them mainly for better wet grip (esp the Bridgestones as they were A rated) and found the performance very good in both rain and snow.

 

[QLeo]

Right, I can finally do an initial report on Goth Leo's new tyres. I went for the Goodyear Vectra marketingspeak-marketingspeak something or others. This was largely on an evaluation of the various tyre web site reports, and then the clincher was someone on Mastodon who had an EV saying he had very good experience with them.

My biggest concerns are, I am sure, the same as yours; how is economy affected, and how is cabin noise?

I chose a company in Tain, Godsmans Tyres, because we;ve dealt with them for years and I trust them, though I could probably have got them a lot cheaper elsewhere though perhaps with more hassle. (Just heard of someone who took their car to Kwikfit for a slow-leak repair, the mechanic climbed in and drove the car straight into the car lift to the extent that the car was undriveable. Just saying...)

Just back from the 70 mile trip from Tain. This road goes straight across the spine of northern Scotland and includes about 30 miles of single track. I had a strong wind on the nose all the way home. My weather system here at home (Clachtoll Current Weather Conditions) reports average winds of 20mph and gusts in the high 30s, but it must have been a lot more than that on the tops. It also rained hard. I had the wipers on the second speed on several occasions. The single track was more stop-start than usual too, so all in all this was not an indicative run. But I could not help being disappointed at just under 3.7miles/kWHr for the trip. Under more normal circumstances we expect it to hover around the 4.0 mark - it's not an easy or straight run at all.

So time will tell regarding economy, and I should not expect this first run to indicate much. I will report back on this as we do more mileage.

Noise levels were also not fully indicative, but it was noticable that the irritating drone the factory tyres set up at certain speeds is either reduced or a less irritating frequency. It seemed quieter anyway, and, essentially, the new tyres are definitely not noisier.

As far as handling is concerned, it's a different matter. I thought the car handled well with factory tyres. But cornering, already a joy, is absolutely certain with the Goodyears. The car just points where you want it, and absolutely hugs the corners.

The road is bad, and there were numerous huge puddles, often right across the width of the singletrack. It's less like hitting a wall with the new tyres - noticeably so - if you take these a little faster than is ideal. The new tyres made me realise that I'd developed a little hesitancy in the wet with the factory tyres. I was aware that there was some compensation I was doing that was no longer needed. It's hard to put a finger on exactly what, but it was noticeable.

One aspect of the factory tyres that worried me was when we cross the several large cattle grids around here. On a couple of occasions in the wet the car has actually moved sideways on the metal. It was this that made me worry about how the tyres would cope in winter. Well I crossed 3 cattle grids on the way home, and the car stayed where it should on all three. In addition, the noise across the grids was very markedly less. And again, on our bad, rough single tracks, the noise across rougher sections is reduced a lot, as is any hesitancy when hitting those spots.

This has not been a cheap decision, but it's already clear, under less than ideal conditions, that there is a world of difference between the factory tyres and the Goodyears for our conditions. Please note the bit in italics. I am not advocating for anyone and everyone to make such a decision, but just reporting on our needs here, and that new tyres seems to help to meet them. I should also add that I have no problem whatsoever with any "Made in China" moniker on tyres, and would have been equally happy with good performing all-season tyres from a Chinese factory. (Full disclosure: the last 2 sets of tyres on our old Panda 4x4 were made in China, and they were fine.)

We can have wintry conditions at any time from October to May in these parts. While I would not choose to venture out in conditions I might have done with a 4x4, I still feel a lot happier now with good, appropriate tyres.

Let me know if anyone wants further reports as we put some mileage on the Goodyears.

 

[fnegroni]

Thank you for the report!
Just couple questions:
What pressures did you set them at? At what temp? What pressure did they get up to while driving in those conditions?

 

[QLeo]

Thank you for the report!
Just couple questions:
What pressures did you set them at? At what temp? What pressure did they get up to while driving in those conditions?

I asked for them to be set to 2.6bar all round. I didn't check them, which I suppose I should have. The MGSmart app currently says 2.6 all round. It's been hovering around 12°C all day but was cooler over the tops. I was too busy concentrating on driving to check the tyre pressure on the way!

 

[fnegroni]

You might get better economy with rears at 2.5 or 2.4.

 

[QLeo]

You might get better economy with rears at 2.5 or 2.4.

Oh, really? I thought conventional wisdom was to have a tad more pressure than the handbook says. Is this something about the MG, or EVs that make them work like that?

 

[fnegroni]

My experience with the CrossClimate2 on a KIA Stonic was that they needed less pressure than the OE tyres in return giving much better economy.
I think this was due to a more even pressure distribution especially with the camber set up on the rears.
My guess is thar something similar might be true for the mg4. But YMMV
Hence why I said ‘might’.