Search the Community

anyone tried these before? Looking to change my tyres, 185/65R15

This is a rant as much as it is a request for advice (Furry your advice holds more weight than others in this area) I'm up for new tyres. The OEM A349's are loud (what else can i expect for something with such low wear rates). Size wise its 175/65R14, however I'm also looking at 185/60R14 and 195/60R14 as alternatives. This means I have a huge variety of tyres from Yoko A300's to Coopers, to event ST115's and PP2's and still have the rolling diameter with around a 1% variation from stock. I've shortlisted four tyres with importance biased towards noise, then wet grip. Yokohama DNA dB ES501, Bridgestone AR10, Kumho KH17 Hankook K415 DNA dB> Reputedly the most quiet tyre around. I had no issues with wet grip on the older Aspec dB's so I doubt the improved wet performance of the DNA's would make it worse. Besides if its like every other yoko tyre i've used, it needs to be inflated a little more than usual for optimum performance. Bridgestone AR10> I googled for reviews on it, and came across this forum in India in which people were saying the AR10's were quiet. Even more so than the ER60's they replaced (which were also quiet). Considering the sizes they looked at were similar to mine, and the rough roads they had, I am quite inclined to believe that it should be reasonably quiet on our highways and the NSH. Complaints about their threadwear from another google search result also lead me to believe that they would be both relatively grippy and quiet. Kumho KH17> This is a tyre I really really want to try. In my OEM 175/65R14 size, it ranked the best in one russian test, and it was highly recommended by ADAC.de. I have the Hankook K415's, and I absolutely love them, but the KH17's are supposed to better them in all areas except for threadwear. Mind you, its predecessor the KH15's were even more quiet than the K415's Hankook K415> I changed the P4's on the Punto to these, and noise levels on the TPE went down from matching the Demio (on these damnable A349's) to almost silent. So I am very inclined to get them too. However I would like to try the KH17's as there isnt much on them (though the Price wise the difference is marginal for the dB's AR10's and K415's however i would like to know if there are any comparable noise reviews comparing the three, as well as grip reviews comparing the AR10's and K415's. As for the KH17's, I would really like to try them, BUT Binter does not carry it in my size here, and I need to go to MY to get them. Mind you for an award winning tyre, they only bring it in in ONE size..... Does anyone know where I can get them? Price wise, the former 3 are about the same with the most exp costing $9 more only. The KH17's on the other hand end up costing about SGD$20 less each (based on tyrepac's malaysian portal rates), which would make them really worth getting if i'm passing by a kumho store on my upcoming Melaka trip. Any suggestions??? I would love to hear more about the AR10's as well as reviews on the KH17's from the Forte/Koup drivers.