Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Definitely change all 4. I changed from P Zeros to PS4S on my previous car and I was far happier with the PS4S. Didn't seem to be much in it on hot, dry days but whenever there was any kind of moisture the Michelin's were far superior and I experienced far less wheel slip. This was on a FWD car with 300bhp so it really didn't take much for the car to break traction, just trying to pull away from a roundabout was sketchy with the Pirellis!

Go for the Michelins.

Just weighing up the differences, it's for a 410bhp estate which I do occasionally load up.

As far as I can tell reading all the reviews... there's just no real difference.

If I go for the PNCS version of the PZ4 I can get it down to 68db of external noise and far less in the cabin.

If I go for the PS4s I can apparently get more comfort from the drive.

I think I'm going to go for a Y speed rating regardless, as it's done 144mph and I would like to have more peace of mind that the tyres are fine with speed, so raising the performance beyond what the car could do is nice.

There are no mobile fitters via Black Circles, so might as well shop around for price.

I personally like to obsess over arbitrary tyre metrics, have them fitted to the car, briefly think 'these are better/different/worse than what I had before and then never think about them again.

Do shop around, ATS normally has a brand on promo which can bring prices below Black Circles, e.g. currently:

If you can be bothered to drive out to Stevenage, I can get you 4 Pilot Sport 4S for £835 fitted at Costco.

Reviews differ from anecdotal evidence from owners I find- hard to give Pirelli’s away on performance car forums.

Going for the PZ4 noise cancelling version with a Y speed rating.

Ultimately what swayed it was the run flat capability in addition to the reduced noise.

Technically the PS4S and PZ4 are the same in all other regards, though a lot more love for Michelin out there based on the feel of the tyres, but as I've not experienced that it's not able to really sway me.

I asked my boss who runs PZ4 on his McLaren and Porsche, and PS4s on his Aston, and he reckons for everything he does (fast German roads, camping, super market trips, length of the UK drives) both are fine and you can't go wrong with either. He's strongly opinionated if he believes real differences exist, and in this case he doesn't. A personal opinion from someone having both and running both counts more than things online.

Hey all, another 'I'm needing advice on driving in France' tips. I'm driving down to South Brittany on Wednesday and a bit nervy about the distance. Any tips for this route? Any recommended service stations/stopping locations? Will also be travelling with a 4 month old which will no doubt be hilarious.

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No. Idk about the bit after Rennes, but with a 4mo just drive when they're not crying and stop when they do.

I wouldn't waste any effort planning.

Might be worth trying here -
https://www.oponeo.co.uk/

without the ACC deciding it needs to slow me down to the truck speed

This only happens in my car when undertaking a slower vehicle in the lane to the right. Slower vehicles in the left hand lane just get breezed past. Not sure if that's what you mean?

No - my complaint at any rate was about me in lane 1, doing 70, approaching a wagon (in lane 1) doing 50. There's a stream of traffic in lane 2 doing 80, but with gaps.

With normal cruise control, I can approach the truck as closely as I choose, and pull into lane 2 to overtake when there's an appropriate gap.

With ACC as implemented on the car I was whinging about, it was deciding to match my speed to the truck's 50mph a long way behind, far earlier than I wanted to pull into lane 2 to overtake, and meaning I then had to accelerate fairly hard to match speed with the gap I wanted to use.

Like bq, I didn't expect to be touching the accelerator to maintain the speed that the cruise control was supposed to be maintaining for me.

But it was a hire car, and it was going back at the end of the weekend, and I wanted to finish the journey not put effort into learning its foibles

Potential design flaw discovered on the VRS. The Scarborough trip was a particularly wet one, so much so that at one point, sat in a car park waiting fora downpour to finish, I could hear water trickling into the cavity of the rear left door. And in low speed manoeuvres you could hear water sloshing about in there. Went out to take a look today, armed with my pokiest tools expecting to have to clear a blocked drain hole. Moved the door seal slightly and about 2L of water dumped out immediately onto the floor. It seems the door seal strip goes right over the drain hole, so ANY debris causes it to block. Will think about a permanent solution, but may just end up milking my car door after any heavy rain.

Put a heating element in there and have the potential for a nice cup of tea in your next traffic jam?

My truck is in the body shop after a fuckhead reversed into me a few weeks back, been waiting ages for a spot.

Was expecting a like for like replacement but wound up with a Hyundai Santa Fe, so boring but very quick and great on fuel. Wheelchair fits in the back so no complaints really, push button start stuff is pretty weird, buttons for everything, not a gear stick or hand brake lever in sight.

Silly thing is if it had a Toyota badge on it I'd probably love it.

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I think doors rotting due to water ingress has been a bit of a known Skoda issue (along with flaky window electrics) Have you looked on briskoda to see if there’s an easy fix?

Briefly, when I was sat in the rainy car park. Will take a deeper look now.

Water ingress is a total nightmare. Wife's Juke leaks somewhere and after extensive checks we still can't work out where. You may be lucky that you have found the issue - now it's a matter of sorting it out. I feel your pain.

A lot of similar experiences but no sensible solutions. Some talk of warranty replacements being seals with holes in them. Will take another look when I can be arsed to see if I can just whack a hole through the seal where the drain hole is.

It being on the passenger side seems common though, which points to extra gutter filth creating more of a blockage and semi-regular cleaning being one option.

It's not coming into the car, which is a blessing. I kind of always knew it was slow draining as you'd see a wet patch and drips under that door even on dry days. The Northern weather just tipped it over the edge I think.

Drill a hole in the bottom of the door, seal the bare metal with primer and paint and just let it get on with it?

The door has drain holes already, they are just covered by the seal. I'd rather put a hole in the seal (vertical, so that the seal still works when the door is closed) if I need to do anything other than just keep it clean

Ah, gotcha - hole in the seal seems the way to go.

Meh, can't find the noise reduction version of the P4's in stock anywhere (for 4 units)... so it turns out my second choice was the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S and those are in stock, they win.

Will be fitted Thursday morning.

My boss came back with different advice to everyone: Do two or four, but always same axle... at which point he started rambling about how McLaren gave him a brand new tyre as they "lost one during a service" and how this means he now has to buy another new tyre for the same axle.

Yeah definitely don’t replace a single tyre - always pairs across the axles and for some 4x4s that can suffer from diff wind up all 4… which can make a nail in the sidewall a much more expensive fix…