I have found continentals very noisey and wear rate appalling. My Ford dealer recommended Hanooks which i declined the first time round and had another set of conti's but this time round after reading rave reports on Hanooks we had them fitted. To be honest much much better value for money, soooo much quieter ( something they are praised for on the forums ) wear rate is supposed to be good but untill they wear out i wont know. Handling is just as good but the car is so much better to drive.

I am convinced with tyres nowdays you often just pay for the name

When deciding on the 'best' tyre be aware that to a large extent grip is diametrically opposed to fuel economy and longevity. Soft, sticky compounds grip wonderfully but there is an inevitable price to pay in terms of tyre life and economy. Not that this ever crops up in marketting literature!

Well seeing as Chris Adam is one of the few OP's that actually replies to responding posters, thanks CA a quite refreshing change, i'll add another couple of things.

I buy tyres with wet grip being the absolute top priority, anything will do in the dry, i run winter tyres (Vredestein and Nokian) anyway otherwise i'd be running all season tyres, but that's too far off topic.

When i buy tyres i tend to have a short list which i then keep an eye open for bargains over several months, i usually buy up to 6 months before needing them, if you buy winter/all season tyres that's a must if you don't want to get stung.

I've ended up with currently Toyo T1R's on my MB, good grip in the wet and wearing well but very noisy/

SWMBO's C2 VTS is quite a little flyer, her lead stilletto's help.;), it came (used) on the original Michelins which were hard (every bump transmitted), noisy and under acceleration suffered severe torque steer despite stability control, these were replaced with Sportrac 3's and the car is totally different, quiet, softer ride with no grip issues and the torque steer problem has disappeared....i factored wear of the Michelins into the comparison, but was quite disappointed considering the premium Mich price.

Put Uniroyal Rain Expert's on my daughter's Civic, which she drives neglectfully hard, they are doing the job well, quiet and grippy and show little wear considering the hammering they get, would recommend them too.

It does seem to be a rule of thumb this grip/wear combination, and i avoid so called economy tyres as in various tests they fall down in wet grip. Conversely my daughter had Vredestein Quatrac 2 all season tyres on her little 106 which she drove to destruction, these tyres are very soft being winter rated and gripped amazingly well but she got 45k miles of hard thrashing from them.

I used to buy tyres from a local indy who would find what i wanted and do me a good deal, however their front desk man has gone and with the new chap it's now a battle to get my choice instead of his, this seems to be a problem for many, hence back to buying on the net and getting them fitted. If you check out Mytyres website they have a fitter search facility, might be worth a peruse to see if there is a reasonably priced fitter in your area.

Hi Chris

You are correct its Hankook Tyres, " odd ball name " but grip and drive and fuel economey have all improved , but road noise dropped by 30% , and on Black cuircle they get very good reviews.

The Fiesta is a 57 1.6TDCi

Best Rgd ID

Regarding tyre/road noise, this is an achilles heel of the Focus

Very true-especially in the wagon version! We replaced the rear wheel bearings because the noise was so bad-turned out to be hard cheap tyres.

Costco do Michelin Energies at a reasonable price. I think they're a decent compromise of longevity, noise and grip-dfinitely biased towards low rolling resistance though.