About to take the plunge

Went to look at the evoque in the dealers last week. Test drive booked for Saturday, so may place the order then.

Currently wavering over the model to go for, Pure with the spec I need is just under 36K, or go for Prestige for comfort. Wife wants the dynamic!

Anyway, on to my question - tyres. I know they can be expensive depending on wheel size, but what I can't find anywhere is the level of wear people are experiencing. I had a mazda 6 before, that wouldn't do more than 10K miles on a set, got a BMW 1 Coupe now which has done 20K on a set.

What sort of lifespan is expected?

Thanks

Dave

(11-04-2012 07:40pm)wavey.dave Wrote:  Went to look at the evoque in the dealers last week. Test drive booked for Saturday, so may place the order then.

Currently wavering over the model to go for, Pure with the spec I need is just under 36K, or go for Prestige for comfort. Wife wants the dynamic!

Anyway, on to my question - tyres. I know they can be expensive depending on wheel size, but what I can't find anywhere is the level of wear people are experiencing. I had a mazda 6 before, that wouldn't do more than 10K miles on a set, got a BMW 1 Coupe now which has done 20K on a set.

What sort of lifespan is expected?

Thanks

Dave

Obviously there won't be any practical experience of worn-out tyres yet (hopefully!), but I haven't read any comments about excessive tyre wear so far - and I'm sure we'd have heard! A lot of it depends on how you drive - the things that tend to hurt fuel economy tend to hurt tyre life as well. It also depends on which tyres yours comes with (some get Continentals, some Pirelli, and maybe some others too).

4x4s are often claimed to be heavier on tyres than similar-sized normal road cars, but my wife got 35,000 out of her RAV4 and the tyres were still good for a few thousand more when she traded it for the Evoque. (It never went off-road, I should add). In any case, the Evoque applies 95% of the power to the front wheels in normal driving, so, unless you off-road or use the traction options, generally tyre wear ought to be like a typical front wheel drive car (heavier on the front tyres as these drive as well as steer, and lighter on the back - perhaps twice the wear on the back if you don't rotate them, which, I gather, isn't recommended nowadays whereas it used to be common).

It IS a bit early to say, but why does it bother you to the extent that you've raised it - it will represent only a small fraction of the costs of running an Evoque.

Larger diameter tyres will help lifespan on the Evoque a bit.

I have 19" wheels and expensive 45 profile tyres on my Mazda 6, don't think the Evoque will cost any more in tyres looking around, but I went for 19" wheels on the Evoque with 55 profile as not liking the low profiles anymore and this is a 4x4 after all, wouldn't be too worried by the 20" though, pick the wheels you like.

Colleague of mine just bought a TT with 19" wheels and 35 profile tyres... Muggins!

As DonnyDog says, unlikely to be anyone who has gone through a set of tyres yet.

Looks like you will have a long wait to get your order. New orders now going to come in 2013.
http://www.lro.com/news.php?sid=1231&page=1
If you are worried about the resale values then I would recommend going for the Prestige or Dynamic, as the options never keep their value well, and those models have a lot as standard.

Personnally I'd agree with your wife. Dynamic is the way to go

(11-04-2012 08:42pm)PhilSkill Wrote:  Larger diameter tyres will help lifespan on the Evoque a bit.

I'd guess that this would be more than offset by the extra replacement cost, though.

As regards improved wear with larger wheels, are you referring to the lower circumferential contact of a larger overall diameter over a given distance travelled (aren't all the Evoque wheels the same size in terms of outside diameter, in other words, bigger wheels have lower profile tyres to suit?), or is this related to the width of contact area with the squatter tyres (spreading the load)?

The RAV4 I referred to, incidentally, had 17" wheels, and I was amazed by the low tyre wear. (This was on Toyota own-brand 'Toyo' tyres). I'd be more than pleased to get the same out of the Evoque (which is on 19").

The circumference (i.e. distance travelled by 1 revolution) is longer than the road car like the Mazda 6, so more distance covered for numerous revolutions.

Yes the profile of the tyre offsets the wheel diameter so the circumference is much the same whatever wheel size you go for. the lower profile generally cost more though.

It's all tiny though in comparison to a dodgy tracked or inflated wheel for example which can kill a tyre very quickly.

(11-04-2012 08:21pm)Donny Dog Wrote:  Obviously there won't be any practical experience of worn-out tyres yet (hopefully!), but I haven't read any comments about excessive tyre wear so far - and I'm sure we'd have heard! A lot of it depends on how you drive - the things that tend to hurt fuel economy tend to hurt tyre life as well. It also depends on which tyres yours comes with (some get Continentals, some Pirelli, and maybe some others too).

4x4s are often claimed to be heavier on tyres than similar-sized normal road cars, but my wife got 35,000 out of her RAV4 and the tyres were still good for a few thousand more when she traded it for the Evoque. (It never went off-road, I should add). In any case, the Evoque applies 95% of the power to the front wheels in normal driving, so, unless you off-road or use the traction options, generally tyre wear ought to be like a typical front wheel drive car (heavier on the front tyres as these drive as well as steer, and lighter on the back - perhaps twice the wear on the back if you don't rotate them, which, I gather, isn't recommended nowadays whereas it used to be common).

It IS a bit early to say, but why does it bother you to the extent that you've raised it - it will represent only a small fraction of the costs of running an Evoque.

Thanks for the reply, I wasn't aware that most of the power was sent to the front, thought it was a dedicated 4x4 all the way. I appreciate there isn't any real world experience of tyre wear yet, but I figured if there was a problem people might start noticing around now as its just past the 6 month mark. Understand that the tyres are only a small proportion, but it all adds up, and if for example the tyres wore at 12k miles, then each year I'd be replacing a full set, which on the 20" would cost circa £1200 and on the 19" would cost circa £800. I plan on keeping her for 5 years so that's an additional 2k over the life.

(11-04-2012 08:49pm)smayo Wrote:  As DonnyDog says, unlikely to be anyone who has gone through a set of tyres yet.

Looks like you will have a long wait to get your order. New orders now going to come in 2013.
http://www.lro.com/news.php?sid=1231&page=1
If you are worried about the resale values then I would recommend going for the Prestige or Dynamic, as the options never keep their value well, and those models have a lot as standard.

Personnally I'd agree with your wife. Dynamic is the way to go

Its basically a toss up between the height adjustable passenger seat on the prestige compared to the AD on the dynamic (and the sportier look). I won't tell her what you said though

(11-04-2012 08:21pm)Donny Dog Wrote:  In any case, the Evoque applies 95% of the power to the front wheels in normal driving, so, unless you off-road or use the traction options, generally tyre wear ought to be like a typical front wheel drive car (heavier on the front tyres as these drive as well as steer, and lighter on the back - perhaps twice the wear on the back if you don't rotate them, which, I gather, isn't recommended nowadays whereas it used to be common).

I must admit I didn't quite believe this - but checking this site out reveals all - apologies in advanceAWD Wiki site

Certainly, the 20" tyres are expensive, it will cost more to re-shoe my Evoque than my 911 turbo. Tyres seem to be in the region of £250 - £300 which is slightly boggling. However, it's not the biggest cost of ownership by a long way - depreciation will get you once the Evoque's star begins to fade, especially if you have an Si4 like me.

By the way, I think your wife is right with the Dynamic. Don't be put off by the lack of the saggy leather of the Prestige. The Dynamic interior is fit for purpose.

I have 7750 miles up on my Evoque since Sept 2011, mostly motorway and fast A roads, not much city driving, and one day off road on the west coast of Scotland.............. apart from having to replace a front tyre and running for 3800 miles on winter tyres, neither set is showing any wear where they shouldn't. I am used to RRS's that used to wear out the shoulders of Continental tyres in 15-20000miles but on Pirellis I went to 40000.

My experience general with 4WD vehicles has been that tyres last much longer than 2WD vehicles - my Defender went to 58000 miles on it's original OEM All terrain tyres which were not much use off road by then but were still well road legal with about 9mm tread left. I ran a V8 Disco1 to 78000 miles on it's original Avon TurboSpeeds and again it was because they were loosing their use off road rather than tread depth that I changed them. It would be nice that the lighter and more hi-tec Evoque with it's clever traction control systems might be able to make the tyres go for that sort of miles, but I don't think they will somehow as I drive the car much faster and corner way more quickly in the Evoque than in the other two cars!