Nankang Tyres

[babaroga]

Hello All,

Has anybody got any experience with this make of tyres.

I have been looking for tyres for our GL and those came at almost half price than "well known makes". Also, according to this new EU performance thing, those have better grip in wet than some of those expensive ones.

I have no issue paying for decent make, however, is it even worth considering something like that.

Tyre size is 275/55r19 111V. Contis are around 185 per tyre, while Nankang SP7 £118. Had bad experience with Contis quality from before, so I have Dunlop SP MAXX fitted and those are now at their last legs.

Any thoughts?

 

[Howard]

I had nankang NS2 recommended to me by a member on her who has a lot of Motorsport experience , indeed I think he runs them on his rally car.

I put them on our little A class ( in 17 inch size though )and they have performed faultlessly , all through the winter , and last summer.

I'm very pleased with them as they were a brand I wouldn't have considered beforehand.

 

[babaroga]

That is what I'm contemplating. I know all of those saying, safety...I do understand that issue, still, If tyre has been tasted to conform to EU laws and got a favourable ratings, that is what I'm confused about.

I know, Nankang are Taiwanese make, however, those have made a lot of progress over the past years to catch up with western competition.... I had some Nexxen on my Land Rover, as it came with those, and those were utter rubbish...hence me asking. also, if you look on reviews, people generally gave Nankang very good marks.

Also, we are talking here a "truck tyre", not a race thing... I never expected that Contis would deform as they did, hence, I'm avoiding those in a wide circle...

Dunlops that I currently have are "interesting" in the wet and in cold weather with snow are suicide to use, hence me having another set of rims with winter tyres.

If you look into that "EU rating", Nankang have better wet performance than Dunlops.

Can we actually trust that "EU ratings"?

 

[joecash]

all tyres meet certain specs - as long as they're fit for purpose why not use them - there will be many on here that say you shouldn't and stick to brand names costing loadsa money, but not backed up with fact.

 

[didi w203]

I've always have nankang ns2 tyres. Some say they are budget tyres but imo I'd say they be more if a mid range. Very well priced too..I did work for a tyre company year's ago and got these very cheap. These days £41 each for 225 45 17. Not sure on your size.

 

[danclyon]

Can open, worms all over the place - this one will run and run.

You have to remember that the new EU tests are 3-part:
1 - fuel burn (so rolling resistance)
2 - wet grip
3 - noise

All are rated to the same scale, and it is quite interesting to see what that has done to the market.

HOWEVER, those three ratings together don't build a complete picture, as they don't cover dry-grip, nor do they pick out the ratings stated by the mfrs tests against other standards like treadwear etc - so you could find that a perfectly acceptable "budget" tyre on paper rates really very well, but in reality is nothing like it, because the fact it does well in isolated tests doesn't reflect everyday life. What Car did some tests (look on YouTube) on braking distance that gave some quite interesting results. The tested the "cheap brands" against the top brands and just on that alone you might want to chew over your thoughts.

Personally I didn't rate the Dunlops on my Audi when I got it - noisy, hard, rubbish in the wet - I replaced them with Falken ZE912's and it was a totally different car to drive. Similar with the wifes W245 - that came ex-factory with Conti Sport Contact 2's on it, which lasted 10k miles if we were lucky and weren't that grippy and were lethal in the wet - we put ZE912's on there too which were a lot better, but have just worn through them and put Hankook Ventus Prime 2's on this time and are quite surprised with the difference. Me, I've gone "off book" and am now running on Neuton NT5000's which are just stunning and refuse to give no matter what the conditions are like - a tyre that nobody has ever heard of for the most part.

It's horses for courses really I think - yes I'm sure some of the far-eastern ones are pretty damn good, but it depends on so many factors. The mobile fitter I had here the other day reckoned Nexen had come on leaps and bounds and were one of the best budget brands around now, but again, it depends on which one in the family of tyres they make...

Cheers,
Dan.

 

[Will]

Tyres are quite a personal thing with many people defending their own choices of course

You drive a premium vehicle - A Mercedes GL - IMHO it deserves premium tyres

A few points to consider:

I've never bought premium tyres and regretted it.
Given the choice - which tyres would you rather have if the price was the same?
Would you be happy if MB fitted cheap tyres from the factory?

Maybe an ok tyre for the price if your were on a budget but I'd rather pay the extra £67 a corner for Continentals or similar

I rate Michelin tyres very highly myself.

All IMHO of course

 

[m2287]

I run them on my CL55 AMG all the time and have never had a problem with them...

 

[babaroga]

I do agree, GL is a premium car, however, I had quite bad experience with Contis. When I complained to Continental, they did not want to hear about it, so no matter how much are those, I will refuse to buy them as a matter of principle.

The reason I have asked this question was that I have been offered those as a replacements for my Dunlops and person on the phone was trying to convince me into it, saying that they are on a par with Dunlops. Sounded to me like a lot of cobblers, so I thanked and told him I'll think of it, and call him back next week. Then I did some search on internet and found quite a few good reports.

Saying that about "horses for courses", one tyre also suit one car better than the other, and I'm saying that from personal experience. Also, as there is saying "there is Mercedes and the other cars", I can also say "there is Michelin and other tyres"....then again, with my wifes driving, I might as well get those Nankang things and don't think she'll even noticed I replaced the tyres....

 

[G.P]

You have to remember that the new EU tests are 3-part:
1 - fuel burn (so rolling resistance)
2 - wet grip
3 - noise

All are rated to the same scale, and it is quite interesting to see what that has done to the market.



Personally I didn't rate the Dunlops on my Audi when I got it - noisy, hard, rubbish in the wet -

At present there is no indepent body so not all rated on the same scale and not all manufactures are been so truthful with the results, also the wet brake test is not that helpful as some dry track tyres score A in the wet brake test but are not so clever on a wet curve test.

Dunlop have come back to life over the last 12/18 months, that said, every manufacture produce a model tyre you'd not want in the wet from time to time...

 

[John Jones Jr]

Contis are around 185 per tyre, while Nankang SP7 £118.

Any thoughts?

There's a reason the Conti's are more expensive and I honestly don't believe for one second it's just the name. The question is: will you get the extra value from the more expensive tyre? No, you won't. Well, not on the school run or averaging 25mph around a city. Pullling 70-90 on a busy & wet motorway, Conti's all day long imo. Peace of mind and all that....

 

[flango]

I,m the one who runs nankang ns2 on both my rally car and w208 clk, they are great no issues at all and tell you what my daily driver is a volvo v70 I,ve just put the summer tyres back on continental contact sport 3 they have about 5000 left on them so in a few months it too will be getting shod with nankang, contis are very noisy in comparison performance is similar so the justification for spending on another set of contis is not there, might as well save me over £250 so yes I would recommend them

 

[G.P]

I,m the one who runs nankang ns2 on both my rally car and w208 clk, they are great no issues at all

They have issues with there compound, but out of interest as the NS2 are a summer tarmacadam tyre do you only rally on tarmac in the summer months?

 

[flango]

They have issues with there compound, but out of interest as the NS2 are a summer tarmacadam tyre do you only rally on tarmac in the summer months?

No problems With the ns2 compound I Know the spec and supplier Correct Yes I only run them on the Scooby in summer tarmac stages or If the car is in road use.

 

[Danny DeVito]

I had nankang on my Seat inca and T5. I found great grip in dry and poor grip in wet and medium wear time. But that was 10 years ago......so ....T5 is gone...a a a and ehhhh

 

[danclyon]

At present there is no indepent body so not all rated on the same scale and not all manufactures are been so truthful with the results, also the wet brake test is not that helpful as some dry track tyres score A in the wet brake test but are not so clever on a wet curve test.

Dunlop have come back to life over the last 12/18 months, that said, every manufacture produce a model tyre you'd not want in the wet from time to time...

It is as "level" as the EU harmonised tests for fuel economy - everyone is supposed to run the "same" test, and they can notionally be "inspected" (but god knows who would actually be responsible for it as I can't see the EU doing it themselves, it would be contracted out to someone who would doubtless later be found to have been in the pockets of the mfr's (based on recent news etc. etc.)) - but I'm with you, given the way the harmonised fuel economy figures are actually tested vs. should be tested - the validity of the data is somewhat questionable overall.

In fact, given the way the fuel economy figures are achieved (forex there is no way on earth our W245 is ever doing the stated economy that MB put out - it is probably headed towards 25% shy of it even on new rubber, correctly inflated, driven at a steady 56 in calm conditions) you have to question the validity of much of the data presented.

I had an A1 TDi the other day as a loaner, and driving normally at motorway speeds I managed to achieve nowhere near the stated fuel economy (and I know how to drive for economy) - however I did note that even when driven like stolen it never dropped below the high 40's - so perhaps the answer should be "you'll get at least the following MPG out of it" and publish the "driven like stolen" numbers for everything instead....

D.

 

[danclyon]

At present there is no indepent body so not all rated on the same scale and not all manufactures are been so truthful with the results, also the wet brake test is not that helpful as some dry track tyres score A in the wet brake test but are not so clever on a wet curve test.

Dunlop have come back to life over the last 12/18 months, that said, every manufacture produce a model tyre you'd not want in the wet from time to time...

I noted Dunny had come back to form, interestingly around about the time Falken started producing mainstream excellent tyres (ZE912/KF452 were both very good, rest of range - useless here by all accounts.

The thing to remember is, even with MO rated tyres, at the end of the day - they come out of the factory (with very few exceptions) on whomever did the cheapest price on the day of forward-order for a given size/rating/MB certification - they may have 6 mfrs that meet the required spec, but whomever dropped their trousers lowest on the day will see themselves being fitted ex-factory until the supply needs to be replenished.

Cynical I know, but true

D.

 

[John Jones Jr]

they come out of the factory (with very few exceptions) on whomever did the cheapest price on the day of forward-order for a given size/rating/MB certification - they may have 6 mfrs that meet the required spec, but whomever dropped their trousers lowest on the day will see themselves being fitted ex-factory until the supply needs to be replenished.

Cynical I know, but true

D.

I couldn't imagine it being any other way.

 

[babaroga]

Having worked for Unipart in my past life, writing their parts forecasting and replenishment system (looong before Rover went bust), that is exactly how system works...sad but true...

Also, I had quite a few surprises in the past with tyres. Some were quite bad, like writing off my Fiat Barchetta on a set of tyres given to test for Auto Italia magazine, then again, those were never to be used on black ice. Marangoni Zeta were those intended to be "high performance" tyres to be introduced into UK market and had very good grip on dry and summer conditions.

Alfa 166 had transformed handling on set of Yokohamas AVS, although, those did not last more than 10k miles, even with rotation twice. Originals were Pirellis pZero, not bad, but not good either. Michelin Pilots turned out to be best all rounders in the end.

My Alfa 155 Q4 (Lancia Integrale in an Alfa 155 body, for those that do not know about this beast) did not like anything apart Michelin Pilot Sport back in the day, and I did experiment with different makes.

Other good example were Toyo Proxies that I have used on my modified Smart and could not fault them in any kind of weather apart on snow. Those were half the price from original Continentals that were absolutely useless with no grip and did not past 8k miles on a set. Then I decided to fit rims from Smart Roadster and fit Toyos and never looked back.

Land Rover Disco2, as I have 2 of those now have very good results with Goodyear Wrangler HPs, although, next change will be with General Grabber ATs, as many reports find those the best all rounder for Discos....

The only thing is that if I get those Nankang thing and find them useless, I would have wasted £500.....then again, how bad (or brilliant) those can be, we would not know, until someone does a field report. If those turn out to be good, that would save other people money....

 

[babaroga]

Just to add, I don't think that I am brave enough to put Nankang tyres