My March 2017 KIA Niro came with 205/60/R16/92H Michelin Energy Saver tyres which appeared to sacrifice wet grip and comfort to achieve maximum energy savings and thus fuel economy. It would scrabble for grip when smartly accelerating on wet roads and the judder of ABS was often felt.
After 7200 miles I decided to equip the car with proper alloys – rather than the original ugly wheels with covers and took the opportunity of replacing the tyres at the same time with Goodyear Efficient Grip Performance tyres which had come tops in the latest Auto Express annual tyre review. They were highly rated for wet grip and low noise. (I sold the 4 Michelins which still had almost full tread depth, for half list price)
Before getting the tyres changed, I drove the car over a 10 mile set route which included rural B roads, a main A road with rough tarmac and the M42 motorway recently resurfaced with low noise tarmac. I took cabin noise decibel readings for each type of surface using a calibrated Decibel Meter. Tyre pressures were all 38 psi.
At 31,600 miles on the odometer (24,400 miles travelled) the Goodyears at the front were down to 2.0 mm tread and the rears at 3.0 mm tread and wet grip levels were falling, so I replaced all four with the new Goodyear Energy Efficient 2 tyres. First impressions are much better wet grip and improved cabin noise levels.
NoteI did a decibel meter check on the latest tyres because my wife had noticed that the car seemed much quieter. I also thought it was, but because I have noise modulating hearing aids the change is possibly less pronounced.
As an aside I downloaded to my Galaxy phone the Android “Sound Meter app” and did some comparison readings. I was agreeably surprised to find that it is fairly accurate most times – reading on average 1 dB lower than my Decibel meter.
