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Took my Ex to a hospital appointment this morning, coming home a Postman Pat van came round the corner half way on the wrong side of the road, I pulled left, hit black ice and whacked the front wheel into the pavement 🙁
Alloy is badly scuffed but doesn’t appear dented (hit the kerb sideways) but the tyre sidewall has a strip about 1″ wide and 1/4″ (6mm) thick hanging off it!. Got a friend to follow me the rest of the way home.
Rang Kwik Fit, “leave your number we’ll get back to you” three hours later nothing. Rang again and got someone, earlest for a mobile fitter, Monday or possibly Tuesday. She suggested I ring the RAC who would come out and take it to the nearest centre. Transferred me to them and they’ll be here in the next two hours, well done RAC 🙂
I would have taken it in myself but I’m still shaking and I don’t trust the tyre with a chunk hanging off it!.
I have to say (again) the 19″ tyres Seat fit are absolutely useless in any amount of snow, ice, a hard frost or even wet roads, no grip at all. This is the worst car I’ve driven for grip in over 45 years of motoring 🙁
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
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Have you not tryed speaking to Motability about not having any confidence in the car in adverse weather conditions due to the tyres. If the car got you home it should get you to kwik fit the main issue would be if you doing high speed driving. But rac will sort it now you contacted them..
A tip if you ever get a blowout at higher speeds do not brake or turn the steering wheel keep it going in the direction you going and come to coasting stop if safe or if on motorway move over once you slowed enough.
Luckily coming home I only had about 3 miles to go all in a 30mph limit.
Unfortunately there’s only two ways to my nearest Kwik Fit, one is along about 4 miles of dual carriageway and the other is over the top of a local fell, a very twisty road known for ice and idiots speeding round corners!. I just don’t trust the tyre, the car has no spare and I don’t think I’d be able to change it if it did.
Motability (and the Seat dealer) just say that’s the tyres they come with, wouldn’t even let me swap them for cross climate versions.
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
@Rox, maybe 18 months ago I had a tyre blow on the M1 whilst doing a “shade” over 70mph, absolutely instant, in a Kuga 4wd. It tugs ferociously towards the side that had the blowout but like you said, I coasted towards the hard shoulder. I could feel that if I’d fought it I’d have lost control and luckily it was nearside so it wanted to pull left anyway. From lane 4…
I posted about it here at the time, it was a horrible experience. I wish I’d kept a picture but lost them when I changed phone. The hole in the tread of the tire was almost like a bullet hole, you could stick a finger in it. No idea what caused it but I witnessed a brand new Bentley blowing a tire a few weeks earlier (that was quite spectacular), and another car blowing a tire a few weeks after, all roughly in the same area. Left me feeling quite dubious about using that stretch of the M1 for a bit
We have actually a different experience.
Wet or dry, in corners while driving, our Bridgestone Potenza Sport are good (no ice here, so no idea).
Where it seems to be troubled is when driving off at low speeds and full(ish) lock. As if there’s a difference between the car pushing into the tyre in a corner, and the tyre pulling the car.
We can’t really complain though, both in dry and wet it sticks way better (once going) than anything we’ve driven before. Which isn’t surprising, Bridgestone Potenza Sport are objectively good tyres. The one issue with them is that they’re what’s called “summer tyre” in germany (they’d be illegal to drive in winter in germany).
Here’s how they faired:
https://www.tyrereviews.com/Article/2021-Auto-Bild-19-inch-Summer-Tyre-Test.htm
Always close to the top.
As i said, we do have issues when driving off as well, but in corners they’re like glue. That’s with the 1.5 TSI Xcellence Lux.
The Seat Leon I had was shocking in snow.
There’s quite a lot of talk about the Bridgestones on the various Ateca forums, in 19″ they get very poor reviews for wet/snow/ice driving. As you say pulling away is not great, mine slips quite a lot and I’m careful not to put my foot down!.
RAC were delayed, supposed to then turn up 4pm-5pm, by 5:45 they called my to say it’d be more like 7pm. I suggested they come tomorrow as there’s nothing they could have done tonight as KwikFit closed at 6pm.
Now booked in between 8am-10am tomorrow. Hopefully it’ll get sorted, I have physio first thing Monday morning on the other side of Durham with no bus service I can use (it’s in an industrial estate) and a Taxi would be about £25-£30 each way.
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
County Durham is a pretty exposed area, my mums family are from the seaham area so more near the coast than durham, hopefully you’ll get it sorted tommorrow. I was actually born in sunderland.
Now onto my 4th car on the scheme, not had any blowouts myself for a long while and drive 180 miles nonstop on the M1/m25 alot. I used to drive for a living, so i’m very used to checking over the vehicles road worthyness before doing any journey, especially the tyres as they the only thing in contact with the road.
Sometimes it can be the inside wall that has a defect, so one needs to turn the wheels full lock to have a good look. Sometimes it’s just down to the heat of the tyres(especally on a hot summers day) and something like a piece of metal, glass left over from an rta or even a sharp stone on the road puntures the tyre and causes the hot expanded gases to escape.
These days cars not having a spare is a big worry, but i guess it’s then time to call the rac. I know i could not change a tyre now, so even if i had one i’d have to call the rac to change it..
Automatics ain’t as good in the snow or ice as you cannot use clutch control but you can use engine breaking by using the manual mode rather than the break pedal to slow down or change up to a higher gear earlier to stop wheel spin.. Not ideal having to do it but it helps.
Small world Rox, I was born in Sunderland as well, Enderby Road in Millfield 🙂
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
RAC just rang, be here 30mins. Going to fit a temp wheel and I have to follow them to KwikFit in Durham (7.5 miles away, not the local one in Chester Le Street) so not looking forward to this, IBS has started up with going out at short notice, if I’d known I was going to have to go I would have took meds last night.
Hopefully they can fit me in as they now only do 2hr appointment slots. If not I’ll be provided a taxi back home and again to collect it when it’s done. Seems a huge expense instead of a mobile fitter being available.
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
Been and gone, says it should be OK to drive to my nearest KwikFit so now have to ring them to get an appointment.
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
Dropped it off 11:50, went for breakfast and a wander around in the cold & wet.
Went back for 12:55 car still sat where I’d left it. Not done as apparently their tyre fitting machine is broken 🙁
When did it break? “about an hour ago” that was when I dropped it off, why didn’t you ring me and let me know and save me buggering about for an hour? “Don’t know”
Do I want to take it away and they’ll ring me to come back? When?, today, tomorrow? “Don’t know”
So back home again waiting for a phone call, very sore with the walking around, freezing cold, no further forward and thoughly pi$$ed off 🙁
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
not great customer service is it
Current Car: Hyundai Kona Premium EV...2 way 40kg hoist
Last Car: Toyota C-HR Excel Hybrid...4 way 80kg hoistnot great customer service is it
That’s KwikFit for you. In all the years of having to take a Motability car to them for replacement tyres, I’ve found that for every decent site – there’s a truly awful one. It’s completely pot luck. I’ve been known to pass a couple of their sites in order to reach one that I know will get the job done because of efficient staff and a competent manager!
Tyre machine now fixed can I bring the car down, tomorrow at 2:30pm 🙁
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
What a palaver. Hopefully it gets sorted tommorow.
We used to live on Ewesley Rd near barnes park along long time ago now.. Then we moved to bangor in N wales, then london. Just over 20 years ago i moved upto lincolnshire and now in notts.
Yup.
We got lucky with ours, we had three flats so far (one repaired, two exchanged), every time they had a van come out the next day at 12pm, were punctual and quick. Good lads, too – fun to talk to while pestering them.
Only thing i didn’t like is that they replaced the Bridgestone with a Conti Sport Contact 5 (which is totally fine, technically and legally) on the second occasion, which set off my OCD, but in the end who cares.
Hope you get it sorted quick from here.
Regarding changing crap tyres that the car comes with Motability told me that they would not do this and if I wanted different ones that I would have to pay for my own set.
If I did do that then they would not cover anything to do with the tyres unless I paid Krap fit to put 4 new tyres of the range that they fit even if it was just for a puncture repair.
All the cars I’ve had on the scheme apart from the 1st I’ve always bought a set of “All Season” tyres and maintained them from my own pocket (NOT through kwik fit btw) for the duration of the lease.
Now I have left the scheme I have done the same for the used car I bought as well.
I have had nothing but problems with Kak fit over the years and I’ve tried many branches, never managed to find a “good one” yet.
So, tyre fitted Sunday afternoon (Michellin ).
Car skips when pulling out from the side of the road with the wheels turned. Maybe just because it’s been wet and greasy but not convinced!.
Had to go to Darlington this morning, so down the A1, half way down I noticed the steering wheel isn’t straight, it’s about 3″ low on the left (anti-clockwise) also the car is making a repetetive droning noise at any sort of speed.
Rang the dealer about an hour ago to get it looked at as the oil warning message been coming on every now and then (only got 8,100 miles on it!) still waiting for them to ring me back to get it booked in.
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
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