Tyres

My 2010 Golf Comfortline has done nearly 65,000km on the original Bridgestone Turanza 205x55 R16 tyres. For replacements, how would you rate Toyo, Hankook and Kumho tyres? It gets confusing shopping around as not all dealers carry the same brands, making it hard to get unbiased opinions.

I have to replace the tyres on my FG Falcon, should I buy the same tyres that were fitted to the car when I bought it new?

I have a 2015 Mercedes-Benz C250 BlueTec which replaced my 2008 C220 CDI Avantgarde and I have a major issue with the tyre noise. It has 19-inch rims with Continental run-flats and the tyre noise is significantly greater than the C220, which had smaller rims and conventional tyres. Benz indicated it hadn't received any similar complaints. Changing the tyre pressures, either up or down, has made no difference. Many of the reports I have read on both the C200 and C250 rate it as a great car and make little or no reference to tyre roar. Can you suggest a solution?

In your test of the Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo you again state that this car has a full-size spare. My Laredo came with a space-saver. How do you explain that? The standard tyres are Michelin 265x18 but the spare is a Kuhmo 245x18. That's a space-saver by any definition. You also refer to the car's 3.5-tonne towing capacity and that may be so for most of the time. But what if there's a puncture and the spare has to be used? The owner's handbook specifically states: "Do not attempt to tow a trailer while using a compact spare tyre". Look a little deeper get your facts right. Articles like this are not totally correct.

My son has just purchased a 2013 VW Golf VII 90TSI hatchback and he loves the car. My concern is that he is finishing his Navy training in Melbourne in a month and has been posted to Darwin. Naturally he wants to drive his car there. As it is a rather small car would you recommend he do that? It is such along way but I suppose it could be broken into stages of about 500 km. The main concern though is the space saver spare in the car. Would you take such a journey with very little road assistance with such a spare? How far can you drive on such a spare with maybe hundreds of km to any help? Would you recommend he does this trip in the car? Could he hire or borrow a full size wheel? Is the car reliable enough for the trip?

Time and time again I read new car reviews which mention the 'suspension and ride and handling have been fine tuned here to suit local conditions.' What exactly are they "fine tuning?" I didn't think suspension is something that can be tuned. Is this simply a saying for changing the stiffness in springs and/or shock absorbers from those in use in Asian markets? If so, I consider that more of a revamp than fine-tuning. Or is it more simply using different tyres?

You say 34,000km is normal wear for brakes these days. My 2011 Toyota HiLux 4x4 diesel auto dual cab has 240,000km on the clock, mainly city driving with about 600kg of load at any one time. Tyres last on average 120,000km, pads last 90,000km and discs are good for 180,000km. I can only assume that this is what you get for spending a bit more to buy "unbreakable".

I have the current Mazda3 Astina hatchback and the diameter of the space-saver spare, tread to tread, is 57cm. The measurement for the road wheel is 63cm, so that's a difference of 6cm. Is this difference allowed? Will it affect the mechanicals if I have to use it? Are all space-savers smaller?

We have a Mini Cooper S. I like the car but dislike the road noise and harshness of the run-flat tyres but we knew about that before we bought it, so no complaints. However, we got a nail in a rear tyre and, not having time to get it fixed on the day, thought it would be OK to leave it for a couple of days. Two days later, when I drove it a few kilometres to the tyre shop, it drove and sounded like a car with a normal flat tyre. It was a slightly wet day, crossing tram lines was like ice skating in gumboots. I felt unsafe at 50km/h. I think run flats are a dangerous fraud that should be banned under the Australian Design Rules but I guess that's not going to happen.

I often wonder why car manufacturers put different size wheels on similar models of cars, for instance both Falcons and Commodores can have wheels from 16 inch to 19 inch. Does the larger wheel give a more comfortable ride?