[Vwdiesel] TDI tires

[William J Toensing]

I have been a fan of Michelin tires ever since I bought my first Citroen, a new ID-19 while living in Minn. back in 1960. The Citroen DS/ID series which was introduced at the fall 1955 auto show in Paris was, I've been told, was the first car designed around the Michelin radial tire. Good reason for this, Citroen was owned by Michelin since 1934 when Citroen went bankrupt over development costs of the 1934 Traction Avant. I bought my last new Citroen in Nov. 1972, a D-21 station wagon when I learned Citroen was pulling out of the US market. That Citroen was equipped wit Michelin XH tires as OEM. By rotating the tires every 5,000 miles including the spare, I got 100,500 miles I could have driven them farther but didn't like their nearly bald appearance. I still have that Citroen which now has 200,000 miles on it. Back then, nobody ever heard of getting 100,000 from a set of tires!

Periodically, Costco has a $70 off sale on a set of 4 Michelin tires which, depending on the size, can lower the cost down to under $300 for a set of 4 tires. On my Mercedes 300SD, the cost was as I recall,$82 per tire for a set of 4 195/75 R 14s. However, I had to remove the wheels & tires from the Mercedes as Costco would only install 195/70 R-14 high speed tires as that is what Mercedes called for. Who needs high speed tires for an older Mercedes diesel in the USA? In retrospect, I should have installed 205/75 R-14 tires as the speedometer is still 2 to 5 MPH fast compared to my GPS which shows actual speed. If you can use 70 or higher 13, 14, or 15 inch tires your price will be much cheaper than those low profile tires which come with 16 inch or higher rims. I saved a considerable amount of money per tire when I replaced the optional 16 inch alloy rims with 15 inch alloy rims on my Ford Focus bought on eBay for much less than the junk yards wanted. Go check out what those tires will cost with those fancy 20 inch alloy rims that kids want to install for style purposes. Also, Costco offers free lifetime rotation, balancing, & flat repair & uses nitrogen rather than ordinary air. The benefit of nitrogen is slower loss of air as I am told nitrogen molecules are larger than other air molecules.

Bill Toensing, Nevada City, CA