Altis 1.6 FL First Drive and Tyres Expert Opinion Required

[z_z]

Dear Pakwheels Community,
Hope you're doing well and staying safe. I was earlier driving City 1.3 AT(all stock-only ditched Eurostars over Kendas and one size up on day one, good move, car felt noticeably grippy and ever so slightly softer possibly due to more surface area contact via the upsize). I just swapped with an Altis 1.6 FL. During the first couple of runs I noticed somethings a bit concerning, at one instance I was accelerating and then braked around 80kph on Main Shahrah-e-Faisal(good level tarmac) and the ABS activated whereas I was expecting it to brake just using tyre traction, secondly I was ripping it between 70kph-80kph at PNS Karsaz bridge(up the ramp, mind you) and it kinda felt like the car was about to take off and the car's direction seemed to be changing (granted the ramp is a bit uneven and it does turn), but not a very planted feeling.

Questions:

1 - Is it just the first drive getting used to as I am comparing this with City+Kenda Kaisers vs. Altis+Yoko Advand db A460s?
2 - Is it Altis 1.6's higher center of gravity plus bouncy suspension due to which it's not the best when it comes to braking/gripping and keeping the car planted?
2 - If it's the tyres, what recommendation would you have for tyre swaps to help better traction/handling that would make it worth the swap considering we've got brand new tyres, would like suggestions ideally within OEM size i.e. 205/55/16 or max 215/55-50/16

Many thanks for your time...

[anon35615524]

On a general note, Toyota Corolla's handling and road grip is not good (especially when compared to its Honda counterparts).

[anon35615524]

And tyres upsizing will not make very much difference. There is also a limit for upsizing.

[z_z]

So you're saying it's a list cause basically and nothing I do can improve Rolla's handling.

Any one else care to shed some light on this?

[haseeb.basharat]

Change tyre size to 215/55 R16. It won't effect any fuel economy or acceleration.
The stock yokohama tyre is noisy, hard and grips pretty less. It's a very old model of yokohama. My friend somehow fitted same tyre in civic and it also got some crappy brakes now.
Tyres I would suggest are, best from top to bottom.
Continental ultracontact6 uc6
Pirelli p7
Michelin primacy 4
Yokohama bluearth es32.

[pwuser152879639566]

Perfect answer, I have install DUNLOOP 215/55 R16, it is much better than YOKOHAMA stock tyres. and fuel economy is effected at all.

[alibintahir]

Are you sure about that that it won't affect the fuel economy as I'm well aware that they are closest to the OEM size (205/55 R16), but still they have got bigger sidewalls roughly +6.8%, which I think can affect on fuel economy to some extent. I'm no expert in tires though.

[alibintahir]

I agree with you on this, but handling and road grip of Honda City is also not good and can't be compared with Corolla on a positive side, however, Civic's handling and road grip is incomparable.

[mgalaxy3]

Floating in the air feeling appears to be normal, and I hate it .

[alibintahir]

Floating in the air feeling

Good Analogy used, it seems like going somewhere on the flying carpet

[haseeb.basharat]

It won't effect. I have shared screenshot from tiresize calculator above.

[z_z]

Thanks for the responses everyone.
So I took it out for a spin, this time staying more conscious. So the 55 aspect for tyre walls actually helps with the grip, since there is less flex during cornering.

The tyre treads mentioned above are not available at Zafcom(a renowned tyre seller in Khi), then I went to Shaikh Brothers (apparently only official Yoko importer in Pakistan). They did have 3 Yoko treads with Advan db v552 which is best in terms of comfort/silence however 21k per tyre is alot. Not to mention they gave me an offer of 10k for my brand spanking new tyres. Doesn't leave me with much charm to swap my fresh Apr 2020 Advan A-460s. Separately I checked local/regional/global Yoko product catalogues as back as 2010 and the tyres coming in Rolla these days are made to manufacturer's specs and not available for official retail anywhere. Plus the Yoko distirbutor's tyres were a year old manufacturing so not sure how they've been kept.

Attaching product catalogue for everyone's reference.

Thanks

P.S: I guess I'll have to get used to flying at 30,000 feet with Rolla's airborne feeling lol

[mgalaxy3]

: I guess I'll have to get used to flying at 30,000 feet with Rolla's airborne feeling lol

🤣🤣

[alibintahir]

I guess I'll have to get used to flying at 30,000 feet with Rolla's airborne feeling

Welcome to Rolla's group.

[pwuser152879639566]

I am currently using 215 on altis 1.6 auto, tyres are good over bumps, and most of the pakistani roads are bumpy, If your daily drive roads are good, I suggest you stick with OEM size, but fuel average isn't affected on 215 size, still getting 14+ on the motorway, and 10-11 in the city, with AC.

[z_z]

@alibintahir @mgalaxy3 haha Yes!

@pwuser152879639566 thanks for sharing your experience, after a couple of more drives I realized I was going through "Ghar ki murghi daal baraabar" syndrome...i mean the market value of Advan A460(OEM) and the softer tread(Advan db v552) is more or less the same (20k/21k each) so I was like let it be...i wanted to get a drive on v552 but to feel the difference but too much hassle to ask a tyre vendor to let me try them out and then give it back...long story short, I'm in a much better position now than if Toyota was giving EuroStars so happy with it.

Anyways, how long have you driven on OEM size?
How does it compare to 215s you are driving now?
Also, are you on 215/55/16 or 215/60/16?

Thanks.

[alibintahir]

@z_z I've bought my Altis 1.6 2018 at 39k kms, so now I have driven roughly 10k kms on the OEM 205/55 R16 and I'm pretty satisfied with the ride comfort and cabin noise for now. However, I'm planning to switch to 215/55 R16 when I'll be changing the tyres based on the recommendations of most of the users positive review who changed the size from OEM to 215/55 R16 which include improved road grip and almost no difference in fuel economy.

[z_z]

@alibintahir good to know you're satisfied even after 50k km driven tyres... Means they're not half bad... What treads are you considering to swap with? I only found official Yoko distributor, not sure about Michelin, Pirelli, Continental etc

[alibintahir]

@z_z In sha ALLAH I'll be swapping it with Yokohama Advan dB v552 or Continental UltraContact UC6, but any guidance in that matter is also great.

[z_z]

@alibintahir Yokohama Advan dbv552 205/60/16 (Made in Japan) is available at Shaikh Brothers Shahrah-e-Faisal Karachi for Rs. 19,500 if you want to get it from the official distributor. I didn't bargain so you might have some room there. Also, based on the product catalogue snapshot shared above, this tread scores the highest in Comfort category and that is why it is placed in "Luxury Saloon" category.

Apart from this I haven't done any research on other brands so not sure about Continental's distributor/product lineup.