It has been awhile since I wrote a thing or two in my Blog. Well, today, I have some news.
A little more than a week ago, it has been decided we needed to change the front tires of the car. The rear tires are still very good but the front, the tires are a mess. My car has front-wheel drive ( a KIA Picanto) and the tires were really beaten up for the last 3.5 years, since it was new.
The dealer had new tires put on, since the original tires from the assembly factory in South Korea were smaller breeds and so, to look more attractive, the dealer put on a little better tire before they sell the car.
All good, nice looking tires, but after 3.5 years, we found out that the wheels were way off alignment, even though, I did not have problems driving on a straight line when highway or city driving.
The Toe alignment was way off when we went to have our old tires exhanged with the new tires.
But before we start talking about the set of tires we bought, there's a little story first on how we bought the tires. Since the plan was only to buy two tires for the front, with the same tread, we went to the tire store and asked if they first have the type of tires we had before, in stock. They only had one in stock that day, but had to order another one. Since we were there on a Saturday, the order could only be placed on Monday, the following week.
The following week came, and Monday they phoned us saying the tire in question was already in. We already bought the first tire from them that Saturday, so we put it in the storage at home. The tires that were supposed to be are Hankook K406 tires and we bought one, the one that was in stock. On Monday, when we went back to the tire store, it was a Hankook K715 tire, with a different tread. So, much for waiting (not that long, was very fast service). I thought, this is not so bad. So, they installed the Hankook K406 and K715 as front tires. They also aligned the tires. I wondered how much this would cost and they said P775 (C$18) for the car. In Canada, alignment work cost close to $100, so the labor here in the Philippines is still less than in those western countries.
Tires however are about the same price anywhere. One of these small tires (165/60 R14) cost per piece here C$80 (P3,500). We got 15% off somehow. By the way, when we bought the car, the same tires are made in Chine, while these we have now are made in South Korea. I don't know if the quality might be different, but it rings a bell that everything that is made in South Korea a bit better is than what is made in China.
Now we drove away with the car with the new front tires which had different treads. So, in all, I was driving a car with three different treads. The new left front tire, the new right front tire and the two rear old tires (which by now have worn-out treads), so it was fun driving the car in a straight line.
I thought, they screwed up the alignment work, but when I sat down and checked the Internet on alignments of your tires, I found out that the veering of the car to the right when driving could come from driving on tires with different treads.
Soooo, we went back to the tire store and we decided that it would be a "very" good idea to change all tires (4 pieces) with all the same treads. At the end, we bought 5 tires at the tire store. The Hankook K715 (4 pieces) and we end up with also a new K406, and this one we keep for a spare tire. We have a factory spare tire, but this tire is very small. You would not want to drive with this tire on the highway, we thought, the new spare could be very useful when we travel long distances, like going to the province where my wife's family lives. There, we must drive on the highways.
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According to the Internet, YOUR TIRES ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR CAR. POOR TIRES ON YOUR CAR WILL FAIL EVERYTHING, LIKE BRAKES, SUSPENSIONS, AND EVEN ENGINE.
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I still remember the TV ad from Michelin a long time ago: " There's so much riding on your tires." They showed a baby sitting inside the tire.
(Picture above: One of the new front tires of our car)
