Avon ZV7 Reviews - Page 10

Had a set of these fitted to a new-to-me 2.0 liter MX5 Mk3 (was going to get Kumhos, but they were unavailable on the day).
The car previously had four totally different no-name brands on it, one on each corner, in various states of wear. To say that it felt different with the brand spanking new Avons on would be stating the blindingly obvious, but it's *so* different that it's really notable.
I've taken the car for a couple of long-ish motorway runs, to work and back a few times and for some 'spirited' drives in the country near where I live. They're quieter than some reviews would have you believe, I've only got them to break traction when I've wanted them to and they haven't surprised me by doing so unexpectedly yet (maybe I'm not trying hard enough). They've got decent grip in the wet and the feedback through the wheel is OK, but not brilliant. They'll last me some time so I might come back and do a mid-term review when I've hurt them a bit more!

We run two Peugeot 407 Coupes which are big heavy cars (uses the Citroen C6 chassis but with conventional double wishbone and IRS suspension) and the cars have covered 25,000 miles between them on Avon ZV7s.

Grip is superb in the dry and wet, although I have noticed that when cornering in the wet on a bumpy road they are prone to breaking grip for a millisecond before gripping again.

Tire wear isn't too excessive but the first pair of fronts were munched in 10,000 miles (I change mine at 3mm). I also have a sporty 206 wearing Pirelli Cinturato and an MG Midget on Yokohamas, both of which show no signs of wear despite spirited driving, although fewer miles and lighter cars, so maybe not a great comparison!

Comfort is good and we recently drove 2000+ miles to the South of France and back, whisper quiet and enough meat to make driving at speed on French roads a pleasure.

I have had altogether 8 of these tires on 2 cars (215/55R16 on a Vectra and 205/55R16 on a Kia Ceed 1st gen) and, together with my wife, have done more than 22000 miles on them.
So, good points first. These tires wear well - a set of them lasted for 14000 miles in the front of my diesel Vectra, and would have lasted about 15500 miles if I didn't have to change them before a very long driving holiday abroad. This is good for the front axle of a Vectra with the heavy 1.9 liter lump, especially after my previous Uniroyals. I also managed to buy them quite cheap, up to a point.
The grip in the dry is not bad, provided the road is in a decent condition. For some reason on the Vectra they behave much better than on the Kia - goes on to say that the tire characteristics have to match the suspension. They also lose the grip progressively and tell you they do so, again on a decent road.
Now to the bad points:
They aren't very good in the wet, which in British climate is not ideal... Not much grip altogether, but the worst point is their tendency to aquaplanning. In my driving life I have used some better and worse tires but when it comes to aquaplanning, these come as one of the worst. Any water deeper than 2mm, any speed greater than 50mph, and bang! goes the grip and handling, and you start feeling more like a passenger than a driver. Which, in British climate and with knackered roads full of ruts and tracks, is very bad. So Avon is a British company, right? One would think they'd have made a tire suitable for downpours... But maybe I'm spoiled after these previous Uniroyals.
Three more things: they are quite noisy, especially after a while, they have subjectively a rather high rolling resistance, and they don't like worn, tired roads, especially grater-like wear of the surface (lots of small bumps with different asphalts coming from wear and repairs). Which again, in today's Britain... ;)
I had 8 of them in 2 cars, mostly because they were attractively priced. However, with their price going up fast, I can't recommend them any more. Either be honest to yourself, do a research, pay £20 less and buy something budget that fares similarly in the tests (yes, some are around), or cough up around £15-25 more and get something that is premium, not only aspires to be.

Bought the Signum four years ago with 47000 on the clock. It came with a set of budgets all round. The critics when it was new had two main moans. The first was that road noise in the cabin was excessive and secondly it looked like a Vectra.
After about 15000 miles I was fed up with the noise in the cabin and decided to change the tires to see if it would reduce the noise at all and settled on Avon ZV5's for the rear. Instant improvement. The noise in the cabin was noticeably reduced.
It also produced another surprise. I do a regular run (every couple of months) via the Chunnel and France to Belgium (400 mile round trip). When I bought the car it indicated an average of 36mpg. With the ZV5,s it went up to 38mpg.
Now to the ZV7's (At last I hear you all say - if you are still with me). It just carries on getting better. I still only paid £66 each for what has proved to be an excellent tire. Mileage improved yet again to 41mpg and the cabin noise was reduced even further. The 5's are showing little sign of wear after 5000 miles and the 7's at 2000 miles still look brand new.
Overall I don't think it is possible to get a better value for money tire than these Avons.
Still have one complaint - The Signum still looks like a bloody Vectra.

I'll start with the negatives as this is how it started with my purchase of these tires. Not that they are bad at all just not quite what they were made up to be. Firstly they do not have what anyone would call a rim protection flange as advertised, sidewall sits flush with the rim as any other normal tire. The tread looks ugly in the wheel arch too (too many groves). Hopefully it dosent bother most people but I'm quite fussy over small details so it's something to consider. I purchased the XL version hoping for it to he a stiffer all round tire, turns out the sidewalls are very soft still feels like it's rolling under the car taking bends at any kind of moderate speed. I also noticed the center groves are not as deep as the outer ones and even with me driving throwing the car round corners the center was down to 1.6mm and the outer edges were still at 2.6mm and I always maintained the pressure stated in my cars manual. Anyway bad points over this tire would suit mums driving their children about perfect it has a lot of grip for the price in both wet and dry very predictable and lasts a decent amount of time. Lasted me a total of 15k in a mix of normal and rather spirited drives on the front of a fwd car. It's a good tire for safety and will corner ok but not as well as the previous zv5 did.

Quite disappointed. Replaced worn Goodyear tires. Chose these based on price and grip / noise ratings more than anything. More comfortable and quiter ride than Goodyear's to start with ........... Until i got onto a motorway ! Immediately felt a wobble / vibration through steering wheel and assumed one of the tires wasn't balance properly. Could also hear the oscillation as well. Left it a week to see if. It settled but it felt worse once on a long motorway run. On returning i jacked the car up and spun the front wheels in gear. Tire carcase could be seen moving up and down so appeared not to be round. Tread also appealed to "wander" while spinning. The fitting company decided to re-ballance all 4 wheels. It didn't make any difference. They then took each tire off of the rims and refitted them and rebalanced them all and then, put the front wheels on the back. Still it vibrates, now through the floorpan more than the steering wheel, which confirms my suspicions that the front tires (now on the back) were not perfectly round. Just had confirmation that the fitting company, with Avon's agreement, will now replace all 4 tires under warranty (about 1000+ miles done now). I am very pleased with this decision and hope this resolves the issue.