Best Tires for the Vauxhall Astra 1.6 SXi

BOTH front side wall bad splitting on inside O M G ! test fail wi loads of tread left money down toilet !

Do not buy these tires if you value your life or car.
So many people on this site just unfortunately do not know enough about tires to post reviews.
These tires are dangerous I am in the process of removing a relatively new set from my new partners car.
Let's look at the facts these are cheap as chips tires wet grip E you only get what you pay for.
Big brand company's spend thousands of pounds developing New tires experimenting with different compounds, rubbers and construction unfortunately the same cannot be said for these.
My local tire dealer who I have known for years does not know how these tires get a European safety rating ! Yes that bad. The handling is terrible and with over 5mm of tread left my partner who is no racing driver does not understand what is wrong with her car skidding and feeling unsafe on wet roads I new straight away its terrible tires ! Going to change the lot asap.
These are budget price and ditch finding road holding don't be fooled by people rating these tires as good if you want good then do yourself a favor and spend some money on a quality brand or at least a good quality mid range tire. Remember your life and car are worth it as this is the only thing between you and the road. Enough said I think.

These Capitol ECO 007 tires are very good. They perform very well indeed. I recommend them. They are available from a well known major chain of high street fitters and by a national chain of mobile fitters in their vans. And can be ordered from various tire vendors on the web. I had a set of 4 new ones fitted a month ago by the mobile tire company who replaced them at my workplace, (discounted for buying all 4 at the same time) replacing worn out Goodyear Eagle NCT 5 on my 2003 100K miles Astra Mk4 1.6 SXi hatchback. These were down to 2mm at the front and 3mm at the rear. I waited to cover 500 miles before writing this review, to get a good balance picture of how they perform. Those of you who have Astra Mk4`s will know how well they handle and how expensive the 205 50 16 size tires are in comparison with the more common 205 55 16! So having driven on the Goodyear Eagle NCT 5`s for about 3 years the time came to replace them with a good performing tire at the best possible price. The NCT 5`s gripped very well in the dry, but not so good in the wet, had to be very careful. The front pair were getting twitchy on wet white lines and throwing the car off course a bit. (Also, my SXi does not have ABS or traction control) Hence the time to replace them. Finding it hard to source used tires because of the awkward 50 profile size and not being able to afford premium tires I did my research on the web and visited a couple of tire centers to ask questions and decided to buy a set of the Capitol ECO 007 tires which cost approx half that of the premium branded tire that has the same Fuel C and Wet braking rating B as the ECO 007. There was very little information on the web about them but what there was said the same thing, very good in the wet and a good tire. Having now driven 500 miles on them throughout May and and now the 2nd week of June in the U.K. temperatures ranging from 7 to 24 degrees dry and some very wet days I can honestly say that I am pleasantly surprised that these budget tires do provide great levels of grip. Not once have they lost grip on acceleration, braking or cornering, at any speed. Even in very heavy rain they felt like they were running in the dry! Amazing. They are Chinese but good. Apparently based or re-branded on Nexen tires. Possibly one of their previous models?
For the technically minded of you out there that would like to know a bit more about this tire they are a 4 grooved asymmetric ( says `Outside` one sidewall) steel radial with 7mm of tread depth new. They are W rated. Tirewall info states `Temperature A` `Traction A` `Max Load 545Kg` `Treadwear = 320` (not bad compared to the NCT5 at 220) They are also E4 stamped. The moulding quality of the sidewalls and tread pattern is excellent. Not cheap looking at all. The tread compound is soft to the touch. They warm up very quickly too. The sidewalls are more flexible then the Eagle NCT 5 `s so they do give a smoother more comfortable ride at the expense of a little bit less immediate turn-in on fast corners but only by a small amount. Not quite a track day tire. They are also a lot quieter than the Eagle NCT 5`s, a lot less road roar. Another effect I noticed straight away was the lower rolling resistance compared to the NCT 5`s, much better acceleration. Honest! The engine doesn't have to be revved as much to accelerate swiftly. On my car it is a marked improvement and one I didn't expect. I live in Milton Keynes, the `land of roundabouts`, fast roads and dual carriageways, so its a mixture of 60mph and 70mph limit sections and then negotiating another yet another roundabout. This is where my car is driven daily. If you need a new set of 205 50 16`s and cannot afford a premium tire and don't want to buy part worn`s then you cant go wrong with new Capitol ECO 007`s.

very underrated in my opinion good price think I paid £75 fitted a good all round tire grip first class in both wet and dry these are a slightly harder compound so you can feel every lumb and bump but lasting alot longer than michiln ps3 5stars

right how to explain these tires without getting this thread deleted, ok i got it, s~#t s@~t s~'t, these are the best words for these tires. they r scary in the wet they reach their limit of adhesion quickly so the car is always twitchy even on my vauxhall astra 1.6. i even spun my car going around a roundabout at 20mph!! who ever reads these reviews and is thinking about buying these tires or has a set on their car, please dont buy them or get them off ur car asap. yes they are cheap beyond belief but i swear they get their rubber from used durex or something coz the quality is utter appalling.

budget tires they may be but in the long run they aint worth it, i changed all 4 tires on my car today cost me £470 for goodyear efficient grip but i aint caring coz i know they safe!! and i value my life over my bank balance.
enough said on these rubber rings of s#'t!

Not sure on these, i heard rave reviews, and i was mega happy when i found a set of alloys on ebay with a receipt for the new tires fitted a week before (still had the white stuff all over them from when they were fitted)

In the snow and ice they were nasty, i had a MK4 astra at the time, i touched the pedal and went flying nearly into a phone exchange!!

In the dry thy were very good, very sticky and grippy, certainly better than the stupid budgets on before them!!

Might very them again one day, maybe in the summer!!

Dry Grip - These tires are absolutely fantastic in the dry. You can really chuck it into corners and it will stick.

Wet Grip - The tires perform very well in the wet, however as with any tire, if you push it too much you will eventually slip. If driven sensibly for the road conditions you shouldn't experience any problems

Road Feedback - These tires are of a very soft compound therefore road feeback is excellent and really gives you the confidence to push the car to its limits.

Wear - The downside to haveing very soft compound tires is that they do wear at quite a fast rate. After about 7500 miles i started feeling a small difference in the grip i was having.

Comfort - These are very comfortable and provide little road noise, so ideal for long journeys

Buy Again - I certainly would. I managed to pick these up at a great price and and the large list of Pro's certainly outweight the minor Con's (mainly being the rate of wear).