Peugeot upon Avon
PEUGEOT 406 COUPÉ 2.2 HDi
When I bought this car, I knew that the front tyres would need replacing before or very soon after its MoT in February. A few recent loss-of-grip moments on wet roundabouts had forced my hand to get them replaced much earlier.
After a few years of impressive performance with Avon tyres on my Ford Puma I decided to go down the same route. I’ve thrown that little car around and it sticks to the road like Duct Tape to, well, anything!
I went online to blackcircles.com where I bought two front Avon tires to be fitted by my local ATS Euromaster. Three working days later my Peugeot 406 Coupé was ready for new treads, and not a minute too soon with the slippery wet roads that the UK has recently experienced.
Within seconds the tyre fitter at ATS had the first wheel off and noticed a problem with my alloy wheels. A solid centre cap on the inside of the wheel meant their balancing machines would accept the fitting. The tire could be fitted, but ATS were worried that they could not perfect the tracking of the tires. Despite this, the fitter went ahead and peeled the old tire away from the wheel and set to fitting fresh new Avon rubber.
The tyre fitter mentioned he hadn’t seen a Peugeot 406 Coupé in a long time stating how rare they are these days. I mentioned I worked for Classic Car
Weekly to which he laughed and said ‘you guys don’t own cars long enough to benefit from having Avons fitted, surely?’. I replied I intended to break that mould and keep this car for a long time, hopefully returning it to a state when I can display it at car shows.
With the first tyre installed and the second on the way I filled out the paperwork and within half an hour of walking through the door, the second and final tire was safely fitted to my Peugeot 406. It was so fast I had to ask whether they had actually finished. I’d been to many tire fitters and waited hours before so this was a huge step up in customer service.
Back on the roads and a few miles later I had bedded in the new rubber. The following day it was wet on the roads but I swept around roundabouts with ease and confidence. A worthwhile investment!