At the end of 2009, we replaced the Dunlop SP Sport 2000 tires on our Skoda Octavia RS with a new set of Goodyear Excellence tires of the same size (205/55 R16) – and we brought you an early report in the first issue of the year (which can be found on our website www.autox.in).

Initial impressions from the Goodyear tires were impressive, but we said at the time that we’d hold off on an ‘excellent’ verdict until they’d spent more time on the road. Well, at the time we had covered 1,000 kilometres on the new rubber. Now, following an additional 5,000 clicks, I think it’s safe to pass judgement.

One of the characteristics that were most impressive initially was the vast improvement in ride quality over the older Dunlop rubber – and that’s something that still continues to pay dividends every day. Even on a performance oriented car like the RS, its important in Indian conditions for the car to ride well – otherwise you just get jostled from one bump to the next, and have little or no traction anyway. The Excellence tires maintain a very good compromise on ride quality and comfort, relative to performance. While they probably don’t have quite the levels of outright grip of more focussed performance tires, the overall package works exceedingly well.

The tires are very predictable at the limit, which made a trip to the hills very enjoyable indeed because it meant that you could explore the limits of the car and its tires with a great deal of confidence – not only were grip levels good, but feedback was as well. Moreover, getting to the hills was better still because the tires are also very silent at highway speeds – even well into triple digit speeds.

In the four months that we’ve had the tires on the car, we’ve also had the opportunity to test them in the wet. The tires feature an interesting tread pattern that Goodyear refers to as its ‘3-zone’ technology. The diagonal, asymmetric grooves in the middle section of the tire are meant to extract water from between the road surface and the tire. In addition, the tire compound consists of silica – like many performance tires nowadays – to provide better traction in the wet. And it all works quite well together to provide good grip and confidence even in the wet.

Before we started the test, there was some concern on certain forums regarding the high wear rate of these tires. But, thus far at least, there are no indications to suggest longevity is an issue. It may have only been a few thousand kilometres from new, but they’ve been 6,000 enthusiastic kilometres all the same. The only negative, as reported previously, is that the tires tend to be quite vocal at the limit. But, that apart, we’d have to say that the tires have earned their ‘Excellence’ badge so far.