The Dunlop SP Sport 01 receives its clearest owner praise for dry grip, handling and tread life, with later-life accounts including substantial mileage. Wear is not universally liked, but favourable mentions outnumber complaints by more than two to one. Road noise is the main recurring drawback, criticised in nearly three in ten reviews, and some end-of-life accounts describe it becoming louder. Wet grip is evenly divided between positive and negative mentions, so it is less dependable as a point of recommendation than dry performance. Ride comfort is also split, while steering feedback leans positive without the same agreement as dry handling.
What owners mention most counted across 95 reviews
Factory fitted set of tires on Mercedes SLK. I was never satisfied with the grip, the car won't start without spinning except on roads that have just been layered with new tarmac. One has to drive annoyingly slow to get full traction. On full throttle starts the car spins up to 4th gear, and I consider myself a conservative driver, except on a few cases when I wanted to check their traction levels and the car's power. These two are not made for each other and I wonder who chose them for factory installation. Also they seem to warm up on extreme use and in hot summer days only. In normal driving especially during the winter they NEVER reach operating temperature.On the wet it was really scary sometimes. No sense of confidence at all. They have good feedback though, and lasted well for 30000 miles, although all OEM tires last longer. The noise is more than awful. The combination of the seat position in this car which is very close to the rear wheels, with the noise from these tires is just lethal for your ears and mental health. They are to be replaced soon and never to be bought again. An overall bad choice from MB.
This is the original summer tire on my Jaguar XF S Diesel. Starting at about 6'000 miles the droning noise has become so bad that I am tempted to throw the whole set away and never touch a Dunlop again. According to Jag dealer a common problem with this tire.
Check out how the BEST all seasons tyres perform against premium summer and winter tyres!
Thought it might be useful to review the standard fit Dunlop summer tyres on my Yeti 4x4 SE model as it appears not all Yetis come with these, and they are Skodas own recommended replacement tyre (I think the 225/50/17 94W size/loading is manufactured solely for Yeti and Octavia applications). My Yeti is my first non-sports car, and as Ive done years in the motor trade inc. development work for VW, am well qualified to give an "amateur expert" view. It's worth noting that the Yeti suspension set-up is firm and agressive (akin to VW's GTi or Audi's Sport trim models), for "fast-road" high speed driving (totally out of synch with Skoda's very "mature" buyer/driver profile)and that a 50-profile sports tyre is inappropriate for a crossover 4x4 or family-transport type of car, but that's another debate!
Grip from the Dunlops in wet and dry is truly outstanding, in terms of both braking and cornering turn-in, amongst the best I've ever experienced and not far off that of a ultra-sport tyre such as Bridgestone's Potenzas.
In colder conditions the tyres go rock-hard though, so grip and ride comfort fall off a cliff, and in snow/ice they're unsurprisingly hopeless, even on my 4x4 model.
Ride comfort overall is moderate (the tyre has a very stiff sidewall for high speed cornering and a result has little "give" for uneven roads or potholes/speedbumps). Although intially quiet, after 10k miles they've begun to drone increasingly badly. Contrarily to that, wear rate has been fine - my fronts are just becoming marginal at 20k, the rears will easily make another 5k or so. I'm looking to switch to a more comfort/all rounder tyre at changeover, but no-one makes anything in this size, so choices appear to be to stay with a fast-road summer ones, in which case I'd stick with the current Dunlop Sports, or switch to an off-road type 4x4 tyre like Bridgestone Duellers and suffer a big drop in dry road grip and refinement.
41%
Member
BMW
245/40 R18
10,000 miles
Mostly Country Roads
Spirited
Run flats came on the car (2nd hand so not sure when fitted). Just changed rears to the front as they had about 3mm left. The grip was awful and had been since they had been about 5mm. The traction control spends far too long being on. Slightly better now got 6mm on the driven wheels. Very noisy and very hard. Tramline far too easily. Feeback is good, you can feel every bump through your spine. Going to ditch the runflats next time round
Its funny how we all jusge the same tyre differently. But I have had a good experience with these tyres.
I am 10 miles shy of 25,000 miles and my two back tyres have about 3mm and my two front 4+. I have never had wear like this before, just brilliant.
The ride can be a little noisy and it is a hard ride, but i put that down to the type of tyre and the fact the car has a hard suspension. The grip has alway been sound. I'm hoping to get 30k out of them, but i do a lot of country track driving and motorway too. The roads are not what they used to be!
Fitted to an S2000 to replace bridgestone touranza ..... would never do it again... auful grip... from what was a planted secure feel you just can't tell when they're going to let go.
Wet, muddy, icy, the back end is now all over the shop .... would never buy these again
For anyone who has suffered from neck injuries this is the ideal tyre, giving a very smooth ride with minimal vibration. (Much smoother than Continental Premium Contact 2.) The added comfort comes at a cost of slightly less grip in icy or muddy conditions, but driving carefully I have never found the tyres to slip or skid in ice or mud. The sidewalls are tough and not vulnerable to kerbing damage. The tread is deep and so should last well. Excellent. Highly recommended.
Tyres were uncomfortably noisy on my Octavia estate although, as with most estate cars, the noise seemed to come mostly from the rears. Wet/Dry grip seemed good, but there again I drive my Octavia moderately. The rears did step out in the dry once while taking a moderately sharp corner at speed, it was rather unexpected !
Came standard on our 08 VW R32,, put 26k on the car then hit a deep chuck hole and popped out one of the front tires in a balloon sort of injury..replaced all tires with the OEM rec tire..the other three had maybe 1/3 tread life left but opted to be safe as the wife spends more time in the car than me..love the quiet ride the grip is great and has good feedback at cornering limits, no problem with hydroplaning, 6 to 8 inches of snow was no big deal,,but that maybe the efficatious nature of the all wheel drive R32 more than tires.Have 12k on this set and they still look new.but will buy again and am considering the same tire for my 135i..
These tires were originally installed on my new Laguna 2009 and now after three
year and 28000 miles,still they are good.
Dry and wet grip perfect.
Now i will buy Continental Sport contact 5 tires but only because i am looking for class higher tires.
But i would always recommend Dunlop to everyone.
