Apollo Acelere - Alloys and Tyres

Product: Apollo Acelere Tyres
Fitted on: Santro Xing Xp 2005 model
Purchased from: Apollo brand shop, Thakarapparambu Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Purchase Experience: Excellent
Product Satisfaction: Very Good.
Tyre Size: 175/60/R13** (To understand this specification, scroll down to the end of this post)
Pros: Excellent riding comfort, improved cornering capabilities, no impact of small pothholes
Cons: Pickup reduced by a small margin, mud splashes on car (bigger mudflaps needed), ride quality suffers on big potholes.

Product: Apollo Acelere Alloys
Fitted on : Santro Xing XP 2005 model
Purchased from: Apollo brand shop,Near KTC office, Thakarapparambu Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Purchase Experience: Excellent
Product Satisfaction: Very Good.
Alloy size: 13inch
Alloy type: Deep dish, 8 V spokes (16 spokes in total), with a red lining around the rim.
Pros: Looks, looks and looks, less weight, does not heat up like steel rims
Cons: Difficult to find out quality alloy wheels as Chinese wheels have flood the market, replacing a single damaged unit is difficult since model will get outdated.

Detailed Purchase Experience and Product Review

Alloy wheels is sure a cosmetic add on to any car and no wonder it did the same to my good old Santro Xing. (My review of Santro Xing can be read here)

It was time to replace tyre after 45000km in Santro, and I decided to try Michelins. The response of the Michelin dealer - "New Bharath Tyres" was quite arrogant that I instantly decided not to go to that shop.


There is a dearth of quality tyre shops in Thiruvananthapuram, may be one of the reasons of the arrongant answering of "New Bharath Tyres" since it is the only major one in the city. Luckily found out a new brand shoppe of Apollo at Thakarapparumbu road in Eastfort, Thiruvananthapuram.

Santro tyre size is 155/70/R13 **.

The best upsize is 165/70/R13. Road grip will increase, comfort will increase, handling at corners will be lot more good, the famous rear seat bumpy ride of Santro will be gone too.

Apollo had three ranges to offer
1. Amazer - the budget model with normal grips (price range for 13" tyres: Rs.2500 - Rs.3000)
2. Acelere - a Michelin clone (price range for 13" tyres: Rs.3000 to Rs.3500)
3. Aspire - the premium one  (price range for 13" tyres: Rs.4500 to Rs.5000)

Choose Acelere since I had michelin's in mind and the price difference with the budget one's where not to high. This tyre was a looker too.

Came to know from the shop guy that Apollo has started to offer Alloy wheels too. They get it from some other manufacturer and brand it as Apollo alloys with Warranty. The first one which I saw itself was chosen because somehow I felt that it will match my Santro's color. This was a deep dish design with 16 spokes.

Got a tip from the dealer that, since I am going to put alloys, it will be better to put tyres having width in such a way that the tyre covers the edge of the alloy. Otherwise the alloy's edges are prone to bent when it is run through badly maintained roads.

The tyre size 165/70/r13 was not in stock.
But 175/60/R13 was in stock. I was quite skeptical initially to put it since the tyres are sure to bulge out of the car, which I don't like. But the dealer offered that he will fit different combinations of alloys and tyres in my car and I can chose one after seeing all of them in my car.


The combination of the alloy selected and the 175/60/R13 tyres was tried out instantly and I took the vehicle for a spin.

The difference was huge, Ride quality, handling and stability of the vehicle increased many times. Decided to stick with this combination itself.

On a closer inspection found out that one of the spokes of a wheel was slightly bent. Showed it to the dealer, who immediately contacted Apollo office and confirmed to me that he will replace this wheel within 7 days. A promise which he kept and the wheel was replaced with a brand new one. Three cheers for the way the customer was handled.

It has been almost one year and around 10000 km in these new set of rims and tyres. No bents, no bulges and the experience is quite good. Lookwise also there is a huge difference and somehow the car felt like a brand new one after these changes.

How to read the tyre specification?

** 155/70/R13

155 - The width of the tyre in mm
70 - The height of the tyre expressed in percentage of width. 70 means 70% of 155mm
R13 - The diameter of the rim