The Official Tire Review and Discussion Thread

[///M-Spec]

Inspired by some of the tire talk in the autocross thread, I decided it was time to have a dedicated thread to discuss and compare something we all need and replace on a regular basis: tires.

Here's the format I'd like for everyone to follow:

Tire Brand and Name: (ex. Michelin Pilot Sport PS2, Bridgestone RE040A Pole Position)

Tire type: (ex. Extreme, Max Perf., Ultra High Perf., Touring, Passenger, Summer, Winter, Off road, etc.)

Speed Rating/Service Desciption and UTQG or other local spec: (ex. 95W XL 180 AA A) (more info 1, 2)

Size you own: (ex. 235/40R18)

Price: (optional)

Tire is installed on which car(s): (self explanatory)

Approx. number of miles driven: (self explanatory)

Your driving conditions: (ex. city, highway, mixed, autocross, etc.)

Your review: (Tell us about your expediences. Would you recommend this tire?)

A photo of the tire is helpful, but optional. Please feel free to post multiple reviews in a single post. Keep in mind that a tires can behave differently when used on different cars, so please let us know which car(s) the tire is mounted on. Other factors that affect tire performance include the wheel rim size and weight, air pressure, type of driving surface and local weather conditions. Include as much information as possible in your review.

Request for reviews are also welcome.


M

 

[///M-Spec]

Tire Brand and Name: Michelin Pilot Sport PS2

Tire type: Max Performance Summer

Speed Rating/Service Desciption and UTQG or other local spec: 95Y XL 220 AA A

Size Reviewed: 225/40R18 and 255/35R18

Price: ~$235

Tire is installed on which car(s): 2004 BMW 330i Sedan with Performance Package

Approx. number of miles driven: 10,000

Driving conditions: Mixed , no track or autocross

Review: This tire replaced the worn out original equipment Bridgestone RE040s on my BMW 330 ZHP. They were mounted on 18x8.0 and 18x8.5 low pressure cast alloy BMW OE wheels. Although it has literally been years since I've driven on this tire, I wanted to review it because I was so impressed by what a good all around tire this is.

It is no longer one of the stickiest street tires on the market; it's since been overtaken by a number of "extreme" performance tires that blur the line between street and track rubber, but there's a reason why it's still OEM on a huge number of high performance cars in the world. It's got multitudes of talent. It is very confidence inspiring and breaks away so progressively. The RE040s actually turned in a little faster, but the PS2s felt more responsive at the limits.

It also rode better than the Bridgestones and were quieter as well. The first gen RE040s that came on the car got coarse towards the end of their life. The PS2 seemed to hold up better as the miles racked on. The RE040s felt very sporty even if you were just cruising around; the PS2s rode like a luxury touring tire until you threw the car into a corner --and then it would promptly out-do the Bridgestone as well.

Treadwear was quite good in my experience. After 10,000 miles, they looked as if they had another 6k to 8k in them, which is pretty good considering how they were driven. The 330 was first and foremost, a daily driver, and covered many miles on Florida's sometimes brand new asphalt, broken old concrete and occasional dirt/gravel trail. New Jersey roads were tough on the super low profile wheel/tire combo, however, and I don't recommend anything below a 40 series for the North Eastern US in general. In fact; I'd go to a 45 series for daily driving if I reasonably could.

If you're considering this tire and are wondering if they're worth the extra $$$, I would give an emphatic yes. However, if the most important thing you're after is grip for the money, and ride and noise comfort is not important, then you can do much better.


M

 

[Thatman]

Tire Brand and Name:General Tire Exclaim UHP

Tire type:Ultra High Performance Summer

UTQG:91V SL 380 AA A

Size Reviewed: 205/55R16

Price: $74 a tire@Tire Rack

Tire is installed on which car(s):1987 Mazda RX-7 was on 1994 Eagle Talon DL

Approx. number of miles driven: 8,000

Driving conditions: Mixed , no track or autocross

Review:I love these things, I got them because I had gotten some 16" rims form an old Esi and wanted some really good traction in the summer. I found these out and was astonished at the price but it had a plentifull amount of good word about them so I gave em a try.
When I had them on the Talon it was like day and night(thogh I was coming form a 185/70R14) There was just a great amount of grip on dry or wet roads. I felt like I could take corners faster and hey I could.
Currently they are on My RX-7 and I feel they are almost as good as the setup on my friends because they grip when you want them to and let loose when you want them to. A very predictable tire. ONLY bad parts is that althoght its has a M+S rating it just barley made that and shouldnt be taken into the snow, also If your sidewall is high(like mine) they feel a tad unresponsive.

Tire Brand and Name:Toyo Spectrum

Tire type:Passenger

UTQG:91T 580 A B

Size Reviewed: 205/70R16

Price:$66.44@tires direct

Tire is installed on which car(s):1994 Eagle Talon DL

Reveiw:I didnt like these. They were okay on dry but I just didnt like the feel of them. Also when they were in the snow I was not confident, they just slipped around. And they chirped a lot. However they did have redeeming factors. They are A LOT smoother for ride quality and I suppose a little quieter, but I wouldn't recommend them.

 

[Joey D]

Brand & Name: Goodyear Eagle LS

Tire Type: Standard Touring All-Season

Speed Rating/Service Desciption and UTQG: 99H 360 A A

Size 235/60/16

Price: $108.00 per Tirerack.com

Vehicle Installed: 2003 Blazer Xtreme, 2WD, 4.3L V6

Miles Driven: 12,000

Conditions: Mixed city and highway, all-seasons

Review: I hated these tires when I had them on my Blazer, they offer poor traction in the dry or wet and made the vehicle downright dangerous to drive in snowy condition given the truck's short wheel base and RWD. I got stuck numerous times while ascending fairly easy grades and I spun out more than once while driving fairly easy. By far some of the worse tires I've ever owned on a vehicle.

They were however surprisingly stable on the highway, were fairly quite, and offered a pretty comfortable ride. Although that's not really that important when you are going around every corner sideways.

===

Brand & Name: Michelin HydroEdge

Tire Type: All-season

Speed Rating/Service Desciption and UTQG: 99T, UTQG is still pending

Size 235/60/16

Price: $114.00 per Tirerack.com

Vehicle Installed: 2003 Blazer Xtreme, 2WD, 4.3L V6

Miles Driven: 48,000

Conditions: Mixed city and highway, all-seasons

Review: These tires really suited the Blazer and the driving I did, they offered great dry traction and offered more grip then my skill and common sense would allow me to use. They were good in the snow and very good in the rain. The only problem I really had with them is that they felt very heavy, although with rims that weighed a metric ton it didn't really matter. I wouldn't hesitate to put these on a minivan or street trimmed SUV, but I don't think I would put them on a sporty car.

===

Brand & Name: Continental ContiPremiumContact 2

Tire Type: Grand Touring Summer

Speed Rating/Service Desciption and UTQG: 84H 280 AA A

Size 175/65/15

Price: $80.00 per Tirerack.com

Vehicle Installed: 2007 MINI Cooper, 1.6L

Miles Driven: 20,000

Conditions: Mixed city and highway, all-seasons

Review: These tired offered excellent handling, mainly because the sidewalls were so stiff because of the run flats there was virtually no tire deformation. I loved them right up until the moment it snow, and they it all went south quick. There was zero snow traction with these and with the MINI's over sensitive traction control trying to drive anywhere the winter 07-08 was pretty interesting.

They were also very loud and uncomfortable, you could seriously feel every little bump in the road which is a bad thing considering Michigan's roads. They also wore out pretty quick, around 20,000 miles or so I needed new ones and I hadn't really been driving hard on them.

If you have a car with these as OEM, you might want to think elsewhere when you go to buy tires.

===

Brand & Name: Yokohama AVID TRZ

Tire Type: Standard Touring All-season

Speed Rating/Service Desciption and UTQG: 84T 620 A B

Size 185/60/15

Price: $61.00 per Tirerack.com

Vehicle Installed: 2007 MINI Cooper, 1.6L

Miles Driven: 8,000

Conditions: Mixed city and highway, Winter/Spring

Review: My love for these tires went away after about 500 miles of owning them when I got on the highway. The concrete here on Michigan highways is combed to go with the flow of traffic to make it quieter. Well the tires didn't like that and the whole car developed a really really really bad wiggle at about 65mph. This was incredibly annoying especially since I spend large amounts of time driving. They also felt like giant balloons under my car and really screwed with the handling.

I will give them that compared to the Conti's they were quite, comfortable and awesome in the snow. I didn't get stuck once with them. They were pretty good in the rain as well. They would probably be good on a daily driver that isn't sporty, like a Neon or a Cobalt, but on something sportier like my car I would avoid.

===

 

[YSSMAN]

Tire Brand and Name: Goodyear Eagle GT II

Tire type: Performance All-Season

UTQG: 420 AB

Size you own: 205/55HR 15

Price: No longer produced in this size

Tire is installed on which car(s): 1998 Toyota Celica GT

Approx. number of miles driven: 10-15,000

Your driving conditions: Mixed, mostly suburban driving, with heavy snow in winter

Your review:

Having received the set of tires upon my purchase of the Celica last year, overall, I cannot say that I am disappointed. I was told that they were replaced not long before I bought the car from the previous owner, and upon early inspection of the tires, they appeared to be in very good shape. Since buying the car, I've put just over 11,000 miles on them (give or take), and the life is still looking pretty good before I will have to consider a new set.

I have run various performance all-season tires on my previous vehicles, as well as others in my family, and by comparison, the Goodyears have been a mixed bag overall. The grip is outstanding for what would otherwise be a "mid-range" tire, regardless of whether or not it is in the dry or in the snow. I've been known to do a fair bit of hard driving in the Celica, and the tires work perfectly. The snow driving I found to be particularly impressive, especially given how much we had in the 2008-2009 season. From a stop, the tires grip very well, although I have to admit that the car will slide a bit more than I like in deep snow.

My greatest level of complaint, however, appears to be something that Goodyears get hammered on fairly often - a harsh ride, and occasional tire noise. It is not as though my spine is about to fracture, but it is certainly noticeable on the hellish roads we have across the state of Michigan. Doing at least 30% of my driving on city streets, that increasing to as much as 50% during the school year, the Celica rides rough with the potholes and patches. I wouldn't call it annoying, but it can be bothersome, particularly when I am sore from work or play. Spending another 40% of my time on highways or freeways, tire noise seems to be as variable as the Michigan weather. Much like the ride, its dependent on road condition, and even the weather. On some occasions, it will rear its head for only a few seconds, and then go away. Others, it will drone for a while, but never be a problem in the face of other NVH issues.

Will I buy them again?

Yes and no. Seeing as how the tires appear to be out of production, getting the same set will be out of the question. However, I would be tempted to go with Goodyear again based on the tenacious grip in all seasons. I'm wooed by offerings made available by others, but Goodyear as a brand has been very kind to my family in our years buying them for our cars, trucks and SUVs, and it will be somewhat likely for me to return to the brand despite some minor setbacks.

 

[Keef]

Tire Brand and Name: Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position

Tire type: Ultra High Performance All-Season

UTQG: 86H 400/AA/A

Size you own: 195/60-14

Price: $64 @ Tire Rack

Tire installed on which car: 1996 Honda Del Sol VTEC

Approx. number of miles driven: 5,000

Driving conditions: Spirited street, highway

Review: I bought this tire back before I knew much about tires, which actually wasn't that long ago, in 2007. These tires replaced even more pedestrian all-seasons, and were noticeably better. They had good dry performance, which is pretty much class-leading as far as all-seasons go, good wet grip as far as all-seasons go, and I never had any snow experience with them. They're a great every-day type of tire, with imperceptible road noise, a smooth ride, and performance that's "more than acceptable" as most people would say. I sure would put them on a Camry.

Tire Brand and Name: Falken Azenis RT-615

Tire type: Extreme Performance Summer

UTQG: 89W 200/A/A

Size you own: 205/50-15

Price: $91 - $110, from various retailers

Tire installed on which car: 1999 Honda Civic Si

Approx. number of miles driven: 10,000-15,000

Driving conditions: 90% spirited street, highway, with occasional autocross

Review: Grip? Yes, please. I bought this tire after I knew a little more about tires, and boy, this one made me learn even more. The difference between the best all-season tire offered and a proper summer tire like this is just phenomenal. The tire is much stiffer and more direct, and the dry grip is outstanding, as long as it's above 70 degrees or so. A decline in grip is quite noticeable as the outside and road temperature drops, with a general lack of grip becoming more apparent. Anything below 40 F starts getting into the danger zone for safety. I tried them on a ~20 degree night with very light, whispy snow blowing across the road, and moderate acceleration was nigh impossible whenever they touched the snow. It was pretty much an on/off switch. As far as wet grip, they're surprisingly good on a wet road at slow speeds. They can even handle heavy rain and still grip pretty hard at surface-street speeds. But once you get up to highway speed and encounter any little bit of standing water, it's game over. These tires do not have the capacity to move standing water at much anything over 70 mph, and that is with my white knuckles waving the wheel back and forth trying to go straight, and my big toe feathering the gas pedal. Earlier this year I was going up a highway on-ramp which leads onto a concrete bridge. Even at full throttle I wasn't expecting my wheels to start spinning on the very wet concrete--especially not at 65+ mph. But they did. As for wear, they go quick, and quicker if you use them hard. After one rotation at the beginning of this year I'm guessing I've got about 10,000 miles left on them, but the time to replace them might come by the end of the year because I have two track days left this year.

I recommend this and tires like it to everyone. Just take it easy during heavy rain, and just take them off in the winter.

 

[RVDNuT374]

Brand & Name: Delta Majestic All Season

Tire Type: Passenger All Season

Speed Rating/Service Desciption and UTQG: 92S 440 A B

Size: P205/65/R15

Price: $67.95 at local tire shop (as of October 2008)

Vehicle Installed: 1999 Mercury Sable GS

Miles Driven: 35,1xx on rears, 16,5xx on fronts (no rotation, 2nd set of fronts)

Conditions: Mixed city and highway, all seasons

Review: I bought the original set back in 2005 because the car had 3 different brands of tires when I first got it, including a tire that was ready to blow at any time. They provide a smooth ride and handle decent for passenger all seasons, but could use a small tweak in the handling department. Road noise is noticeable on all surfaces due to the aggressive tread pattern, but is not enough to be objectionable. Hydroplaning resistance is good up to 60 mph, after which I won't drive any faster because the tires start to slide off the road. Wet traction is okay but not great. In October 2008, I had 2 more Delta Majestics put on the front of the car after the original fronts wore out after 18600 miles. I could've went to 20000 miles, but I don't like to push tires too far. They have been wearing at a faster rate than the first set due to a softer compound. The rears are from the 2005 set and are holding up fairly well with age, although I'm looking to replace the rears within the next 2500 miles. The fronts look like they have a solid 5-8,000 miles in them. I recommend this tire if you're looking for a comfortable, compentent passenger car tire. Don't treat it like a high performance tire and you'll be just fine.

 

[Thatman]

Any have a review on winter tires?

 

[Keef]

Tire Brand and Name: Bridgestone Blizzak WS-60

Tire type: Studless Ice and Snow

UTQG: 85R, treadwear N/A

Size you own: 195/55-15

Price: $91 - $110, from various retailers

Tire installed on which car: 1999 Honda Civic Si

Approx. number of miles driven: 5,000

Driving conditions: street and highway, 50 degrees and below, dry, wet, occasional heavy snow

Review: This particular Blizzak is the best offering from Bridgestone in the Studless Ice and Snow category--the more hardcore of the two passenger car winter categories--and often tests near the top of the tire class. Many of its traits aren't found in other road tires, but are typical of winter tires. For instance, the first time I drove on them last winter after taking off the Falkens I was quite cautious, because I was having trouble making my car go straight. The extremely soft and squirmy tread was very apparent, and took a while to get used to. This is not a performance tire by any means, so I drove much more conservatively throughout winter. During cold rain it grips asphalt well, but is very slippery over road lines. The ride is much softer than a summer tire's, and tread noise was virtually non-existent. After getting used to their slow response, they tracked down the highway just as well as any tire should. But let's get to the good stuff: snow grip. These tires blew me away. I was expecting good grip in the snow, but I was absolutely amazed at how they grabbed onto snow, whether it was a half or 6 inches deep. Braking performance in the snow was phenomenal compared to other cars on all-season tires, and that was illustrated more than a couple times where someone locked their brakes and nearly rammed me at parking lot speed. Speaking of that, the ice grip is pretty badass. And I mean ice, ice. The shiny, slippery kind that you can't hardly stand on. Yeah, I found a couple parking lots that had been coated with the stuff, and though progress was very slow, progress there most certainly was. It was amazing, frankly. Accelerating from snowy stoplights I could keep up with the Yukon up front just fine, but when it came time to stop the other cars had no chance of stopping as quickly or safely as me, unless of course they had similar tires. For the rest of my life I'll go out of my way to equip whatever car I own with proper winter tires like these. It's just the safe thing to do.

 

[///M-Spec]

I wrote a review for my Dunlop Wintersport M3s back when we still had the product review forum. I'll dig around and see if I can find it. I also have a set of the new Michelin Primacy Alpin PA3 for the wife's car. A few years ago I had Blizzak WS-50s on the 330i. Any of those interest anyone?


M

 

[Famine]

Tyre Brand and Name: Toyo Proxes T1-R

Tyre type: Sports all-season

Speed Rating/Service Desciption and UTQG or other local spec: Z (149mph and over)

Size Reviewed: 205/55R15

Price: £40ea

Tyre is installed on which car(s): 1998 Mazda MX-3 V6

Approx. number of miles driven: 26,000 (and counting)

Driving conditions: Mixed road, all weathers (including snow and standing water) and track.

Review: This set of tyres replaced a previous full set of T1-Rs on the same car, which wore a mixture of Pirelli P6/P6000s previously. And that transformed the car from twitchy to complete surefootedness.

These started life on a track day, which is somewhat of a baptism of fire. They happily withstood that with little complaint, not to mention the journey to and from it. They've also happily seen me commute daily (4 miles in the first instance, 14 in the second down some very nice twisty roads indeed), schlepp up and down the country at about 500 miles a week and plough through 3 "winters" (the 6 inches of snow we get every first week in February) without putting so much as a foot wrong. In fact just today we got an absolute dump of rain and much of my village's roads were 2 inches deep with standing water - where others stopped and proceeded gingerly, the Toyos just brushed the water aside like it wasn't even there. A similar story abounded on the major roads leading home - at 70mph there was no fuss even with the puddles and notorious white lines.

Even with 26,000 miles on them, there's still more than 5mm of tread on each - which exceeds expectations by a factor of about 200%.

As a summary... it's the perfect tyre at the perfect price for the best and worst the UK can throw at you. Unless you're demanding of something considerably higher-performance for your considerably higher-performance car, this is the tyre you should be running.

 

[Keef]

I wrote a review for my Dunlop Wintersport M3s back when we still had the product review forum. I'll dig around and see if I can find it. I also have a set of the new Michelin Primacy Alpin PA3 for the wife's car. A few years ago I had Blizzak WS-50s on the 330i. Any of those interest anyone?


M

I'm curious about how Performance Winter tires compare to Studless, like the WS-60s. I was unsure how much snow prowess one had to sacrifice to get the "performance" part. What do you think about them?

 

[///M-Spec]

I'm curious about how Performance Winter tires compare to Studless, like the WS-60s. I was unsure how much snow prowess one had to sacrifice to get the "performance" part. What do you think about them?

It's hard for me to make a direct comparison, because my WS-50s were on the 330 and the Wintersport M3s were on the M Roadster.

But if I were to make a generalization, I'd probably say there is a fairly linear trade off between the two. The amount of dry performance you get is roughly equal to the amount of snow and ice performance you lose. The Wintersports stayed pliable below freezing but the WS-50s were like bread dough.

There was definately two situations in which the Wintersports lost grip on me last winter. Once on a flat road covered in black ice ---I put the M Roady's brake pedal into the carpet and got nothing. I was basically a passenger for about 60-70 terrifying feet. But that was an extreme situation... I'm not sure the WS-50s would have been much better.

The other instances was when I was going up my ice covered driveway; if I left traction control on, the M would bog down. So I turned it off and spun the wheels all the way up... making a huge roostertail of slush (he he). If I didn't have a slippy diff, I'm positive I would have been stuck. The WS-50s were notably better in that area, even with the open diff in the 330.

I think which you should go with really depends on how many dry days vs. snow/ice days you get where you live. Here in Jersey, the dry/snow ratio is probably 3 to 1 for a typical winter. So I made the switch to performance. The WS-50s were like driving while on novocaine. Dry stopping power in the cold were also much better with the Wintersports.


M

 

[Thatman]

thanks for the review keef and im also curious about yours M.

 

[Keef]

I just got the August issue of Car and Driver, and in it they've got an awesome test that I've been waiting for a long time now. They test "budget" summer tires, with the goal of being cheaper and better than the Michelin PS2. That is easily done, actually.

The only three tires in the test that matter at all to me are the Dunlop Z1 Star Spec, Kumho XS, and even though they did this with and at Tire Rack, the Falken RT-615.

I'll sum it up by saying that the Kumho and Dunlop are very comparable in the dry, with the Kumho taking the autocross 1 place over the Dunlop, and the two swapping positions for braking performance. The Falken lagged behind two more positions, being beaten in the autocross by a tire from two performance classes below it (Bridgestone RE760, Ultra High Performance Summer). The Falken actually did poorly in the braking test, being beaten by all but some Nitto tire which was designed to be pretty and a Chinese piece of crap. So the good ol' Azenis has lost its mojo, then.

In the wet it's what I expected based on reviews I've read. The Dunlop Star Spec placed second in wet autocross and braking, behind only the Michelin PS2, which is from a lower performance class but designed with proven phenomenal wet characteristics. The Kumho and Falken both suck big ones in the wet thanks mostly to their tread pattern, but while the Kumho sucks more on the autocross, it sucks less than the RT-615 at wet braking. But don't get me wrong, though neither placed last in wet performance they might as well have, beating only the Chinese piece of crap. And with my personal experience, their amount of suckage in rain is reasonable and easily dealt with.

The skidpad test bums me out and makes me smile at the same time. I hate it because my tire, the Falken, pulls a number that is a whopping .03 g lower than the game winning Kumho, .91 versus .94. That would be a very noticeably difference on the butt-o-meter. Still, it's decent considering it beat the Pilot Sport 2 by .02 g, and was mounted on a bog-stock Bimmer 3-series. The Star Spec was .01 g behind the Kumho, in second place. Now, the reason I'm smiling is because the XS is my next tire. Looks like I've got a noticeable dry-performance improvement to look forward too. Mmm...

Overall the Star Spec won the test, as it has pretty much every test it's ever been in. Too bad they don't make it in my preferred size. If they did they would just be rakin' in the dough from us Honda guys.

 

[///M-Spec]

^ Waiting for my new C/D to get here.



Tire Brand and Name: Michelin Primacy Alpin PA3

|

Tire type: Winter Performance

UTQG: 97H SL

Size: 225/55-17

Price: ~$140

Installed on: 2004 Audi allroad quattro 2.7T (auto)

Approx. number of miles driven: 4500

Driving conditions: Winter city/mixed

Review:

The allroad quattro comes from the factory with the Pirelli P6 allroad, designed specifically for the car. They are some of the worst original equipment tires I've ever encountered, doing almost everything poorly except for looking good (which they did magnificently). So when winter rolled around, I bought a set of the new Primacy Alpins, which was being priced very aggressively through tirerack.com and had them mounted on the OE Dual Spoke wheels.

The Primacy Alpin (reviewed here) is the less performance oriented and slightly cheaper version of the Pilot Alpin, confusingly also called a PA3.

This is a somewhat incomplete review because I really don't have anything to compare the Primacy against. I will say that compared to the Pirellis, they were notably quieter and better riding. Surprisingly, they also felt more stable at high speeds. But that's not really saying much. The P6 allroads are simply crap that can be outdone by just about anything.

You may notice some snow flakes in the picture above. It didn't end up snowing much that day, but we did get a few good storms eventually. The allroad (the car, not the tire) with the PA3s felt totally confidence inspiring and utterly unstoppable last winter. Believe me, I tried to find a situation that would get me in trouble and I simply couldn't. Maybe up in the mountains, I could find deep enough snow to high center it. It would probably slide around a little if I tried to drive it on a frozen lake or something. But for your typical US northeast winter, I thought it handled beautifully.

Again, it's hard to say how much of this truly impressive performance comes from the car, which has a height adjustable suspension with 4 links in the front on 5 in the rear, a torsen center diff and EDL managing slip on both axles. It also weighs two tons. All of this is helpful in the fluffy stuff.

Dry winter performance was not too bad either. It's not going to win any skidpad contests, but given the type of driving we usually do in the allroad (it's a wagon, remember) it was certainly up to the task. Like all winter tires I've driven on, there is notably diminished steering feedback and rubberiness to the car's responses. But that's all to be expected.

It's only sold in limited sizes, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. If you want more dry winter performance, I would suggest the Pilot Alpin.


EDIT: More reviews to come. Dunlop Wintersport M3, Take II and Yokohama S.drive.


M

 

[TB]

The factory tires on my Civic, surprise, surprise, suck so I am looking to replace them. After an attempt to talk my wife into a new set of rims and using the factory rims with winter tires failed, I'm now looking at a good set of All Season shoes. So far I'm thinking the Goodyear Assurance TripleTred are leading the pack, but I'd like some opinions.

Please refrain from low profile, obviously summer-based tires and the like. I just want good All Season with a slight (notice I said slight, not that I want studs ) bias towards snow and ice traction as I'm a bit irritated that a Ford Econoline work van can out accelerate me.

Car specs: 2007 Honda Civic EX Coupe with 205/55R16.

Let's see what you can come up with.

 

[High-Test]

I wonder why you need the effectiveness in the fluff....

I had Pirellis on my old Saab, and they were awful in the snow. I really don't remember which type though.

 

[Joey D]

Goodyear tires are the devil. After two bouts of craptastic products from Goodyear, I can't honestly recommend anyone to get them.

If you want something similar to the Assurance Triple Treads, check out the Michelin HydroEdge tires. I had them on the Blazer and they worked quite well. I had a lot of summer grip and they worked pretty well in the snow. Plus they look cool too!

Michelin also came in on top of Consumer Reports latest round of tire surveys too as one of the best brands you can buy...I think.

 

[High-Test]

My soon to be ex-Mercedes apparently ran Michelins straight from the factory. From when the car was built in May 1994 until February 2009 when my tire pumnctured, the spare tire never touched the ground.

That tire is fifteen years old and holds air better than the new Firestones that are on the other three wheels.

I'd go with Michelin. They know what they're doing when it comes to tires.

 

[Keef]

So far I'm thinking the Goodyear Assurance TripleTred are leading the pack, but I'd like some opinions.

Simply put, they're terrible. When you split the same amount of tread between three objectives, what you get is a failure in all categories. Sounds good, though. And yes, I have driven on some, on a Cavalier, in the dry and wet. Besides the fact that that Cavalier itself isn't the greatest car in the world, even its underwhelming brakes overwhelmed the Assurance in the rain. Handling and braking performance in the rain was startlingly bad. It may have something with their treadwear life designed for people who never plan to replace another set of tires in their entire life. Remember the plastic tires on Big Wheels? You can either have tires that last forever, or you can have tires that are safe going down a hill at 30mph, but you can't have both.

Please refrain from low profile, obviously summer-based tires and the like. I just want good All Season with a slight (notice I said slight, not that I want studs ) bias towards snow and ice traction as I'm a bit irritated that a Ford Econoline work van can out accelerate me.

Car specs: 2007 Honda Civic EX Coupe with 205/55R16.

I'm gonna give you a hard time. Because I know that if you got proper winter tires, you'd be able to accelerate right next to all-wheel drive trucks, SUVs, whatever, and it would be awesome. And you'd be able to stop much quicker. You'd be able to turn on a fresh dusting nearly as good as you could on dry asphalt. Your car would handle very safely. I was absolutely astonished by how mine performed, and now after experiencing it I plan to always have a set of winter tires for whatever cars I own in the future.

Summer tires aren't nearly as "necessary" in my opinion as winter tires. Most people would never get anywhere near their limits on the street, even in what some people call "evasive maneuvers".

But winter is coming. Beyond all-season tires generally performing badly in the wet and dry (the Assurance is just a glaring example), they perform especially bad in winter. And in the winter, tire performance is a genuine safety issue that readily apparent. Go ahead and get all seasons for spring through fall, but I'm tellin ya, you're gonna want more cowbell.

Continental Extreme Winter Contact: Ninety dollars apiece.

Four new steelies: Two-hundred twenty dollars.

One set of surprisingly factory-looking wheel covers: Thirty-two dollars.

Combine that with free mounting and balancing for a total of six-hundred twelve dollars, before shipping.



Having fun beating the trucks and being safe while doing it: Priceless.

 

[buickgnx88]

What Keef said, minus the wheel covers.

 

[Keef]

What Keef said, minus the wheel covers.

If it were me I'd skip the wheel covers, too. Instead I'd get a can of orange spray paint. Gotta be visible during a white out, you know...

So anyway, the benefit to getting winter tires now and keeping the stockers on until November or so when it would be time to put the snows on would be that you would have all winter to save up for some performancy all-seasons or some actual summer tires. You wouldn't need those until March or April anyway. That's my point in suggesting winter tires now. I'm trying to entice you into two sets while separating the cost. Two sets really are better than one, because you'll have the entire year covered, as opposed to having one set that's never any good all year long.

 

[TB]

I wonder why you need the effectiveness in the fluff....

Hard to imagine, huh?

Goodyear tires are the devil. After two bouts of craptastic products from Goodyear, I can't honestly recommend anyone to get them.

I've had 4 sets of Goodyears on 3 vehicles and had no issues with them at all, hence my lack of hesitation to return to them.

Michelin also came in on top of Consumer Reports latest round of tire surveys too as one of the best brands you can buy...I think.

You are correct - Michelin did come in first in the latest CR, but they were rubbish for ice braking and worse for snow traction, which I found a bit odd.

Simply put, they're terrible.

In looking at the Goodyears on CR, they did about as well as the Michelins, which wasn't good. The Triple Treads are off the list.

I'm gonna give you a hard time...

I don't question that full-blown winter tires are ideally the way to go. Here's my major complaint about them, though. One, I have a set of tires that I'll need to find a home for in the corner of my already full garage. Two, I'll need to switch them out twice per year, which to a young guy doesn't sound like that big a deal, but the only time that I'd have time to do that is after 8pm when the kids are sleeping (not going to happen) and the weekend. Oh, wait. My wife works all day and has the car, so that's out, too. Rewind my life 8 years before the kids and I'd likely do that in a heartbeat. Actually I'd still like to, but it's just too big a PITA right now.

Which brings me back to All Season. Throw them on and forget about them. I don't need to be able to accelerate to within 90% of my dry 0-60 time. Hell, the fastest I get up to on my drive to work is 30. So back to CR. The Michelins are out. The Goodyears are out. As are the 2 Pirellis. Looks to me that the best tire for my situation is shaping up to be the Hankook Optimo H727.

If it were me I'd skip the wheel covers, too. Instead I'd get a can of orange spray paint. Gotta be visible during a white out, you know...

While I do think the orange would look pretty badass on the Civic (it's Nighthawk Black Pearl, btw) I think I'd likely stick with the black rims, but that's neither here nor there.

 

[Northstar]

I think TB need his own "Suggest Me" sub-forum.

 

[Joey D]

I've also heard good things about the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus's if you are interested in going that route. It seems a fair number of MINI guys have them on their cars. Also the Continental ExtremeContact DWS's are fairly common as well.

If those are to performance oriented you could step down to the Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S's or Pirelli P4 Four Seasons'

 

[Keef]

I don't question that full-blown winter tires are ideally the way to go. Here's my major complaint about them, though. One, I have a set of tires that I'll need to find a home for in the corner of my already full garage.

Two, I'll need to switch them out twice per year, which to a young guy doesn't sound like that big a deal, but the only time that I'd have time to do that is after 8pm when the kids are sleeping (not going to happen) and the weekend. Oh, wait. My wife works all day and has the car, so that's out, too. Rewind my life 8 years before the kids and I'd likely do that in a heartbeat. Actually I'd still like to, but it's just too big a PITA right now.

Twenty minutes. The tools are in your trunk.

Which brings me back to All Season. Throw them on and forget about them. I don't need to be able to accelerate to within 90% of my dry 0-60 time. Hell, the fastest I get up to on my drive to work is 30. So back to CR. The Michelins are out. The Goodyears are out. As are the 2 Pirellis. Looks to me that the best tire for my situation is shaping up to be the Hankook Optimo H727.

I remember the old RE960s I had on my Del Sol, and I got to wondering if Tire Rack actually tests any all seasons in snow. So I looked around, and viola, there is a test from a couple years ago that actually includes that same Bridgestone. I bought them for their then nearly best in class dry performance (still bad in the scheme of things, let's not forget), and apparently they aren't very good in the snow compared to tires like this Goodyear...

...which actually won the test of winter performance. Now, these are all Ultra High Performance All Season tires, which obviously means they're biased towards summer sportiness, but nowhere near the degree of summer tires. They're still real all seasons. As a side note, it's interesting that this older Eagle F1 All Season is over $30 more expensive than the new Eagle GT that Joey has. I can't really decided if the lower classes of all seasons are worth it. I can't tell if snow traction gets any better, or if everything else just gets worse.

 

[///M-Spec]

Merged TB's original thread with the official tire discussion thread.


Re: Goodyear Assurance TripleTred

I guess I'm going to be the only guy here to vouch for them: I think they're very good tires for what they're supposed to do.

I put TripleTreds on my dad's Volvo XC90, which I drive occasionally. They replaced the OE Pirelli P6 Scorpions. They are hands down better than the Pirellis in every single way. Rides better, quieter, improved tracking, wet grip, dry grip... everything. They are also pretty good in the snow for an all season tire.

One of the benefits of driving a car once in a while is that you get to see how a tire behaves 5, 10, 15k miles in --Whereas if you drive the car every day, you may not notice the small, incremental changes. The Goodyears have really impressed me with how consistent they are over time. Dad's put around 17k into his set and they are still showing plenty of tread depth. They are still quiet. They still ride nicely. They still inspire a sense of confidence in the wet.

Now, they are NOT performance tires, so if that's what you're looking for then you'll do better with something else.

But for pulling regular all season passenger car duty, they're one of the best I've ever driven on. Just because a tire won't let you pull .91 g on a skidpad doesn't make it a bad tire. If you HAVE to compromise on an all-season tire, it's a pretty good way to do it.


M

 

[buickgnx88]

Tire Brand and Name: BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO

Tire type: Off-Road Truck tire

Speed Rating/Service Desciption and UTQG or other local spec: 104S C, max load 1985lbs

Size you own: 30x9.5R15, mounted on 15x8" steel wheel

Price: ~$113 per tire

Tire is installed on which car(s): 1989 Jeep Wrangler

Approx. number of miles driven: ~2000

Your driving conditions: Mixed, dirt roads, wet roads

Your review: Definitely recommend it. It's a fairly quiet tire, it runs smooth, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to buy, and it holds corners real well. It also is excellent off the road, and in wet weather I don't lose any traction.

 

[TB]

Twenty minutes. The tools are in your trunk.

While I do like the tire rack from TireRack, not going to happen.

And my impact driver is in my toolbox, not my trunk.

Merged TB's original thread with the official tire discussion thread.


Re: Goodyear Assurance TripleTred

I guess I'm going to be the only guy here to vouch for them: I think they're very good tires for what they're supposed to do.

Sorry, ///M. Didn't even occur to me to post here instead of starting a new thread.

And really any tire will be an improvement over my Turanzas. Ultimately, it comes down to who do you put more trust in - TireRack or Consumer Reports. If TireRack, it's the Assurance TripleTred and if CR, it's the Optimo H727.