Since I had no classes today, I decided to get rid of the crummy Michelins that were on my Accord before and upgrade to the Potenza G009's.

My god.

It is like night and day.

I went from the tiny tiny 185/65/15 to the 195/60/15. The wider tire makes a difference here in New Orleans. Our roads are filled with potholes! The tire isn't 'that' much wider (only one size higher I think?), but you can tell the difference just by the way they sit on the ground.

On my way home, I accidentally made a turn on the wrong street (still getting to know the area!), and I didn't notice until I was right at a U turn area. I quickly decided to go for it and had I been on the Michelin's, they would've howled and screamed the whole way through. The car just went in and made the U turn at about 30mph. not fast, but pretty quick to make a turnaround I thought...

One great thing. Road noise is amazingly lower and my old tires were not even close to fully worn. I could've gotten 20k easy out of the things the way that tread wears on those Michelin tires.

My car has a newfound feeling of stability, and it's a shame that the best 12 years of it's life were wasted on Michelin tires. I had enough of them after having them replaced under warranty numerous times due to defects. The RR that came off today had literally sunk in at one spot. Causing the whole car the shake at any speed under 40 mph. It wasn't cupping either, the tech at Firestone looked very much surprised at my feelings toward Michelin. We all have different experiences though!

Total bill was $463.57 compared with $467.92 had I gone with tire rack and their preferred installer. I'm satisfied. I did not get an alignment; so that's not in the price.

The G009's are 50k tires, a lot lower than the Michelins, but if I drove the full 80k they were rated, it would take me 8 years; long before that, they would've dry rotted. So a waste of overpriced tread if you ask me!

Firestone Complete Auto Care allows you 30d ays to try the tires out, within that time frame, you can exchange or refund the price of the tires. For locals, I used the Firestone on 800 Camp St. 70130. They open at 7:30am, and that's when I got there. I was in and out in less than 2 hours.:thmsup:

The only negative is that my Service Advisor came back to me in the middle of my wait and said...

"Tyler, these are not the correct sized tires for your Accord. They may rub."

"Oh it's fine, they're the same size as an EX, and my car has EX alloy wheels so it shouldn't matter."

"The difference is that yours is an LX and those are for an EX though."

"~annoyed~ True, but the LX and EX share the same suspension components on the 96 Accord. I don't think there's anything to worry about, but I appreciate your concern. :) "

So he was rather unknowledgeable. At least they didn't try to sell me something else!:thmsup:

Did I mention I like these tires?

I had these tires on my 05 coupe. They have very good grip in dry, rain, & snow. They are directional so make sure that they are installed correctly. Also they will get much louder after a few thousand miles and your gas mileage will drop a few mpg.

I had these tires on my 05 coupe. They have very good grip in dry, rain, & snow. They are directional so make sure that they are installed correctly. Also they will get much louder after a few thousand miles and your gas mileage will drop a few mpg.

Do they have arrows showing the direction or is it pretty easy to tell (tread points forward not backward right?).

I'll take pics later to double check. Did your coupe have the MXM's on it before? If so, were they louder than these? Or quieter?:dunno:

There are arrows on the sidewalls showing the direction the tire should be turning when driving forward. My coupe had the Turanza EL41s which were fairly loud and after a few thousand miles the potenzas were just as loud.

I had these tires on my 05 coupe. They have very good grip in dry, rain, & snow. They are directional so make sure that they are installed correctly. Also they will get much louder after a few thousand miles and your gas mileage will drop a few mpg.

:stupid:

I totally agree. I had a set of those when I had my Acura 3.2TL. They are awesome in terms of stability and grip...dry or wet! But man, after 15k or so miles, they were loud!!! I do the normal 5k rotation along with oil change too! Heh...if you've heard what truck tires sound like, then this is almost exactly the same. I also noticed a drop of MPG when I installed them. But hey, you get what you paid for. The rubber is softer and stickier.

Speaking of soft rubber...Another thing is that when those tires are cold, it'll take a few miles just to round them back up because of the flat spots so you'll feel vibrations on the steering wheel for a few miles.

Since I had no classes today, I decided to get rid of the crummy Michelins that were on my Accord before and upgrade to the Potenza G009's.

...

The G009's are 50k tires, a lot lower than the Michelins, but if I drove the full 80k they were rated, it would take me 8 years; long before that, they would've dry rotted. So a waste of overpriced tread if you ask me!

As others have said, you'll see some downsides to those new ones soon enough. They're decent tires, but I wouldn't own them again. In fact I'll never own a Bridgestone tire again...every time I have, its been nothing but problems.

Sounds like you had the wrong Michelins on your vehicle to begin with based on your driving style. Any Michelin with an 80K mile warranty is for a family sedan (i.e. not a performance or touring tire.) Those are tires for minivans, station wagons, and land yacts--tires for less spirited drivers (grandmothers, etc.) You probably would have been better off with their higher performance tires like the Pilot Exalto AS, Exalto PE2, Pilot Primacy, Pilot MXM4, etc.

:stupid:

I totally agree. I had a set of those when I had my Acura 3.2TL. They are awesome in terms of stability and grip...dry or wet! But man, after 15k or so miles, they were loud!!! I do the normal 5k rotation along with oil change too! Heh...if you've heard what truck tires sound like, then this is almost exactly the same. I also noticed a drop of MPG when I installed them. But hey, you get what you paid for. The rubber is softer and stickier.

Speaking of soft rubber...Another thing is that when those tires are cold, it'll take a few miles just to round them back up because of the flat spots so you'll feel vibrations on the steering wheel for a few miles.


This is very true and neve wrecking! I just purchased these 2 weeks ago! ugh! a mess in the morning!!!!

Coldest these tires have seen is freezing and so far, no issues. I've never had flat spotting issues on any car.

I just had these installed on my '88 Accord less than a week ago. They are soooo much better than the Goodyears that were on it. They are quieter(for now, apparently), smooth, and they seem to do well in the snow and ice(just had a snow storm). I haven't had any trouble with the flat-spotting either. Maybe I just didn't notice, but everything seemed fine the past couple of days(really cold).

P.S. - Accordlover, I'm gonna stick to buying my tires here, because mine only cost 357.14 installed, with alignment and everything!

P.S. - Accordlover, I'm gonna stick to buying my tires here, because mine only cost 357.14 installed, with alignment and everything!

I usually end up using a chain of stores for the security of RoadHazard. - I've got the worst flat tire luck ever, and I swear, sears probably wanted to void my road hazard warranty. In 4 years, they replaced 9 tires or so, 4 due to defect. I was on a roll and close to having a full new set! :lmao:

My extra $100 is probably due to the larger tires, as well. :yes:

Even if these tires become 'terribly loud' as it has been stated here, by 15k I'll have driven them for 1.5 years. Plenty of time to consider another set... though from what I've read I think results will vary. My Michelins were not quiet at all and that was the first big thing I noticed after getting these.

I've found bridgestones to be more comfortable tires than michelins on my hondas.