tire tidbit....

[princess]

Yesterday when I told my prince about the tire sale at Costco (we're not in the market) he told ne a little tidbit of info:

Jan. '04 our state went to a different Smog testing system (again) & now they have to put the cars on a dyno. Of course, the cars are strapped down. You have to get them up to 25 mph for part of the test. He has noticed that Michellin tires are the roundest. (They don't vibrate at all) Second is the Bridgestone. ( I was disappointed because I like them better) The absolutely, consistantly BAD ones are Big O! He hasn't found a round one yet!!

He said Michellin tires are as smooth at higher speeds as an idle. Bridgestone has mostly smooth ones, but some are not. We didn't get into any other brands. He did say he hates Toyo, but didn't tell me why. Maybe they bounce????:rolleyes:

[BenjiBoy650]

Well there's a reason why Michelin costs a lot of money :) Did he have any comments on Kuhmo?

[princess]

No, he just started paying attention to the brands. He'd been noticing that some cars shake really awful. The ones with Michellins on them don't. Then he noticed most of the Bridgestones don't wiggle around either.... By far the nastiest are Big O. I told him he needs to start a log, I knew people would want to know which brands do what!:)

[BenjiBoy650]

Back when we had the old '90 Caravan, we took it on a trip to Vegas. The rear end started to shake quite a bit, so we pulled over and noticed that one of the rear tires had a huge lump in the tread and on the sidewall as well. Needless to say we replaced it (thankfully with a full sized spare). That tire was indeed a Michelin tire, but I suspect it may have been an age or overloading thing. Just to let you guys know that Michelin tires are not always perfect hehe.

[princess]

As much as I like Bridgestones we did have a bubble once! The prince had just put them on after giving away one of our cars to a kid.....traded tires, so they'd have the newer ones. (Aren't we the sweeties?) Then the next day I got a call while at a baby shower.....he'd just gone out & bought 4 new ones! Which meant in that year we bought 3 sets of tires for 2 cars! That time he bought Potenzas, mine of the time had Turanzas on it....which was what we'd given away! :)

[Dave]

had a set of Goodyear Eagles on my Mustang. those were some sticky tires! the downside was they wore out around 14k miles.
the WRX had Potenzas. good all weather tires. front tires wore quicker, but with a car like the WRX, i tended to go into corners a little harder. i'm not all that fond of the shoes the Accord is wearing. they didnt feel too secure when i had to do an emergency dodge last week. i dont doubt they'll last a long time under normal driving conditions though. maybe i'll finally learn how to drive like that. ;)

[princess]

Which ones did your Accord come with? Mine has Michelin energy MXV4's. They grip OK, but they are showing wear faster than we ever had with the Bridgestones. They're already wanting another rotation! We got 100K on the Bridgestones on more than one car.....& with a 16 year old, lead foot driving on one set! BUT these Michelins do seem to grip a little better.....:)

[Dave]

i want to say Bridgestones off the top of my head. definately not performance tires based on the tread

[BenjiBoy650]

I noticed that manufacturers have a hard time sticking with one tire. The ML came with Dunlop Grandtrek one week, then the next shipment was General Grabbers. The Accords on the dealer lot has been MXV4's and Turanza EL41's.

Oh yeah forgot to note that Michelin seems to have come out with a new tire, the Energy LX4. I saw it on a teachers Sienna, but I'm not sure how good of a tire it is. Toyota recently started using Toyo on some Highlanders...maybe Toyota's turn to cost cut and Honda's turn to turn the quality up a notch.

I haven't heard good things about the MXV4. I heard they wear fast and are noisy over certain surfaces. I still like those X-Radials at Costco man they go forever and handle decent. What do you guys think of the Potenza line? I've been considering those for replacements also.

[princess]

We absolutely loved the Potenzas! IF we replace the tires on my Accord, that's what she'll be wearing. They handled great for our other Accords & wore slowly & even. When we bought the '86 it had Toyos on it & they slipped all over!! We literally slid down hill PARKED on a mountain when the road was wet & cold!! As soon as we got home we put new tires on!!:)

[BenjiBoy650]

Any particular Potenza you want to recommend? Also how are they on noise? My car is noisy enough I don't need the tires kickin in too :(

[princess]

I don't remember which ones we had (they're probably all different now anyway)......I do know that we weren't bothered by any noise.

[Unity1]

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Michelin&tireModel=Energy+MXV4+S8

These marks make me want to keep these tires (they're the OEM tires) until they need replacing.

Not sure if I'm going to buy a set of alloy wheels... but if I do before the OEM tires need replacing, I'll get 15" wheels, so I can use the OEM tires.

These are the two I like:

http://www.tirerack.com/images/wheels/asa/swap/asa_js1_sml_ci3_l.jpg

http://www.tirerack.com/images/wheels/asa/swap/asa_lw5_ci3_l.jpg

[princess]

The second one has a look that's similar to the chrome ones that Honda has. Longer spokes, but the openings have the same shape.....

[wave9984]

Hey everyone. I heard most companies make one really good tire and then build their reputation off taht one tire. So just cause one Toyo is great doesn't mean they are all great. you guys think thats true? cause then i dont know which tires to buy. most of the ratings on tirerack.com were pretty good for all of them. They have like 3 different types for the same size tire under the same company.

[Inspector1]

Yes you are correct on some tires capabilities within a manufacturers brand vary greatly ... Also tires wear and handling characteristics vary by type of vehicle...
For example.. Mich Mxv4 plus on my 98 Volvo V70 AWD Wagon worn to 5/32" @24k on my 02 EX V6 same tire worn to 5/32" @ 47k....
I'm running Firestone Indy 500 on mine now... 8/32" tread left @20k... but same tire on my 96 DX I-4 had 8/32" @ 30k...
I attribute that to weight difference....
The next set will probably be Bridgestone Turanza LS-H......so I will see how those holdup...
The Indy's are noisier on my 02 than my 96.....
The Michelins were nice and quiet but their rain traction was weak... TCS would kick in every time I left a light when rainy..

My 2 cents
I1:)

[BenjiBoy650]

I like to read the ratings on Tire Rack but I realize that some of them are mostly BS. That's why I take the actual written reviews with a lot more weight, especially the ones similar to my car (ie. a person with a '98 Accord or maybe even a Civic or Odyssey). For example, I was looking at some high performance Continental tires because I was going to upgrade to 17" wheels and I couldn't find any like Michelin MXV4 in that size. I compare the ratings and a 15" Michelin Hydroedge has a lower noise rating than the 17" high performance summer only Continental. I think that's not because it's actually true but more because most of these people running 17's are probably running intake/exhaust as well or just don't give a damn about noise, or both.

I can say for sure that there are at least some companies that are not those one hit wonders we hear about so much. Michelin is one of them from personal experience, Bridgestone is another one from word of mouth. Before, you used to be able to look at a tire on an expensive new car and decide basically which one was the best. This is not the case anymore as BMW and Mercedes are putting cheaper tires on their US models. The C320 was using Goodyear Eagle RS-A's last time I checked, the same as most GM models. My uncle's 540i came with Continentals, he found that the new Michelins he put on beat them by far. My dad's ML320 came with Dunlop Grandtrek tires that probably aren't the best choice. Some ML's had come with General tires. I've even seen Toyota starting to use Toyo's on their Highlander, I don't know what's up with that.

[Unity1]

Well, tirerack's ratings were right on with my set of Michelin Pilot XGT H4's that I used to have on my Intrepid.

The biggest weakness of those tires was snow traction... and, lo and behold, that's what's listed as their biggest weakness on tirerack.