Tires are the only part of your car touching the road, and even then the surface area regularly connecting to the pavement could fit on a piece of printer paper. And, yet, many of us just look for the cheapest tire. For certain cars that’s maybe ok, but even our staff is split between people who don’t care that much about their tires and those who spend way too much time tire-shopping.
Matt Hardigree
The tires are the only part of my Subaru that do not let me down. I have Michelin CrossClimate 2s and I think they’re the best all-around tire for people who drive a non-performance vehicle/live in cold climates and might have to drive in snow irregularly.
Thomas Hundal
When I bought my Boxster, I knew it needed new tires, and there aren’t many choices in this particular fitment. Instead of the Porsche N-Spec Pirelli P Zeros, which I haven’t been impressed with, or the ancient and expensive Porsche N-Spec Michelin PS2s, I went with the Continental ExtremeContact Sport 02. It’s a 340-treadwear summer tire competing with the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, except it’s exclusively an aftermarket fitment. While grip and resistance to flat-spotting has been excellent, the big surprise was road manners. These are incredibly quiet tires that are still sticky enough to throw pebbles, they’re hushed over expansion joints, have a great sense of dead-ahead, and I find the steering more linear than on most Michelin tires. So far, I’m extremely happy. After all, a good car requires good tires, right?
Peter Vieira
I am a discerning consumer, which means I wear out the counter guy at my Local Firestone Tire Center with a litany of questions including “What do you have for a 2015 RAV4” and “What is the cheapest tire for a 2015 RAV4,” followed by “can I keep this pen” and exactly no other questions. I’m an unashamed cheap-tire buyer, but I won’t get the cheapest of the cheap – it’s gotta be a legit name brand, it can’t be something like, “Mile King, a Division of Abakumov Rubber & Sausage.” At present, I’m happy with my [goes out to garage to check] Firestone All-Seasons. They’re the perfect combination of “was on sale” and “seems fine” that I require in a tire. And if anyone’s wondering why I get my tires from a Firestone shop, it’s because it’s close enough for me to ride my bicycle back home after I drop off the RAV4. I can’t be hanging out in no tire store all day, I’m busy.
Mercedes Streeter
My only tire loyalty is to Vredestein. Otherwise, cheapest tire from a recognizable brand.
Top image by Pete, via Twitter (sigh … “X.”)
Cooper CS5 Ultra Touring on the Pacifica, because when I last purchased tires Cooper was still involved in motorsport and the company I worked for had a sponsorship deal with them. I got a nice discount, and I like supporting those who support us/me.
Pirelli P7s on the GTI because that is what came on the car when I picked it up a year-and-a-half ago.
My hybrid Maverick has OEM Continental ProContact TX. They’re quiet, and get pretty decent fuel economy, but that’s where the positive attributes end. Awful in any semblance of freezing (despite being all-season). Bought Blizzaks for the truck for winter duty and they live up to the hype.
The ND Miata has Continental Extremecontact DWS 06+ which offer loads more grip than the factory summer-only Bridgestone Potenza S001s. As a bonus, the Continental’s allow for winter shenanigans.
I have General Altimax RT43 tires on my car. I like them. I liked them enough to buy another set after the 1st set wore out after about 90,000km (right before they went out of production… replaced with the Altimax RT45… which apparently is just as good). They would have lasted even longer but my car had a minor alignment issue which was fixed when I got the next set. With the current set, I put on over 45,000km on them so far and they still have tons of tread left.
They are a good all-around all-season tire that is long lasting and have a reasonable price.
I use these tires year-round. Meaning they get used in hot summer conditions and icy cold conditions with snow. In summer conditions, they’re good, but probably not as good as a high performance summer tire. And in winter, they’re good enough… not as good as a good quality winter tire, but better than cheap Chinese winter tires.
I liked the Hankooks on the Sentra pretty well, though I can’t remember if they wore fast or I really just drove that much (it would have been something like 16-18k miles per year).
The (u-haul, poverty-spec) truck has some ridiculously rare fitment for tires, so much so I considered buying new wheels in a common size to offset the cost. I would have come out ahead after the next round of tires. Discount Tire receipt says they were $192 apiece: Hankook Dynapro AT RF08 P 235 /75 R17 108S SL BSW FO.
The Z4 has tires attached to wheels that have spent more time the last year on the ground than on the car. I know I didn’t buy run flats or cheapies.
The bike also has tires, Continental UGH not knowing is bothering me, brb
…
Okay the z4 has BFGoodrich g-force Sport Comp-2, and the bike has Michelin Road 5 GT. I don’t know much about bike tires but I think I’ll try to go upmarket. Not for racerboi insecurities, just because sometimes I get a slightly squidgy feeling sometimes and if that’s the tires I’d like to get rid of that feeling. Not even under high acceleration or tear-assing around on backroads, just sometimes in traffic at regular speeds.
tl;dr:
Truck: Hankook Dynapro AT
raison d’tîre: cheapest + decent experience with hankook
Z4: BFGoodrich g-force Sport Comp-2
raison d’tîre: probably cheapest with speed and traction ratings I’ll never use
Bike: Michelin Road 5 GT.
raison d’tîre: came on the bike
Curious to hear folks thoughts on the CrossClimate 2 EV tires. We put them on the Polestar after the OEM ones wore through in about 13k (due in no small part to shenanigans and high acceleration in all directions). We needed something that could be a all year round tire with potential light snow and lots of hydroplane resistance for standing water we get on the roads here. No option to store tires specifically for winter and summer unfortunately.
Swapping from the stock Sport Contact 6, the CC2s are noticeably softer, have similar road noise, and are much nicer in the ran and wet. Lots more treadblock squirm under forward acceleration, braking is excellent, and grip and responsiveness is great for what they are and how heavy the car is.
How have folks found them or other performance all-weather tires to be on EVs? I’m hoping to get 20k on these.
Love em in Wisconsin, hear there is a new higher rated different brand with reviews on rack rack but I haven’t looked yet.
My Polestar came with Primacy 4’s. The salesman told me they were all-season but apparently he was mistaken. I also have no room to store wheels and tires so I’m looking for a good all season alternative.
I don’t recall the model, but there’s a set of Continentals that are supposed to be slightly better. I might try those next.
Love my CC2s though. 16k miles and not much wear, even though I drive through corners like a maniac in my Clarity PHEV. (I accelerate faster than most gassers from stoplights, but I’m not that hard on the throttle.) I just had one tire replaced under a road hazard warranty about 2k miles ago, and there’s no visible difference in tread depth, so I expect a nice long life from them as well.
My ’18 Si has Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 4
BFGoodrich K02s on my 2015 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. OEM were KMs. However, I like the KO2s both for off-road and on-road performance. Best balance for me in the Arizona Sonora desert.
I have Yokohama Geolanders on my Crown Victoria that I’ve been really happy with, still decent grip and comfort on the highway, and noticeably better traction on the sorts of dirt roads/logging trails and light off roading that I tend to do with it from time to time. Seems like a good tire so far
I also have Cooper Endeavors on an Ioniq Hybrid that I’ve been less happy with, but some of that is just the fact that they’re the typical low roll resistance issues, lots of road noise, harder ride, some of it is just the car. They’re also wearing pretty badly, but I know the shocks and struts are getting due for replacement, which is probably the reason there
My Corvair has some weirdo Chinese brand I don’t immediately recall, they’re fine, but they’re also getting older and harder, and the section width is slightly wrong, so I’ll be replacing them soon with another Chinese off-brand that will at least be brand new and the totally correct size. Not a lot of options out there for radials in 185/80/13, but there are some, so you take what you can get, anything today is better than the original bias plies anyway (still have one of those as the spare, but it is 60 years old, so I’d have to be pretty damn desperate to use it)
Mavis Traction Controls. They’re made by Hankook and they last forever (well 6ish years but that’s still about 85k that gets put on them). Had them on my Tucson and now that I’ve had to swap out the original tires I have them on my Elantra.
The daily tires for the Camaro are the Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4’s and I love them. For racing I have the Bridgestone RE-71RS. The Beige Unicorn has the Falken Wildpeak A/T3W, which do a fantastic job of being a truck tire that still have traction in the wet and snow and dry with very little noise.
I bought a 2003 Kia Sorento with some no-name cheapo Chinese tires on it. I wasn’t thrilled with them, and they didn’t have the best traction.
But I channeled my inner David Tracy, certified Cheap B@stard and refused to replace them until they wore out.
Once I got the front end aligned, those stupid tires REFUSED to wear out. I put something like 50k miles on those tires, and they STILL weren’t down to the wear bars. I swear, those tires were partially cast iron.
One day, on a normal left turn on dry pavement, I did near 360 spin.
Couple days later, I replaced them with a set of Yokohama Geolanders. Much better traction!
I’ve owned more Falken tires than any other brand, my goto is the Falken Zeix, but they didn’t have them available in 225/45/r15 I wanted for the Civic, so it’s rolling on Toyos, and I’m pretty happy with them. I think they’re the Extensa’s? They even held up admirable on Waterford Hills, where my driving coach mentioned normally I’d recommend better tires, but yours seem to match your ability.
I want super expensive sticky race car tires, but the reality is I just do regular driving nearly all of time, so performance all seasons seem to be the sweet spot for me on price/performance.
Falken makes a RT660 that is really quite sticky, affordable, and available in your size. If you want to improve your driving ability start with a tire in the 200 treadwear class. All season tires, even in the performance category are not the right tool for the job.
Yeah, sadly, I do performance driving like Jeep owners offroad, very occasionally; so I’ll stick to all-seasons for now.
Love the username!
I most recently put a set of Firestone Firehawk all seasons on my Focus and love them – they’re not the regular all seasons, but rather a more aggressive/sport version. Nicely splits the difference between standard all seasons and performance tires.
Bridgestone’s investment upon buying the company has made a HUGE difference in Firestone’s product quality…Firestones are now great bang-for-the-buck tires in a way they often weren’t for a long time.
First set, OEMs when I bought the car. (2 years)
2nd set, Yokohama Geolander A/TS (8 years and still good, but a bolt through sidewall)
3rd set, the least expensive Discount Tire had in stock. (Sentury or something)
4Runner – BFGoodrich Ko2’s. Had them on my F150 before, and love them on my 4runner. Look good, ride well, not too noisy, and great all around traction for the driving I do. Plus white letters.
MachE – Michelin Primacy A/S. They are the OEM’s, and they’re fine. Likely won’t get them when it needs new tires, but EV tires are a bit of a range vs performance conundrum.
The OE Michelin Primacy that Ford has been putting on is a shallower tread depth. Seeing them come back in 12 months or 20k miles and needing replacement is pretty common on that tire.
The CrossClimate EV is a great upgrade if you can handle the price.
Yeah, it’s frustrating that Ford is putting on shallow depth tires on new cars.
We only have 1100 miles on the car, so we’ve got some time. A lot of people are liking the Hankook iON evo AS’s as well.
My Subaru has Michelin CrossClimate2s–really good all-around tires, especially here on the front range of Colorado where it could be 70 degrees and sunny on Monday, snowing on Tuesday, and 80 on Wednesday.
My wife’s Gladiator has the factory alternate Falken Wildpeak MTs, and they’re fun tires, especially off-road. I’ll probably replace them with the Wildpeak AT4s or the new BFGoodrich KO3s for better snowability.
My Kawasaki Concours14 has Michelin Pilot Road 4 GTs; they seem to be awesome tires all-around for a touring bike.
I’ve got my third set of Goodyear Eagle F1s. I think they are a really good tire all around. You can push them hard without loosing grip and I can get around 20000 miles out of a set.
I’ve got a second set of General Altimax on my wife’s Edge. I haven’t found a better tire for the price. Good grip in the dry and solid in the rain/snow with a quiet ride on the highway.
Kumho Majesta Solus 9 on my Lexus GS460. I have no complaints. Great wet traction and quiet. Its just a commuter and not built for hard cornering anyways.
I have Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate performance all seasons on my Kona N. I would say that I mostly like them. They offer great traction in the cold and wet and they’ve held up to multiple track days no problem. The only complaints I have are that low speed stopping distances aren’t great and they can’t get anywhere near the limits of mechanical grip that the car offers.
I’ve definitely induced some slides unintentionally that wouldn’t have happened with the P Zeros that came with the car. But what can you do? I can’t run summers year round here in DC and the cold months aren’t snowy enough to warrant a dedicated set of winters. For better and worse performance all seasons are the best solution for me. I’m going to try Continentals next time, because apparently the extreme contact all season performance rubber is the best in the game.
The Extreme Contact DWS06+ are a good all-around tire, but they do age quickly, as Continentals tend to do. Whether it be rapid tread deterioration near the end of life or dry-rot in the sidewalls and/or treads, they definitely are meant more for mileage than time.
I had Hankook Dynapro HT’s on my old van and generally liked them, and now I have their Kinergy PT’s on my Prius. 80,000 mile warranty, all-season. They seem adequate. I don’t think I’m too discerning; I just wanted long warranties.
Oddly, the Kinergy PT’s match the OEM spec size, but they’re not rated for quite as high speeds. I don’t know why the OEM spec is “V” (149 mph) for a vehicle whose max speed is 106. So the Kinergy are H rated (130 mph), and slightly higher load rating than OEM.
I did go to Tire Rack to replace my donut tire since the original was over 10 years old. Had to get one slightly wider (145 instead of 135). That one is Yokohama.
I have the OEM rims (wheels? I still mix up the terminology sometimes…) still…not particularly flashy, but replacing those is apparently an expensive proposition, plus if it compromises fuel economy I’d rather not.
I put Contintental DWS06+ on both my cars. They have good feel, the wear rating is supposed to be really good, they are really good in the wet, they are (relatively) quiet and it does get cold enough in North Carolina that I was a bit worried about dedicated summers in the winter. I also don’t think I’d be railing on either car hard enough on the street to exceed the grip present with good all seasons (least of all on the Corvette with its 295s all around).
Second set of Cooper Discoverer AT3s on my Express camper van. Excellent mileage and they do the job for my dirt road life
Viper – Pirelli Corsas. Factory fitment. You aren’t going to believe this, but there aren’t many options in the factory sizes. Their limits are plenty high for me on street and track, and the ~10,000 mile life is acceptable.
Holden – Bridgestone something. Closeout deal at the Rack. They’re fine, nothing special. If I get 20,000 miles out them it’s probably a good deal.
Truck – Yokohama Geolander. I like these because they came in 285/75/18 (35″) with a snowflake symbol but without a super aggressive tread pattern.
Van – Vredstein. These were inexpensive, also had a snowflake, and well-reviewed but I’m somewhat disappointed in the life. They are mostly gone at less than 40,000 miles. Probably will go with something else next time.
I have OEM tires on my truck but I love them because they were takeoffs I paid $100 for. They only had 3,000 miles on them at the time. I have over 60,000 miles on my truck at this point yet I have paid a total of $170 (with the mounting cost included) for tires.
A set of $52 per tire Douglas on my commuter and Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max on my wife’s Buick that does child hauling duty. Couldn’t be happier with both so far and they’re both US made and made by a US held company.