Tire Decisions

[stealthee]

Okay people. Looking for any info or advice that can be offered. I am in need of tires for the Grand Prix and have been doing some searching and looking around online all day.

This is what I have come up with

General Altimax RT43
They have a 700 treadwear rating (75,000 miles) and would be $479.00 shipped.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=General&tireModel=AltiMAX+RT43&partnum=255TR7AMRT43

Kumho Sense
They have a 520 treadwear rating (40,000 miles) and come in at $379.24 shipped.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Kumho&tireModel=Sense&partnum=255HR7KR26

Kumho Ecsta LX Platinum
They have a 600 treadwear rating (60,000 miles) and come in at $507.24 shipped.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...reModel=Ecsta+LX+Platinum&partnum=255WR7ELXXL

Yokohama AVID Ascend
They have a 800 treadwear rating (85,000 miles) and come in at $488 shipped (plus I would get a $60 Visa prepaid card if I order this week. from Discount Tire Direct)
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...AVID+Ascend+(T-Speed+Rated)&partnum=255TR7ASC

Obviously price is a little bit of a concern, but I am not going to put myself in danger by buying crap tires, or buying tires that don't move in a dusting of snow. I am kind of leaning to the Yokohama's due to the treadwear and the reviews I have read. They are still a relatively new tire though. The Altimax's are a new tire as well, but they are the replacement for the Altimax RT's.

I could save some money on the Sense's but I don't want to put out $400 on tires only to have them be bald in a year. I currently have Firestone FR710's on the car and they are supposed to be a 60,000 mile tire, but I only got about 25,000 miles out of them. Granted I didn't rotate on an exact schedule, but I would have probably only gotten 30,000 out of them if I had.

Does anyone have any input on the tires?

Thanks

 

[Fivefingerdeathpunch]

The platiums are nice tires, good quality for the money. I doubt that they would last the full 60k though, perhaps more like 45-50k.

I put them in the same as the FR710's, those should last atleast 50k. Put them on serveral GP's and havent seen them wear fast.


Those Ascends are new but not really new. The AVID TRZ was what they used to be, they updated the design and gave em a new name. The TRZ was a 80k tire and most were lucky to see 60-65k, we sold them to everyone a few years ago. Mainly people with vans or big cars never saw the mileage that was printed on the paper, midsize cars got more miles from them.

You wouldn't be making a wrong choice in buying them but just don't hope for the full 85k tread life, think 20k less.

 

[stealthee]

I never expect the full mileage. Realistically I hope to only have the car another year or so. If I get the right phone call this week my driving is going to decrease drastically anyway.

The Ascends have low rolling resistance as well. Might help a little with fuel mileage. I just watched a video on Tirerack and the only real complaint they had was losing grip when pushing the car in the wet. Well you shouldn't be pushing the car hard in the wet anyway.

The only real deciding factor is the RT43's appear to have a better looking tread pattern. I found a video review for them as well and they appear to have better overall traction handling.

As for the Kumho's I have never gotten anywhere close to the listed mileage on any Kumho's I have owned from the old Ecsta Supra 711's, to AST's, to ASX's.

This is mainly coming down the the Generals or the Yokohamas

Granted these are two different tests but it appears the Generals win on the test side

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=178

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=161