Time for some new tire's

[Donnie Raines]

I have been buying Bridgestone tires from day one....mostly becuase dad buy's them. Haveing priced out some new rubber this AM I feel it is time to consider some others.

Any particular tire brand you have had good luck with??...bad luck??

Thank's in advance.

[Lee Schierer]

I like Kelly Navigator Gold tires for my 626 sedan and the Kelly Safari SUV for my Ford Explorer. Excellent traction, ride and wear so far.

[Chris Padilla]

www.tirerack.com (http://www.tirerack.com)

Lottsa information for you to digest and you can have the tires drop-shipped (most likely) to an installer near you. I buy tires for the BMWs from tirerack all the time...great place.

[Rob Russell]

About 5 years ago, I needed to replace the factory-original Michelins on my '92 Lincoln Town Car. I went with a Bridgestone from Tire Rack. The service and price from Tire Rack were fine, but I won't buy another set of Bridgestones. The ones I bought were supposedly the top-of-the-line Bridgestone, luxury sedan tire, summer tread (I have 4 snows on rims for winter). The B's are noisier than the Michelins and my fuel economy dropped almost 2 MPG.

Next time I'm up for tires on the car, I'll go back to Michelins.

Rob

[Roy Wall]

www.tirerack.com (http://www.tirerack.com/)

Lottsa information for you to digest and you can have the tires drop-shipped (most likely) to an installer near you. I buy tires for the BMWs from tirerack all the time...great place.
Exactly what I did too...........

Saved $150 easy on the set.......225/60-16's

[Wes Bischel]

Well, at the risk of offending some. ;) I had a similar dilemma and needed to get new rubber before the state inspection was due. I called all around, did some internet searching and ended up at - yes - I'll say it - Walmart. :eek: They had the Goodyear's I was looking for at the best price installed.
I guess it all depends on what you are looking for.

Wes

[bill kiss]

Up till 3 years ago I was a tire salesman. Which tires, brand/line will work well for you depend on cat/ truck, your driving style and driving conditions. Kelly Tires or Cooper tires are a good deal for the money :) IMHO

[Ken Garlock]

Donnie, I grew up in Akron where the major tire companies were headquartered. When I got out of the Air Force I had a Volvo P1800 sports coupe. I need new tires, so I got a set of BF Goodrich radials because my Dad had work for BFG about 40 years. Man, those were the worst tires I have ever had on a car in my life. Now, that was back in 1968 and radials were still new to American tire makers.

I went to work as a computer programmer at Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. I had a set of their radials in the mid 1970's and they were adequate. I left FTR in 1979 just as the Firestone 500 problems were festering(best move I have ever made.)

Since about 1980 I have used Michelin tires exclusively. I have never had a failure on one, and they are speed rated higher than my car can go, 135 MPH. If it get a puncture from road debris, I take it into Discount Tire, and then fix it for free and rebalance the tire. My Benz will need a new set of tires within the year, and I will be off to Discount Tire for its third set of Michilens.

[Mike Tempel]

I drive an F250 crew cab truck and currently it is running on Michelins (supposed to be 80,000 mile tires according to the salesman but I only have about 50,000 miles on them and they need to be replaced). I have had no luck whatsoever with Goodyear or Firestone - worst I ever had were Goodyears. I don't think I will go for the Michelins again as they are too costly and I am kinda frustrated that for as little driving as I do I didn't get the aforementioned mileage out of them. I will look for whatever is cheapest probably and do so at Discount Tire.

[John Weber]

Donnie,

www.tirerack.com is awesome, super selection, prices, etc... I've gone to Yokohama for all are cars. I have a set for directional speed rated tires for the Passat (I really like them), and a great set of all weather tires on our Toyota mini van. They are a great value, usually rate better then Michelins, and usually near the top depending on what tire you are looking at. Michelins are fine, but they are over priced for the tread ratings. Yokohama's for me, I'll be ordering a new set this fall.

John

P.S. I remember the day when all I wanted was a set of BFGoodrich Radial T/A's...

[Frank Pellow]

Since my first car, a VW bug in 1964, I have owned 5 other Volkswagons, a Volvo, and an Audi. Thats it.

I usually have two sets of tires - one set for winter and one for spring-summer-autumn because season specific tires seem to perform better than all season tires. I have always purchased Michelin snow tires for the firtst winter and, once the original "all season" tires the come with the car have worn down, I then purchase Michelin "high performance" tires to replace them.

Tire safety and performance is very important to me and I am willing to pay for the best.

[Lee DeRaud]

P.S. I remember the day when all I wanted was a set of BFGoodrich Radial T/A's...And -70 tires were call "Wide-Ovals". Now 60's look skinny to me...of course, so do pictures of me from that era.:(

[Jim O'Dell]

The worst tires I've ever had were Uniroyals. We also had a lot of problems with them back in the 70's at a dealership I worked at while at Baylor. The next worst were the BFG Radial T/A's. I've had good luck with the OEM Bridgestones that came on my Mazda PU, Goodyear on the Caravan, now Michelin on the same vehicle are very good. The OEM Goodyears on my E250 Ford seem to be holding up well...Lots of tread. But as someone else eluded to, it makes a big difference in what kind of vehicle they will go on. Jim.

[Kevin Herber]

Donnie - I ran Michelins for many years. I recently bought a set of the Goodyear Assurance TripleTred for their wet road traction and handling. I am extremely pleased with them. I think they are a bit stiffer than the Michelins tho.

Their traction on wet roads is great. We don't have any snow here and did not have any ice this winter so all my experience with them has been dry and wet roads. I recommend them for our conditions. I got them at Discount Tires.

I'm running them on a 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan.

Good Luck -- Kevin

[Donnie Raines]

Thanks for the comments gents.

Looks like the best deal going in my neck of the woods will be at Sam's Club. I can pick up some Michelins installed close to 115 bucks each...far better then the BS's. I am putting these on a 2003 Explorer 4x4. I am goin to hold off and see if there are any specials running for the 4th of July.

[Lee DeRaud]

Looks like the best deal going in my neck of the woods will be at Sam's Club. I can pick up some Michelins installed close to 115 bucks each...far better then the BS's.Big deal: you can get BS tires at Rockler for less than...what? Oh.
Never mind. :p

[Scott Coffelt]

Sometimes you can catch a good deal at Firestone where the 4th tire is free alone with mtg/blg. I've always liked the BS Duellers for my trucks. I have been watching Sam's club also as I will need new skins sometime this summer. The only brand I will nto buy is Goodyear, I've not been pleased with the quality of their tires in years.

[Jim O'Dell]

OH!!! I forgot to add to my post. Stay away from the Continental brand of tires. (Contitrac). They are worse than the problem Firestone tires ever attempted to be. They won't balance, and the fall apart. Jim.

[Norman Hitt]

Be VERY careful of the tires you buy at Sam's Club, BECAUSE....they are Special Order tires by Sam's, and on Some of their brands at least, they CANNOT be warranted at ANY place other than Sams. I bought a Slick Used Town Car for my wife about 3 1/2 years ago, and the Original owner had Just had installed (the week before I bought it), a new set of Top line tires and a new battery at Sams. Well, the battery failed within 6 weeks, and 3 of the tires had a radial walk, (forget what what the technical name for it was), and two were not round. Long story short, They Woud Not warranty either the tires or the battery because the car had changed ownership. Two other tire places that carried the same brand tires, Including Sears checked the tires and agreed they qualified for warranty, and would have been happy to warrant them, but said that by serial # grouping they were specially ordered by Sams and could only be warranted by Sams, because the MFR would not reimburse them if they warranted the tires or the battery.

Afrter this Fiasco, I cancelled my Sams Club Membership and have not been in one of their stores since. I had tried to deal with the sales person, dept manager, and even the store manager, but he, like the others, could have cared less, and was almost even rude when he said they would be glad to SELL me a new set of tires and a battery with a big Smirk on his face. I had remained pretty calm to that point, and I Certainly cannot repeat here what I told him he could do with his tires, battery and any of the other $400 to $700 worth of items we normally bought there each month.

I have since had Excellent Service and good pricing from Discount Tire. I've had Very satisfactory service from Michelen and all but one set of Bridgestone tires, but best Bang for the buck has been Kelly and Cooper. Worst driving tires I ever had, (so bad I sold them and bought Kellys) was that High Dollar Japanese named tire (that I can't remember the name of).

[Chris Padilla]

Hey, Michelin SCREWED UP BIG TIME at Forumula One races at Indy recently. How many of those race fans will remember to NOT BUY Michelin next time their cars needs some new shoes? :)

Anyway, I've had mixed results from two sets of Michelins on my 2001 BMW 530i. The car came OEM with Michelin Pilot Primacy. Being this is a luxury/sports sedan, tires tend not to last too long...that is just the way it is. However, the first set lasted about 25k and I was happy enough to replace them with the same thing. The second set barely lasted 12k!! Boy, I was fuming that December day when I was hit with the sudden need for new tires!

I searched a bit on my various BMW forums and found folks were pretty happy with Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 plus they had a $75 rebate going at the time. Even Consumer Reports rated them their top tire in 2004. Anyway, 59k and they are still doing very well and I'm quite happy with them.

What is nice about tirerack is that they have feedback on all their tires from real consumers. If you find a set of tires you like (price seems to be number one for you, Donnie), at least see what others thought of them if they happen to be sold by tirerack as well. The feedback on my Michelin Pilot Primacy isn't all that great and the tread wear stinks...and the feedback agrees.

[Richard McComas]

I get good results using Cooper tires, near as I can figure I believe they are still made in the good ole USA. I buy locally but there are on-line places.

[Hal Flynt]

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/

I have found this place better than Tire Rack on some tires. I have bought from both and I only let delivered price decide.

[larry merlau]

i hadnt thought of it, but my daughters boyfreind got her on it and she researched it thourghly, she has now bought 3 sets one for me and 2 for her. she used both places, the one cris, mentioned and the one john hart mentioned. good price and right to your door. the feed back is a real plus..don

[Michael Perata]

I have Continental M&S on my Cayenne. These tires REALLY hold the road/off-road wet or dry, and with 26K miles on them look like they have another 10K worth of hard driving. They are also VERY quiet.

I used to buy Goodyears - Good traction, low mileage life, pricey.

Bridgestones - noisy, noisy, noisy.

Dunlop - inexpensive but good usability

[Tim Brewers]

I have put BFG AT's on each of my last 6 trucks and love them. My current truck is a conversion so it came with them stock. I just replaced that set at 76k. Not bad for a truck tire. If you want a little less aggressive tread you could go with the BFG Long Trails.

Brew

[Jimmy Walker]

Donnie, what are you putting them on?

Having driven 60miles one way to work for 11 years I can say that I had excellent results from Sears Gruadsman tires. Having said that they were being used on a '92 Geo Metro, small tires. Paid $17 ea + balancing and got 60 to 70K out of every set I bought.

Funny thing is this am Sat the 2nd, I'm buying another set for a beater I bought last nite for my son to drive to work. $19.98 ea. $145 for the set out the door.

Sears beat Sam's 26.82 and Wal-mart 25.97.

Am leaving to go get 'em in a few.