I need tire-buying advice, please!

[icon7]

Nope all tires were Z rated...Pilot Sports Were the last Michelin's 245/40/17.
I am waiting for the Pirelli's to wear out before I go back to Michelin.

But the Pole Positions had the lowest trend wear rating ~140 vs 300 for the Michelin's. That makes a big difference.

Originally Posted by starkeshia

Those Pole Positions are soft compound, high performance tires. Sounds like you've switched to some hard compound Michelines...that's why they lasted so long. Any brand of tire that's hard as a rock will, on average, outlive a high performance (sticky) tire.

[icon7]

Nope no 22s, they are 17s but real Hi performance tires cost money.

next car will be a hundai with 12s

Originally Posted by tstone

Ouch, $300 a piece? You rollin on 22s or something?

[starkeshia]

Originally Posted by icon7

Nope all tires were Z rated...

Speed rating has nothing to do with the stickyness of the tire....

[tstone]

Originally Posted by starkeshia

Speed rating has nothing to do with the stickyness of the tire....

Every Z rated tire I've ever dealt with were very sticky (soft) and therefore didn't have any treadwear warranty.

[Wysiwyg]

Speed rating and UTOQ are set by the manufacturer and could might as well be all bogus because they don't really compare with each other.
and Falken isn't crap. They're the tire of choice for the SCCA Street Tire racing classes for atleast 5 years in a row beating the more expensive brands. On the track, I even switch from race compound to Falken street tires when it rains.

[tstone]

I don't think the OP is looking for racing tires. But anyway here's my experience with Falken Ziex on a full-size sedan.

Pros:
Most excellent wet & dry traction.
Very quiet up to 10k miles.

Cons:
Sidewall squishy-ness at OE pressure 32 psi. (This is cured at 40 psi, but isn't the correct pressure for the car.)
Avg 1 mpg decrease in gas mileage.
They wear unevenly and cause the steering to pull after 15k miles.
They are nearly bald at 25k miles.

Good performance or autocross tire. Crap commuter tire. Just my opinion.

[catfancier]

Hi y'all, (ex-New Yorker practices Texas-speak <g>)

Thanks again for all the replies. Tstone is correct that I am not looking for racing tires <g>, but I took note of the Falken discussion because my niece just put Falkens (not sure what model/type) on her 2007 Civic. She was going for the minimum $ she could get by on (she may lose her job) but I'll have her keep an eye on them as her mileage creeps up.

My relative is looking into the Vogue tires and whether they may suit my car...but I also am considering the Sam's Club option for the Michelin LTX/MS. Any experience/opinions on using Sam's for tires? I'd probably use the one in Sugar Land just south of the airport on Highway 6.

Thanks again everyone, I really do appreciate the time in reading and answering this thread!

P.S. I did do the "quarter test" on my tires, and the front ones definitely fail to cover George's hairline... the rear ones are slightly better, but one of them has the two+ nails, so there you go. If I'm going to get three tires I might as well go for four!

P.P.S. I assume I should have the spare looked at...in a pinch such as a flat does it really matter if it doesn't "match" the new tires? (other than size, of course.)

[catfancier]

Tstone and everyone else who gave graciously of their time and advice,
I am now the owner of four Michelin Cross Terrain SUV tires, which today had a trial by fire (or more appropriately, water) as I drove home in the monsoons from NTB. Tstone you were prescient about the advantage in going to a tire place that does alignments -- I was told my front end needed it. (One always hopes, of course, that one is being told the truth about what the car really needs!) I also needed an air filter...so I let them do it all.

NTB actually had a lower price on the CTs than Sam's Club. I printed out a $40-off-4-tires coupon from the NTB website, which they honored...and I also was fortunate to speak to a very nice Michelin phone rep when I was asking more questions about two Michelin tire choices vs. the Goodyear Fortera Triple Tred, which was the runner-up <g>. Maybe that was the magic word (Goodyear) because the rep OFFERED to send me a $60 coupon on Michelin tires! So I will wind up getting $100 off...which was helpful, since I didn't expect the extra alignment and filter charges. It was still a close to four-figure bite on my credit card...but I have decided, a la L'Oreal ads, that "I'm worth it!"

It was so great to have confidence in the car, especially coming home on the river that was Highway 6 for awhile! I went with the Cross Terrains precisely because they were highly rated for wet road traction, and I felt no worries at all.

Thanks again for all the help, I really appreciated it.