denverdog

i'm looking for a set of tires for my '93 ls. I'm looking at the primacys, when i happened upon the big o "euro tour" tires, with their 100,000 mile guarantee. they are also much cheaper. I know the michelins are great, but i'm wondering if anyone has tried the euro tours. any experience out there? and i know the "you get what you pay for". that's often as much an aspiration than a fact. i'm just wondering if anyone has tried these. they seem to be a new design.

denverdog

i was confused. it is the hankook optimo h727 tires that have the 100,000 mile waranty (at discount tire). the big o euro tours have there years, then prorated replacement. anyone ever use the hankooks?

steve2006

How can tires be guaranteed for 100,000 miles? If I did a burn out from every red light or stop sign I'd be lucky to do 100 miles before the tread disappeared.

deanshark

It's a warranty not a guarantee. It doesn't mean they will have good tread on them at 100K, or 5 years. They pro rate the tire for how thick the tread is if you ever have a manufacture malfunction, which doesn't happen too often. Tire warranties are BS. If at 30K the tread is 8/32" you pay for 2/32" of a new tire, if at 30K the tread is 4/32" you pay for 6/32" of a new tire. No matter what you have to pay more if something happens during the BS warranty period. Read the whole warranty, not just one word, you'll laugh your butt off at what it doesn't cover. (especially the road hazard) People see the word warranty and they think it's good, but it's a joke so they can make more money. Any good tire will last 70K if you balance and rotate them on schedule and drive normal.

Kansas

Really? Have you actually done this on a rear wheel drive LS? I've driven Lexus LS cars for almost 300,000 miles since 1990 and have had high quality tires last from a low of 15,000 miles for high performance summer Z-rated tires to 40,000 for all-season V-rated tires.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

the higher the treadwear the harder the compound....

deanshark

No, not on an LS. But I did have a '76 Monte Carlo which I put on some brand new Goodyears when I bought it. (tires cost more then the car) I put 96K miles on that car and it still had those same Goodyears on it when I drove it to the junkyard. And that was also with 2 years worth of these New England winters.

denverdog

not to throw a wet blanket on the discussion, but, to get back to the point, has anyone ever actually tried any of the "euro tour" or the hankook optimo h727 tires? any comments?

billydpowe

iTrader: (1)

no I have not, but to chime in on mileage, I have driven Cad & Towncars since 74 and usually got 70k out of michelin tires, ran them on all my cars except my model A. and I use them today on my LS, my wifes LS came with new Yokohama tires and I left them on it because they are very quite.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

Not many reviews:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....el=Optimo+H727

The surveys seem pretty good. Depends on your tire priorities. Considering that a tire can be rated to go 100K miles, it will trade off other characteristics like handling, traction, noise...to get there.

Having to get on the brakes when some cell-texting driver does something lame, those tires become very critical purchases. Not to mentioned the everyday wet-dry encounters.

Go for it and let us know.

deanshark

They're not rated for the tread life to last 100K, that's just the warranty length. But you'll never get anywhere near that. It's just a marketing scam. Don't ever buy tires b/c of how long the warranty is, go by actual user reviews. It seems like, (going by reviews and tests) the hankook optimo h727 tires are garbage in the rain, and not too good on dry either. I've always swore by Goodyear. The best tires I ever had were on my 91 Grand Prix which were the GY Tripletread. Awesome. A little more road noise but if you have a deep exhaust it doesn't matter. If you have an LS400 which blocks out all outside noise, it doesn't matter. Make sure you read up on alot of different tires so you get exactly what you need.

denverdog

i'm going with the H727 tires. i want soft ride, not cornering. that's why i got an ls. they have to be shipped in by discount tire, so i don't have an instant review. but then every tire feels great when it's new, and the prior tires were worn out. when you read the tire reviews look for the ones with some miles on them.

and i appreciate the distinction between "warranty" and "guarantee". my bad for substituting one for the other. but i don't agree that they are all worthless stats. i've bought a lot of tires at discount tire and they have several times given me a decent credit on the next set if the last set didn't get close to the warranty figure. they also have the records on when you rotated them. it pays to be a regular customer somewhere.

the current tires on this car are rikens that my wife bought. they were "H" rated, but i always thought they felt hard, though i didn't start to drive the car all the time again until they were half worn. they did get pretty close to the 45k waranty.

i did read many of the reviews on the h727 tires at tire rack. they are overall very highly rated. especially for comfort and quietness. reading these reviews, it is usually a good idea to do it like ice skating: throw out the few best reviews and the few worst reviews. otherwise there's a good chance you're dealing more with the reviewer than the tires on those particular reviews.

my next choice was either the michelin destiny (which we just put on our '98 avalon), or the yokohama yk580. just didn't want to spend the extra money for the primacy.

i'll calendar a few months to report on these tires. maybe denver will get some snow. although we only have a white christmas about one year in ten.

PaulMtnMan

Yes, I do own a set of Euro Tour tires and they are on my 94 LS. Right now I have 44,000 miles on the tires (80% highway) and the tread is approaching the wear indicator. I have found them to be very good tires. They are quiet (previously had a set of P6's and hated them), smooth riding and have good characteristics in the rain. I have never driven in the snow, so I can't comment in this area. Would I buy another set? ABSOLUTELY. As soon as I get a few more mlles on the tires I will get another set. This time though, I am thinking about getting a "T" rated tire instead of the HR's I have now because of the increased mileage rating. The other thing I like about the Euro Tour's is that they are a Big-O branded tire and this mean you get FREE tire rotaion AND wheel balancing every 5,000 miles for the life of the tire or 6 years. I have made very good use of this free service as I drive about 25,000 miles a year. Using a conservative cost of $40 for a rotate and balance, I feel that I have saved about $200 a year.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

A lot also comes to factor with alignment and driver's habits. Considering the set-up on our barge, tires have done well so far. 40K miles is typical on tires with a flip in the last 10K miles or so. BFG KDWII ~42K, Yokohama S-Drive 40K sized 245/40-18. I will not be able to flip the Conti Extreme DW since it is an asymmetric in design. If these hit 30K, I'll be pleased.

I usually only buy summer tires since So. Cal is mild in terms of conditions encountered. The last AS is one Michelin MXV on a factory wheel which I use as a spare. It has about 45K miles and my guess is that this is about a 60K mile tire on our car. YMMV.

As Dean had mentioned a spell back about warranty and actual miles this can be misleading. Treadwear ratings are fairly similar being deceiving. If you are riding slammed at -2 or more camber, don't expect tires to last very long.