Bahadur

I would like to hear some opinions about tires for my 2002 IS300 E-shift sedan (215/45/17).

I live in a part of the Pacific Northwest where it rains a lot, but hardly ever snows. I did some research (here, Consumer Reports and on tirerack.com). My criteria are: long useful tread life, excellent wet traction, moderate snow traction capability, quiet ride and decent dry performance, in that order of importance.

I am by no means a performance fiend, so I really don't want to have dedicated sets of summer and winter tires, for convenience sake.

I am considering the following, and would like some comments from the folks here:

1. Falken Ziex ZE-512: rated as number one "high performance all-season" tire by the Consumer Reports. Excellent price ($97 incl. shipping at www.tire.com). Not enough reviews out there. There are reports of relatively short tread life. It seems to be an older design.

2. Continental Extreme Contact: one of tirerack's recommendations. Supposedly has excellent wet/snow traction, comfortable ride, long life and good price. There seem to be some persistent complaints of flat spotting, difficulty to balance, extreme noise and shaking at high speeds. I was about to buy a set, but found the written reviews on tirerack by consumers, and I am concerned by these reviews.

3. Pirelli P Zero Nero M+S: also one of tirerack's recommendations. Supposedly excellent in dry and wet weather, but little snow traction. Despite the 400 rating, it reputedly wears out fast. The reviews seem to be generally very positive, but there are reports of "tram lining" or some such thing (difficult to steer on rain grooves), particularly in S. Cal. I am concerned by those reports as well.

4. Bridgestone Potenza RE950: my all-Japanese garage seems to think that Bridgestones in general are the best for my car, period. This seems to have excellent reviews on tirerack, but also appears to have occassional side bubble issues, relatively short tread life and little, if any, snow traction. It is also very pricy $160 or so before shipping costs are factored in.

5. Nokian WR (all-season): supposedly excellent wet and snow traction. Not "high performance" in dry weather by any means. I don't have any information on price or availability, but some seem to swear by its consistent quality and quality control. I think it's a Finnish company.

And then there are Kumho Ecsta ASX, Sumitomo HTR+ and Yokohama Avid H4s, about which I have read very little. They all seem to have very long tread lives (Yokohama seems to have 500!). I just have not found anything about their quality control. Tirerack does not seem to have enough reviews to present the color-coded performance matrix for these.

Whatever comments or "reassurances" anyone could provide would be welcome. Thank you all.

Brandon@TR

The Pirelli P Zero Nero M/S would be the best choice for you. They have an excellent combination of performance and ride quality with some light snow and ice traction. No matter how good a tire is there will always be some complaints, I haven't see a tire yet that has gotten perfect reviews, thats why you have to consider the overall averages. The Pirelli is currently ranked #1 in customer survey data with .5 million miles reported.

Bahadur

Thanks. Does anyone else have an opinion, too?