mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

general groupings, ok

falkens (except rt615, and it's overrated) - junk
nittos (555, nt450, 555DR) - junk
(invo and neogen seem decent, haven't known anyone to use them for a long period of time thus yet)
Hankook - all junk
Sumitomo - all junk
Nexen, Capital, Federal - all realllllly ****ty junk

Goodyear - can go either way on any of their tires - the GS-D3 seems pretty good overall, but everything else can go either way - performance wise - they all do pretty good - but ride quality and noise is a toss up...

Michelin - overall excellent - one thing about Michelin, is that they (almost) NEVER have defective tires... It was a very rare occurrence to adjust a Michelin tire. Performance, however, on some, was lacking. The directional Pilot Sports seemed to wear funky on some cars causing them to get loud. The newer PS2 is just awesome, pricey, but awesome. All of their touring lineup is pretty solid too - MXV4, MXM4, etc.

Bridgestone - overall excellent - as with Michelin - rarely ever a defective tire... Wider variety of stuff than Michelin and more affordable... I know of zero problems with any Bridgestone products - they all do an excellent job, low noise, good ride quality, etc. Never a complaint...

Firestone - the Wide Oval tire is awesome, and the new Firehawk GT is an awesome entry level tire. Firestone had their bad days (although, mainly due to Ford issues), but their quality is really up there now. (Bridgestone taking over probably has something to do with this).

Yokohama - AVS ES100 - great performing tire for little money - too bad they wear badly on EVERY car (except my old AWD Talon, seemingly), and they are loud as can be after as few as 10,000 miles... Newer Advan stuff I don't have a whole lot of experience long term with, so I'll leave it at the fact that they perform great, and are awesome when new, wider than specs show even, but I can't comment on long term wear...

General - the only tire they make worth talking about is the Exclaim UHP... I've ran a set on my SC... loved em when the car was stock ride height (when body roll was the cornering limit, not tires)... As soon as I lowered it and set the alignment, they were very unpredictable... They wanted to slide with any kind of power application at all, they were gummy, not sticky. When I changed to BFG KDW's, I found myself going around the same turns 25% faster (or more). They were decent for someone who doesn't care about performance. They wear somewhat fast, but tolerable, and wet weather is ok... The only thing that scares me is that General is known for quality issues - by far, we adjusted more General tires on a percentage sold basis than any other brand.

Continental - I also ran a pair of Conti Sport Contact 2's on the rear of the SC - unimpressed... I think they are an OK tire that rides decent, but is way overpriced. I have had numerous Porsche owners bring me their brand new cars and pay well over $1000 to change to Pilot Sports... They handled ok, did better in the wet than I expected, but, handling not straight line acceleration was nothing impressive at all to me...

BFGoodrich - KD and KDW - awesome... hands down, my favorite street tires... The KD has been put up against many other street tires and wins back to back comparisons (street course, same car, same driver, etc) The KDW is everything most people want in a street tire - great wet weather, awesome dry traction, and low failure rate. They wear pretty good as well... The KD is dangerous in the wet, period. It's also relatively affordable. BFG KDWS sucks in my experience, but I've also never been in an area to need snow capability, so I am a little biased against snow usage tires. G-force sport - not bad performance - entry level tire, good quality, decent traction, good wet weather.

Kumho - Ecsta ASX - good all-season tire - good in the wet, kinda slippery in the dry, Ecsta MX - awesome tire - the only thing Kumho worth buying (except their R-compound tires) Great straight line acceleration - awesome lateral grip - a real close contender to the BFG KD... The 711 / 712 line is absolute junk... the SPT has some good qualities - almost the same tread compound as the MX, but it wears out real quick... One of my choices for an entry level tire.

Fuzion - built by Bridgestone - actually uses Bridgestones old RE7XX tread design and compounging... an older design, but still works pretty damn well - better than a lot of the newer entry level stuff out there. My #1 choice for entry level stuff, but sizes are limited...

I'm sure I'm missing some important ones out there, but just off top of my head, thats what we've got... Also, I clearly left out the standard passenger tire and truck tire offerings, as that doesn't really apply to this thread.

masboy

iTrader: (30)

sorry to bring the old post back up...just wanna say appreciation to mitsuguy for the tires review. I've been trying to find information about tires for quite sometimes now. Finally got an excellent review from CL by mitsuguy

thanks mitsuguy !!

jasonm

iTrader: (5)

My fuzion ZRI wore very quickly...Michelins are awesome and cost a lot of money.

LiLS

iTrader: (7)

what bout toyo?

lighthalo

i have proxy 4s and they are very nice tires i must say, very good wet and dry grip, little road noise


as for the nitto 555s, they were decent... until it rained.. then i was scared to drive.. literally.. other than that, they were good to me

alister

iTrader: (1)

I had a Nitto 555 blowout and seperate tread on me. Not fun. Noise tire too. By contrast I love the Falken 452's I replaced them all with. Better grip, noise and rain traction. Downside would have to definitely be tire wear though. Rated at 300 but seem to wear more like 200, IMO.

lexusondubs

iTrader: (9)

i too have had problems with nitto they are JUNK i had 3 out of 4 tires split the sidewall soo bad that nitto refunded me the retial price for the tires will never buy anything nitto again !!!!