FaceUT

Check out the Firestone Firehawks. (Made in Japan) Quiet for over 25000 miles so far, grip like mad, great rim protector. Cheaper than Michelins. Great overall tire. I own 2 sets and have not been disappointed. Got 'em though Tire Rick and had Discount Tire America mount and balance for life for about $80.

However - it's a summer tire. Not for snow.

HawksBAC

Hello!

I drive approximately 25,000 miles per year and have run Michelin Pilot Sport A/S, Bridestone S-03, Dunlop SP9000, and Nitto 555. I currently am running Pirelli P-Zero Nero M&S and by far these are the best tires I have owned. They are/were all on 18" rims. The Pirellis are far quieter than the Michelins, as well as the others, with a much nicer ride. They still handle great! The Michelins get loud after a relatively short period of time and the centers of the tires wear out much faster than the shoulder blocks. They both have a 400 tread wear rating, much higher than the others I have mentioned and better than most Toyos. Also, there is a well documented problem with getting cars to align with Michelins. My GS400 had to be set outside of specs to make it not pull to the right. Mercedes Benz has gone so far as to issued a technical bulletin regarding this problem. I was somewhat disappointed with the Michelins considering all the hype and the large price tag. To the contrary, I am very happy with my Pirellis and will look to purchase them again when they wear out. Good luck in your purchase.

Lexusfreak

Fair enough gents! & face, stay away from the Firestone Firehawks! Hve a look at them on tirerack to see what I mean :egads. My past experences with Pirelli were not pleasant & jst dowen't look like the tread pattern would be very good in the winter months.......Agreed the price factor is important as well. No hard feelings fisher

Ditto

I am not a big fan of Firestone after what happend years back. Ever Since then I have removed all Firestones from my Ford Pickup. As far as Pirelli Nero's I've read just about every review there was about this tire from tirerack to Google and owners have been very happy with this tire. It even does a decent job in the snow from what they said. I am planning on buying these this week because I need to replace all four of my tires. ( I did a penny test on my MIchelin Sport tires and I can see the top of Abe Lincoln's head even if he had an afro)

My second choice; maybe a continenal Extreme or some Yoko. I love my Yoko on my ES, but I can't seem to find these size tires for my GS

Lexusfreak

What size do you need? & I'm also getting rid of my wife's tires on her 2003 Ford Focus ZX5 205 50 16 & will be replacing them with Toyo Proxes TPT's, a tire I highly recommend on this site as well as LOC and they are only about $85 each.......not bad. I had the yoko's H4S on my short list but they didn't come in a "V" rating for my ES. Excellent tire from what I heard however.

FaceUT

I was referring to the Firehawk SZ50EP. It is listed as an Ultra Performance Summer Tire. Reviews have been outstanding. Again, poor choice for winter - but I would suggest you at least read the reviews and check it out. The very early versions of this tire had a softer compound that made for shorter treadwear.

Feel free to do what you feel is best. It can be a little overwhelming trying to sift through all of the info out there.

Lexusfreak

Agreed, it can be confusing with all the choices available. I personally stick with a high quality all season performance tire & have stuck with that for over 12 years now witout incident. I never felt the need to buy a seperate set of winter tires with on steel rims.....don't have the room nor the cash for an extra set. If the weather is that horrible out that you can't get through it, stay home cause chances are you really don't need to go out that badly to risk your life & vehicle anyways. If it's an emergency, dial 911.

LexRoc

Great thread so far. I am at the beginning stages of looking for a set of tires.
Thanks for all the great info.

tiger430

My son has a GS430 that had michelin pilots as OE. Horrible noise. We then got Yokohama AVS db's that were quiet for about 5000 miles and then sounded like a log truck. After only 25k miles we had decided that this was just going to be a loud car that was hard on tires. However, after reading the tire rack reviews, despite the bad press for firestone, we decided to try the firehawk sz50ep's and they are fabulous. They handle well and are very quiet. I would strongly recommend them. He now has about 23k miles on this set and they have not degraded any thus far.

Ditto

I've put on 3000 miles on the Pirelli PZero Neros' . It's an awesome tire. It's a bit soft on turns compared to the Pilot Sport, but otherwise it outperforms it and it costs less. From the looks of it, it looks like it will last at least 25k-30+ miles.

Fisher503

Pirelli PZero Neros' Get the M+S Have 15000 miles on mine look brand new handle great at least another 20K+ left in them.