What are the best tires for 2016 ES 350
 

What are the best tires for my 2016 Lexus ES 350. Size is 225/45 R18. The factory tires it came with (Bridgestone Turanza) are almost worn with 21K miles. I'm looking for better all season tires. Thanks.

The best has been debated in other threads, so do a search. The worst, however, is clear (Bridgestone Turanza's).

These in order are the top three rated on Tirerack.com

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...0&autoModClar=

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...0&autoModClar=

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...0&autoModClar=

The Pirelli P7 Plus and Michelin Premier A/S are also highly rated and were both rated #1 previously. .

About 10 years ago, I had a set of Goodyear Assurance tires on an ES. They were the Assurance Comfortred Touring series. Goodyear tires don't seem to get a lot of mention on the CL ES boards, but those tires were some of the best tires I've ever owned. The ride was just as comfortable and quiet as the Michelin Primacy tires that they replaced. I had over 60,000 miles on them when I traded the car in, and they still had another 5-10,000 miles worth of tread left on them, which is, by far, more miles than I've ever gotten out of any set of Michelin tires. And, as a bonus, they were a couple of hundred dollars less expensive than the Michelin Primacy tires that they replaced.

When looking at TireRack reviews you have to look at the miles travelled and the number of reviews. New tires will quickly supplant tires that have been out a long time, and most reviews of brand new tires are positive because the difference between the reviewer's worn tires is so positive. Personally, I would choose a slightly lower rated tire with 10,000,000 miles reported and 500 reviews over a newer tire with 200,000 miles reported and 20 reviews.

For instance those #1 Yokohama Avid Ascend GT tires, okay they're #1 but only 87,000 miles reported.

If you look at this chart, all of the tires rated "above" the Pirelli P7s have less than 400k miles reported, and the P7? 13M. The Michelin Premier? 6M. As those newer tires are reviewed more, their ratings will regress towards the mean and the more established tires will rise back up.

The tires I would buy? Pirelli Cinturato P7 Plus.


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...4657939a1b.png

Thank you very much for the recommendation and the links.

I went with the Pirelli's P7 Plus and I have no complaints... Nice riding and quiet tire... I noticed the chart above shows that tire going for 167 a tire.. that's a better price than when I bought mine 2 years ago.. I believe I paid 185 per tire...

Thanks for pointing that out Poppa.
I never noticed that Tirerack's rating changed with time. That changes everything about how we evaluate the purchase of newer tires vs older tires.
As an example, I compared a few tire stats you posted back in Jan 23rd 2019 with updated rating from March 6th 2021.

Yokohama AVID Ascend GT:
2019: comfort 8.8 / treadwear 9.4
2021: comfort 8.4 / treadwear 9.1

Vredestein Quatrac 5:
2019: comfort 8.8 / treadwear 9.1
2021: comfort 8.7 / treadwear 8.1

Seems like the rating of many of these newer tires go down with time.
Had someone bought the Vredestein Quatrac 5 back in 2019 for it's excellent treadwear rating of 9.1, will eventually be dissapointed when the tire does not last as long as it was initially predicted.

I was initially interested in either the new Bridgestone Turanza Serenity Plus or Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II, however now that I understand how time may change the real rating of these new tires, I have some reservations.

I read customer reviews that found the noise level on the newer Michelin CrossClimate2 was worst than Michelin Primacy Tour and Michelin Premier A/S. But the rating do not reflect that yet. Now I know why.

Man on the go.... me personally, I won't ever again buy bridgestone turanza's. That tire came on my brand new Avalon back in 2007 and on my Lexus is 2014. Hated them from DAY 1. Rough riding, noisey.... couldn't wait til they wore down enough to justifiy me getting a new set of tires. I have been happy with my Pirelli's, but truth be told, I may try something new the next go around. I have a friend who runs a tire shop where they handle many different brands and he LOVES the Yokohama Avid Ascends... I have a set of Yokohoma' Geolanders on my Toyota 4 Runner and they are very smooth / quiet tires.. very happy with them, One of the members on this forum, Lessz said that a couple of years ago he had goodyear Assurance Comfortred Touring series on one of his cars and he really liked them. Just something to think about. Tires can be a pain to figure out. Many years ago I had two cars, one we were going to get rid of within 6 months and one we were going to keep for a few more years.. both needed tires. So I put a set of Goodyears ( don't remember the series, but they were Goodyears top of the line at the time ) on the car we were keeping. Think I spent about 600 bucks on them, and that was some time ago. At the same time I put on the cheapest radials I could get from Firestone and put them on my Firebird. Paid 200 bucks OTD. Ended up keeping both cars for several more years and the cheap ol Firestone tires rode better, were quieter and lasted longer than the much more expensive goodyears. Go figure.

Its a statistical principle called 'regression to the mean". As there are more and more datapoints, the overal statistic will regress towards the midpoint. So, when tires are sparsely rated their ratings look better than when they are heavily rated. Thats why TireRack publishes the number of miles of use reported.

Personally, the Pirelli Cinturato P7s are the best overall tires Ive ever had. I wish they came in the right sizes for my Mercedes. I got the Michelin Primacy Tour and returned them, and settled on some Michelin Primacy MXM4s which are fine, but not as good as the Pirellis.

You do have to be careful to compare apples to apples. An example is the Crossclimate...Michelin responded to the noise issue and have redesigned the tread to give a quieter ride...the Crossclimate2 instead of Crossclimate+. Another factor is the tire sizing...a 17” tire may be made in a different factory in a different country than the 18” tire. For some reason this seems to change the review numbers. Note the “comfort” rating difference in this CR listing. The comments about number of reviews (miles driven) is perfectly valid...buyer remorse/buyer justification. Also...the amount of miles driven by each reviewer...we know that tire characterisics change as they wear. Still, I think this discussion is a good exercise going forward. I know I’ll be getting new summer treads when I take the winters off and haven’t made up my mind yet.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...48f7dfc1b1.png

In that chart above, look at the "miles reported", that tells you a lot. With only 138k miles reported, I have a lot less confidence in those ratings than I do a tire with millions of miles reported...its not buyer remorse or justification, its just volume of datapoints available.

Also remember, people tend to review tires much more favorably when they are brand new, compared to their old worn out tires, and then they rate those worn out tires very unfavorably.

Personally, I pay more attention to TireRacks actual instrumented tests and reviews.

Which I think I acknowledged...
The main takeaway is that not all Cross Climates are equal since there has been a change in their design. True, remains to be seen if the "2" is better than the "+" in the long run.

And just get the Pirelli Cinturato P7 Plus. Then call it a day.

Our 2016 came with these
https://www.bridgestone.com.au/en/ty...rimdiameter=14