The 727's are very good tires. I used to have them on another car and they held up very well.

 

It would appear that some people don't want (or can't) pay the price of the Michelins.

 

Just bought a set of the Michelin Defenders 90k from TireRack a few months ago for my LS430. Cost for tires and install at NTB ($760 with discount). already had 2 rotations out of them. Very very happy with them so far.

Now they are taller tires with tread depth you can stick your hands in, lol so they are more spongy than your MX## series, but they are true to Michelin comfort ride and grip standards. they were also beast in the snow/ice.

 

Just ordered a set of 225/65R16 Primacy MXV4's from America's Tire after price matching with American Tire Depot here in SoCal. OTD = 708 plus a 70 mail in rebate so $638 overall.

I currently have Continental PureContact 235/50R18's on my newly acquired LS430. I got a set of used LS400 16" rims for $120 from a local CL member.

I opted for a slight increase in sidewall vs the standard stock of 225/60R16 seeing as that would lead me to a decrease in overall diameter from my current tires and the 225/65R16's are within 3% of the overall diameter from the stock tire sizes. I really want to have the maximum sidewall for comfort. Hopefully that'll happen. I'll update once I get them installed.

 

What size Defender tires did ya get for the 05 ls?

 

Just got the Primacy MXV4's in 225/65R16 installed. As stated previously I switched from 18" Continental 235/50R18 Purecontacts. The MXV4 has a hefty 10/32 initial tread. Filled to 33 psi.

They fit very well and I believe that 235/65R16 could fill the remaining tire well gap even more with room to spare. No issues going from the standard stock 60 sidewall to the 65 sidewall for the 16" wheels.

The ride is nice and quiet. It's a little bit smoother and quieter. Definitely not night and day from the 18 to 16 wheels. It could be that I had an extremely comfortable 18" tire (PureContact) and not a UHP summer tire. I'll see as I travel over the various roads here in SoCal. I look forward to hearing and feeling the difference on the rougher highways especially over the joints and concrete roads.

So far so good with these new 16" wheels on my 05 UL.

 

The down side to running non oem size is your speedometer will be off and so will the the mileage calculations. Just means you will be off by 3.1% Not much but it will add up over time.

OEM on the 18 is 245/45 - 17 is 225/55

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

 

Lavrishevo, I never considered the mileage calculations being off before. Thanks for pointing this out. I'll have to check the avg tank fuel economy on the dash vs my manual calculation when I fill up at the gas station.

I know that the 01-02 offer the 16" size in 225/60R16 so I went with 65. The reason I went with the slightly off OEM 18" size of 235/50R18 instead of the 245/45R18 is the sidewall height for comfort and quietness. I also noticed that the 460's all used the 235/50R18's for their 18 inch wheel sizes so I felt comfortable using the slightly off spec OEM tire size for the 430.

I can say that there is noticeable improvement in the quietness and "comfort" over the 18" size. As stated before, it wasn't night and day but it is noticeable. I have not noticed much difference in the handling of the car but I don't push the car to the point where I can discover the handling capabilities yet. I opted for the "best" tire in the performance all-season category in regards to handling (and quiet and comfort) to minimize the potential impact from the wheel downsizing.

I think another side benefit would be that my car looks less appealing to potential "spectators/purveyors". The 18" OEM rims definitely look sharper and add to the image while the 16" rims I must admit make the car even more old/aged. But I am after the comfort and quiet of the 430 not the looks since I mostly do highway cruising.

 

writes123, I got my (17") Primacy MXV4's just yesterday also ($174ea @ Belle Tire). It completely fixed that strange vibration issue I was having from the near dry-rotted set.

Side note: Boy, I'll tell ya, there's nothing like riding in a spanking clean LS, on a new set of grips, with a fresh oil change. Especially when everyone else's car is full of road salt (Michigan winter). Makes you feel like the king of the world.

 

I had really bad vibration through the steering wheel when going over anything slightly rough roads or highways. I needed too replace my front air struts and LCA bushings to fix that issue.

Nice to know that it's possible for tires to make all the difference if they are dry rotted, though I'd probably replace them before that came about.

After the 70 rebate, my price per tire w/ install was about $160.

 

They were practically dry rotted when I bought the car about 3 months ago.