Shopping For Tires?
Moderators: GRNSHRK, ron, bfons
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rmorin1249
Shopping For Tires?
Even though the tires on my car, Pirelli PZero Nero M&S, had plenty of tread left, I decided to replace them since they were installed in 2007 so they are at least 7 years old. I shopped for about 2 months before making my decision and thought I'd share with folks on this board in case you are thinking about new tires. First, I am running 16" wheels and wanted to keep my car as close to stock so I will stick with 225-50-16 tire size. Since I don't drive my car in snow or ice, but I do sometimes go for a drive when the temps are below freezing I decided to shop only an all season rated tire. I went to my trusted website, TireRack, to read their tire tests and to review the hundreds of customer reviews submitted on the various high performance all season tires that are available in my size. I originally was going to go with the highly rated Continental ExtremeContact DWS but after a lot of research reading reviews and tire tests I finally decided on a relatively new tire that is also getting very high praise from customers and is actually the #1 rated UHP all season tire on Tire Rack. It is the Hankook Ventus S1 noble 2. What swayed me from the Conti was its overall performance characteristics of good handling in both dry and wet as well as a good ride and low noise. The only area in which the DWS was better is in snow and since I don't drive in snow, this was not an important factor to me. Once I made my decision next step was to select a vendor. I also need to mention that pricing was not a primary factor in my decision but I did consider it. Continental is starting a $70 prepaid VISA card rebate tomorrow, 3/7/14 that runs through 4/7/14. After a lot of searching online I found what I think is the cheapest dealer for the Hankooks. It is a place in southern CA called TireCrazy.com. I had never heard of them but they popped up on my Google search under Hankook tires. They have been in business for a long time but only recently started selling tires online. As luck would have it, they are running a special on some brands, one being Hankook, that offer free shipping anywhere in the continental US. Their price was the same as TireRack for the tires but I saved over $50 on the shipping. The tires were $90 each, so $360 for a set of 4. Mounting and lifetime balancing will run between $80 and $100. I'll probably end up having the tires mounted and balanced at either Sears or Firestone. I think they both have Roadforce balancing equipment. The Contis would have been $114 each, plus about $50 shipping and then a $70 rebate, for a total of $436. Both brands come with almost identical warranties as far as mileage, road hazard, etc. The other tires I considered were another set of Pirellis, the new Michelin Pilot AS 3 and Yokohama Avid ENVigor (I have these on my Z4 and on my wife's RX350). I hope this helps anyone thinking about new tires. I debated if I need to buy new tires but with 2 trips to NC with the wife scheduled for May (SESF and the Vintage), I didn't want to take any chances.
Last edited by rmorin1249 on Sun Mar 09, 2014 1:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Sprocket
Thanks for the info. Tire shopping is always sort of a crapshoot, at least for me. Usually the exact tire model I liked is no longer made, or it is for a different car so different specs needed, or the price is crazy, etc...
I was going to take my wheels (the car is up on jackstands) in for new tires today, but since the wheels were off I decided to try to work on the worn finish on the outmost lips while I had the chance and did not care about messing up the tires. It's always something, eh?
Anywho, I decided to go with Kumho Ecsta ASX (I think that is right), since they are definitely cheap and seem to have good reviews. My current tires, Yokohama S-drives, have great grip and response (have driven them on VIR, could not get loose) but are loud and hard and uncomfortable for everywhere but the track. Do not get those.
Will let you know how the Kumhos do, my first set of that brand. I have Continental Extremecontact DW (summer tires) on my M5, and they are very good.
I was going to take my wheels (the car is up on jackstands) in for new tires today, but since the wheels were off I decided to try to work on the worn finish on the outmost lips while I had the chance and did not care about messing up the tires. It's always something, eh?
Anywho, I decided to go with Kumho Ecsta ASX (I think that is right), since they are definitely cheap and seem to have good reviews. My current tires, Yokohama S-drives, have great grip and response (have driven them on VIR, could not get loose) but are loud and hard and uncomfortable for everywhere but the track. Do not get those.
Will let you know how the Kumhos do, my first set of that brand. I have Continental Extremecontact DW (summer tires) on my M5, and they are very good.
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rmorin1249
Holy crap! That is crazy. I had no idea things were so expensive down under. I know we buy our BMWs for a much better price than folks in Germany but most of that is due to their VAT. Is this also the case in NZ?jps635 wrote:Randall you guys have got it so good in the States. $360 is what we pay for a single good tyre, ie Eagle F1, Dunlop Sport Max, after discount and haggling, - $540 plus for top end tyres, and we have limited selection.
Chris
We have 15% GST (goods and services tax, similar to VAT), but low sales tax. It is more a reflection of our remoteness along with a small population, the "supply chain" and is across the board. I buy virtually nil car parts locally. There is a rapidly mushrooming trend here to buying on line off-shore, driving a lot of local Retailers out of business, especially in fashion, and the gov't is investigating ways to clip the ticket on all sales, not just those over $400. That said paying an additional 15% is ok with me as gains are much better than that.
'85 635csi JPS (RA2-66)
Not sure about the Kuhmo AST but the 4X is a really nice tire for the money. If your not doing high miles but on a budget I recommend it. We have the 4X on our old beater 535 and our e30 project car. I think I got the full set for the 5er after rebates and so on for under $300. DTD, recommend them too.Sharknose wrote:KUMHO's are on mine and can say only good things about them!
My M6 still running the same PZero Nero M&S you mentioned up front. This is a wonderful tire save one thing, that it flat spots when it sets so the first couple miles are thumpity. Cars I've been in with the Continentals were always noisier than the Pirelli.
My son has put the Pilot Sport AS3 on his 330Ci. Great, great tire but it better be for the price. Even at the $ of the Michelin he had one that was sent back since it was not running true on the road force test and took 3x the weight of the others to balance. Even a great tire can have a lemon or at least if you pay what Michy gets you expect them to be perfect. Don't be afraid to complain.
I'll add my best advice regardless of tire choice. The next most important thing you can do is find a good shop that is willing to mount and check and remount and recheck until they get the lowest weight and roadforce variation. Ask around and tell them you are willing to spend a few bucks more and show up when they are not busy at all so they are more or less using their slow time getting yours right instead of knocking it out the door.
Also, I'd expect, almost demand, that a good tire on true BMW wheels take less than 1 oz to balance. More than 2 you should send it back IMO. I've have many tires with 1/4 oz matching the tire to the rim. I also once found the Porsche discussion on that. Porsche allows a tech roughly 30 minutes to mount and balance 1 tire. More than a certain amount of weight needed it gets sent back.