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reliable tire brand

6K views 31 replies 20 participants last post by  TRD-1138 
#1 ·
Hi! can you suggest a reliable tire brand that has the quality but can still be affordable? Need new tires for my 2005 Corolla. I need feedback before buying.
 
#5 ·
I have COSTCO warehouse Michelin Defender XT which has 90k warranty, coupled with the regular $70 off 4 tires, lifetime balancing, road hazard and nitrogen fill - is a good deal. It's very, very quiet, very responsive and even in this year's heavy snow held really well.
 
#6 ·
A second plug for Michelin, also Costco. If they don't have what you wish at the warehouse, check online. However, I have a set of the 80K mile Defenders on a RAV4, and they are a bit noisy, especially when cornering. I suspect this is the price one pays for the 80K rubber compound.
 
#10 ·
I bought a set of Michelin X-Radials from Sams' Club (free lifetime balancing, rotation and flat repair) a few years ago. They had a 90K mile warranty. One of them failed at about 98K because I let it go low on air. I noticed they were losing air pressure faster than usual, which I assume is normal for a tire with almost 100K miles. I made sure to check the air pressure more often and keep it up. My fault for that one tire. The remaining three tires still have legal tread on them and they have about 107K miles on them. Pretty soon the tread will be not legal (maybe at around 110K to 115K miles or so). Not bad at all.

I recently bought two Toyo Versado Noir tires for my wife's Hyundai. They have a 75K warranty and I'm trying them out to see how they hold up in comparison to the more expensive Michelins, which have a 90K warranty. They were MUCH cheaper in price to the Michelins. I got them from TireCrawler.com and it had free shipping. If you call the order in instead of doing it online, you can ask for the 4% discount, which doesn't always show up online. I compared the price per thousand miles of warranty to the Michelins and the Toyos were a little cheaper. Of course, if you get them at Sam's or Costco, you will get lifetime balancing and flat repair. Also, prior to the Michelins, I had the Yokohama Avid Touring S and they lasted a long time too.
 
#12 ·
One thing to bear in mind is tire age. As rubbers age they loose elasticity which results in diminishing wet and dry traction. There's a rough 6 year rule for tires, after 6 years the rubbers in most tires have lost much of their flexability and start to become dry and hard, glues which bond layers of tire also begin to loose their adhesion. The risk of delamination increases as the tires age beyond 6 years. Not to say you should buy new tires every 6 years on the dot, but why by a 90,000 mile tire if you only drive 7,000 miles a year? By the time the tire is well past a safe age you might be done with the tire in terms of tread depth, but years before that the level of traction will have severely declined and possibility of failure will have increased greatly. The best thing to do is match the tire to your driving. If you do 20,000 miles a year get something that will have a higher tread wear, if you drive less miles than normal or value higher traction (shorter stopping distances) then get something a little lower tread wear. There's actually a formula to equate tread wear to coefficient of friction (how well a tire stops and grabs laterally).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treadwear_rating#Relation_to_friction_coefficient
 
#13 ·
Check this site for user reviews.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=ST

A year ago I purchased Michelin Defender. Back then they were on the first place. Keep on mind that the current number one tire (Continental TrueContact) has only 151k miles reported.

If it has 185/65-15's, switching to four 195/65's would be strongly recommended.
How so?
According to this, the difference is negligible.
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/tirecalc.php?tires=185-65r15-195-65r15
 
#15 ·
#14 ·
Another plug for Michelins from Costco. Been using Michelin X Radial DT (discontinued) for over six years now on my 2005 Corolla. Still going strong, hope to get another couple of years out of them even though they are starting to show their age (small cracks just starting to appear on the side walls). They were light years better than the OEM crappy Bridgestone's (Bridgestone Insignia SE200 if I remember right) that were on the car when I bought it from the dealer.
 
#16 ·
Definitely think about what Bitter mentioned on your usage. If you drive a lot and your suspension is aligned then it pays to get better tires in the long run. If you don't drive so much they can be unserviceable before you get your money out of them. I've always done well with Michelins but just bought some Khumo tires because I know I'm not driving my Tacoma enough to use them up before they dry rot.
 
#18 ·
I didn't notice any negative affects going from 185/6514 to 195/60-14 on my old 93 Clonerolla (Prizm). Handling and braking improved, ride felt a little better too. I used the exact same brand/type of tire again so the only difference was the size change. How it handles snow/ice is more up to the tire itself than the size difference really. One of the best all around all season tires out now is the Conti DWS, but I don't know if they offer the size you want. They're not the longest lasting at 540 tread wear rating but they excel in snow compared to other all season tires in their class.
 
#19 ·
The 195/65/15 is the factory size for the 2003-2008 Corolla LE and S. Only the US made CE came with the 185/65/15 tire.

I made the switch and the speedo became slightly more accurate if anything.

As for tires, lots of good info here. However like some mentioned, research for yourself. Check TireRack reviews as they have some very good info out there.

For a specific tire I have seen above the rest, the Michelin Defender is a very high quality touring type tire.
 
#23 ·
Canadian made CE also came with 185/65-15, while the LE and S already had 195/65-65. Speedometer is in fact more accurate with 25 inch outer diameter 196/65-15's... 195/65 is ideal overall, also for winter tires. I actually run 205/60-15's (24.7" OD) Hankook Optimo 4S all weather tires all year long.
 
#29 ·
While true for drastically larger sizes a small to moderate change in width won't make much difference and may actually improve wet stopping distances since there's a larger contact patch. As for price, also not always true either. Sometimes larger sizes which are more common are cheaper than smaller sizes due to simple supply and demand.

While not about braking, this nicely explains how wider tires help lateral handling and why.
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...e-to-the-width-of-a-tire.587766/#post-3821813
Similar sciences apply to braking wet and dry. A bald tire vs bald tire situation, yes the narrow tire would win due to hydro-lift. But at normal tread depths and rational speeds for the conditions the wider tire still holds the edge because there's more rubber meeting the road through the water. No one is talking about going from a 185 to a 255 wide tire, just a 20% increase in over all tire width. I myself went from a high tread wear 185 to a lower tread wear 205 and feel a massive different in wet braking traction due to the change in compound (touring vs sport tire) and width. Factory tire pressures aren't always the best, I find most FWD rear tire pressures are too high unless the trunk is laden or the back seat filled, so just dropping the rear tire pressures to increase the footprint helps out a lot during braking due to weight transfer.
 
#30 ·
Maybe its just me, but I have really been enjoying my Bridgestone Turanza Serenity All Seasons. They're designed for "nicer cars" (I guess) and they have a high tread wear rating, so they last a long time, the ride is nice too, much better than the garbage the previous owner had on it when I bought mine (some no name brand)
 
#32 ·
Nexen N3000. Grip nice, look nice, wear nice (depending on your driving) and right @ $100. Had them on two of my vehicles and have no complaints.
 
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