Torontodude

I have visited the TireRack's website and read their reviews.
Seems like it would be good to look over some other reviews.
Anyone know another website(s) that review / rate tires ....
or have the Consumer Reports evaluation for best all season tire ?

ThANKS

nsxtasy

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Torontodude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have visited the TireRack's website and read their reviews.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I find that the comparison tests on the Tire Rack website are much, much more meaningful than their user reviews. If you look at their accompanying detailed graphs, you can see them evaluated for lots of different characteristics, including noise, various measures of grip on dry pavement, on wet pavement, etc. And the advantages of these tests over user reviews is that they are using the same tires, on the same cars, with the same tread depth, and the same drivers, at the same place and time.

Most all-seasons are pretty good for tread life. For all-around grip, the ones I've found to be the best are:

Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position
Kumho Ecsta ASX
Pirelli PZero Nero M+S
Avon Tech M550 AS
Michelin Pilot Sport AS

I generally recommend the Kumho ASX because it has a significant price advantage over the other tires in this group.

I don't pay a whole lot of attention to road noise, but you can check out these Tire Rack comparison tests involving these tires:

test 1
test 2
test 3

TravisDTD

Check consumer reports for tire reviews. I haven't read them reciently but november put the Falken 912 at the top.

Here are the top 10 from Nov 2007

titled: All-Season UHP tires

1. Falken: Ziex ZE-912
2. Nitto: Neo Gen
3. Yokohama: Advan S4
4. Falken: Ziex ZE-512
5. General: Exclaim UHP
6. Continental: ContiExtremeContact
7. Michelin Pilot Sport A/S
8. Kuhmo ASK
9. Sumitomo HTR
10. Pirelli PZero Nero M+S

nsxtasy

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TravisDTD &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Here are the top 10 from Nov 2007

titled: All-Season UHP tires

1. Falken: Ziex ZE-912
2. Nitto: Neo Gen
3. Yokohama: Advan S4
4. Falken: Ziex ZE-512
5. General: Exclaim UHP
6. Continental: ContiExtremeContact
7. Michelin Pilot Sport A/S
8. Kuhmo ASK
9. Sumitomo HTR
10. Pirelli PZero Nero M+S</TD></TR></TABLE>



You're right that these are the ones they rated best, in order. But I sure disagree that these are best, from my experience. And it's not even clear how they came up with their overall scores; for example, the top two overall were ranked two of the worst for traction in snow. And 12 of the 15 tires got the same rating for "dry handling" which might be the most important attribute for many of us. Another point, I don't understand why they included the General Exclaim UHP in the rankings; that's a summer tire, not an all-season.

I like the Tire Rack tests better. They're more detailed and you can see why a tire comes out where it does.

Incidentally, that article also recommends the same NEW criterion for replacing tires (using a quarter rather than a penny) that the Tire Rack does.

Race Egr

Get the michelins, dont get falkens there noisy as hell

TravisDTD

First off, I never said these were the best, I am mearly posting their results.

No all-season tire will rate great in snow, some will rate beter than others but none will hold up against a tire made for the snow. All season tires are meant to cover as wide of range of seasons as possible but you, nsxtasy, and I both know that what make one tire great in one catagory will bring it down in another. Its physics. Tire manufactures will do their best to make the multifunctional all inclusive superior tire to try to meet the consumer demand but unless we can defy physics, it won't happen. There will never be a multifunctional tire that beats out a specialty tire. As I read this list and interpret I do see a mix of all season and Summer ultra high performance tires, maybe thats why they titled it "All-Season UHP tires". Take out the summer tires and you have a more taylored All season list which would maybe have been titled with only "All-Season tires". I do admit that the ratings are TireRacks site also hold value but by all means are Bias and for that I choose to read more than just reviews from Tirerack. I suggest reading as many reviews as you want to narrow your options and talk to others that have owned them. Ask them questions like. How do you drive, where, when and what vehicle? You opinion on a tire will result from how you use it and what application its placed in.

VVENOM800TT

i have toyo proxes 4 on my teg and i love them. They're not so great now that the thread depth of like 2/32 and my abs isn't working right now either. (we have a few inches of snow now) But when they were nw thay were great, rain or shine wonderfull, in the snow they kept me on the road.

nsxtasy

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TravisDTD &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">First off, I never said these were the best, I am mearly posting their results.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I was disagreeing with Consumer Reports's testing that said these were the best. I was not implying any disagreement with your post.

95vxtealhatch

falk ziex ze-512 are NOT UHP, only performance.

cinci27

Most people don't go through enough sets of tires to be able to say which one is the absolute best, so keep that in mind when reading reviews and advice.

Tirerack reviews and tests are VERY misleading to compare tires. You can get a general idea of the tires performance, but nothing more. Anyone with any lab testing experience can see that tirerack tests are biased.

nsxtasy

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by cinci27 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Tirerack reviews and tests are VERY misleading to compare tires. You can get a general idea of the tires performance, but nothing more. Anyone with any lab testing experience can see that tirerack tests are biased.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

The Tire Rack tests are conducted side by side at the same place and time, using the exact same cars, exact same size tire, exact same course, exact same drivers, all new tires. IOW, all the variables other than the type of tire are held constant - which anyone with lab testing experience knows is the proper way to conduct a test.

The user reviews on their website, OTOH, can indeed be misleading, because they are simply reports filed by owners on a single tire, usually without any experience with another tire (or, they're replacing a worn tire with a new tire, which can be even worse in terms of keeping extraneous variables from affecting the results). They are biased, too, by which owners buy a particular tire. A lower-performance tire can be frequently bought by a relatively inexperienced driver who is happy with the tire, whereas a higher-performance tire can be frequently bought by a driver with a lot of experience with various tires, who is very demanding (in terms of usage as well as expectations). I know of at least one instance in which two tires were tested back to back, and one was better than the other in everything, all 23 different characteristics that were evaluated, yet the other tire got higher overall marks in user reviews.

CardDealer

We'll assume they're not fudging numbers (even though nobody is there to say otherwise), Tirerack testing is biased and misleading because of two things:

1. They only test 4 tires at a time. This allows them to choose a tire they want to push, and compare it three weaker ones.

2. They perform each test at a certain temperature which allows them to push certain performance categories.

So as said above, the tests hold some value, but it's only a very small snippit of the real world comparison. and in the end you have to realize its a marketing tool.

nsxtasy

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CardDealer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">1. They only test 4 tires at a time. This allows them to choose a tire they want to push, and compare it three weaker ones.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not true. They usually test new introductions against the most popular tires in their performance category. I haven't seen them "push" anything.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CardDealer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">2. They perform each test at a certain temperature which allows them to push certain performance categories.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Also not true. They don't "push" any performance categories. And they test at the appropriate temperature - they test summer tires at warmer temperatures, they test winter tires on an ice rink, etc.

Sounds like you've got a beef of some sort with the Tire Rack. FWIW I am not affiliated with them. They have the best-organized website with the most useful tire information. I refer people to them when their prices are the best (which is usually), and to other tire retailers when others have lower prices.

All of which is a tangent off the original question of this topic, which has been answered.