seanus

I have a 2004 TSX with standard 7-spoke 17x7 wheels/tires.

I will need tires in the next 2 months and want to find the lowest cost yet best performing tires for the money (Z-rated would be nice, but I imagine too pricey for my budget).

I'm not a racer, but I do like to take corners pretty hard. I live in San Diego, so snow/rain are not a factor very often.

Please advise on brands & costs.

Thank you in advance!!

cmschmie

Probably would be one of these that I've seen discussed on here.
Go to www.tirerack.com
Avon M550 A/S (For some reason Tire Rack doesn't show these any more)
Yokohama AVID V4S

Plus others such as
Continental ContiExtreme Contact
Pirelli P Zero Nero


All in all...search is your friend

green_henry

+ Bridgestone Pole Position 960AS

I currently own the Bridgestones and had the Yokos earlier. Both are very good.

Vividi

I also have the Bridgestone Pole Position 960AS and I'm very happy with them. The tires are quiet and handles well both wet and dry but my mpg dropped 10% vs. the stock Michelin Pilots.

cuteguy1414

iTrader: (1)

Toyo T1-R's are the best!

knakane

I've had the Yokohama V4S for about 40k miles now & they are great...I paid $550 for all 4 mounted balanced & w/the lifetime hazard warranty thing (which i've had to use)...I would say they are a good balance of performance w/good wear...especially for a SoCal car...

GBalt

Fuzion ZRi (Manuf. by Bridgestone I believe...) - Summer Tire, Near-identical wear and load rating as stock tires, $90 each. I'm on my 2nd set and haven't looked back since.

seanus

Thank you for the replies.

After reviews/research, I am going to buy the::: Yokohama AVID V4S

Now, three last questions:

1. All-season or summer?
2. Size: 215/50 or 225/45? Do I have this choice? One review said to go with 225 on TSX?
3. Best place to buy!? Discount tire?

Thanks again!!!

tinter

The bridgestones are 3-4lbs heavier than the stockies.

PACman

If you're running stock rims, 215/50's will do just fine. The V4S are an all-season tire. There are 3 AVIDS - H4S, V4S, and the new W4S. H is harder compound and W softer. You can order the tires straight through Discount tire; then set up an appointment to have them installed.
I'm running the the H4S, because I'm on 18's. I would of done V4S, but they don't make them in 18's. Thinking about trying the W4S next time.

Hayduke

I live in Tucson, AZ where the temperature rarely gets below freezing. I have two questions:

1. What are the benefits of purchasing summer tires vs. all-season?
2. Would summer tires be okay all year round here in Tucson?

Thanks!!!!!!

bo0sty

man if you like taking some hard turns, you should drive high land valley ranch, very fun drive, just thought id throw that in just came back from driving it

gt0279a

I bought the Yokohama YK520 at discount / americas tire. Same price (I paid $425 out the door wth warranty) and specs as AVID V4S with slightly newer technology but with a different tread pattern (not quite as aggresive looking).

All things equal, I chose the YK520s because they 'stock' the tire meaning if you have any future tire problems they would have to order the AVIDs taking 3-4 days.

LukeaTron

Summer tires have fantastic dry grip at the expense of wet traction. I don't know what the weather is like (exactly) in Tuscon, but if you more or less never get rain, dedicated summer tires should be fine. They hydroplane readily in comparison to all season tires.

loulinjai

I would get Toyo Proxes4 or Kumho SPT's. They are both very reasonable priced. I believe the SPT's are XL rated. I run $90-95 and I heard give very impressive performance for the dollar

acn684

V4S's, they're 1/2 the price of bridgestone potenza's but just slightly lower in performance.

vwong

I find your last statement not exactly true. When I had the Integra, it came with some Michelin all-season tires from the factory. I actually hydroplaned a few times when it was raining. When I replaced those crappy tires with summer tires, they gripped very well. I didn't experience hydroplane with those summer tires when it was raining. I think the summer tires actually provide great wet traction. Other than the tires that came with the car, I haven't purchased any all-season tires for over a decade.

Oh...also, I think your first statement should read like this.

"Summer tires have fantastic dry drip at the expense of short life span."

LukeaTron

Yeah, life span of summer tires is, shall we say, sub par. At least in comparison to any sort of touring tire.

And it's widely known that all but the crappiest of the cheap tires soundly outperform the stock Michelins that Honda is inexplicably in love with. It's hardly a fair comparison. Decent all season tires with their deeper more heavily siped tread are way better at evacuating water that big fat summer tires. Of course for your climate, it hardly matters. (Lucky bastard)

Hayduke

Thanks all..

We all know that the TSX is not a race car (unless blessed by the CompTech fairy) so I doubt the grip vs. tread life trade off is worth it for me. I can't believe I'm fretting so much over tires, but I absolutely love this car and want to improve on it (shouldn't be hard considering the OEM tires).

What is considered a "short life span"?

Sounds like folks like the like the Yohohama AVID V4S's, that's on my short list, but the Kumho Ecsta SPT's are a little cheaper, but with a short life span it may not be less expensive in the end.

Count Blah

See, I've had the Yokohama AVID V4S for just 25k miles now and they're worn out. TireRack and DiscountTire both say they come with a 60k mile treadlife warranty, but TiresPlus where I had them installed (and was planning to get my next set) says those tires come with no warranty. 25k miles just doesn't seem like acceptable life to me.

TiresPlus recommended the Fuzion ZRi as a budget alternative, but they have worse treadlife than the Yoko's, per TireRack.

peterjedi

I had Yokohama AVID V4S too. I say I had the tires for about 25,000 miles. The treads were low. It did not last long. The tires were still pretty good in dry and wet conditions, but just not snow. Granted Boston was hit with some pretty deep snow this pass winter. I had to turn off the VSA just so I can move a little bit.

I just don't remember ever getting stuck like this before. Plus just looking around, other cars looked fine in the snow. I can't imaging all the other cars having new tires.

My tires were filled higher than 32 PSI. Could this be the cause? If my tire pressure was lower, would I not experience this problem? I think next winter I will invest in some snow tires.

If anyone else had problems with their tires this pass winter. Please do reply and tell us what brand of tires did you use.

Anyways I setted on a simular sef of tires, Yokohama AS430s. From my internet searches, they are almost identical to the AVID V4S in performance. The thing I like more about this tire is that it has two treads in the middle, rather than the one with the AVID V4S.

Depending on how these tires do in the next couple of years, I might need to switch tires.

The price of AVID V4S has increased to $129 (Tirerack), while the AS430s are about $136 (NTB). So they are pretty comparible.

Good luck on your tire choices.

scheißterhöffer

I've had the Yoko Avid V4S for about 10K mile, and I agree, their snow performance seems pretty shaky, much worse than expected. It's tough for me to get going in even a couple inches, once I'm going, can't stop, can't turn, other cars around me don't seem to struggle anything like I do. My wife's RWD 325i with Continentals with 30K miles on them does much better in snow than mine. They're great tires otherwise, but if you do much snow driving, I don't see how you could live with them. My problem is I probably drive less than 100 miles a year on uncleared roads so it's hard for me to justify a change, but for those 100 or so miles, it's all pretty shaky.

peter_bigblock

I've had similar problems with the Avon 550s. At first their wet and dry traction was excellent, especially wet traction which is phenomenal. As they've worn over about 25,000 miles or so, their wet traction has decreased a bit. Their snow traction, however, was never better than so-so (although to be fair, most A/S tires are a compromise in this area and 215mm tires aren't best suited for snow). As the tires near the end of their tread life, their snow traction is atrocious. I can't get around in a 2-3" snow with any confidence.

Also, they've gotten VERY noisy as they've worn. I won't buy them again, but that's principally because I have summer tires and will buy dedicated winter tires next. As for my summer tires, BF Goodrich g-Force Sports 225/45/17, I love them. They were relatively inexpensive at less the $100 each and they have good dry grip and predictable breakaway at their limits (on twisty roads and ramps, etc.). They have good wet traction as well. A great combination of stickiness, longevity (will get probably 25k out of them) and price.

amadeus303

iTrader: (2)

Peter... what's your weather like? I got a flat on one of the tire in my summer setup last year, and I'm about to put them back on after the winter. So, instead of just getting the tire repaired or having to get 2 new tires (since you can't replace just 1), I figured I'd just replace all 4. I live in NJ (4 seasons), so I was using my current tires (Falken Ziex 512s) from Apr to Nov. I'm just concerned that if I go to an actual summer tire versus an ultra high performance all season, I'm going to have to take them off in early fall as opposed to after Thanksgiving.

If I went UHP again, I'd probably pick up Toyo Proxes 4's or Kumho ASX's... the 512's have since been replaced by 912's, which are ~2 to 3 lbs. heavier than the original model.

gavinn58

I've been running BFG KDW2 for about 24k now. Excellent wet/dry traction and good wear rating. If I remember correctly, I paid $680 total from Costco.

My OEMs lasted 28k miles with hard cornering.