areusing

Anyone care to weigh in on my tire purchase choice? I recently traded my 2000 TL for a Certified Pre Owned 2008 TL with ultra low miles. The tires that came with the car (Michelin Pilot HX MXM R17) seem to have enough tread although they seem to be wearing more on the outside edges but I am not getting good wet traction. I drive about 70 miles per day, interstate, high speeds. I definately will encounter snow but need an all weather vs. snow tire. Traction and performance are most important to me, with tread wear second and passenger comfort least important. Do I have to replace with a low profile? I used to use the General Altimax on my 2000 TL and loved the performance (although not the smoothest ride).

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

outer tread wear indicates an alignment problem.
you need to get that checked out right away!

yes, you also need to stick with the same ROLLING diameter for the car.
which means, you'll need "low profile" tires.
the stock specs are 235/45/17.
stick with this or go to something with the same rolling diameter.
you can go to http://www.1010tires.com/tiresizecalculator.asp to play with tire sizes.

I chose to go with a 255/40/17 high performance summer tire.
As I live in Texas, and its summer all year long.

the tire I chose is the Dunlop Direzza Star Specs.

Most people on acurazine choose the continental DW and if they encounter snow they move to the Continental DWS tire.

Dymondawg

My $0.02... Bridgestone RE970 Pole Position A/S. I put these (factory size) on my '08 Type S a couple months ago.

Nice ride, decent noise level, fantastic grip in dry and wet. Looking forward to the snow.

Not as quiet as the Michelin.

Lastly, haven't seen any noticeable loss in MPG; I was expecting to see some kind of impact given it's a heavier tire than the stock Michelin (by ~3 lbs if I recall correctly) - and maybe there is - but my MPG stays around 23-24 with a mix of local and highway. My commute is roughly 22 miles one-way, half of it is highway (70-80mph, to keep up with traffic).

Will Y.

The Pilot MXM4s have OK traction for the first 20K-25K miles, then they seem to harden up with resultant loss in traction.

I second justnspace's opinion-- get a four-wheel alignment to stock specs when you get new tires.

My TL has also been running Bridgestone Potenza RE970 A/S Pole Positions for a few months like Dymondawg's, and I'm quite happy with them, in autocross and on the street. They seem pretty quiet, but I went from the MXM4 to the Advan S.4 before the RE970.
No noticeable change in MPG, but they have more traction than the MXM4s ever did.

Tirerack.com has comparisons and test of various tires if you want to compare several different tires for the TL. The Potenzas were best in everything but snow, IIRC, where the DWS came in first.

G/L.