silver33

I have a 2006 TL 6MT, it's about time to change my tires. I'm looking for an all season tires, but I don't know which ones to get. Looking at the Kumho Ecsta AST, I don't race the car, just for normal driving. It will also be driven in the snow. I don't want to break the bank either. Any suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated. Thank you.

SouthernBoy

Within the last month (and one week apart) I had both of my 3G TL's shod with new tires. My '04 manual received a set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus tires and my '05 automatic got Yokohama AVID W4S tires. Big difference in price between these two models. The Yokies are a nice tire for the money. Positives are a quiet ride, very wide footprint, nice looks, good wet and dry traction, nice on center feel with good tracking. The only downside I've seen so far (it's my wife's car so I don't drive it much) has been their tendency to flat spot. Expect to have this for several miles until they warm up.

No downsides to the Michelin's other than the price since that is one of your considerations. Superb tire for the TL manual suspension, this one should have been the OEM tire for this car.

You might also want to check out the Yokohama S4's. Those are the ones I expect to get the next time around for my '05 automatic.

silver33

Thanks for the reply. The Michelin Pilot Sport that came with the car are nice, but they cost way too much. I've read reviews Yokohama S4's and most of them didn't like them. I a lot of my friends have the Kumho tires on their cars and they like it a lot. That's why I was leaning on getting the Kumho ecsta.

emas

look at the falkens.

ngg19

Two weeks ago I had Kumho Ecsta LX Platinum installed. So far I am happy with the purchase. They replaced General Exclaims which I liked but only lasted 20,000 miles.

The Platinums are warranted for 60,000 mile. Although I have only driven them about 300 miles, they are quiet, lower rolling resistance, and handle just as good as the Generals. No idea how they will be in the snow. My first tire was the Bridgestone Potenza RE030 summer tire; it was ok, I prefered the Generals but decided to go with a more comfortable tire--I was willing to sacrifice a little performance, but so far have not noticed any reduced handling.

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

Just curious, if you're friends have Kumho tires, and you are leaning toward that brand, why ask our opinion?
The S.4 is far superior, and is betterin every category when compared to the Kumho, and SouthernBoy's suggestion is dead on.

djwoody

I am getting Toyo Versado's put on my 04 MT later this week.

I've been told they are the quietest and most comfortable ride available. They are also supposed to have a much better tread wear life expectancy than some of the other performance tires available. I've heard from many other members on AcuraZine that the Toyo Proxies are good but apparently the Versado's are Toyo's latest technology and better suited to every day driving.

Does anyone else have comments on these tires?

DMZ

http://www.goodyeartires.com/goodyea...ea=Performance

Great in wet, great in snow. I swear by e'm......
.
.

SouthernBoy

I am certainly not looking to burst your bubble with this, but here goes. Roughly a year and a half ago, we had a set of Goodyear Eagle F1's installed on my wife's '05 automatic, along with an alignment. Things went really well, though there was a slight increase in road noise from the get go. But after about 1000+ miles, the noise began to increase. And it got to where the cabin was being inundated with so much tire noise that my wife was complaining. Since I rarely drive her car, I decide to check it out. She was not exaggerating one bit. The noise was incredible. So a few weeks ago, we had them removed and replaced them with the Yokohama AVID W4S's I mentioned earlier. Examination of her F1's did not show any unusual wear patterns, nor did her car pull or handle strange.

If you have not experienced this, great for you. Her '05 automatic did not like these tires and seems to be doing fine with the Yokies.

Comments and such are most welcome.

mgp021

I have Pirelli P6s on my car. They ride nice and look great!

Bearcat94

DMZ is a big fan of the F1 AS, but increasing noise with miles is the single biggest complaint about them on the Tire Rack Reviews.

They have also fallen quite a few spots in ranking on the Survey page. As more and more people get more and more miles on them, they have fallen out of favor against their primary competition: BS 960 AS, Mich Pilot Sport AS and Yoko Advan S.4 - the GY used to rank in the top 5; currently rank 10th.


Tire Rack is of course not the be all and end all of tire opinions. But the breadth of respondents makes the avg pretty reliable over time.

silver33

I just wanted another opinion on other tires. Everyone has their own biases when it comes to certain brands. I've seen a lot of people here use the Toyo brand tires. So I was just asking for some suggestions.

saetneta

I've got the Eagle F1 AS's too.... mine are terribly loud because they're cupped. That said, they still have unbelievable traction and feel. I'll probably be going with the Pilot Sports in the next few months b/c I can't take the noise and I'm almost down to the wear bars.

SouthernBoy

Yeah, I know he is a fan of then. And I am certainly not of a mind to rain on his parade. I'm pleased he has had such good service from them and hope it continues. But truth be known, when I drove my wife's car to the shop that Saturday morning a few weeks ago to replace them with the W4S's, her F1's were just flat noisy as hell. And we're taking her car on a 1000 mile trip in a few weeks so that would have been making both of us nuts.

The difference is night and day now.

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

If you need an opinion on the Toyo Proxes, I had the T1s on one of my cars, noisy, drone while driving. Just replaced with some Continental's I've had in the garage for years, and it's like i'm in a new car.

narnia

I had P-Zero Neros on my car and one blew out in the upper 20's. For the price, I felt they should have lasted longer. In all fairness, the highways I drive on were being repaired the entire summer before the tire blew and I was driving on raw roads, so I'm sure that contributed to the relatively short life.

Then I bought a set of Toyo Proxes 4 which were much less $$$. Minimal flatspotting with these tires. I'm at 30K with them now and they're getting a little noisy but still have some tread left. When I'm due for a replacement, I'm going to buy the same tires, they're a great value.

Neither of these tires were great in the snow, but handled wet roads well.

C-Lad

I would echo the "noisy, drone" on the Toyo Proxies. Esp. at 30-50 mph. Otherwise a good tire but would not get again because of the noise factor.

Acura Cake

good info in here, according to the dealer im going to need new rear tires so im gonna just go ahead and get a whole set im gonna look into the Yokos

NAiL05

I used toyo proxes 4 on my old car and they were pretty good all season tires IMO. Good wear on them too.

narnia

NAiL05 how many miles did you get out of them?

NAiL05

50k in that range I kinda lost track on a lowered vehicle. That IMO was good enough. Just make sure your alignment is correct!!! but thats an approximate estimate. I drove back in forth from IL to TX for two and a half years on those tires they lasted me pretty well in the snow and so on. Survived quite a bit of weather conditions. I only pushed the tires a few times on the twisties and they do grip when needed. Most of the time it was just highway and city driving here and there.

vatltltl

30K + on Kumho Esta AST... and probably have another 10K+ on them. I rotate every 5-7K miles. Great in the dry and wet and comfortable. BUT, they've been noisy as all get out at highway speeds since around 20K and I'm tired of it... I drive mostly on the highway and my stereo is the only relief. I will not be purchasing them again and will probably replace them before the tread is gone cus of the drone.

silver33

I ended up getting the goodyear eagle gt, so far they drive pretty well, it sticks on the road. Also looks nice. thank you for all your suggestions.

mvpel

I've been really pleased with the Toyo Versados on my 2000 TL - I have about 6,000 miles on them now. They improved my rolling resistance and resulted in a slight MPG gain, and handle confidently wet and dry, and have a 60,000 mile tread life warranty when properly maintained. I also managed to get an excellent price on them through Town Fair Tire, which offers to beat Internet prices for comparable packages.

handy911

Based on Tire Rack's review, I was thinking about getting the Kumho Ecsta ASX, since they're cheaper and have the same review as the Yokohama Avid W4S.

After reading this thread though, I may now want to switch to either Yokohama Avid W4S or the S4, as per SoutherBoy reccomended.

Now, I've just got to think if the Yokohama S4 is really worth $40 more per tire than the Avid W4S. What do you guys think?


My budget is $600 all installed.

pohljm

^^^^ Get general exclaim UHP and save some money

woot427

iTrader: (5)

as said several times now, if youre looking for a summer tire, and money is an issue, the General UHPs are def way to go. lots of tire for not a lot of buck.

SouthernBoy

As a followup for the Yokie AVID W4S's on my wife's '05 TL, they continue to run quietly and are doing fine. They still flat spot quite a bit and it lasts for about 5+ miles. But it does go away. If your driving is mostly in town, you'll not notice this too much. But if you are on the highway at speed often, you will definitely notice it. The only downside as far as I can tell. Otherwise, a very nice tire for the money.

As for the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus's I put on my '04 manual a couple of months ago, they are, in a word, ideally suited for this car. If price is not a concern, there are no negatives with this tire on this car. Also, the new "Plus" version has less rolling resistance than the former version of this tire. So that should equate to a slightly improvement in fuel economy on the road.. it that is important to you.

MobTownTL

iTrader: (1)

i'm getting a new set of rims pretty soon and i was wondering what kinda tires to get with them. i'm gonna get the entire wheel and tire package.

rims are gonna be 19 x 8.5 all around with a 38+ offset and was thinking about getting some 245/35/19 tires.

so far i see Falken 452's on their list which isn't too expensive. was wondering if the Falken 452's are good tires? any noise? i live in the south so we almost never get snow.

royshen

I think Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus is the best choice for TL, a little bit pricey though.

Wicked58

Falkens are the best for the price...

SouthernBoy

Yes they are. But the shop where I bought them was quoting around $70 per tire less than other shops. They get them from TireRack and don't pad the price. Plus they were running a special through the end of April with mounting and balancing at no extra charge. So I paid $188 each.

They replaced a set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires which had been on the car for three years and 40,000 miles. While there was still a bit of life left in them, I knew I was probably going to need a set before winter and with their special, why not do it now?

Incidently, I see now that TireRack has dropped the price to $178.

MobTownTL

iTrader: (1)

welps, went with the General UHP Exclaims since i really have no need for all seasons and tire rack reviews were pretty good.

C-Lad

Had the Toyo Proxies on a '04 TL -- good buy, good wear BUT very noisy. Would not purchase again!

royshen

How do you feel about your new tires comparing to the original MXM4 tires?

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

YK520 Yokohama's. I praise them whenever I get a chance...great price and great treadware.

SouthernBoy

My '04 TL manual came from the factory with the Bridgestone EL42's. Those are touring tires and as such, do a decent job with low noise and good fuel economy. But handling suffers a bit and wet traction is poor. Can't speak for snow because when it snows, my TL stays home in my garage and I use my Ranger pickup.

As for comparing the Michelin's to the EL42's, that really isn't a far comparison. The EL42's couldn't hold a candle to the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus tires in any category accept fuel economy and for me, that is not a deciding factor.

My other TL, (the wife's '05 automatic), had the 'M' series Michelin's (not sure which ones). We went from those to Goodyear Eagle F1's which were a disaster. Noisy as hell. Wife hated them. Then a week after putting the new Pilots on my '04, we put a set of Yokohama AVID W4S's on her TL. MUCH better and a very good tire for the price. One downside is the flat spotting, but if you can live with that until they warm up, the W4S's are fine.

Wicked58

I always get my "sneakers" from discount tire. they seem to always beat tirerack. You all might want to try them out.

TLAwesome

This is going to be the UHP all-season tire to keep an eye on for the reviews... it's the long-awaited replacement for the Continental ContiExtremeContact, and it's called the ExtremeContact DWS:

Will Y.

I just replaced the OEM Michelin Pilot MXM4s yesterday with Yokohama Advan S4s. After 46K miles, the Michelins were still well above the wear bars and were still pretty quiet.

I've put on less than 150 miles on the Advans, which seem to be slightly noisier on certain surfaces and quieter on others than the MXM4s. More thoughts about the S4s after scrub-in and a few hundred more miles.

My bill for the S4s, fees, balancing and install totaled $865 at a local installer next to my office-- more than the cost of Avids, but about the same as the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S at Costco.
America's Tire/Discount Tire price for installed S4s would have run @ $800 if I had been willing to drive 20 miles each way, with an hour wait.