2003-2011 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Bob,
Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but you should probably decide what 2 or 3 attributes you value most in a tire and and go for the model that emphasizes those qualities the most, since all tires are a form of compromise and no tire does everything 100% (dry traction, wet traction, snow traction, steering control, noise, longevity/wear, smoothness, acceleration, mpg, highway, curves etc). I think high performance tires are really great for dry handling but are noisy and a bit scary when wet and suicidal for snow. So for those of us who live in a snow prone area and don't want to change tires seasonally, high performance (only) is not an option.
Do not expect high performance out of a all season tire (if someone has found a good all season tire that performs as well as a good high performance tire then please let us in on it).
I do not like noisy tires so I'm willing to give up some handling for a lower noise tire. IMHO a tire that sounds like a wheel bearing failing makes me feel like I'm driving a junker...so I try to avoid that (an added benefit of low noise tires is you can hear a wheel bearing failing when it eventually starts to go). In my experience, a lower noise tire is going to be softer and will reduce acceleration, coasting, handling, and wear faster than a harder tire. A really hard tire, on the other hand can provide excellent acceleration, steering precision, good dry traction, last a long time, but be lousy on wet roads and pretty bad in snow, not to mention noisy.
I had replace some cheap (very noisy) sport tires (very hard) on my C900 with Avid H4's and loved the low noise and impressive wet traction (more than I needed), but found the steering control "squishy". Adding the softer tires also served as a damper on the stiff C900T suspension so city driving was improved. Yoko hardended the compound a bit for the H4S which I got after the H4s wore out (after about 40k). This improved the steering control from the prior version while maintaining low noise characteristic so it was an improvement (but I see o some still find it lacks steering control/feel).
For an "all season (low noise) performance tire" I thought the H4S was a good compromise. The stock P6's on my 2.0T seem to handle nicely (perhaps a bit better than the Yokos on dry roads but this is a different car so can't really compare) but they are louder than my H4S's were on the C900 (again different car also). The noise isn't excessive, however, and if they don't get louder as they wear then I find them tolerable in the noise department.
I'm guessing that if you went for upping the "handling/performance" attribute in the tire equation fro P6 or H4S you will have to give something up in the "all season" department (i.e., wet traction, snow traction, and probably noise). Yokos probably have better wet traction than the P6s.
Currently, I'm pretty happy w/ the stock P6's, however, when they wear out I would consider replacing with the Yoko's (V4s for 16" I think) to cut the noise, smooth out the ride a bit, and improve wet traction. By that time, however, they will probably have reformulated the compound again so it won't be the same tire. :(
Good luck,
Pat
posted by 129.162....
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