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Re: Tire Time Posted by Snowmobile [Email] (#686) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Snowmobile) on Tue, 25 Oct 2016 13:31:43 In Reply to: Tire Time, MI-Roger [Profile/Gallery] , Mon, 24 Oct 2016 16:30:15 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
A bunch of things...
1) you will probably get better deals on a/s tires in the spring when they are competing for tire sales, at least up here it works that way anyway. Right now, they are doing winter tire promotions. Typically buy 3 get 1 free or a rebate card or both.
2) Michelins. Many here like them. I think if you are a high miles driver, they might be a good option. With 3 saabs that don't always pack on the miles, I need tires where the rubber holds up well to aging. Brands say no more than 6 years... but I've found michelins develop spider lines really early, in and around 5-6 years for me... Nokians otoh often have no spider lines at 10 years (at which point they are overdue to change)... this may be a non issue for you if you are high miles... I have a few cars that only put 2-3k on /year...
3) generals... I really like the AS03 as well on my c900. Have not tried them on the 9-5. I don't care at all (almost) about tread life. These are a bit higher performance and directional (which I like). That means stickier rubber that wears quickly. Not sure that is the tire for you, but I like them. I just bought General winter tires for the winter beater c900. Half the price of Nokians and great reviews here, so I will see how they compare. Tread pattern is similar to Nokian's older tires and their current budget line... we will see how they do re rubber compounds etc... (trying to keep the costs down on this car as it has some rust and it's years are numbered - eg re your thread on the c900 bb - 28 year old cars in the saltbelt do rust!)...
4) on the 9-5, I replaced the junk A/S's that came with the car with Michelin Pilot Super Sports. Great tire for performance. Really short tread life. Iirc, I got 2 summers and just over 10k miles. This tire could go on your porsche! Now on Bridgestone RE970. Great tire performance-wise for the 9-5, and directional. Tread life better than PSS. Would get another pair, but I'm nowhere near 50k miles if that is your target (maybe half that?). Btw, my main criteria are wet weather performance (no hydroplaning) and good steering response. I'm using 225/45R17 on a 2004 arc with konis on medium and stiffer rear springs. I'd get the Bridgestones again or the general as03.
5) I find 9-5 eats tires. Where is the wear on yours? perfectly uniform? inside or outside edge? middle? this tells you a lot. I'm also fussy about stuff, but I find that a little inside wear is kind of inevitable on these cars. Outside edge wear on the fronts normal for fwd. You might not expect to get the full rated mileage, especially as that is probably the mileage to hit the wear bars, not just 5mm... leaving them until the wear bars is not great imho... 4-5mm is about time to start thinking about this, at least if you get rain where you drive...
6) I would look at the Nokian summer/all season tires also ("Line" come in different speed ratings like ZLine etc). I had a set of Nokian summers on a c900 years ago and they were fantastic. Hard to find though. Have not run contis. I prefer directional tires if possible. For highest performance, assymetry is good, but I find it strange that a tire like DWS would have a highly directional tire design but be non-directional... I think that is mostly to prevent the cost/complexity of right/left tires, but it bugs me to have one side of the car having tires that look backwards... if the tread lines don't matter, then why do that? and you can't flip them over the rim to improve uniformity like with directionals or symmetrics... otherwise DWS seem great
good luck!
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