1985-1998 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
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First of all, let me give a brief history of my Aero and its tires. I bought the car from the Saabnet classifieds off a fellow Saaber in Seattle. I drove it cross country to Indiana and blew out a tire in the backwoods of eastern Oregon - actually near Ontario. The only place that had the 205/50-16Z rated tires in town was Big O, and their only tire in that size was the Kuhmo Ecsta. When I returned to Indiana, I checked the tread on the remaining 3 Pirelli's and decided to replace them with the Kuhmo's as well (about $100ea at Big O).
I immediately noticed two things with the Kuhmo's. They were a bit louder than the Pirelli's and also took some driving time on below freezing mornings to warm up - i.e., they were very rough for the first 20 minutes of driving or so. I kept them on throughout the summer and the noise began to become very noticeable. On a trip to Michigan, I noticed it was almost impossible to carry on a conversation at 75mph. As fall turned into winter again, I found that I drove my Aero less and less and my Jeep GC more and more, even when there was no snow on the ground.
Finally, this past week, I noticed Tire Rack had the Michelin's at $144 each, versus the $167 normal price. Sears would not quite match their cost, but with a 10% discount I got the tires for about $160 each. I also put the original stock size back on the Aero, 205/55-16's.
WOW! What an amazing difference! The Michelin's are so quiet and smooth compared to the Kuhmo's, even though the Kuhmo's only had 20K miles on them.
I know a lot of guys swear by Kuhmo's on this board, and I will admit they were a very sticky tire in the dry and rain, but at least on my car the noise was almost intolerable. In the first 400 miles, the Michelin's are equally sticky in wet and dry conditions and as stated before, so much quieter. I'll have to see how they handle as the miles accumulate, but based on my experience with MXV4's on my SPG and CrossTerrain's on my Jeep, I'm betting they'll be quiet until the tread is gone.
posted by 65.114.71...
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