Are Tire Reviews Worthless?

Originally Posted by artbuc
Starting to think reading tire reviews is a waste of time.



One of the tricks of "savvy" online researchers is the ability to weed out the "fluff".

I don't claim to have any particular skills in that regard, but I will suggest that you review the colored blocks and the numbers contained in the "survey results" on Tire Rack. This seems to a satisfaction index type of chart, and I feel it's reasonably accurate.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=HAS&width=275%2F&ratio=55&diameter=20&tireSearch=true&filter=y





The post above talks about poor snow performance. Since I live in South Florida, I would not be able to provide any useful information on that. However, the Michelin LTX tires on my F150s are spectacular in the rain. As a race car guy, performance driver and overall enthusiast, it's not difficult for me (or my wife) to notice the differences in wet weather performance between the OEM Goodyears and Pirelli's. He may hate the Michelin tires for very valid reasons. I put them on all 3 of my F150's and get superb results.

Furthermore, I'd add that the ample tread depth of the LTX tires, coupled with significant zig-zag sipes lead to good wet performance. It's no surprise they outperform the OEM tires that were mostly without sipes.
 
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Originally Posted by Miller88
Well I think a lot of them will have to be ignored. A lot of the reviews are from people with a worn out car with a bad alignment. Well, of course they're going to wear funny! Or some of it is just subjective to the vehicle.

Example: The ipike snow tire I put on my Subaru. They make it undriveable in the snow. This last winter I ended up driving the Sentra on worn out CL find snow tires because I can actually keep that on the road in the snow. I prematurely changed out the snow tires this year and got caught in a snow storm with the factory Subaru tires and they performed better than the Hankook snow tires!


I've only used OEM all season and one set of all season replacement tires on my 2014 Suby Outback. Far better snow performance than my F-250 Superduty 4WD truck which I've since gotten rid since the Suby is better in the snow.
 
Originally Posted by MNgopher
See some of my pet peeve going on right in this thread.

Goodyear OEM's are trash. OK, which specific Goodyear tire, in which size, and which application.

Or Hankook Snow tires are trash. Which specific one? There are many.

I've had bad Goodyears - Wrangler RT/S tire. I happen to like the set I've got on my F150 that were OEM's. They are Wrangler All Terrain Adventure with Kevlar (LT series), but I also run dedicated snow tires. And I've had them on for over 50,000 miles at this point.

Same on the Hankook Winter TIres. I've had two - the Ipike W409 and IPike RW11. Liked the W409's a lot better than the RW11's, but the RW11's still beat the pants off the all season Michelins Latitude HP's when the snow was flying...


The ones I have are the RW11. The car is unsafe to drive in the snow on those tires. The Geolandar G91s that came on my Subaru (which everyone complains about) are significantly better in snow and ice than the RW11.
 
Consumer reviews are unfortunately useless. Too many variables, not enough expertise, zero incentive to be completely honest.

Subjective reviews by professionals are... less useless. Still plenty of opportunity for bias, but at least they know what they're talking about to some extent and generally won't say things that are completely ridiculous.

Professional reviews based on measurements are much more trustworthy.

Any review is going to be somewhat specific to the application. The more your car is like the one in the review, the more applicable the review will be.
 
Originally Posted by artbuc
Starting to think reading tire reviews is a waste of time. You know the drill. Reviewer A says tire is quiet as a church mouse and Reviewer B says had to get rid of exact same tires because they were too noisy, etc, etc. How do you go about selecting new tires? Do you pay any attention at all to reviews such as those found on Tirerack?

I asked for suggestions on another thread and got some terrific feedback. So, I am not asking for a specific recommendation, I am just interested in how you select tires. Thanks.


User reviews are pretty useless. You also don't know what their frame of reference is. Quiet compared to what? Grippy compared to chinese crap or 10 year old tyres, or compared to a Goodyear from a good year?

I pay attention to the tests on tirerack and other sites, but you need to consider the sizes tested, and the test vehicle.

I drive quite a few customers cars for test drives, so I have some idea of tyres I'd consider for myself, and some I definitely won't. If someone ditches some tyres in a size I can use and they have some life left I might even run them on my car, that's how I learned to appreciate the Ventus V12 I paid for... so far the only Hankook I would even consider paying for....
 
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I'm starting to go with consumer reports as their testing almost always correlates with my results, and they run the same tests on all the tire types, so their results between the types are comparable. My yoko ig52c's seemed pretty bad in the wet, and that's what CR says. My bridgestone Blizzak WS80 seemed to be better on wet pavement and that's what CR says as well. My Xice2's CR says are quiet, and have decent wet traction and that's what I found too.
 
Originally Posted by madRiver
Ignore any tire review that is under 5k miles.

The honeymoon period of any tire is under 5k when the reviewer remembers their previous tire (likely louder due to wear) at end of life comparing to a new tire. Enough time passes they become more objective on the review.

I pay really close attention to winter traction even new though. Yes winter tires are better but raised in New England so know how to drive on cruddy tires in slippery conditions.



Ignore tire reviews for any vehicle with over 100,000 miles on it......
 
Originally Posted by CKN

Ignore tire reviews for any vehicle with over 100,000 miles on it......

?
 
Mine are subjective yet entirely valid.

Be advised NVH ratings are not offered on most offerings.


[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
 
Originally Posted by mrsilv04
I read a bunch of tire reviews here on BITOG, as to how wonderful the Michelin LTX tire was.... month after month, year after year.

After shelling out over $800 for a set... actual tire owner A found out they were, by far, the worst tire that I have ever owned. The only time in my life, that I've ever pulled off a set of tires at half tread, and sold them on Craigslist, because I couldn't take the overwhelming lack of wet/snow traction any longer.

There's a difference right there.

And then we have Random Commenter 722 (above) who comments about a tire because of "general consensus"... and apparently not because he's actually owned a set. By the way 722, I actually have a set of those "trashy" OE Goodyear tires on my truck, right now.

There's a huge difference right there.



I don't know who peed in your Cheerios this morning, but wow. And yes, I actually do have them on my truck. Coffee cup and dated post it note for authenticity
wink.gif
Nor did I say they were trashy, they're perfectly fine on dry and wet roads, I was told by multiple people I actually know who had these exact same tires on their Ram's that they were bad in snow, without me asking them.

[Linked Image]
 
Originally Posted by mrsilv04
I read a bunch of tire reviews here on BITOG, as to how wonderful the Michelin LTX tire was.... month after month, year after year.

After shelling out over $800 for a set... actual tire owner A found out they were, by far, the worst tire that I have ever owned. The only time in my life, that I've ever pulled off a set of tires at half tread, and sold them on Craigslist, because I couldn't take the overwhelming lack of wet/snow traction any longer.

There's a difference right there.

And then we have Random Commenter 722 (above) who comments about a tire because of "general consensus"... and apparently not because he's actually owned a set. By the way 722, I actually have a set of those "trashy" OE Goodyear tires on my truck, right now.

There's a huge difference right there.


Interesting, as the Op suggests, forum and reviews in general are interesting for sure...lots of views and opinions.
I live in the snow belt region of northern lower Michigan, 120+ annual inches of snowfall...I have have several sets of these Michelin LTX ( now Defender) tires and they a better (longevity, wet traction, and snow traction) than anything I have ran. Certainly not snow tires for snow, but all around they are a great tire. Have had several vehicles with Goodyear SRA's (OEM) ... a crap tire for rain , let alone snow. One thing you will notice with a Michelin tire is that the tread pattern (including sip-ins) run all the way down to the tire wear bars. Yes, they are expensive...
 
Tires will always be a compromise. The main objective for me is if the tire is suitable for the application, and my expectations.
 
Originally Posted by Cujet
Originally Posted by artbuc
Cujet, are you talking about Premier or Defender LTX tires?


LTX, sorry I could not edit it.


Defender LTX.

Good god I wish we had more than 3 minutes to edit a post. I suggest a 30 day edit feature.
 
Originally Posted by artbuc
Starting to think reading tire reviews is a waste of time. You know the drill. Reviewer A says tire is quiet as a church mouse and Reviewer B says had to get rid of exact same tires because they were too noisy, etc, etc. How do you go about selecting new tires? Do you pay any attention at all to reviews such as those found on Tirerack?

I asked for suggestions on another thread and got some terrific feedback. So, I am not asking for a specific recommendation, I am just interested in how you select tires. Thanks.


Have not played on TireRack in a while but really liked the way things were set up there. I hope they left it as is or as was.
I've spent some money on tires and was always keen on reivews there.
- Any tire in the top 3 to top 5 in category parameters important to me was time well spent - - but you do have to read between the lines some. For one thing, a tire with great ratings by 1135 people or 600,000 miles weighs different to me than the tires rated by 11,000 reviewers or 3.3 millon miles.

Coupled with that, you can find other sources that rate that particular tire to kind of cross ref and

Thirdly, you can look up tires rated by the car they go on. For instance, I might want to search the section for VW Golf owners to see what they rate and use and the paragrah or two they add about thoughts including where they live and drive. I'm in a snowy icy area at times and winter considerations are nice but only a few months of the year. Someone in the rain belt might be more interested in wet traction for example.

Putting all that together usually pins me to just a few very obvious choices. If in doubt at that point, I go with my gut feeling and the look of the tread. I went more aggressive looking for my last A/S tires that still needed some snow / ice ability for those few months. That was a sports car and rwd. The other; A quieter logitudinal tread on A/S tires with my AWD SUV that is the road-tripper / family hauler.
Conti Extreme Contact DWS and Pirelli Scorpion Verde.
thumbsup2.gif


Originally Posted by Cujet


Good god I wish we had more than 3 minutes to edit a post. I suggest a 30 day edit feature.


I've had that thought a few times a month
a few times last week
a few times every few days .....
cry.gif
33.gif
 
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Bachman, could you give a quick comparison between the Continent DWS and Pirelli Verde? Why did you chose these over the Michelin Defender LTX or Bridgestone Alenza? Thanks.
 
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I agree TireRack is very useful information. I've relied on the customer ratings and found the tire I purchase has very close performance for me based on the ratings. The more ratings there are, the more accurate the cumulative score is.
 
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