Performance tires vs Comfort Tires?

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

carguy996

Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
281
Location
Illinois
I have a 2013 Chrysler 200 Convertible with the 3.6 V6. This is a pretty peppy car and currently I have Cooper CS5 Grand Touring tires on it, they have about 20K on them and still in pretty good shape. I find these tires don't put the power down and its real easy to spin the tires, handling is ok, but not much grip. I will give them credit that on the road, they ride real nice and are quiet. This is 3 season vehicle, I drive it from March/April until usually around November before putting it away. A local tire shop has a brand new set of Michelin Pilot A/S 3 tires on special for $499. DOT date is mid 2016 but they are brand new, not factory seconds, just leftover stock. I've been told that a AA/A tire would drastically improve handling and power delivery to the pavement. Couple questions:

-Does anyone have experience with the A/S 3? This is a 5000 mile/year vehicle and is mostly driven around in town with a few highway runs. $499 is a great price, the A/S 3+ is over $747 plus install/tax.

-Is it dumb to get rid of a tire that still has tread life? They are about 6/32

-Does it make sense to put a higher performance on this type of car?

Any advice is appreciated!
 
I considered summer tires, but a couple of the tire shops around here advised against it since its still pretty cold here in March and around the end of October. I was thinking an AA/A all season would perhaps give the best of comfort and performance. I always have bought the highest mileage warranty tire in the past for my cars until I got this one last year, just not sure the Coopers are a good match for it.
 
Can't help you with the car, but I have the A/S 3+ on my Mercedes. Had the older A/S 3 on there originally. Got a little over 30k on the A/S 3 set before they were worn out, but they came with the car so they may have had 5-10k before I got them, they looked good at the time. Have about 10k on the A/S 3+. No real complaints, the car is so quiet, about the only noise you hear are the tires. I always prefer better grip than a quiet ride anyway. A quiet ride doesn't do you any good if you're sliding into the side of a wall.

If the tires are crap, get rid of them. That 6/32's isn't that bad. Snow performance degrades at 5/32 and rain performance at 4/32 so you're really only giving up 1/32's worth of tread life.
 
You should consider the Dunlop Signature HP, if they are available in your size
smile.gif
 
That vintage Chrysler 200 suffers from sloppy handling. The other issue may be poor power control thru its design and traction control system.

You may be able to help the power delivery to ground but I would not expect a lot from the handling end of things.
 
I have Michelin Pilot A/S 3+ as my summer tire on my Subaru. Excellent 3 season tire, way more dry grip than the stock suspension can really take advantage of, and scary good wet grip. Quiet and smooth. All Good. No idea what they are like in snow/ice.

But as I stated, they are way more tire than the car really needs. And I find that with stickier tires, I push a little harder. Then the car rolls more ... Then I think about firming up the suspension ... and adding more power. Then I think about just getting a better high performance car. Then I think about how much a car I actually like costs ...

Then I slow down, and enjoy the car as is, knowing the tires are really good !
 
Appreciate the input! A buddy of mine spoke highly of the Signature HP, the only real appeal to the Michelins was the price, DOT date is 2016 but not a huge deal to me as they have been climate controlled since new. Agree with the handling, its almost a 5000lb vehicle that's sprung a little soft. They will never see snow/ice and most times I don't even take it out in the rain so its truly a fair weather car. Grip is my big thing, but I just hate taking off a set of tires that's still perfectly usable....maybe I can use them as leverage to get the tire shop to install the new ones for free and sell my Coopers as used tiers. Also noticed the Coopers flat spotted real bad after being parked for the winter....would the A/S 3 do the same being a more aggressive tire?
 
You should just get a new set of AS tires. Having two sets of tires is a little excessive for a car that sees 5k miles a year, I would only consider it if you swap them yourself.

If you don't like the current tires, get rid of them. Performance tires make sense on any car if you want the increased grip over comfort. I hate cars that have bad tires.

Those Pilots are almost half way through their suggested life. I'd want 50% off personally, a normie "should" only use those tires until July 2022.
 
Originally Posted by Wolf359
I always prefer better grip than a quiet ride anyway. A quiet ride doesn't do you any good if you're sliding into the side of a wall.

If the tires are crap, get rid of them. That 6/32's isn't that bad. Snow performance degrades at 5/32 and rain performance at 4/32 so you're really only giving up 1/32's worth of tread life.

^ All of this.

I once ditched a set at 50% tread because it was making me hate driving my car. In the years since, I've never felt any way but good about that decision.
 
Originally Posted by krzyss
Why not summer tires?

In the past few years, a few all-season tires have come out that are seriously competitive with summer tires for non-winter use. This is NOT because they perform as well in summer. They don't. But they perform at a very high level in summer while working better than summer tires in early spring and late fall (and retaining enough winter capability to get you through a bit of surprise snow).

The Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 (+) is one of those tires. The others are the Bridgestone Potenza RE980AS, Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06, and Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus.

My friends who've run Michelin performance tires for years say the A/S 3 grips like the old PS2 on a dry road. High-end summer tires are much better than that now, but it's still really good.
 
I wouldn't have 2 sets of tires, id get rid of the Coopers, if anything the shop might give me credit as they are re-sellable and not charge me the labor to install new ones. A set of New Pilot A/S 3+ is $868.25 after tax/install and im hoping to get them to agree to $440 out the door for the new but older Pilot A/S 3. To Maxdustington's point, they are 50% through their useful life and a 50% discount to me would be fair.
 
Originally Posted by d00df00d
Originally Posted by Wolf359
I always prefer better grip than a quiet ride anyway. A quiet ride doesn't do you any good if you're sliding into the side of a wall.

If the tires are crap, get rid of them. That 6/32's isn't that bad. Snow performance degrades at 5/32 and rain performance at 4/32 so you're really only giving up 1/32's worth of tread life.

^ All of this.

I once ditched a set at 50% tread because it was making me hate driving my car. In the years since, I've never felt any way but good about that decision.


I actually did the same a while ago. Car was bought used and the tires had some good life to them. Then one day in the rain, the tires broke loose and I slid into the curb. Only damaged the rim, so after getting a junkyard rim, I got rid of the tires.
 
Originally Posted by krzyss
Why not summer tires?

KrzyÅ›

Because that's the exact opposite of what he wants.

Summer tires have a harder compound at any given temperature, are formulated to wear slower in high temperatures ( as well as not needing snow/ice traction of course but there's still wet pavement to consider) when the problem is not wearing out since he's only getting 5K/yr. The problem is the compound isn't sticky enough for good traction so the (otherwise) same exact tire in an all-season rubber formulation instead of summer rubber formulation, will give higher traction.

As far as replacement options go, even getting the same thing again should help because it's new rubber and more of it. Driving too few miles a year can make a tire get harder faster.

Yes get the higher performance tire. The only reason not to would be if you're driving it in winter snow and ice, or of course putting so many miles on a year that it's miles wear rather than time that's causing lack of tire satisfaction.

Then again, you could Just Slow Down. It's not good on the vehicle to drive it like it needs performance tires and will cost you in the long run, aside from safety issues. Even if you handle driving perfectly, driving faster gives other drivers on the road less time to react to your presence.
 
Last edited:
Any experience with noise level on the A/S 3? Can I expect them to be quiet like other Michelin's have been, or can I expect them to have a "hum" to them on the road.
 
If road-noise isn't a big concern then I really like the BF Goodrich GForce Comp 2 A/S's, near summer tire like off the line acceleration and cornering in the dry and great wet snow and mud performance. Bonus they are pretty cheap and seem to work well on a variety of vehicles. That said, before buying anything though I'd go on tirerack or a 200 owner site like that and look up reviews for tires you are considering that are specific to your vehicle or similar ones, some performance tires that are really good on AWD or RWD GT and muscle cars just do not respond well to higher HP FWD models.
 
Good call on researching at TireRack. Looks like a wide assortment of tires out there for my car. The most popular is the Goodyear LS-2...no thanks! Several people installed the Comp 2 A/S, Pilot A/S 3 and Continental DWS, their reviews were the most favorable citing increased grip at acceleration with a slight hit to ride quality. Big thing was the more secure handling with the AA/A tires.
 
Originally Posted by d00df00d
Originally Posted by Wolf359
I always prefer better grip than a quiet ride anyway. A quiet ride doesn't do you any good if you're sliding into the side of a wall.

If the tires are crap, get rid of them. That 6/32's isn't that bad. Snow performance degrades at 5/32 and rain performance at 4/32 so you're really only giving up 1/32's worth of tread life.

^ All of this.

I once ditched a set at 50% tread because it was making me hate driving my car. In the years since, I've never felt any way but good about that decision.

I ditched a set of Cooper CS5 on my Yaris with fronts at 7/32 and back at 8/32 because all tires cracked (fronts cracks at block level, backs just cracks). At that point, winter performance in 2" of brand new snow was null (aka, sliding)
Dry performance was still very good.
 
Originally Posted by Dave9
Originally Posted by krzyss
Why not summer tires?

KrzyÅ›

Because that's the exact opposite of what he wants.

Summer tires have a harder compound at any given temperature, are formulated to wear slower in high temperatures ( as well as not needing snow/ice traction of course but there's still wet pavement to consider) when the problem is not wearing out since he's only getting 5K/yr. The problem is the compound isn't sticky enough for good traction so the (otherwise) same exact tire in an all-season rubber formulation instead of summer rubber formulation, will give higher traction.

As far as replacement options go, even getting the same thing again should help because it's new rubber and more of it. Driving too few miles a year can make a tire get harder faster.

Yes get the higher performance tire. The only reason not to would be if you're driving it in winter snow and ice, or of course putting so many miles on a year that it's miles wear rather than time that's causing lack of tire satisfaction.

Then again, you could Just Slow Down. It's not good on the vehicle to drive it like it needs performance tires and will cost you in the long run, aside from safety issues. Even if you handle driving perfectly, driving faster gives other drivers on the road less time to react to your presence.


Sorry but I think you have no clue what you are writing about.

If one needs instant traction, cold tires then one looks at SCCA scene (autocross) where tires like:

BFGoodrich g-Force Rival
Hankook Ventus R-S4
Dunlop Direzza ZII Star Spec

are used.

They usually suck in the wet but provide very good grip without need to warm them up.

With UTQG of 200 I think they will wear in 15K during regular driving.

Track tires are different animals, they need to be able to provide traction and support vehicle while being abused on the track.

Find them here

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/types/perfCat.jsp?perf=DRY
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/types/perfCat.jsp?perf=WET
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/types/perfCat.jsp?perf=STRT

I am talking about tires like these:

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/types/perfCat.jsp?perf=MP
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/types/perfCat.jsp?perf=UHP
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/types/perfCat.jsp?perf=HP

They provide decent comfort, lower the performance the better the comfort usually.
They will kill most of all season tires in the wet and dry.

Unless it is cold, somewhere below 45-50F but it depends on rubber compound.

It sounds like the car is driven in warm, good weather so why not go with best traction available for your conditions.

KrzyÅ›

PS I suspect AS 3 will provide enough performance, especially considering the price. They will very likely age out before being worn out.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by carguy996
... Also noticed the Coopers flat spotted real bad after being parked for the winter....would the A/S 3 do the same being a more aggressive tire?


I think any tire will flat-spot after being parked for months at a time ... that is why people jack up their cars or buy those curved parking pads.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

LowMilesLesabre
Best winter tires I’ve ever owned!
Replies
6
Views
746
odie
Kantaro
GT vs UHP tires?
Replies
13
Views
939
Cujet
S
CR: Best Tire Brands
2 3
Replies
50
Views
7K
krzyss
R
New Tire Confusion
2
Replies
38
Views
2K
Bill Judson
J
choice of tires
2
Replies
22
Views
1K
Rogueman2016s
Back
Top