Anyone Consider Aspen Touring A/S Tires?

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Its an NTB house brand, likely Sumitomo. I do not know country of origin. The Aspen 225/55r17 (V rated ) installed are around $435- out the door.

I''m looking for new shoes for the Wife's crosstrek. Optionally, I cross-shopped the Yokohama Ascend GT "rain" tires which are $670- installed at Tire Warehouse and made in Philippines.
I also considered the General G-Max AS-05 as a budget high performer, but thought it was not quite right for the jacked up crosstrek application.

I do need reasonable snow performance and good rain performance

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I am running the G-Max AS-05s on my lowered 2018 Kona AWD 1.6T and love them in the rain. I have a pet peeve on having ulta high perf tires do good in the rain. NOTHING WORSE then bad performance in the rain. I also "sport drive" the crap out of these on the dry street and say they preform great. My Kona AWD can really pull some G's with Eibach springs and large bars too. Far better the Continental Extreme 06 even though General is owned by Continental. They were pretty good in the last Minnesota 6- 12 inch snow storm that surprised us here. My winter tires are Discount Tire's exclusive to them, Continental Control Contact A/S that are better then the Extreme Contact 06 I dumped for the Conti A/S's. The 06's have too soft of a sidewall and handled badly. I don't want to give up "sport driving" in the Minnesota winters with dedicated snow tires that handle badly and would wear out doing 60 mph clover leaf runs. The General AS-05 were bought for the lower price/rain/dry handling because I knew I would burn up a soft Michelin too fast and couldn't justify the cost after just buying two full sets of ultra high perf tires and a set of flow formed rims and a new car all in one year OUCH!! The Generals AS-05 were a compromise that I was SO pleasantly surprised me how good they were in both dry and rain. Count me in for a thumbs up for the General AS-05's, they are that good in the rain!!

As for a jacked up Crosstrek, it's a tire, what's the difference what you have on there, it's about how they will preform on a vehicle. The picture you posted is a "sport tire". Plus Discount will swap out to a different tire ONCE free of charge if you don't like them. she will be safer with a tire that can handle an accident avoidance better then the tires you are looking at. But you will also want to look at the "tread wear" number and bring that into your buying decision. I wanted at least a 500 as the AS-05s have. You may want a 700 with reduced rain and handling? Isn't tire shopping fun?

Look at these too, better wear #s, nice tire and good in the rain.

https://www.discounttire.com/buy-tires/continental-pure-contact-ls



Watch the videos.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/videoDisplay.jsp?ttid=238&videoID=576
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Those look like the "Sumics" sold locally here at VIP. ("Looks like" is dangerous of course.) Not good in snow. I'd pass.
 
I had these on my Subaru. They are terrible in snow. Absolutely terrible!
 
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Its an NTB house brand, likely Sumitomo. I do not know country of origin. The Aspen 225/55r17 (V rated ) installed are around $435- out the door.

I''m looking for new shoes for the Wife's crosstrek. Optionally, I cross-shopped the Yokohama Ascend GT "rain" tires which are $670- installed at Tire Warehouse and made in Philippines.
I also considered the General G-Max AS-05 as a budget high performer, but thought it was not quite right for the jacked up crosstrek application.

I do need reasonable snow performance and good rain performance

[Linked Image]



The Aspen is also sold as the Doral SDL-A All-Season , and maybe even another Treadways Corporation brand made by Sumitomo. So, whichever one you can get the cheapest.

https://www.amazon.com/Doral-SDL-All-Season-Radial-Tire/dp/B00C4QVSTA/ref=sr_1_20?keywords=225%2F55r17&qid=1558203931&s=gateway&sr=8-20

Personally, I would go with a Nokian product like the original eNTYRE. Amazon has them for $64.28 each. https://www.amazon.com/Nokian-eNTYRE-All-Season-Radial-Tire/dp/B0100OEPY2/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=225%2F55r17&qid=1558204857&refinements=p_89%3ANokian&rnid=2528832011&s=gateway&sr=8-3
 
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I ALWAYS found out .....cheap tires are cheap tires when it comes to no name tire brands.

Just 2.5 hours ago my daughter got into a car accident in a trip from Minneapolis to Chicago. She was in down pouring rain and on a northern Chicago hwy. She had to do some heavy braking and swerving and she doesn't have ABS. She was able to stay in control, but a car pinballed her off another car. She had good Continentals that are good in the rain, she even said car handled the MAJOR panic stop great in a downpour. She (my car, she's 19) has a smashed front bumper and the headlight was pushed back a bit with no damage to the light or the hood or the front fender that I can see in the pictures. I am glad she had newer rain loving Conti's on her/my car. All the other 4 cars and semi were towed and one lady went to the hospital from a jack knifed semi smashing her side of her car up good . She is not good, but not bad. Buy good tires, you never know when you will need them.

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Thanks for the good responses.

Just got back from NTB and they gave me a "special" on Sumitomo HTR A/S PO2 for $514.79- out the door with some road hazard and balancing warranties. They have to ordered. I go for install next week.

These appear to be a step up from the house brand sumitomos.

I watched the tirerack test video.

Should be fine for her. I'll report back after they are installed and scrubbed in for a week.
 
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Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Just got back from NTB and they gave me a "special" on Sumitomo HTR A/S PO2 for $514.79-
3 years ago, we got Goodyear Assurance Comfortreds for $650. They are very good, handle well, & should go past 60,000 miles. But the cost, never was up front, till we got the rebate. Since then I've driven "used" tires on other of our cars. Using bigger tires & wheels that the tire dealer did NOT recommend, I've been excellently happy. Handling has been wonderful & the bigger boots look good. I can't believe how good tires & wheels are, that many people have to get rid of. I've gotten five excellent big tires, mounted & balanced on superb alloy & chrome wheels for $110....just bolted them on our car. Twice, gotten 4 tires for $20 & even 6 free used tires with good to excellent tread. Recently I've gotten spare, but never used or never mounted new tires for $10, $20, & $30(mounted on alloy wheel). I'll leave all the new tire dealers, to you's people. People got fine tires in their garages.
 
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Now Online, I see a Memorial Day sale at NTB for 1/2 price on Continental UHP A/S (SureContact RSX) tires plus 50 buck instant rebate.

Gotta go with THEM now.

I didn't know NTB prices were so low. Now I know why its packed all the time.

Lets see if they can balance tires well. ....
 
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Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Now Online, I see a Memorial Day sale at NTB for 1/2 price on Continental UHP A/S (SureContact RSX) tires plus 50 buck instant rebate.

Gotta go with THEM now.

I didn't know NTB prices were so low. Now I know why its packed all the time.

Lets see if they can balance tires well. ....



Wow, sounds great...except for the required "Premium Tire Installation Package, and a One Year Precision Vehicle Alignment Policy." Info sourced from the NTB website.

How much for the premium tire installation package? How much for the one year precision vehicle alignment policy? Do you still come out ahead?

I know, I know no matter where you go you have to pay installation (I usually pay around $100, includes lifetime of the tires rotations, balancing, free flat repairs), but how much for NTB's "premium package."
 
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Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Thanks for the good responses.
Just got back from NTB and they gave me a "special" on Sumitomo HTR A/S PO2 for $514.79- out the door with some road hazard and balancing warranties. They have to ordered. I go for install next week.
These appear to be a step up from the house brand sumitomos.
I watched the tirerack test video.
Should be fine for her. I'll report back after they are installed and scrubbed in for a week.

I would be very interested to hear how these tires work for you, have had my eye on them for a while.
My RT43s are only a year old, but I am hard on tires and will probably only get two more "summers" out of them.
I certainly won't be buying them for my car again as I run snows and am not super worried about their winter capabilities....and the RT43s are not much fun for spirited driving in the dry.
 
Well, after going round and round, I went with the Sumitomos for her given theor stellar rain performance. But I've never found them to be responsive tires either. Well see but this is a Crosstrek - not a WRX
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Ages ago , I used to like Bridgestone Potenza on the Subies. A little "pattery" - but i could read them well. Im sure they are surpassed these days. Plus the car was 600 lbs lighter than today. Crazy.

But I still cant imagine anything on a sky high forester would do. But I've never driven an XT.

The current, factory and worn Yoko Geos are pretty good, nice feel and initial turn in. I don't push her car, it gets out of sorts over 6/10ths

I think the General G-Max AS-05 would do the trick you want - if your chassis can keep up
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Originally Posted by eljefino
Those look like the "Sumics" sold locally here at VIP. ("Looks like" is dangerous of course.) Not good in snow. I'd pass.


Agreed they look like Sumitomo Srion? I have owned. I threw out a set at 10k as they simply degraded in noise level, traction level etc despite having not much less tread.

Never returned to a budget brand.

Report back after 10k let us know!
 
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Wife will get them on tomorrow.

I hope NTB don't over inflate AND they put them on facing the correct way.

After they get scrubbed I can give an impression but I don't think I've driver her car more than 10 miles in 2 years.
 
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