lowest road noise tire on the market

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Originally Posted by litesong
Originally Posted by xtell
I'm just looking for a good all season or touring type of tire that is "really quiet" for this small, light weight vehicle.
Lots of discussion about the quietest tire is on the internet. However, technological advances over the last 10 years in road surface construction, is the best way to lower sound levels inside road vehicles. The Puget Sound area is now laying "quiet" pavement which truly brings "big car" quietness(& lower?) to small cars. Yes, it will take many years before all roads have the luxury of "quiet" pavement, But, already large chucks of our pavements are quiet. One beautifully smooth 25 mile section was laid 2 to 3 years ago & its quietness continues to be a pleasure to my ears. I have used Goodyear Eagle GTs on the front of my Hyundai Elantra. On badly textured pavement, the Eagle GT has a deep rumble, which is one reason it is no longer made. However, when on "quiet" pavement, the Eagle GT is exceedingly quiet. The reason "quiet" pavement isn't making a great uproar to the public is because small, cheaper cars benefit the most. Yeah, who cares if poor people gain a benefit that rich people don't need.

I've never heard of "Quiet Pavement" before. I sure wish someone would lay down some of that around Northern Ohio. Then again, we cannot even get the massive chuck holes properly filled around here with cold patch so "quiet pavement" is probably a pipe dream...
 
We have Firestone's on the Focus close to that size and no complaints. The Primewell Touring on there before was actually better than the Firestones.
 
Originally Posted by xtell
I've never heard of "Quiet Pavement" before.
Initial quiet pavement surfacing showed very poor longevity, & such pavements lost their quietness fairly quickly. Advances have increased longevity, both in surface life & quiet effectiveness. As stated the 25mile section still is sweet to drive. However, I believe the company was extraordinary, that applied the quiet pavement. We'll see if other quiet pavement applications will be as long enduring. A section of quiet pavement was applied north of Everett, WA on Interstate 5. This very heavily trafficked surface seems to be holding up. But I can't believe it can last like applications of concrete. A new third lane of upgraded road work with quiet concrete has recently been applied to Snoqualmie Pass I-90 (both directions). The new work is a true pleasure now, altho long sections of increasingly rough deteriorating surfaces lies to the east. I remember ascending areas of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness forests in the 1970's. Upon reaching cliffs, which I thought far from the maddening(not Madding) crowds, what could I hear? The road noise coming up the Canyons from I-90, five miles away!
Anyhow, check on quiet pavement in Ohio. There must be new Ohio surfaces with quiet pavement treatment.
 
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I don't know what I was thinking.
I currently have on the 2015 Altima in my signature, the OE Michelin Primacy MXV4(this will be the last summer) and they may be the quietest tire I have ever had. You just can't hear'em rolling. However, they come in limited sizes and are grossly overpriced.
 
I have a set of the Cooper Evolution Tour on my 2015 Chevy Equinox V6 AWD. Tire size 225/65/17, all stamped made in the USA. They replaced the OEM Michelin Latitude Tour tires which were done at 42,500 miles. I now have 6,000 miles on the Coopers and they are quieter and ride better than the Michelins even when the car/tires were new.

Wear, however, remains to be seen. The Coopers come new with 9.5/32 tread depth. After 6,000 miles my Coopers are already down to 7/32. I suspect I will get nowhere near the 65,000 miles out of them for which they are warranted. If they get down to 2/32 before they hit 65,000 miles, I will certainly go to Cooper and request a prorated replacement on a different model tire. Cooper makes a good product overall and I would not hesitate to buy more of their products. Just a little shocked at what seems to be relatively quick wear already.
 
I Michelin Primacy MXv4 on my 2016 Camry, with around 60K on them.....this is the rated life of this tire.
They are showing the wear in the tread, but STILL very quiet.
However these are not listed on TireRack for the 2001 Cavalier with your size.

I have read that the Michelin Defender was re-worked due to issues with road noise, so the new tires should be quieter than the older ones.

I really like quiet tires as well.
I also like low rolling resistance tires (Michelin "green X").
The new defender does not seem to be "Green X" like the old version was, however, I don't really know how much impact it ends up being on fuel economy.
 
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wiswins

I've not had any issues with the Michelin Defender tires on the vehicle except for noise. Just my luck, they change the tire compound or tread pattern to reduce noise on the new versions of the Defender

ryster,

I will go to a local Cooper tire dealer to check out the Evolution Touring Tires.

I've been real busy at work the last few weeks so buying tires was not at the top of my list of things to do. Now that things have settled down I can get going on deciding on a tire .I appreciate all of the information brought forth on low noise tires. Thank you to everyone. I'll report back with update.

nuff said,

xtell
 
Originally Posted by xtell
Thank you all for the advice so far. Several of the tires mentioned like Assurance Weatherready and Cooper CS5 do not come in the 195/70-14 size tire. Bridgestone and Continental do not make this size tire either. I did read up on directional, symmetrical, asymmetrical and directional/asymmetrical tread patterns and I reviewed the information from the source SubLGT kindly posted. Other than having a tire with small tread blocks, not much else seems to sway choosing one tread pattern over the other, especially when tread compound, rigidity, belt structure, etc are included in each tires makeup. Here is a list of what I have found locally available without going with $30.00 dollar per tire cheap no name tires. Anyone have any experience with any of these? I can get any one of them at a decent price. I'm an easy driver so hard cornering / ultra grip performance is not so important. I do drive the car year round so some grip in snow is needed.

Yokohama Avid Touring S
Kumho Solus TA 11
Cooper Evolution Touring
Toyo Extenza A/S
Firestone All Season
Uniroyal Tiger Paw AWP3
BF Goodrich Advantage Touring T/A


xtell- I have a 96 civic with 185/65-14 tires, close to your size tire. I have been using the Toyo Extensa A/S tires for awhile! I'm on my 2nd set. The last ones just got old (6 years) and I felt safer with new rubber. They are quiet and handle very well in dry/wet and good in snow. The steering feel is about as good as I've seen on the civic. I've noticed that in rain it feels like I'm driving on dry pavement! I would highly recommend them. Plus the balance up with minimal weight.

Thought I'd let you know since you were asking about a tire in size very similar to mine!

EDIT: DUH.. forgot to mention what you had originally asked. Yes they are quiet, all I hear is wind noise and yes the civic isn't that well insulated either! Your cavalier from what I remember (friend had one) is quieter inside than the civic! Might be time for me to think about noise reduction! lol. The one time it "sang" was on some odd blacktop that here in Michigan they just laid down. I think it might be because it's new.. have to see how that sound goes as it ages.
 
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researcher,

Thank you very much for your informative view on the Toyo Extenza A/S. I'm heading to the tire dealer on Saturday. Toyo is a brand they carry. I'll check on the pricing.
 
I don't know about which tire is the most silent, but I can tell you that the 200 tread wear gumball, Federal RS-RRs SCREAM at any speed above 30 MPH.

Coal rollin' bro full-on MUDDER tires on their lifted Big Foots are dead quiet as compared to these things on the highway!!
(But then they grip like super glue, so I do not care.
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Some technical stuff:

I hope everyone understands that there is more involved in tire noise than just the tire.

Each tire's tread pattern interacts with the macrotexture of the pavement and since there isn't a standardized pavement, the amount of noise will vary. There WILL be reversals - that is, one tire will be noisier than another tire on one pavement, and quieter on a different surface. For example, dailydriver's complaint immediately above MIGHT be because of the pavement in his area, and the tire could be OK pretty much everywhere else.

I once encountered a stretch of road where the tires HOWLED so much I thought something was wrong with the car. A few miles down the road it was OK, again. Needless to say, every time I go that way, I anticipate that noise.
 
^^^This could absolutely be the case (and probably IS with most other tires), but this particular tire is KNOWN/NOTED to scream like a tortured banshee by those on forums who's members hail form every corner of this land.
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It does have a very unique fire/flame shaped, BIG block, 'cut slick' type tread, so that may be the culprit, as I'M not sure how different it's internal construction, or compounding is from other Max performance, 200 tread wear gummies.
 
The only tires that would make the less noise are the ones with soft compound and not so aggresive thread pattern. I had some Yokohama Advan A048 on my old 89 Honda Civic Si and they were quiete and had great grip on dry surfaces I only paid $200 back in the day for all 4 with a discount coupon on those old Super Street mags not sure what the price are on them now.

I would up for a higher profile tire and air it down a few psi, make sure its a touring tire and that all your suspension components are tight, something overlooked on unibodys are the suspension to body mount bushings.
 
Originally Posted by xtell
researcher,

Thank you very much for your informative view on the Toyo Extenza A/S. I'm heading to the tire dealer on Saturday. Toyo is a brand they carry. I'll check on the pricing.


hey you're welcome! let us know what you finally decided to get.
 
Originally Posted by xtell
researcher,

Thank you very much for your informative view on the Toyo Extenza A/S. I'm heading to the tire dealer on Saturday. Toyo is a brand they carry. I'll check on the pricing.



any update? What tire did you decide to get?? Just wondering how it turned out..
 
researcher

Just getting back with an update. I ended up going with the Kumho Solus TA 11. These tires only have 2085 miles on them as of today. I usually air my car tires up to 36# no matter what, but (for the first time in my life) I went with the recommended tire pressure of 30# which is on the door sticker. The tires are very quiet (what I was looking for) on city roads and at highway speeds. No issues with traction in the rain. The ride is definitely a lot softer than I previously had with the Michelin Defender tires. The shop I got the tires at only charged me $49.00 for the alignment, which was also good. I just cannot figure out why the Michelin Defender tires made so much noise the whole time I had them on the car. Other than the noise, they were real good tires in other aspects like tread wear, balance and traction. I have a set of Michelin Defender LTX tires on my F350 dually cab chassis and they run real quiet. Anyhow so far so good. I'll send out another report once I get some driving time in the snow.

nuff said,

xtell
 
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