Tire suggestions

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Hi folks, I figure I'm going to need tires in a few months so thought I would start looking now. I need a set of 215-60-16's for a VW Passat and the same for a Honda Accord SE sedan. The VW has the original ContiPros on it with about 58,000 miels and the Accord has Kumho TA 71's. The Kumho's are set 2 for the Accord due to an early non-repairable issue on one of the original Dunlop SP7000. The Accord has about 96,000 miles total. I'm glad to start now because the selection of tires and prices is crazy. I've been looking on Walmart after seeing alot of people saying they had the best prices and I'm looking next on Amazon. Neither car gets pushed hard but I've been disappointed in the TA 71's because they won't get anywhere close to the warranty mileage. Also, I had a friend tell me about looking on this website BestUsedTires.com that sells new tires as well as used. Don't know I like that too much but I may consider them since they apparently have a 90 return policy. I saw alot of suggestions for using Costco but we have Sams Club here in town rather than Costco. I would apprecite your thoughts and suggestions.
 
What do you need from your tires?
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Is snow performance important? Do you have a second set of tires for snow/winter usage? Does it even snow or get cold where yuo are?

You might like the 3-peak all-season tires such as:
Nokian WRG4
Vredestein Quatrac 5
Goodyear Weatherready
Toyo Celsius
 
General AltiMax RT43 in "H" speed rating...

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=General&tireModel=AltiMAX+RT43+%28H-+or+V-Speed+Rated%29&partnum=16HR6AMRT43&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes
 
Tire Rack has a good decision process you can go through to help decide what type a tire might be best for you. Then I think you need to decide between tier1/ tire 2/ tire3 tire brands...which I think depends on what you want to spend, drive local vs long distances, high speeds on the highway, etc
 
All I have ever used on my Passats were Contis. Excellent wear, handling, quiet ride and quite good wet and winter traction. On my AllTrack, I have Bridgestone Ecopias. Too soon t tell about wear but they handle really well and give excellent wet traction and better gas mileage than the OEM tires.
 
Stay away from Conti PureContact EcoPlus tires. I've only got 20K out of them and I rotate/balance/4-wheel align every 6K miles (and 35psi). These were very well rated on TireRack at the time (and Consumer Reports as well) which I purchased through them and had FireStone install for me (for a fee).

Nope, I don't track or abuse the car or tires. They have a newer version, the "LS", which supposedly has better wear characteristics but I'm switching today to Bridgestone Potenza PE980AS.
 
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My accord has Michelin energy saver A/S tires and they have over 50% tread at 50k miles. Ive been happy with their noise, handling and wet weather characteristics.
 
My Cruze uses that size tire size. Currently I'm running Conti PureContact LS tires. I love them. They are the best set of tires I ever had. They were made in the USA. I will say I only have about 1500 miles on them. I also owned the original PureContacts which I liked, but they could have been quieter, ride a bit better, and lasted longer. 2 of those three things I can confirm are fixed. The PureContacts were one of the best all season tires I've ever experienced in the snow. They are better than some winter tires I've used.

I made a mistake and bought the Hankook Kinergy PT H737 before the PureContact LS. They were nice tires but not sporty at all. I suspect you would hate them on a car like the Passat.

The General Altimax RT43 like everyone says are a decent tire as well. They are very similar to the Contis but I'd say the Contis do everything just a bit better, especially in refinement and rolling resistance. We have the RT43s on another car and I wouldn't hesitate to buy them again.

My vote overall is the PureContact LS. They will be a huge improvement over the ContiPros. They are probably one of the sportiest tires in the size without sacrificing ride.
 
I would suggest you find a tire dealer (that has been in business for a long time) vs a big box. In my life I have had problems with a few sets of tires. Earlier in my life I purchased all my tires from Sam's or Costco. When I had a problem, it was very difficult
to get satisfaction when working with Sam's or Costco. I finally decided to go to a real tire dealer and for the last 10 years every one of my problems were addressed immediately and I was more than satisfied. I even took my daughter's car to this same dealer
and he got her fixed up even though she had purchased her tires at a big box.

BUT, if you never have any problems it won't matter. If you ever have a problme, a tire dealer will probably work with you as his livelihood depends on repeat business.

Obviously, your results and experiences may be different.

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Do you have NTB I surprisingly found really great prices and service in my town there

run by Sumitomo.

Check out the Sumitomo HTR A/S P02 . Should do well in rain and snow and has a comfortable ride. vs Yokos.
 
I am in NY and need better snow performance (Don't have space to store winter tire set). I have shortlisted to following ones for 205/55-16

- General Altimax RT43 (H-rated) (Anyone knows the difference between RT43 and Exclaim HTX at Walmart)
- Vredestein Quatrac 5 (Low tread life)
- BFGoodrich Advantage T/A Sport
- Continental TrueContact Tour
- GoodYear Assurance MaxLife (This seems to be the best if you go by Tirerack review numbers)

I thought of Toyo Celsius. While its winter performance is great, wet handling doesn't seem to be the best, nor the dry handling.
 
Originally Posted by MoneyJohn
I am in NY and need better snow performance (Don't have space to store winter tire set). I have shortlisted to following ones for 205/55-16

- General Altimax RT43 (H-rated) (Anyone knows the difference between RT43 and Exclaim HTX at Walmart)
- Vredestein Quatrac 5 (Low tread life)
- BFGoodrich Advantage T/A Sport
- Continental TrueContact Tour
- GoodYear Assurance MaxLife (This seems to be the best if you go by Tirerack review numbers)

I thought of Toyo Celsius. While its winter performance is great, wet handling doesn't seem to be the best, nor the dry handling.


My vote is RT43's but TBH I've not run else. I usually run snows in winter, but, we've found the RT43's are ok for light stuff, especially when new or nearly new.

You might want to check, I've heard a few times of tire places offering storage for your winter sets. Zero idea how costly it is.
 
Thanks for all the feedback. I live in Middle Tn just north of Nashville currently and the last few winters have seen little to no snow in our area...at least nothing like I am used to up north. I have been looking at several of the suggested tires/ brands mentioned and would love to have a NTB nearby but alas there are none to be found. I did see a concern in some other forums that if I were to get tires at Walmart and they were a diferent rating (T vs H vs ?) from what was on the cars tag on the vehicle that they may not mount the tires. Anyone have issues like that at Walmart or other tires stores? I did also take a look at the Goodyear Viva 3, General Exclaim HPX and Cooper CS5 at WM when I was getting milk the other day. The each seem to be good tires but not sure about the Viva 3. Also, was considering the Cooper Evolution tires?
 
BFGoodrichAdavantage TA sport or the NEW Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring A/S Would be nice options.

Also buy local shop or dealer if possible less headaches down the road better service and I personally would avoid store exclusive models.
 
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Do you have NTB I surprisingly found really great prices and service in my town there

run by Sumitomo.

Check out the Sumitomo HTR A/S P02 . Should do well in rain and snow and has a comfortable ride. vs Yokos.


2nd that, Sumis are very underrated but are great tires and that model mentioned above is a good "all weather" tire.
 
Originally Posted by powersmo
Thanks for all the feedback. I live in Middle Tn just north of Nashville currently and the last few winters have seen little to no snow in our area...at least nothing like I am used to up north. I have been looking at several of the suggested tires/ brands mentioned and would love to have a NTB nearby but alas there are none to be found. I did see a concern in some other forums that if I were to get tires at Walmart and they were a diferent rating (T vs H vs ?) from what was on the cars tag on the vehicle that they may not mount the tires. Anyone have issues like that at Walmart or other tires stores? I did also take a look at the Goodyear Viva 3, General Exclaim HPX and Cooper CS5 at WM when I was getting milk the other day. The each seem to be good tires but not sure about the Viva 3. Also, was considering the Cooper Evolution tires?

I work for Walmart in the TLE. The rules we go by for the tire size is, we will not put a different tire size on the car UNLESS you already have that tire size on the car. Skip the Viva 3. Go for the Exclaim, CS5, or the Evolution out of those choices. I already recommend the 737 earlier. I have a couple pairs of them and quite a few co-workers also run their little brothers. I sold only a handful 737s in the last two years but they hold up very nice and for the price on Walmart.com they seem like a no brainier for me in that size. Another favorite of BITOG is the RT43, any for good reason too.
 
Originally Posted by Mainia
These are great in the rain and snow.

Summer tire.

https://www.discounttire.com/buy-tires/general-gmax-as-05

I run these as my winter tire.

https://www.discounttire.com/buy-tires/continental-control-contact-sport-a-s


Gmax AS-05 is an excellent tire at great price and I got those for Forte to run in all but winter season. General Altimax Arctic is what Forte runs in winter, great tire.
I may have gotten Sumis for Forte but it's very hard to get Sumis in Canada with either extremely limited selection or ridiculously high prices thus running Generals and they are great.
 
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