That pesky tire question again

[fizzixrat]

Like many, I haven't been thrilled with my Potenza's performance on rain, ice or grooved pavement. (There was a 10-mile patch of grooved highway in Nebraska that forced me to keep both hands on the wheel and my speed under 45 mph, just to keep control of the vehicle! This while other vehicles zoomed past me at well above the 75 mph speed limit.) I'm supposed to be moving to Minnesota in a little over a month, and I'd like to purchase some new tires before winter hits. (Besides the obvious snow/ice issues, I also worry a bit about the height of the Twin Cities beltway and all the curves it has on it, plus the occasional bridge to cross. Our real estate agent also rightly warned us about Minnesotans' inability to understand the concept of merging, so handling is critical.)

I've read several threads about tires here, and there doesn't seem to be a huge consensus on one tire or another. Some like the Michelin MX4, others the Goodyear Integrity, still others various other tires. Additionally, while people do seem to be looking for better handling, like me, they do seem to be more preoccupied with keeping up their gas mileage than I might be. I don't want to deal with the time and hassle of two sets of tires (winter snows and regular), so I'm looking for a good set of all-seasons that will handle well on rain and ice. Sure, I'd rather not lose too much MPG, but it's the handling that is foremost in my mind. (Cost is another issue, mind you. Although I do have Costco membership, and it sounds like some of the tires could be purchased there.)

So, recommendations, people? I had been planning on waiting until the end of the summer to move on this, but after driving through Chicago (worst highway road conditions in the country?) a few weeks ago, I'm leaning towards taking care of it sooner.

Thanks in advance.

[Guillermo]

All season tires are no season tires!
All drivers that have driven winter tires in winter conditions will tell you it's crazy not to.

Do you find changing your own engine oil or going somewhere for someone to do it for you a huge hassle that you are avoiding?
Guess what, changing tires is no more of a hassle then changing engine oil!

Michelins are all overpriced because they advertice safety so their repuation and higher price attracts customers who think they are buying much better quality.

Fact is for spring summer and fall conditions you will be happy with almost any tire that is larger then the OEM size Potenzas.
First decide on a size and then see what tires are available in the size you want.
G

[SeanW]

I've always thought that this would be a great topic for the Knowledge Base or an FAQ. Has anyone actually spent the time to compile a list of all of the tire options for the Insight? I'm not ready for tires yet but will probably create one when the time comes. Has anyone beat me to it?

[figgy]

We were working on compiling a list with mpg hit vs. performance in another thread, but it didn't get enough entries to make a big list.

I went with the Yokohama AVS E100s 185s and see a tremendous difference in handling and about a 8-10% decrease in mpg at highway speeds. I don't see a big difference driving around the city.

If you want performance, then these are great tires. If you want to conserve your mpg and still avoid tram-lining and such, then I would go with anything that is in the larger size and ignore performance altogether.

I bet anything in the larger sizes will fix some of the 'problems' with the narrow tires, and maybe a less aggressive tire will keep 98% of your mpg.

I am very curious what the 'least performance' tires in the larger sizes do for mpg. I can't afford to try every tire out there, but it sure would be nice to compare them all.

I went with the sticky end, and I see the mpg decrease but superb handling performance now.

What is it like to go with the other extreme in the 185 size?

Hi All:

___I picked this up from M. Alexander over in the Honda-Hybrid forum at Yahoo … Not that it will help someone make the definitive decision but it might?

Low Rolling Resistance Tires w/ actual tested rolling resistances!

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___[email:3cbnk3ci]Waynegerdes@earthlink.net[/email:3cbnk3ci]

[figgy]

Very interesting.

It is interesting that they use data gleaned from tirerack.com, just like we all do.

If only they would do the same study focusing just on tires for the Insight!!

[figgy]

Has anyone heard of these:

Conti Touring Contact CH95

They claim LRR. I may try the other end of the spectrum for GF's Insight (going with 185/60s but as LRR as possible).

[jrrs]

Originally Posted by Guillermo

All season tires are no season tires!
All drivers that have driven winter tires in winter conditions will tell you it's crazy not to.

rock on! i agree with that whole-heartedly.

on the subject of studs/studless, here is the extent of my experience with the matter:

i had an '88 mercury tracer ( ~mazda 323 ) which had a shot right rear shock. driving this car in the winter in that condition, with the "all-seasons" which were on it when i bought it ( which still had decent tread and didn't seem to be cooked ), with respect to situations on the road when the snow is just starting to pile up in the beginning winter months, where you have little ~6" or so high "snow dunes" was roughly analogous to driving my friend's 5.0 with bald tyres in a jacksonville [FL] rainstorm ( which usually only lasts like 6 minutes or so.... ), as i had done whilst living in said jacksonville. after getting four ( pretty much cheap-o ) sumitomo wintermasters with studs all around i was able to drive again utterly without fear. fixing the shock later helped, yes, but the point is those tyres ( think it ran me $200 total from a little tyre shop outside of springville, ny ) made stupid ridiculous amounts of difference.

later, when i got my '86 Si, i decided to try on for size some of the world's studless technology, seeing as how it was like late '01 at the time, and got those nokian hakkapelittas, the studless ones ( hakka-q or hakka-1, ... i think hakka-q ? ). on both the '86 Si and now '93 Si, those studless tyres feel to me to be only *marginally* less effective for dealing with severe snow; they're better in slush, and worse on ice. naturally, they seem to *own* the sumitomos when it comes to non-{snow,slush,ice} conditions, and some of that is going to be the civic owning the tracer ( naturally ), but still...

i was pleased with the results of the studless tyres, as they performed better than i had anticipated, and are more convenient for times when winter is not coming down on you like avalanches ( ie - the bookend months of winter, and leading into the warm season when you can be lazy for a weekend or so ). i feel that i would buy them again, but i do also have a soft spot in my heart for having tyres with talons again.

it seems that the general tone of things with respect to !standard tyres on the insight is that you must find for yourself the balance between how poorly you feel the current tyres perform and how much MPG you fancy sacrificing ( and at that, seems people usually post % decreases not exceeding 10 by much, if even that ). if you are holding the steering wheel with the nerves of someone who is about to win or lose at the next flip of a card in a heated round of slapjack, and more alert than you would be after two pots of coffee, due to a combination of current driving conditions and fear that fate is going to bestow upon you the gift of death when you blink or look down at the speedometer a millisecond too long at the precisely the wrong time and will be thus unable to keep your vehicle under the nearly bare thread of control that's the only thing keeping you from being blown, thrown, or tossed either into that fancy new F150 extendacab's grille or that craggly old drainage ditch snarling at you with gnashy rock teeth; yeah, maybe forget the -7 MPG and get some better tyres.