Bay Area- What tires do you recommend?

Tahoe season is just around the corner and my RE-92's have 18k miles on them. Wanted to get a pulse of what people are running in the bay area.

 

i have an OBXT 06 stock rims. i am in tahoe twice to three times a month and only want 1 set of tires. which one should i get?

I got almost 19k miles on them myself but the tread still looks good. Just wondering how long these tires last? Thinking of getting new wheels also when I replace the tires.

I'm at 50K miles with OEM tires.

35k here, lots of tread left.

 

I was hoping these things would be dead by 20k......

 

-- Steve

24k, OEM tread still looks great . On my previous WRX, I had the Continental ContiExtreme Contacts, which were great all-season tires.

I'm running on PZero Neros (all-seasons).

 

Honestly, if your driving to Tahoe consists of heading up I-80 or 50 and straight to one of the resorts, any all-season tire will do (but still carry chains just in case). Given how slow traffic crawls and how conservative CHP is, you will be fine. If, however, you plan on going on backroads then dedicated winter tires are a must.

 

The only tire that bridges the two uses are Nokian WRs.

 

Ken

+1 For the Conti Extremes in crappy conditions, very quiet nice riding tire.

If you are only going up once in while, get the Pirelli's, they handle daily street use better.

If I had the money, I would have got the Michelin's. Sorta curious about the Nokian's these days.

How do the nokians do in dry and wet conditions?

I'm at 50K miles with OEM tires.

 

OMG. This just confirms how bad these are...

How do the nokians do in dry and wet conditions?

 

I read they are an excellent tire. I would think the WR's would be very good tire in CA, the sipping looks excellent for snow/ice/slush. Only problem is availability, price, and lack of dry handling compared to others. It's always a trade off though.

I would think the WR's would be very good tire in CA, the sipping looks excellent for snow/ice/slush. Only problem is availability, price, and lack of dry handling compared to others. It's always a trade off though.

 

+1

 

I have the WRs on my Forester, and they've been great. I took them up to Heavenly/Kirkwood a few times last year during winter, and they were good in the 2"-6" of snow that I drove through. Wet handling is also good. In the dry, they are better than the Geolandars that came on the car stock (although this is probably due more to the wider tires/larger wheels that I have them on). I'd also suggest something like the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S, if you want better dry performance and don't necessarily need the snow capabilities of the WR.

 

-Mike-

16k with re92s and still well over half the tread left. on my wrx, i had the s03s (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR SUMMER!!) and continental contactsport which were really good as well.

Thanks all for the input.

 

Would you run the Nokians year round?

 

Would you run the Nokians year round?

 

You can run them year-round, as they're warrantied to give at least 50,000 miles (IIRC). I switch mine off for summer tires between May-September, but that's because I have 5 sets of wheels/tires.

 

-Mike-

If you go up to the snow alot, go for the Continentals for all year.

If you only go up a couple of times a year, go for the P-Zero's for all year.

If you can get two sets of tires, get a set of top-notch summer tires and cheap generic all seasons for snow/dirt/etc trips

I have Michelin Sport A/S for the last 3000 miles. They were replacements when one of my RE92s blew up after running over a rock on hwy280.

Summer driving with the Michelins have been a lot of fun. Grip is excellent on curves and clover ramps. Looking forward to see how they perform in snow/slush up in Tahoe

I have Michelin Sport A/S for the last 3000 miles. They were replacements when one of my RE92s blew up after running over a rock on hwy280.

Summer driving with the Michelins have been a lot of fun. Grip is excellent on curves and clover ramps. Looking forward to see how they perform in snow/slush up in Tahoe

 

Michelin's I've heard are great tires. But you pay out the (_|_) for them. I think my budget will leave me with Kuhmo or Conti or Pirelli

I had Kumhi Ecsta AST on my mustang. They were cheap and had good dry/wet grip. They don't work too well in slush, especially on a RWD

I have Michelin Sport A/S for the last 3000 miles. They were replacements when one of my RE92s blew up after running over a rock on hwy280.

Summer driving with the Michelins have been a lot of fun. Grip is excellent on curves and clover ramps. Looking forward to see how they perform in snow/slush up in Tahoe

 

Where did you get the Michelin Sports A/S? How much did you pay? I am looking into this tire and like to get some input on where to get them. Thank you!

I had some Michelien Piolt Ports A/S's on the baja T and they did awsome. replaced the re92 at about 20k when they were below the wear bar and the piolt's were on there till i traded it in at 60k. The wet/dry performance was phonimal. I didn't get a chance to take them into the snow though . Tried one winter on a trip to portland, but didn't encounter any snow at all. But I got mine from Costco.com and got them for ruffly 175 a corner mounted and ballanced if I recall correctly.

I am on my third set of tires - Toyo Proxes 4 off the bat (immediately replacing the RE92s). These were very good - excellent grip in both wet and dry conditions. When they wore out at about 30k miles, I tried the Pirelli pZero neros m+s. To be honest, I did not like them.

 

The first thing you will notice is that they tramline a lot on grooved surfaces, a non-existent problem on the proxes. While they were quite grippy, they did not inspire the same sort of confidence as the proxes. The next thing I noticed was their propensity to pick up nails. I had to replace a tire two days after I installed them. I replaced another tire after about a thousand miles on them. All in all, I picked up 7 nails while on those treads. I recently replaced them when I took them in to have two tires fixed for embedded nails again. They still had enough treads left for a repair but the mechanic suggested just replacing the whole set, seeing that winter is around the corner. Also, while quiet when they were new, they became quite noisy towards the end.

 

I now have on the michelin sports A/Ss. So far I've not pushed them but they give lots of feedback and are quite quiet with a very smooth ride. They do not tramline. I'll see how they do in the wet and snow this winter, and how they compare to the proxes in the dry very shortly on some backroads somewhere

 

: They cost me about $170 apiece - small price to pay for peace of mind and confidence.

Running Toyo Proxes T1-Rs for my summer tires

 

In the past for all season tires i have used:

Dunlop SP5000s

Falken Ziex ZE-512s

 

Both of the above were excellent and reasonably priced all-season tires with good if not fantastic snow handling but they also handled reasonably well in the dry but with less grip than high perf summer tires. Plus treadwear is MUCh better than dedicated snows which wear out too fast.

 

Ed

I assume the Michelin Sports A/S is really the Michelin Pilot Sports A/S. Right? It sure would be good to hear from the users of these tires how they do in the Sierras this winter. I'll probably stay with my stock tires until they need changing. They have 27,000 miles on them, the last 2,000 from me and I live on a road with two miles of sharp turns that seems to wear tires out twice as fast as normal.

mwr, that sounds like my plight with tires as well. I live on Highway 9 and go over the hill every day and it tore up my re92's on the baja in 20k. I then got the pilot sports on it and twent up to portland and they did fine. Though it was a relitavily dry winter that year. But I did get some gravel experiance with them and they did phonomally, once i lowered the pressure in them. Had them installed at costco and they filled them to 40psi the day before. didn't relize it till a close call and checked them and fixed it. But everywhere else, they did phonimally and I know a couple of wrx owners in the seattle area that to up to the mountians constantly when it snows and they swear by them. They have never needed chains to get around, even in a blizzard.

I found one review of the Michelin Pilot Sports A/S by the owner of an Impreza 2.5RS, driving in the Bay Area, that raved about the tires but also said...

 

- Not quite as stable at high speeds as the RE92s

 

- Ride is not as good as the RE92s due to stiffer sidewalls

 

- Gas mileage suffered initially -2mpg, but after wearing the tire in (about 6K miles) is almost where it was with the RE92s (<1 mpg).

 

Another reviewer (Impreza WRX) who loved the tires also said:

 

- The downsides are more noise and stiffer ride [than the RE92s]

 

What do you Michelin Pilot Sports A/S users think about those comments?