Buy Car Tires

Initial Review, 2,000 Miles on Tires
March 25, 2013

Bought these Sumitomo HTR A/S P01 tires for my wife's 2008 VW Passat Wagon 2.0T to replace the set of Continental tires that had gone 41000. The Sumitomos make the car feel like a whole new vehicle! The car is much more responsive to sterring input and feels glued to the road. I was concerned that MPG would drop because Continentals were LRR tires, but MPG has stayed the same. I am very pleased with these tires and am considering them for my own car. Of course, the entire Tire Rack experience was terrific!

Initial Review, 45,000 Miles on Tires
April 24, 2013

I've worn out two or three sets of the predecessor of this tire (Turanza Serenity) and after having gone through numerous other tire brands Michelins, Yokohamas, Goodyears, have to say that this tire is the best of those by a significant margin. These tires offer very good cornering grip... amazing actually. Great wet and dry traction and decent traction in snow and ice. Where they really shine is ride quality, comfort and noise level.

Bear in mind that I rate this tire as what it is... a Grand Touring Tire. It won't compete against special purpose tires but neither will they match this tire for this intended use. Unless you can use the last 10% to 15% of the performance that high performance tires offer you will be FAR, FAR happier with a tire such as this. The difference in comfort and combined performance will serve most drivers better the majority of the time. (As a footnote... I own and drive two Trans Ams, two Corvettes, a Grand Prix GXP, and other assorted cars). I have run high / ultra-high performance tires on those cars and unless I'm pushing the edge of the envelope, these tires perform more than adequately.... and they are FAR more comfortable over potholes, expansion joints and they don't drone you to death with tread noise.

One BIG side benefit not usually thought about is that these tires give me 45K miles +/- of wear and I replace them before they get down to the wear bars. So... while I'm wearing out HP and Ultra-HP tires at 20-25K miles I'm only at the halfway point of having to replace these. So... they save a lot of money up front and again over the far greater lifetime.

I love these tires and will be ordering my next set in the next week.

Good luck in your choices... but if I might make one suggestion it would be this. Look very carefully at what you NEED in a tire for the majority of your driving... and don't overestimate your need for that final 10% of performance. Most people never even get close to using that final 10%.

Initial Review, 1,500 Miles on Tires
April 22, 2013

This tire was really the only Michelin option since the Weatherwise tire is no longer an option. Have observed a decrease of about 5 MPG. I asked the sales rep about other reports of decreased gas mileage and was convened it was a mistake...it was not. We have consistently gotten 28 MPG for the past 250000 miles on our car and we are down to about 23 MPG.

These tires are significantly louder than the Weatherwise tires but that was expected with the stiffer rubber compound used to get 90000.

Wish there was another Michelin option for this tire size.

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
April 23, 2013

I replaced the OEM Michelins with these tires after reading the many positive reviews here, and so far the tires have lived up to the praise. Wet, dry, and snow traction is infinitely better than the Michelins making the car handle better than ever. 2 minor complaints would be that I noticed my gas mileage took a hit once these tires were installed, about 2-3 mpg--but I suppose that is to be expected from a tire that has much more grip. The second would be that there seems to be a slight wobble occasionally--but it seems to be just the road imperfections being communicated much more due the type of tires these are. I cannot comment on the treadwear yet, but overall I'm happy with my purchase.

Initial Review, 51,000 Miles on Tires
March 30, 2013

Put these tires on the car at 18,000. Now have over 69k. Handling is amazing - 70mph on 35mph off-ramps. The only non-maintenance repair on my car is a new steering pump. The flat footprint puts almost 1/3 more rubber on the ground through turns. Extremely well built! These tires turned my RSX into a serious canyon carver! Highly recommend!

Initial Review, 25,000 Miles on Tires
April 21, 2013

Tires where great at first but after 6,000 or so miles they have gotten so noisy you can hardly stand to be in the car. They have also developed a feel that the belt is separating or something. They grip well and work well in the rain even at high speeds.

Initial Review, 3,000 Miles on Tires
April 29, 2013

These tires were installed on a 2008 Honda Civic Sedan. These are by far the quietest tires that have ever been on this vehicle. It feels like a different car! Next time I need tires, I will be looking for these first.

Initial Review, 18,000 Miles on Tires
April 22, 2013

I've had the BF's on my ION Redline for about 5 yeas now. They handle my FWD cars 250hp 240 ft-lb pretty easily. The tires are not dry rotting and have only given up a little bit of dry traction off the line over the years. Just took them Auto crossing last weekend and the tires still have a ton of grip and handle the abuse. Great tire!

Initial Review, 8,000 Miles on Tires
April 23, 2013

I have used these on my 1M for the last 8,XXX miles. I replaced the OEM Michelin PS2s with the Pilot Super Sports. These tires are roughly $100+ less than the PS2 and have better handling than the PS2s in both the wet and dry. My car mostly does highway miles to and from the road course. I have put 12 track days on these tires and around 8,XXX miles on this set and have maybe another weekend out of them. They are such a good all around tire in the wet and dry that I have purchased a dedicated set in 18" fitment strictly for road track use.

Initial Review, 27,000 Miles on Tires
March 22, 2013

tires performed well for the low price when new and up to 25000 mi. with 27k on them i'm seeing my traction control light come on when pushing the car a little bit on AWD car. wet traction has gone to poor when cornering or accelerating. snow traction has gone to below average. had a little snow/ice mixture and car failed to make a careful turn, had no braking and mowed down a stop sign on the opposite corner at 15-20 mph. had to replace tires.

Initial Review, 3,500 Miles on Tires
April 20, 2013

Have 215/45/17 Michelin Pilot Super Sports on front of my '05 Honda S2000 and 245/40/17 PSS on the rear with about 3,500 miles on tires since new. Ordinary highway driving yields low noise levels with firm, but not quite punishing, ride in what is a firm riding car.

Tires respond immediately to steering inputs and have very tight "on-center" feel. Wet performance (Florida thunderstorms) is very good and wet and dry braking are among best I've experienced in almost 60 years of driving. Kuhmhos that were on car when I bought it were more comfortable but absolutely not the tire for hard driving in comparison to Michelin PSSs.

Just drove the "Tail OF THE DRAGON" in North Carolina (318 curves in 11 miles!) for 3 days in company of over 100 Honda S2000s during annual meeting of S2000 group S2KI. Very spirited and competitive driving - 20++ MPH over posted speeds in corners posted at 10-20 MPH. PSSs exhibited phenomenal grip on damp surface 1st day and dry the remainder. Early braking for corners followed by strong acceleration produced sensations of rear tires grabbing pavement and powering car out of corner under heavy throttle, closing gap with car ahead. Eyeball-crossing "G" sensations with no howling or indications of being anywhere near limits of this tire at 40 in 20 MPH curves. 50 MPH in 20 MPH curves would produce plenty of warning through slight slip angles with excellent steering control feel and sensations of "hooking up again" part way through corner while applying strong acceleration.

Conclusions: 1)I'll never drive the S2000 as fast as this tire allows, 2) Pilot Super Sports deserve #1 ranking, and, 3) worth the premium price if you drive hard, want a tire with no nasty surprise traits during hard driving, and want better than average tire life (for max performance type tires) nonetheless.

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
April 21, 2013

These tires replaced the OE ContiProContact that came with the car. The rears needed replacing, so I replaced them all to stick with the same tire as they had gotten noisy anyway. After 10K, these are beginning to get rather noisy as well. This is a disappointment. Otherwise no complaints.

Initial Review, 12,000 Miles on Tires
March 27, 2013

It's a nice economical tire. This is my second set for this car. The rears wear out before the fronts, but that's because of the car, not the tire. When these go I will buy them again if available.

Initial Review, 500 Miles on Tires
April 27, 2013

This Tire, compared to the Pilot HX MXM4 this car came with is Fantastic. The car almost rides like a Cadillac should, close to Novocain Numb. Mind you there is a very small, and I mean very small, loss of steering response. Gas mileage in town is up about 2 mpg. Going from a 50 series to a 55 series with a 1/2 inch increase of sidewall hright probably helps a bit too.

Initial Review, 4,000 Miles on Tires
April 22, 2013

These things STICK. I drive fast & corner hard always. Rain makes driving more fun because the car will finally move around a bit, in the dry I can't get any movement in a corner. Noise is less than the all-seasons the car came with. Wear looks good; I haven't depth-gaged them, but after 4k they look fine. They perform so well I don't care about wear. I'll be doing some track days with my car this summer, and I'll put in an update after.

Initial Review, 5,000 Miles on Tires
April 07, 2013

I have always prefered a Michelin tire, and have had great service from them over the years. The prices are high, and I have wondered if part of that is paying for the name? A few years ago, we purchased a new truck with General tires on it, and the tires performed flawlessly. In fact those 11 year-old Generals were are currently on a farm trailer, and show no signs of dry rot, or other problems. After much thought, I decided to give these Generals a try. These tires are very quiet and smooth. They have great resistance to hydroplaning, which is a feature that I like a lot. The tires are not great in the snow, but than a V-8 powered RWD car is not so great in the snow either. I have a designated AWD winter vehicle, so winter traction does not matter to me. We live in the mountains with lots of winding roads, and tires get punished around here. I have the car set up with a stiff aftermarket suspension, so it rides harsh and corners like a sports car. The car no longer handles like a traditional Crown Victoria. Infact this car has seen an AutoCross track more then once... The OE tires where very soft and the car had a tendency to oversteer with them on it. These tires take the curves very well. So far they have passed the test. I plan to purchase three more sets, one for my wife's Crown Vic, and two sets for our two vintage Pontiac Trans AM show cars. For the price, nothing else compares. General seems to have hit the mark!

Initial Review, 7,000 Miles on Tires
April 30, 2013

Great tires in ice,snow and slush. I got a speeding ticket for going too fast in an ice storm.My car felt rock solid with these tires. The trooper didnt care about my tires.