Lowering Springs

Initial Review, 8,500 Miles on Tires
January 07, 2011

My car is a 1999 Porsche Boxster that has been lowered via H&R progressive springs, Bilstein shocks and some minor suspension tweaks. I live in Central Florida so I don't encounter snow or ice conditions.



These General high performance tires were a very pleasant surprise. Don't let the moderate pricing on these tires fool you; they are comparable to tires with much higher prices. The dry handling is excellent and so is the wet handling! These General tires really perform with excellent handling and an acceptable ride that is comfortable and quiet. I will definitely consider General tires for any high performance vehicle I own in the future.

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
April 19, 2012

Installed on aftermarket wheels with H&R sport lowering springs and konis on a euro model. They do well in the rain and the dry performance is very good considering the long life compound used and the relatively low price up front. I think they are slightly louder than average due to the harder compound at highway speed, but I'm willing to put up with a little noise if they last a long time. With an aggressive alignment, you will have to rotate them more often, but then you would with any tire in that situation. They did not do well in deep snow as they became packed pretty quickly- but with a light snow they did just fine with my limited slip rear end.

I would read people whining about these (or any) tires failing after 15K on them (on some front wheel drive car or minivans in super hot or cold climates) with caution. Like all tires, when they are on cars with alot of weight and steering on a front wheel drive vehicle in temp extremes- they will require more maintenance, frequent rotations and general care. Tread separation, blown-out sidewalls and etc. indicate design or quality problems. 50,000 mile tires that "wear out" in 15K? Likely due to "user error."

Initial Review, 4,000 Miles on Tires
April 16, 2012

After selling my 2005 Prius with lowering springs, rear sway bar, under bracing and 17" wheels (Primacy MVM4 tires), I was a bit disappointed when I purchased a 2012 Prius that came equipped with Yokohama AVID S33D tires. The ride was nothing to write home about, the traction was a bit unpredictable and the car was more apt to tramline than anything else I had ever driven. I immediately swapped out the tires thanks to Yokohama's customer satisfaction guarantee and I installed the AVID Ascend in their place. The wet/dry gripe is pretty incredible for a tall 15" tire. Road noise is low most of the time with minimal pinging on expansion joints. Fuel economy is comparable to the OE AVID S33D but everything else about the Ascend is superior. Now if they last as long as Yokohama claims they will then they will have a winner on their hands. :) It should be noted that steering response and overall handling seems better than the Energy Saver A/S. if you want a better handling tire then get the Ascend. If you want max MPG then take a look at the Energy Saver A/S.

Initial Review, 24,000 Miles on Tires
March 17, 2012

Vehicle: Scion xD, lower springs (about 1.5 in), after market shocks and struts, heavy duty rear torsion bar, under drive pulley, cat back TRD exhaust, 17" aftermarket wheels with 225/45 shoes.

These tires started out great. The noise wasn't bad, but the grip both wet and dry was excellent. I felt really good about these tires for about the first 12,000 miles. But things have tapered off significantly. Dry traction is falling off significantly as the tires wear; wet traction is still OK, but now I have to think about how I drive when it is wet where as I didn't used to give it a second thought.

My major gripes with these tires are road noise and ride comfort. The road noise just continues to grow as the tires wear and it wasn't great to begin with. Living in CA, we have pretty bad roads (not because of weather but because the roads are never fixed) and you both hear and feel everything with these tires.

I can't comment on the snow performance of these tires. I keep all season tires on all my cars as I do on occasion drive in snow, but my travels and weather have not brought this car into the snow just yet.

I know I drive hard and ask a lot from my tires, but I was really hoping to get a little more out of these. I'm at two years and here I am back at Tire Rack looking for some new tires. For the price, if you need a short term tire you will enjoy, these are fine. If you're going to have the car for a while and you can afford it, I would recommend spending a bit more on a higher rated tire.

Initial Review, 2,500 Miles on Tires
February 27, 2012

First, this is a modified 850 GLT; chipped, cold air induction w/K&N filter, IPD blue springs, sway bars, yellow Konis, and right now sporting the "autotragic." As you might correctly surmise, I am a somewhat feisty driver. These tires are 225/40-17's on the Sport 5-spoke F7 7.5x17 wheels. I haven't had a tire off to weigh the wheels, but I would be very surprised if they only weigh 20.8 lbs, but they seem to be stiff and are attractive without being gaudy. These are without any reservation THE BEST tires I've ever owned. I don't know how long they'll last, and the 9's I gave them for noise and ride, well, heck, they're a performance tire and my car is MUCH stiffer than stock. Fair is fair. I'm 56 and have driven at least 750k miles in my life and have never had a better tire. I'm in Seattle; wet performance was a serious consideration..these are nothing short of magnificent in the wet, and, even though they're not designed for snow, they're okay. In fact, their performance at around freezing doesn't seem to be significantly diminished. In contrast, the General UHP is definitely affected by lower temperatures. Of course, the UHP is about 1/3 the price! I have the UHP's on my Miata and like them pretty well-much better than the stock Bridgestones. And the Michelins are stunning on dry pavement. I definitely WILL buy these again, and I highly recommend them. In fact, a good friend just put a set on his 2007 Audi A4-chipped, with coilovers, and loves them. I believe he bought 245/35/19's for 19x8.5" rims. One caution-the 225/40/17's DO require a lip roll on the 850 as well as some trimming of the fender liner-the 215's probably would fit without mods.

Initial Review, 1000 Miles on Tires
January 25, 2012

These tires are a beast on ice. I climbed a hill that was completely covered in ice without one hiccup in traction (to be fair, it was paired with Subaru's incredible AWD). Where I live I only get maybe 2-3 significant snow falls a year along with a few 1-2" snow falls. Along with my WRX being a daily driver, I have zero need for a dedicated snow and summer tire setup. This is a nice blend of the two in one set of tires that offers good performance in both. Of course, don't except the same level performance from dedicated tires. However, the DWS is more than enough for the average driver.

You can't except top notch dry traction and cornering with these tires. They are all seasons. If you want that level of traction, get a dedicated summer tire like the Continental DW.

I have Epic Engineering lowering springs installed on my WRX. Lowering springs by nature make for a harsher ride, especially over road imperfections (pot holes, cracks, etc). These tires were a nice complement to them. They balance out the harshness of the springs. The smooth ride from the tires and the rough ride from the springs even each other out for the most part. Although, no tire will ever eliminate the harshness from a large pothole. With stock springs, these are a dream to drive on.

Overall, as long as you don't live in a place with significant snow fall where a dedicated snow tire is needed/required, these are the perfect blend for every day use.

Initial Review, 10000 Miles on Tires
November 08, 2011

For the price, these tires cannot be beat. I purchased these because I wanted something cheap that I could have some fun with on my hatchback. I have put about 10,000 miles on them, highway and city. They are perfectly balanced between being soft/sticky while retaining wear resistance. My only complaint with them is that at high speeds, you can feel some lateral play in the sidewall when starting to corner, but once you're locked into the corner you cannot feel it at all. My car is lowered with STIFF springs so when I'm in a hard corner the tires take 100% of the abuse, even still I have taken many hard corners and done quite a few accidental burnouts on hard launches, but the tires have still shown no signs of wear. It sounds like the people who reviewed this tire and rated poorly had alignment issues. My recommendation is to mount them, balance, and get your alignment done! rotate them every 6,000 miles and it should be a pretty trouble free tire after that.

Initial Review, 8000 Miles on Tires
January 19, 2012

With 32lbs of factory reccomended pressure for the first 2000 miles the tires handled and cornered great but had tire squirm. Raised the pressure to 35lbs and the squirm dissapeared. The tires firmed up and handle and corner even better now. It finally snowed here and the tires were very slippery on the snow and ice. Lowered the pressure to 28lbs and now they handle the snow and ice better. Now they are predictable on the ice and have better traction on the snow. Lower pressure gives the tires a little more flex. I like these tires and will overinflate 3 lbs in the summer spring and fall, but underinflate in the winter.This is good to do for most light weight cars.
I had the Kumho Solus KH16 before these tires and they were a hugh improvement over the Goodyear Eagles that were factory installed, and they were down to the cord at 64,000 miles. These Hankook tires are that much better than the Kumho's. Now if I could get 50,000 to 60,000 miles out of them I'll be really happy.

Initial Review, 47000 Miles on Tires
November 09, 2011

This review is for the Jeep's OEM GY Fortera tires but pertinent since I am replacing them with identical tires. I live in a rural area of SE MN and was satisfied with these tires in wet weather and most winter driving, my only minor ding is for deep snow so I was considering a switch to Yoko ATS or Mich ATS @ 30-60% price premiums. However there was a very good deal on theh Forteras with a rebate and I was convinced to go with them again. My rationale is they are very good handling, quiet, do very well in city/highway (freeway or rural, rarely off road for me). With regular rotations one would get > 50,000 mis & also get good gas mileage vs unknown loss in mpg going to an ATS/all terrain style tire.



At 47k mis I had 5 to 6/32s of tread left but wanted to upgrade now at the start of winter vs next spring (I don't drive any tires past 4/32)so I could have gotten 55k mi from these OEMs if timed for the right seasons and some drivers might have achieved the 60k mi rating. Gas mileage is good too - I average 18mpg year round with prior hwy only a 20-22mpg avg with a 4.7L V8.

Note I did some sort research on this site and noticed if I sorted Fortera HLs by Jeep the ratings improved to a 7.82 average and a sort on my 07 GJC went to 8.11 ... Jeep Commanders (heavier), GM and other vehicles are lower rated, perhaps these tires run better on a mid size Jeep chassis? Otherwise I don't understand why so many negative reviews or those getting only 30k mis unless they are not rotating the tires?

I will put out a review of the new tires after at least 12k mis or more.