Rims and Tires

Initial Review, 15,000 Miles on Tires
March 17, 2013

I put these winter tires on the car 2 winters ago, they have about 15,000 miles on them and barely show any treadwear.. they are quieter than the Kumo summer tires that are on the summer rims.. I have been using winter tires on 6 different vehicles over the last 20 years, and these are the best I have ever used. Great traction on Snow, packed snow, and ice. they just seem to grip everything. I put a set on our other car this winter as well, and the Toyata Echo has never been so stable in the winter driving.. And we live on a road that sometimes doesn't get plowed for 24-36 hrs after a storm. WE've had to drive through 6-10 inches of snow to get out several time this winter. AWSOME...Tim

Initial Review, 50 Miles on Tires
April 06, 2013

Initial review-
Amazing grip, don't have to brake on on/off-ramps, these beat the Nitto 555's and Sumitomo HTZ3 by a wide margin. Added 275-35-18 tires and GT500 SVT rims to a stock GT Mustang, simply amazing tire in the dry. Have not driven in rain yet so will update down the road.
Tire rack confirmed these were date stamped late last fall, shipping in 4 days and balanced very well. Money well spent!! Running at 37 psi currently. These do seem to pick up small rocks and sand and shed it just as fast, no biggie its a max summer tire!

Initial Review, 150 Miles on Tires
April 16, 2013

I have to write this review to talk about these tires. First the Goodyear F1 RFT came stock. They were great in the rain, good dry traction especially on the 1/4 mile track, hooked and leapt off the line, however the ride was horrible. One think I really did like about the Goodyears, they have a protective lip that covers the rims, protects them from curbs. The turn in was terrible. The Goodyears lasted 14,000 miles. The insides wore past the wear bars, on factory alignment.

Now on to the Michelins, unbelievable difference in ride quality and road noise over the Goodyears. These are non-runflats so the side walls actually give. Better ride more compliant over bumps, so far no tramming (live in the D.C. area 495 on and off a lot). The best part is the turn in these tires are so willing to turn and give you so much more confidence than the Goodyears. I cant believe the grip they have, the harder you throw them into a corner the better the grip. Have not got them to squeal yet. That will happen next week at the track. Will update next week after the track. They look a lot more aggressive on my rims as well.

Initial Review, 12,000 Miles on Tires
April 01, 2013

I'm going on 3 years with these tires and getting ready to rotate for the second time. With just over 12,000 miles on them, I am halfway to the wear bars, so I expect less than 25K miles out of these tires. I am really dissappointed with the life of these tires.

I think these tires might have a too weak of a sidewall for in-town driving that requres a lot of sharp turns in a Suburban as I find the outside edges of the tread are really chewed up after extended driving that doesn't involve highway miles. Any hard cornering feels like the tire is going to roll off the rim.

Straight line/highway driving is where these tires excel. These tires are really quiet and have great traction in all conditions, including snow.

Initial Review, 400 Miles on Tires
April 12, 2013

tirerack is A +++ in every category. shipping A++ awsome service .tires and rims A+++

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
April 03, 2013

These came stock on the 19" x 8.5" rims of my 2011 Mustang GT. I drive 6-speed with 3.55 gears, so the rear tires get a bit more shock treatment than that of an automatic.

Brand new, the tires are great. You almost can't get them to break traction short of turning the traction control off and dumping the cluth after reving up to red line. But after doing that a few times, you will find the traction/stickiness of the tire will have depleted.

They are still good all-around tires, but after a few months of driving, they lose their launch traction.

I have already replaced two sets (four tires total) in the two years that I have had the car and am about to replace another set on the rear. That would mean that about every 10,000-13,000 miles, they need replaced. The tread is not down to the cords or anything, but you can feel a major difference in the performance at the 10k wear point.

Road noise is pretty minimal for a low-profile tire and the ride is comfortable as the suspension on the GT with these tires rides very well. There seems to be a bit of roll/softness in cornering, but if you know your car well enough, you know what you can and can't do and the tires stay fairly firm. I will buy them again for all year tires, but I will probably switch to something stickier for Summer track action on street tires.

Initial Review, 6,000 Miles on Tires
March 23, 2013

Bought the BF Goodrich Radial T/A tire for my GMC Sierra 1500 2WD standard cab stepside pickup as a replacement for Goodyear Eagle GT tires that I religiously ran on for many years (only to learn that Goodyear stopped making that tire in a 15" when it came time to replace them.) I wanted the White Letter tire and as many of you are finding out, 15" RWL this is becoming a dying breed.

This was the first set of BF Goodrich's I have ever owned and I was pleasantly surprised how much better and smoother they ride vs the Goodyears. Dry pavement driving is great, and wet pavement is good and acceptable. I typically tone it down in wet weather just because you can't expect a light truck to handle like a car due to the light rear end.

The raised white lettering is not quite as big as what Goodyear does and the BF Goodrich positioning of the letters are closer to the rim, vs Goodyear, which positions the lettering closer towards the treads. Not really a big deal to some, but if you have attention to detail like I do, its worth noting the appearance difference. Also as a notation, the tire shop filled my BF Goodrich tires with Nitrogen instead of air.

After having owned these tires for over 6 months, I wished I had switched to them earlier based on their ride and appearance. Unless something unforeseen happens, I would be likely to repurchase and recommend to a friend

Initial Review, 4,837 Miles on Tires
March 22, 2013

I ordered 2 sets of these tires ( both studded, hence the lower dry traction score and noise ) with new steel rims, one set for my brother who has the identical vehicle. I have just over 7780 kms on these, ordered October 15th, installed on the 22nd of October.

These tires are AMAZING in the snow, and equally competent on ice with the carbide studs. Wear seems to be non-existant, however I haven't measured the tread depth. The only downside to having studded tires though is the noise, which is more annoying at lower speeds in town, as well as reduced traction braking and accelerating on dry road in the winter.

With the traction control off, you can break them loose in wet snow, but it takes a bit of throttle to do so. With traction control on, this car is like a 4x4, I managed to climb about a 25 degree incline with about 5 inches of fresh wet snow ( back lane that didn't get plowed ) without losing forward momentum, although the traction light was flickering.

If you live in the snow belt, you need these tires. If you also have a lot of ice in the winter ( melt/freeze cycles + rain and snow ) you need them studded. What a difference over driving most of my life on all seasons.

Initial Review, 50,000 Miles on Tires
March 30, 2013

I have had these tires on my truck for 2 years and 50,000 miles on them. I still have plenty of tread on them left. I should be able to get 75,000 miles no problem. I think these tires are great. I like how the sidewall sticks out slightly more then the rims to protect them. I would put this tire in the "buy" category

Initial Review, 50,000 Miles on Tires
March 19, 2013

Got this tyre 2 winters ago for my outback. At the time it was just about the cheapest snow tyre around. My original outback died last autumn and I got another outback, and i kept the graspics on their rims. I am a confirmed michelin fanboy and was jealous of my GF who had michelin xices on her van. But my graspics have performed flawlessly. I kept them on last Summer and simply pumped them up to 36psi. My commute is 55m each way and I drive 78-90mph traffic and Smokey permitting. Tyres still have 1/3 left up front and 1/4 at the back at 50k miles (was the other way around on my original car). My GF's xices are worn after 20k miles. The tyres have pulled through ice and snow flawlessly. The graspics are also much better in the dry than the OEM tyres which are plainly awful. 4wd is no use if you don't have the right tyre-I spun out in a snowstorm on the OEM all season tyres. If you live in a winter climate region I wholeheartedly recommend the graspics.

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
March 11, 2013

This is my second set of these tires. My first set I had on an Acura RSX and they handled amazingly well with that car. So I purchased for my new FWD Mazda 3 Hatchback and mounted them on my stock rims. These tires are amazing in the snow. The car handles like an AWD car now with these tires.

I did some winter camping with friends that had 4WD trucks and to get to the campsite, you had to drive up a pretty steep snow covered dirt road, then drive down a snowmobile trail. The combination of these tires, traction control and manual transmission helped me get up the hill and to the campsite no problem. My friends with the 4WD trucks were making fun of me for wanting to try it, until I got to the top of the hill....they were pretty impressed.

For the price/functionality...buy these tires.

Initial Review, 2,500 Miles on Tires
February 27, 2013

Square setup on GT500 rims was a good compromise between cornering/handling and fuel economy; a square set of 285s (of the same tire) were greater traction-wise, but dragged down the MPG. I liked the 255s as a good all-around tire. Sold the car with tires a few months ago, regretfully.

Initial Review, 3,000 Miles on Tires
January 31, 2013

Four of these tires with studs makes a front-wheel drive car a brilliant performer on ice!

We live on a gentle hill that became slick as snot after freezing rain last week. It was so slick that it was perilous to walk down the sidewalk. But with their studs, these tires did great -- going down the hill our Mazda 3 never lost any traction. Even when I tried stepping hard on the brake, these studded tires did not slip even a little.

Besides ice, we've driven on a couple of inches of snow and with a set of four we had no problem in our front-wheel drive Mazda 3.

I bought these from TireRack, who also installed the studs and mounted them on rims. What we received from TireRack was ready to mount on the car, which we did at a cost of $25 at the local tire shop at the beginning of the snowy season. This was a good customer experience.

Initial Review, 500 Miles on Tires
March 25, 2011

I purchased this tire to replace a pair of worn Blizzaks on my daily driven MR2. The tires were mounted on the stock rims on a car with a refreshed and slightly upgraded suspension setup (stock height), all parts replaced and aligned. Even though the stock tire size is 185/60/14, I went to the 195/60 in hopes of getting a bit more comfort, but still great traction, with this car that I DD (highway) and still hit up the backroads with on the weekends.

Based on reviews and ratings (price wasn't bad either), I opted for these Bridgestones. I haven't really done too much serious driving, but I can say that the tires are much quieter than the old Blizzaks and just as much so as the 215/45/16 Hankook RS2s (great tire, but not much creature comforts) I had last summer. Also, these Bridgestones are predictable and direct with inputs. On the highway they ride smooth, as a new tire should but, again, they are nice and quiet.

Just this evening, I took them down one of my favorite stretches of backroads, and for a tire so comfortable, they just blew me away! Very direct, predictable, and firm. I didn't feel any squirm or "mushiness" from the front to the back, even through some interesting set of turns. They catered amazingly to my mid-engined coupe's unique handling characteristics, and had me having to throttle down a bit because of how fast I was going with the car still feeling so secured to the road... Frankly I was shocked! I look forward to making these tires last, all while getting the best use out of them. I hope to report back in the future!



A note about a previous review; perspectively good tires don't make your car lose control, but a poor alignment might. Proper alignment is important when judging how well a tire performs. Side note, I was surprised at the number of Porsche owners who commented on how well these tires performed for them, certainly in the pursuit of comfort from day to day, and performance from weekend to weekend.

Initial Review, 50,000 Miles on Tires
February 16, 2013

Great tire! Longest lasting tires ever purchased. Because of the larger rims/sport suspension on my fx, was looking for a very quiet & smooth riding tire. This particular tire delivers and durability was a plus. Did not seriously test in winter conditions though. Will definitely stick with this brand, well worth the premium price.