Tire Rack Consumer Reviews

Initial Review, 3,500 Miles on Tires
March 02, 2011

This is a far, far improvement over my OE tires on the Matrix. I just purchased these tires right before we had the rainstorm in SoCal that flooded Qualcomm Stadium, and WOW! These tires never felt like they hydroplaned, not even for a second. Even going through pockets of deep water (which any tire will hydroplane over) the car continued to track straight and never drifted or wandered. In moderate rain I was doing bursts of 90 m.p.h. on the freeway to see just what these tires' limits were, and I felt confident and comfortable. In heavy rain (moderate freeway flooding), I still felt in control at 55 m.p.h.



Cornering is excellent in these tires, and they have stiffer sidewalls than my OE tires did. These tires will give you a sufficient load warning in a corner before a traction-loss event. When the tires are warmed up it is hard to break them loose on the pavement (not that the 1.8 VVT-i is a particularly powerful engine, but the OE tires would spin at WOT accelerating uphill in first).



When it rains, going up the freeway ramp by my work at WOT does not spin the tires nearly as long as the OE tires would.



We've had some ice in the event it actually gets cold in SoCal, and these tires did great in them.



Haven't had a chance to test them in snow (usually all of my snow driving is limited for winter trips to Reno), but I'm sure they will do fine even with the aggressive directional tread pattern.



These tires are completely silent. Far quieter than the OE tires. Even at high speeds I can barely hear them.



I will update this review in another 20,000 miles or so.



As long as these tires continue to do what they have done for me so far, these are the only tires my Matrix and Mustang will ever see, I am that impressed with them.



Are you thinking about buying them? Don't think, buy them... buy them NOW! You will not regret it.