I have Michelin M&S (some kind of all seasons) on mine right now. I would not buy them again; they came with the car. They are noisy, but offer better than expected performance in the (light) snow. If you must go with all seasons, i guess they are as good as any but being Michelins, probably a tad more expensive. You might want to consider getting a set of Bridgestone Blizzaks for the winter and a true summer tire for the rest of the year.

I gave up on the multi-purpose approach for every car I've owned and will be purchasing an additional set of wheels for this car, in order to have summers and snows (if needed). All season tires are too mediocre for either condition when compared to a purpose-built tire. Not to mention the summer tires are much less noisy than any all season variant and can be used for a majority of the year in NC. Just my opinion.

 

I generally agree with the winter/summer tires approach, and I have a second set of wheels with blizzaks for one of my vehicles. BUT the storage and cost are a factor for most people... I had a set of dunlop sp-sport 5000's that were quite impressive in all conditions. Ok, not the kind of grip I get from a summer tire like say, a pilot sport, but the dunlops actually wore well, had more grip than I was willing to put to the test in 99% of my driving and also cost less and were quiet through their entire tread life. So I'd recommend you check out the dunlop 5000 if available in the right size.

My experience with summer tires is not the same as the above poster's... At about half treadwear remaining, pilot sports (generally highly regarded among most) seem to develop a washboard effect to the tread. "feathering" it might be called, and this gives a nasty roar from the tires, very noticeable both in and out of the car, making it so these expensive and already-short tread life tire is only good for about half of that life. Even so, I still buy summer tires because like the above poster I'm not willing to compromise grip and the connection to the pavement. There ARE good M+S tires out there though. A good start might be to browse tire rack's category of "ultra high performance all season".

 

H2Oboy,

How have the hancook tires been working out for you? You have had them for several months now and I would really appreciate an update as the prices on them is still fantastic.

As an additional aside, how many miles should I expect to get from a set of tires? I am approaching 8,000 miles and I am wondering what to expect to get above and beyond that.

Thanks very much,

Kip

 

Hey Kip, let me check my tread depths in the next few days, everything is progressing really well, I'm getting good wear across the entire face.

I'll give you a % used (front/rear) and number of miles since they've been installed, and let you 'interpolate' at your liesure.

 

Matt,
Thanks for your post. I had never heard of Hankook before. My rear tires are way past due for replacement. I thought I would just replace the PS2s that were on it when I bought it. I just ordered the Hankooks from TireRack.com. You saved me several hundred $. I should be having them installed next week. I'll post again later with an update.

Steve

 

Steve, I hope you like them. Do follow up if you would!

Ok, here are my tread wear measurements I promised, use and extrapolate as you see fit.

Mileage: 6,504
--------------------------------------------------------------
Green = outside edge
Blue = inside edge

LF 8/32 9/32 9/32 ------------ 8/32 9/32 8/32 RF (15% used)

LR 7/32 7/32 7/32 ------------ 7/32 7/32 7/32 RR (30% used)

 

I had a set of the Dunlop's that were on my XK8. I replaced them with another set of the same (245x50x17). They last about 23K miles. I replaced them with Michelin A/S Plus which I find to produce less road noise, have a better ride and grip/hold better. I'm a VERY spirted driver.
To each their own I guess.

 

Forgive my ignorance, but how did you measure the treadwear depth with such accuracy? Is there a special tool or do you use a ruler or what?

And how do you know how deep it is to start with.

Can you tell this is my first foray into the intricacy of tires?

Kip

 

mussed up the inside vs outside 'indicator color' - my bad (fixed)

kiphome, yes, there is a tread depth gauge you can buy at your local parts store, measures in mm or 32nds, as the original depths are always in 32nds. These tires, and most, start out at 10/32 when new.

 

Hey Matt, what pressures are you running?

 

....and how many times (if at all) have you rotated them?

John

 

After two plus years it was time to change out my Yokahama Advan S4 tires. After much research I decided to go with Bridgestone Potenza 960S Pole Position tires and I have been very pleased. The tires are exceptionally quiet, even more so then the Advan S4s. Handling has also been excellent. While I live in Florida it is my understanding that the new Potenzas also fair well in colder weather and moderate winter conditions. I will provide a future update when I have a few more miles on them.

Cheers!

Tim V.

 

32 front, 29 rear

 

Matt - how is the ride? The manual says 26 front/28 rear for the softest ride. I have tried that, and still feel every ripple of the street.

Pierelli tires going to ??? for whatever proves the least harsh road feel. Thanks, DaleD

 

Go to tirerack dot com and look at the specs of the tire that you're interested in. The spec section will tell you how many 32nds of rubber is on your tire along with a lot of other information.

 

Ride is pretty good, very comfortable, but I didn't drop the pressures for a softer ride per se. From the dealer used, the car had the pirellie p-zero rossos (harder tire in my opinion) at 32/34..just what the manual says. However, after going thru those, a set of falkens, and now on my hancooks, i've been slowly dropping the pressure in the rears trying to find a more even tread wear. With the pressures higher (31-34 psi) the centers always wore quicker. This way, I get a little more life out of them. I think I've found a nice compromise.

 

I found that the front tires wear the center of the tire more than the rest when running 32 lbs air pressure. I've dropped my front to 30 lbs. I'm running 34 lbs in the rear and they are wearing just fine.

DaleD we have a sport suspension so you're going to feel a bit more of the road. I feel more of the road in the Jag than I do in any other car/truck I've owned.

 

Thanks Green J - Others have reminded me of the same thing. Mine is very secure feeling, and I really shouldn't complain - but I will shop for the "softest" tires I can find when it is time to replace the Pierelli's.

And I always thought a 'vette was the harshest riding car I had ever been in! Best, DaleD

 

As a follow-up: I got my new Hankook tires installed last week. I love them. The ride feels much smoother than the PS2s I had. They feel very grippy around the curves, very stable.

As a side note, I bought them from TireRack.com. I had them installed at a local NTB. I should have known better than to get them installed on a busy day. The guys mishandled the wheels and couldn't get them to stay on the tire fitting machine. The wheels popped off the machine a couple times. End result, the machine scratched the wheels in several spots.

I pointed this out to the manager and they agreed to have their wheel guy repair the damage. I must say the wheel guy did a fantastic job. He repaired the installation scratches as well as some old curb rash. The wheels look brand new now, so all is good.

 

Very glad you like them Steve. Did you score the rebate too?