I need a new set of tires, and I am not impressed with the Goodyear tires I have now. The only reason I bought Goodyear was I got a 20% discount through my mother-in-law.
What brand of tires do you recommend for a passenger car? Any recommendations for tire retailers?
PTF
Cooper tires. Premium tires at a not premium price (like Michelin, Goodyear, BF Goodrich, etc).
Here’s a link to their passenger tires. I have the RS3-A’s on my Mustang GT but you likely want something more akin to touring tires from the sound of it. I cannot recommend them highly enough.
You are probably not looking for snow tires at this time of year, but I do LOVE my Bridgestone Blizzaks. They’ve made all the difference in the world in optimizing driving in bad conditions. I got them from Tire Rack online which was a good deal, and fast, since I got them already mounted on extra rims. It’s not as cheap when you get just the tires and have them mounted locally on your existing rims.
I couldn’t even tell you off the top of my head what my summer tires are; they’re fine, whatever they are. It just doesn’t matter as much as getting good snow tires.
I think this is absolutely untrue. Some tires wick water away in rainy weather better than others…some handle better than others…some have longer treadlife than others…some exhibit more or less tire noise than others…all of which combine to either enhance or detract from your driving experience.
ETA: Plus, you aren’t driving on snow tires as much as you are on summer tires. What, 3 months out of the year maybe? I am NOT dissing snow tires. They have their place. But I don’t think that’s what the OP was asking about.
I’m pretty happy with the coopers I have on my pickup too. I have had good experiences with Hankook tires as well.
Of the brands listed, BF Gooodrich has been very solid in my experience as well.
I have had excellent luck with Michelin, and more recently with Hancook, and Kumho.
I have had bad luck with Pirelli (wears out faster than any other tire in my experience), and Goodyear (the ones that came on this one car hydroplaned at a lower speed than any other tire I have ever driven on and they would not stay in balance.) Horrible tires.
You didn’t say why you were unhappy with your current tires. If it’s because they wore out too fast, read the treadwear rating on the sidewall. Buy tires with a higher rating- generally, the higher the treadwear rating, the longer they’ll last.
FI, it depends very much on what you drive and how/where you drive it. I love my new Michelins and really worked the heck outta the Pirellis I had previously. The reason I didn’t go for Pirelli again was two-fold: price and my tires were discontinued.
I also love Nokian Hakkapeliittas for rough road driving, but they are spendy and not the best on smooth pavement.
I suggest you go to look at Tire Rack. Their web site lists reader reviews and I have found them to be very accurate. A lot of racers and autocrossers buy their tires from TR and write reviews. These folks know their tires.
Foie Gras, I agree with you on the summer tires too. I hit standing water at 70 mph on Yokohamas and swore never to buy those tires again. On the other hand, Yo-mamas are good for autocross.
IMO, the two most important things for car safety is good tires and good brakes. The other safety stuff is good too. Especially when your tires or brakes fail you.
For retailers: Costco. They don’t have the cheap crappy tires they have at your local tire place, but what they do have is priced very well. The only drawback is the silly nitrogen gimmick, but just nod politely if they feel the need to tell you about it.
I hesitate to disagree with Rick, who I know knows a lot more about vehicles than I do, but I’ve had the opposite experience with Pirelli. I’ve had them on my car for the last 8 years (not the same set, obviously). Our weather isn’t extreme enough to warrant snow tyres so they’ve had to handle heat (not, I hasten to add, in England :rolleyes:), heavy rain/standing water, ice and snow, on road and off. They do nicely - nary a skid or aquaplane, only a little slippage in deep snow and that was my fault for not paying more attention to the drifting.
Pirelli was original equipment on XC 90 Volvos. The tire wore out so fast (<15K miles) that Volvo forced Pirelli to buy customers new sets of tires. Until the time Pirelli was buying new tires you try telling a customer with about 10K on their vehicle that they need $1500 worth of tires and see how that goes over.
Do that 15 or 20 times and then see if your opinion of Pirelli changes. 
On the other hand my first set of Michelins on my V70 lasted 42K miles I replaced then with the same tire. I’m now at 114K and still have tread left.
I voted for both Michelin and Yokohama. All of the (automobile*) tires I have purchased in the past ten years have been one or the other and I have been impressed with both. I have been disappointed with the other brands I have purchased purchased prior.
That being said, you really need to consider not just the brand of tire, but the “model” as well, as nearly all manufacturers will sell different “models” of tires with their brand name on them.
Tires are one item that I have decided not to try to save money on. Figuring they are to last 3 to 5 years, trying to save $100-250 on a set saves me less than $10/month. Not much, IMO, to avoid tire problems.
I pay attention to the treadwear rating, traction rating, temperature rating, and speed rating. Treadwear needs to be high to make the purchase make economic sense. For traction, I rarely drive in snow or ice, so I am more concerned about traction in water. Temperature, because I don’t drive in snow, I do drive in heat, so they have to be able to take the Texas roads. For speed, it really depends on the vehicle. I have a Chrysler 300M and a BMW 750iL. On the Chrysler, I use S or T (112-118 mph), but the V12 in the BMW can pull, so I won’t use less than H (130 mph). Not that I drive that fast in either vehicle, but they will go that fast and I really don’t want to deal with tire problems when I’m passing on a two-lane highway (about the only time I’d go over 80 in either vehicle).
*On the motorcycle, I’ll only run Metzler. The original tires were Dunlop and I was not happy with them. I put on a set of Metzler Marathon 880s and haven’t bought anything else. I don’t experiment much with tires.
excavating (for a mind)
I’ve found Kumho to be very good value tires. Much cheaper than Mich, GY or BF and wear very well. I’ve got them on two vehicles right now (second set for both, actually). One of them is driven* hard*, the other is driven often.
I get them from TireRack (warehouse nearby, no shipping!) and have them installed somewhere cheap and easy.
I only put B.F. Goodrich on the Jeep, but I buy them used at the junkyard. Sometimes you get lucky and can snag a $120 tire for $15!
I got some Federal from Les Schwab for the big truck and they were utter crap!
I am on my second set of Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3’s. They wear fast (you’ll get maybe 30K mile out of them), but they’ve got excellent wet and dry traction, and they run very quiet. The down side is that they’re summer only, so you’ll need a second set of rims with snow tires on them (I use Dunlop M3’s).
That’s not really due to the brand though, it’s probably the softness of the rubber compound on those particular tires.
VW had that same problem with whatever the Touareg came equipped with, and 15k is pushing your luck with the Porsche Cayenne’s stock Michelins.
Goodyear Eagle GT’s were probably the best tires I ever owned. I’ve got Coopers on my car now and they’re not nearly as high performance.
Goodyear probably has some crap models out there, too. Same as every other maker.
Is it true that expensive brands like Michelin make and sell “second brands” that are as good as the top name brand? I like Michelins but they are expensive.
I can recommend Falken tires for road holding-but they have VERY fragile sidewalls-bump a curb and you’re toast
I’ve had really good luck with Michelin, Pirelli and Continental (Portugal) but with each I had a specific purpose in mind and one ‘aspect’ of that can come at the expense of another. Right now I’ve got Michelin Tour Latitude HPs. They’re quiet, have excellent wet and dry traction and I’ll get around 45K from them as they have a Treadwear rating of around 720.
I’m considering replacing them with the Pirelli Scorpion Verde. It’s Treadwear rating is only 520, roughly meaning I’ll get 5/7ths of the longevity but their softer rubber will give even better wet and dry traction. Generally speaking, treadwear and traction work inversely, you give up one to get the other.
Perhaps the stickiest tire I ever had was the Continental Cross Conti. Their traction was almost startingly superb but they lasted for all of 17K. Btw, all of these are for high performance crossovers but comparables exist for passenger vehicles. I’d suggest using the tools from TireRack.com. You can plug in your vehicle info, see test results, ratings and reviews. Plus when I go to buy if the price is higher I’ll tell them what TireRack’s was and they’ll usually match it.
Just what is the deal on that, anyway? I just got my new Kia Optima and they were trying to sell me on that. It ended up, the car came with nitrogen in them anyway…
I was nervous to even check the pressure. Took it by my tire place and they told me I could check and just replace with air and made me feel much better.
What is the supposed benefit?