Need an Opinion

[Iboc_C64]

Hey guys, Im looking at new tires and was hoping to get some oppinions. Im looking for new tires in the 225-45-17 size for my 2009 WRX. I have used dunlop stock tires and they were fine aside from being expensive, noisy and only lasting about 24,000 miles before the nylon started to show. I used Cooper Zeon 2XS after that and they were good except the sidewalls are kinda soft and they cupped fairly easily until they became noisy as well, then a pothole put 2 bubbles in one of them so I was not impressed.

So now I am looking for something with stiffer sidewalls, a price below $140 a tire after shipping and rated to last about 50,000 miles. Traction does not need to be the AA rating that I am used to, so a rating of A is fine. Temperature of A and Treadwear of 400 or better. Looking at V rated tires but H would not be completely out of the question. I usually buy tires rated at 91Y. Im also looking for the ability to handle slush and light snow, I would prefer a quieter tire.

I have narrowed my options down to a couple of choices, labeled in order of likelyhood of purchase.

General Altimax HP

Continental Extreme Contact DWS

Goodyear Eagle F1 All Seasons

Firestone Firehawk Wide Oval AS(W)

I was looking at others, but these seem the most promising. The generals are probably what I will get because they had great ratings and glowing reviews, but I have been burned on crappy generals before with my old car. I also and drawn the Conti DWS tires, but there are lots of complaints of soft or weak sidewalls. The goodyears sound good due to strong carbon fiber sidewalls and RangleyRallyDG has them, but the treadlife seems a little low and they get noisy over time according to the reviews. The Firehawks are the all season version of summer tires I helped a friend of mine pick out, they are a little lacking on reviews because they are new. My primary concerns are treadlife and noise, followed by handling. What do you guys think, is there something else I should be considering? Any bad experiences with the Altimax or Conti's? Thanks in Advance.

 

[GMan]

Might I add that the Falkens are a great tire. That's what I am running now on my STI and couldn't be happier. I have experienced great wear characteristics and seemingly indestructible sidewalls. They are ZE-912's to be exact. Used to have Yokohama S-Drive's on another car. Those were also awesome tires.

 

[Iboc_C64]

I have the S-Drives on my old Grand Am in 205-55-R16. I think they are soft on the sidewalls compared to the Cooper Zeons I ran on it previously, the coopers ssemed stiff on that car. On the Subaru the coopers were really soft, so Im looking for something with even stiffer sidewalls. I feel like the S-Drives are more of a passenger car type tire, really great if your looking for comfort/noise and not concerned with cornering/pothole resistance. Thanks for the advice though, I will look in to the Falkens, never used that brand before.

 

[Iboc_C64]

Gman, you really like the Falkens? The price is good, but the reviews on Discount Tire Direct scare me a little, sounds like the reviewers think they wear out in 25,000 miles and are unstable above 70mph.

 

[GMan]

Gman, you really like the Falkens? The price is good, but the reviews on Discount Tire Direct scare me a little, sounds like the reviewers think they wear out in 25,000 miles and are unstable above 70mph.

They work for me. Opionions vary. Reviews vary. Actually I have only had them a year. Need more testing.

 

[Iboc_C64]

Fair enough, thanks for the info. You got me looking at Discount Tire Direct too, which has different pricing for some tires and free shipping. I may end up saving a few bucks that way, so thanks again. Anyone else have any advice? Im hoping someone has tried the Continentals and the Generals. Im actually leaning toward the Conti's now after further reading but obviously I have not finalized my decision yet.

 

[GMan]

Fair enough, thanks for the info. You got me looking at Discount Tire Direct too, which has different pricing for some tires and free shipping. I may end up saving a few bucks that way, so thanks again. Anyone else have any advice? Im hoping someone has tried the Continentals and the Generals. Im actually leaning toward the Conti's now after further reading but obviously I have not finalized my decision yet.

I hear that Continentals are pretty sweet. Gclark says he likes his Ventus V12's.

 

[Iboc_C64]

Well, I didn't get a whole lot of opinnions. Basically after reading the reviews I came to the conclusion that in tires under $160 per tire, or with tires in general, you can't get both crisp handling (stiff sidewalls) and a smooth quite ride, its either one or the other. The reviews for the Continental DWS seems like they said that it was a better all around tire than the General Altimax, but the altimax would wear longer. They both were warrantied for 50,000 miles or better so I went with the DWS Conti's and hope to get at least 45,000 miles out of them. Im sick of buying summer tires every 20,000 miles or less especially when they have more grab than I tend to use on the dirty back roads. The good roads are too well patroled these days to push the tires to thier limits. This is probably a good compromise in traits without going to a general purpose touring tire. I will probably post later whether or not I like them.

 

[CoupedUpSubie]

I wish I had seen this before, I myself do not care for the General Altimax. I have a set of these(may not be the HP). that's the only one I have used.

 

[Iboc_C64]

Thanks for the info, I went with the Continentals anyway. We will see how they feel, my Coopers seem to have medium to soft sidewalls, hopefully these wont be any worse. There seemed to be a lot of positive reviews for the altimax from subaru drivers, but most of them said if you use it on anything but pavement it sucks, which was opposite of the Conti's and that's why I decided to go with the Conti DWS's.

 

[Iboc_C64]

FYI in case anyone is interested, I have been running the Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires for a week and I like them a lot. They have plenty of traction, they are quiet, they are comfortable and seem to have stiffer sidewalls than the coopers did, but not as stiff as the Dunlops were. Thier all season ability is welcomed too. I think I made a great decision but only time will tell.

Thanx for the replies Gman and CoupedUpSubi.