tires recommendations please

I don't know if they're available in your size, but I got a set of Sumitomo HTR+ high-performance all-season tires from the tire rack for my Forester. I just got back from a trip involving a lot of snow and at times heavy rain, as well as dirt roads etc. The tires were very good in the snow, and very sticky in the rain. In the snow, they only slipped when I deliberately tried to break them loose. Probably not as good as snow tires, but very good. (The snow driving was on back mountain roads at relatively slow speeds - don't know how they'd be at high highway speeds) In the rain, it was very difficult to get them to slide even with severe provacation in an empty but wet parking lot. When they could be made to slide, they were very benign and easy to regain control. Dry handling is good with high limits and little noise or roll, but they don't steer as sharp as previous Falken ZE-502's. They also provide a good deal of rim protection against curb rash for my alloy wheels. Very happy with them for a cheap price compared to the Continentals or other high rated tires. If I only drove in the dry, would get the Falken ZE-512's (which replace the

502's). Hope this helps. Hank Murdoch 98 Forester snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

I have the Continentals on my 2002 WRX and am very pleased with them. They are a great tire for aggressive driving, wet or dry. However, I do not like them over 100 mph-- I can not pin down exactly why but the car is not "solid" feeling at high speed with Conti's. In the snow they are average at best. For the money, they are a good buy. ( I have 10k on mine.)

Just one other recommendation. I just put Kumho HP4 716 tires on both our Foresters. Admittedly different size (225/60/16). I am very happy with these tires, mainly good recommendations at Tirerack reviews. My needs were similar to yours in terms of priorities; Wet handling, decent snow handling. They have so for performed to my expectations, great in the wet, and reasonable in snow, and were considerably cheaper than the alternatives. I may have found a new brand if they hold up reasonably well, which it appears they will do, but it is still early, with maybe 8000 miles of use on a set.

add the Goodyear Eagle HP's to your list. i'm amazed how good they are. we don't get much rain in colorado, but the times i have been driving in the rain, it felt like dry pavement. and on colorado snow/ice they're absolutely great (especially for an all-season tire). they're a uni-directional tire, so you can only rotate frontback, but for the added traction it's worth it. i have 20k miles on mine currently and they look as good as new. the stock RE92s looked terrible after 20k miles.

generally when i look at tires, i don't worry too much about price. tires generally last me 50k miles or more (except the stupid RE92s). and that's about 5-6 years of driving for me. so if you amortize that cost over the life of the tire, you're not paying much, and from what i've seen you usually get what you pay for. and do you want to trust your life on a contact patch the size of your shoes to a cheap tire?

i know nothing of the fulda tires, actually never heard of the brand. just going by past experience, the goodyear, michelin, bf goodrich, and contenentals are going to be the best tires. bridgestone, firestone, dunlop are not as good. note: these brands are usually oem on most cars. why? because they're cheaper and it's a good place to cuts costs where the consumer won't notice.

I replaced the OEM Michelins on my 97 Legacy OB with Bridgestone Turanzas at about 30K after one of the Michelins got gashed.

The thing handled SO much better with the Turanzas that I was delighted.

But now they have 60K and will need replacement in the next

10K or so (these are all miles). I'm tempted to get the Turanzas again, since I don't think they can be beat on price/longevity, but I'm wondering if I'm short-changing myself on performace. On the other hand, the thing's a damn station wagon, albeit a very nice handling one, so tires are only gonna help so much.

So, I'm curious, anyone else used Turanzas and what did you think of them ?

John

I have the Conti ExtremeContact tires as well. Overall, they do well (what a statement for all season tires). If I had it to do over, I think I'd try the RE950s.

I went through exactly the same just now for my AWD Passat and ended up with the ContiExtremeContact. Like the ContiSport2, they get great reviews in general, which made me take a second look. I have had Michelins, Yokohamas, and Contis before. In my opinion, Contis are slightly better than equivalent Yokohamas, and a mile better than Michelins, at a better price. Using TireRack, I paid (including shipping and install) about the same for the ExtremeContact as the lowest available model (about two grades down) at Discount Tire.

Fuldas used to be a brand name in Germany 30 years ago, I really don't know much about them at this point. My gut feeling is that they would be a discount item with just slightly poorer performance. Probably not as bad as Michelins.

- D.