Lexus IS 250 tire prices

Special high-traction tires for my friend's Honda S2000 cost around that much. The way she drives she says they're worth it, but they wear out faster than 'normal' tires; I drove her car on a mountain road once and it was a revelation. A friend with a Lexus says he has special tires too, but doesn't know much about them. When I drove his car on the same road I didn't hear any squealing either and I was cornering pretty fast with both cars.

You pays your money and you takes your choice.

Depends on the option package. They were 17" on the base version 18" on the X package uses 18" rubber. Either way it comes down to how they drive the car. IF they drive it to the edge of it's abilities then go for the high dollar rubber. If they drive it withing the legal limits and don't act like boy racer, lower dollar rubber would be fine.

Thanks gentlemen for the advice.

Andy

Maybe. Are they run-flats?

--scott

There is one thing that IS different about the high dollar tires. And that is the speed rating. They have been tested by the manufacturer to prove they meet the speed rating. If the owner of the car does not plan to drive the car faster then the legal speed limits there is for all practical purposes no good reason to buy high dollar tires simply to get the speed rating.

The other thing that MIGHT be different about the high dollar tires compared to less expensive and lower speed rated tires is how "sticky" they are. If the owner is concerned with going as fast as possible around curves they MAY want to spend more for the high speed rated tires just to get the stickier rubber compound.

However, there is a good chance that they can get fairly sticky tires for a lot less by just getting good, but lower speed rated, tires. The sticky can be judged reasonably well by the "wear rating" for the tires. The high dollar sticky tires will have wear ratings of 100 to perhaps 200. And will be worn out in 10 to 20K miles. Usually the higher speed rated a tire is the lower it's wear rating.. it doesn't have to be that way but it usually is. And there are likely to be some tire sizes where it's difficult to find any inexpensive tires since they are sized for corvettes and porches, not "normal cars" so the market is limited and the people who buy corvettes and porches are expecting to shell out big bucks for tires, some of them like to brag about the cost.

To your comment "sounds ridiculous" I agree. Unless someone actually bought the car to race in some fashion I think buying high speed rated (and poorly wearing) tires is just throwing money away. Some people will tell you "you HAVE to put the same speed rating tires on the car. That is simply not true. You can put on whatever you want. Some shops will object because they want to sell you $300 apiece tires that won't last long so you'll be back soon for new ones.

So it comes down to how you plan to use the car, how important it is to you that you can go around that really tight curve at 55 mph rather then having to slow down to 52.34 mph to keep from flying off it. If you are in that position on public streets you are probably not driving safely and you need to be thinking about more then your tire selections.

For the IS250 you can buy tires on tirerack.com for anywhere between $120 a tire up to $320 a tire. The difference being the speed and wear ratings.

The friend who buys the $500 tires for her S2000 tried some lower-priced/rated ones once, was not happy with the performance and went back to the expensive ones. I've ridden with her. She needs the more expensive tires :-)

Can't argue, it's her money and car. My Mustang gt came with Goodyear Eagle tires. I can't say that I was thrilled with how they would "breakaway" on corners but they were glass smooth at any speed. I've had two sets of other name brand tires on the car since those wore out. The replacements were about half the price of the Eagles but neither of them has the glass smooth ride at high speed that the Eagles did. For the saving$$$ I can live with it though.

I think the 'cheap' ones were $350, but I'm not sure.

The idea of a glass-smooth ride is disturbing. "Smooth" means that I'm going borderline too fast and instability will appear pretty damn soon. I like to feel the road, but not the way you feel it in a Miata :-(

When they stopped making the Eagles for 15-inch rims I moved to the Ecsta AST from kumho. You might five it a try. The Ecsta XS is stickier but with poorer rain performance.

--scott

Some people dig that low profile look. OTOH, you can bet that look is gonna cost you. My Hyundai Sonata had 55 series tires that looked good but it co st about $180 installed at Sam's club. I'm used to paying a little over $20

0 for 4 tires so a little over $700 is not so good. The tires and wheels di d look bitchin' though and after all, that is a Lexus so you better expect to pay more for everything. That just comes with the premium brand territor y - and we wouldn't want to have it any other way! :-)

I've got Kumho Ecsta ASX on it now. Discount shows the ASX as a higher speed rating than the AST. Tirerack has the XS but it's about $50 more per tire and has about one-third the life so I guess it would be stickier. I'll leave it to Corvette owners and weekend racers to shell out for new tires every 10K miles.

I'd much rather have it some other way, the way where you aren't paying thru the nose for a silly style statement that doesn't little more than make the car ride like a buckboard.

nna cost you. My Hyundai Sonata had 55 series tires that looked good but it cost about $180 installed at Sam's club. I'm used to paying a little over $200 for 4 tires so a little over $700 is not so good. The tires and wheels did look bitchin' though and after all, that is a Lexus so you better expe ct to pay more for everything. That just comes with the premium brand terri tory - and we wouldn't want to have it any other way! :-)

The Sonata had a very nice ride. All my cars have had a good ride - and I l ike to use elevated tire pressures. I did have a 72 Capri that had a awful hard suspension - when the road got a little rough, all the tires would lea ve the road. It felt like riding on bouncing basketballs. I also had a Rabb it with really skinny tires - if I took a turn too fast, the whole car woul d slide sidewards i.e., it had neutral handling. That was fun.

when the Sonata got totaled, I was paid a couple of thousand more than I pa id for it. The reason for that was because it had the premium trim package aka, "silly style statement." :-)