Some new tires soon... which?

I got the Michelin Radial X from Costco a couple of years ago for my

Check out

Ditto on tirerack. I would never buy tires "through the mail," but it gives you a good base to comparison shop in your own area...or you can buy them from tirerack...

personal preference is Yokohama

low cost, high quality

Michelin should be fine, too. They just happen to be among the most expensive brands, and not necessarily better. I have spent over $100 each on Michelin tires in the past (for another "luxury import" car.) I suppose the Michelin Harmony might be one to check. Tirerack.com does have good basis for comparison. Local American Tire matched their price on the Yokohamas when shown the printout. BTW, if you have alloy wheels, insist the installer use a proper torque wrench for the final tightening. In any event, is healthiest for the brake rotors if they do not over tighten with an air gun, and use the proper criss cross pattern (not one after the other moving around the circle of bolts pattern).

I'm very pleased with the Avid Touring, although it is now an older design.

Southern California, mostly warm weather. Excellent tire tread life, good handling, closely spaced tread blocks and continuous center rib contribute to quiet ride.

I have the michelin Harmony tires. They are the best I have ever had. Very smooth, quiet, good grip and they are wearing very well so far, no visible wear after 10,000 miles or more.

I bought the Michelin Hydroedge for my 1990. They're kinda pricey, but have a 85,000 mile warranty and do very well against hydroplaning. They're alot quieter and smoother than the Goodyears I had on it. I got them from Discount Tire. You can check there website for pricing.

I have a 2001 Toyota Camry. I have Yokohama YK420. I really like these tires. The only drawback is that my Camry requires "H" rates tires, so the tread life isn't as long as what was on my other car. Those were "S" rated. But they ride really well. I could have gone with an "S" rated which is a harder tire, but I would sacrifice handling, so I didn't want to do that.I bought them from Discount Tire. Pep Boys had a similiar tire and Discount Price matched. Instead of $92 each they cost me $72 each. So $340 out the door for a GOOD set of tires isn't bad. I have learned from experience, do compromise on tires. Get the good ones. You will be happier with them.

Also, if you keep your tires rotated and balanced, if your tires wear out before the mileage warranty, DISCOUNT will pro-rate the price for a new set! I paid $220.00 for a new set just recently! HA!

I really appreciated all the information re new tires for my 2001 Camry.

I learned a lot from all of you and (Esp. tirerack.com) I'm going to go with the Bridgestone Potenza 950. Hopefully, tomorrow. I read a ton of good things about them. (But not good in snow.......No snow here at any time..........I'd faint if it snowed, but it gets pretty wet at times and they are excellent for that.)

My old tires are the Bridgestone Potenza 92.................a piece of garbage. No comparison between the two, however.

Thanks again.

Scared me...all I remember are the words Bridgestone and Potenza from the JUNK tires that came as OEM on my Camry.

Thanks to that experience, I will never buy any Bridgestone Potenza again....but as you say, I'm sure that the 950s are good.....just should be a lesson to Bridgestone, I bet a lot of folks like me will avoid their entire line based on experiences with that one junk OEM tire.

I just bought a set from TireRack for my Vue and it was soooooo easy. I picked a local installer. TireRack will ship the tires directly to the installer and they will call me when they come in.

These tires were P235/65R16 for a Saturn Vue. This is a weird / unpopular size and the choices were limited. Sam's Club doesn't even offer a tire in that size. The tire store nearest me offered to sell me a set of Michelin LX4 Energy tires in my size for $712 "out the door." TireRack is shipping 4 of the same tires to a local installer for $312 dollars. Installation will be another $44, for an "out the door cost" of $356 - exactly half. I think I can live without the free rotation and balancing offered by the local store in order to save $312 - particularly since the same store runs a $20 rotate and balance special.

Ordinarily I prefer to buy my tires locally - usually from Sam's Club because they are often the cheapest, include free rotation and balancing, and don't try to sell me stuff I don't need. However, this time TireRack was clearly better. This has been true in the past as well. Four other times I bought from TireRack because they had an exceptionally low price on tires I needed (Michelin Pilots for a Mustang, a single OE Tire for an Expedition, Michelin MXVs for a Sable, and Continentals for a Pinto I autocrossed).

I'd at least consider TireRack. They make it very easy to find a local installer and the procedure can be seamless.

Ed

My Camry came with the Bridgestone RE 92. Lousy tires. They didn't have the right size in the Potenza 950 for the car, so I am ordering the Touranza tires. Hope I'm lucky with them. Anything's better than the RE92 tires.