Just talked to a great rep at Tire Rack named "Ben". He gave me a lot of practical help. Here is his take on the three tires I had in mind...

1. Avon 550 A/S: Best value. Best in snow/ice/slop. Great performance and tread wear, although not quite as sharp a handler at the Pirelli or Michelin due to softer sidewall.. He said that they have had many, many satisfied customers on this tire. Best choice if your car is daily driver and you actually have winter weather in your year.

2. Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S: Great performer for A/S tire, but marginal ar best in snow/ice/slop. Sharper handling/steering than Avon due to stiffer sidewalls. He said that the Pirelli's have had lots of complaints about wearing out quickly.

3. Michelin Pilot Sport A/S: Best all-season tire out there. Best handling, steering, and snow/ice/slop performance...but expensive. If money is no real object...the best tire going. Period. He also said they wore fast, but not as fast as the Pirelli...but that faster wear was a part of buying sport tires.

Looks like I'll be going for the 235/50/17 Avon's like silver04 on my silver-03. They are $61.00 less per tire than the Michelin's and that makes a difference to me especially on a sport tire. Thanks guys!!!

 

The only reason I didn't go with the Avons is because you can only really buy them on tirerack. If I get a nail thru my sidewall I want to be able to go to any tire shop with my warranty and have them replace the tire for something the same type. That concerned me.

...Now I've used tirerack, though, I realize it would never have to be more than 24 hours I'm driving around on the spare before the replacement arrived

Tirerack is good.

 

Yeah, that thought came to my mine also. No Avon dealers in Springfield either. Even though I am totally against most aftermarket warranties, being in the car business, I bought the Road Hazard protection warranty in case I hit a pothole or picked up a big nail or something. Springfield has as many bad roads, and as much construction as the Metroplex.

Sure wish I'd made a purchase while Tirerack had the "free shipping" deal going on!!

 

OK It's been about 1000 miles on the wide ovals now and I figured I should add a little more detail to my review. Here goes:

These tires are ok.



They (obviously) blow the turanzas out of the water, but they really don't rate against the F1's. They're in a different class. I can tell that the contact patch is smaller (235s this time instead of 245s - plus the F1s are very "square") because steering is nice and light (feels like I have a power steering boost) whereas with the 245 F1's it felt like I was on rails and had to TRY to deviate from a straight line.

The Wide Ovals look pretty nice; the tread pattern is attractive and fairly aggressive but the appearance from the side is nothing to write home about. Just another tire.

They seem to grip reasonably well but I've noticed that I've gone from a VERY neutral setup with the F1s to some noticable understeer when driving aggressively. These tires have a tendency to make some noise when they're at their limits, and as I said before this is not a bad thing. It's nice to have a "careful son" warning before the traction is lost. Having said that, with VDC off, these tires are VERY predictable a lot of fun. It's not impossible any more to get a little power slide going with a blip of the throttle, and it's just as predictable when reigning in the back end again. The F1s were a little more bipolar than that. They had a tendency to stick like glue until the slide started and then either regain traction at an undesirable time or force you to overcompensate.

Wet traction seems good, but not as good as the F1s by any stretch of the imagination. I was able to keep up with traffic in a good amount of water, but they weren't confidence inspiring in the rain like the F1s were. They should work well and are very safe tires, don't get me wrong. But a different class from the F1s. These tires will keep you safe in the rain, but you still have to make adjustments. With the F1s you can kind of just plough through and stay on track.

Dry traction is good, but they're not Auto-X material. I'd classify these tires as touring summer tires, not the ultra-high-performance summer as I think they are classified.

The balancing, as suggested by louis_darke on here, was kind of strange. Almost 3oz of weight was added to one side of the tire to get them balanced, which looks kind of ugly. I'm sure if I took them to another shop, they'd try things like unmounting and rotating the tires on the wheels to get a closer balance before adding weights. But they ARE balanced so I'm not too concerned right now.

I know this sounds like a negative review but they're really not bad at all. If you're expecting F1-like performance, forget it. If you're looking to replace the turanzas with something that will provide traction, look good, and not bust your wallet, these might be the way to go. Performance nuts look away, Everyday drivers, these are for you, and they still allow you to have some fun and buy a tire with the aggressive tread pattern.

At $123 a tire they're some of the more inexpensive ones you can find in the 235/50/17 size and I'm certainly not unhappy that I'll (hopefully) have them strapped on for another 29000 miles. (that'd be awesome )

I hope the review helps someone.

Have fun!

Jase

 

Anybody has used the KUMHO KH16? any opinions?

 

Finally got rid of the crummy RS-A's and got the Avon Tech 550's from Tire Rack in the 235/50-17 size. Much improvement over the Goodyears, the car feels more "planted" and secure. Have only put a little over 300-miles on them, so will report more later. So far, I think I made a great choice. About $60 per tire less than Pilot Sports and that $240 can be spent elsewhere.

 

How's your opinion on the look of the tire on the rim. Soem people think it's too wide...others like it.

I myself like it.

 

I like it a lot. Glad I listened to the TireRack rep and went for the 235 which they guaranteed to fit my skinny 7" stock Sport wheel, and not the 245 that I was set to get. I think the 235 is the optimum on this rim, although I am sure that there are lots of folks out there that are running 245's that will obviously think otherwise.

I am looking forward to seeing how these tires do in the snow/slush/ice that the winter will bring here in the Ozarks. That's really why I bought the A/S tires to begin with. The rep (Ken) said they were almost as good in those conditions as the P-Sports, and much better than the Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S's that I was strongly considering before I bought the Avons. We'll see...

 

Any pictures of it? Thanks.

 

Anyone that changed to 235's notice a change in mpg's?

 

I think I said before that I noticed a reduction when I went from 215/225 (whatever the stock is) to 245, but now I've gone back to 235 I think it was just related to the time of yeat. I put the 245s on in November when it started getting cold and saw a big reduction in MPG. Now I've put on the 235s I expected to see a raise in MPG but it's not there. It may make a difference but I'm not sure it's a measurable one given how random my MPG seems to be these days (sometimes 320 miles on a tank, sometimes 340, sometimes 300)

 

I've actually been watching my MPG recenlty since this thread and I really haven't seen much difference. Of course my first tank was crappy cause I was breaking-in/testing the tires, but other than that pretty normal.
But like doogie said, the weather can definitely do alot to the MPG.

I will continue to monitor my mileage, but it might be way off. Mainly due to the prices now, I will only be doing my drive to work.

Thanks for reviews guys.

 

I work for firestone so im biased to Bridgestones, i have SO-3 pole positions (245/40/18) on my 05 sedan and they are amazing.

Bridgestone SO-3 pole position
245/40/18
500 miles driven
Will last for about 15,000 miles, if you want something to last longer and still have Bridestones than get the RE750's (atleast 25,000 miles out of them)
Super soft and quiet
Ive turned the VDC off a couple of times and whipped around corners and done a few 360's in the parking lot as well, they deff. hold their own
Overall performance is amazing.

If you have an 05 with the 235/45/18's the 245/40/18's are the closest you can get to the oem size tire. they will slightly affect the speedo. if your speedo reads 65mph your going approx 63.8mph. Theres my opinion, hope it helps some of you

 

Call me old, but, a tire that costs almost $300 and lasts just 15,000 miles is just stupid. When you can get something that is so close in performance and get double or more treadware out of it.