Wanted to let you know that my crappy stock Goodyear's finally wore out, prompting me to purchase new tires. I opted for a "value" tire, the General Exclaim UHP. I paid $136/tire at discount tire here in the Seattle area, with an out the door cost of around $650. I drive 25K miles/year as an outside medical device salesman, so it's not a wise financial decision for me to get the greatest ultra performance summer tires for $250/ea. They simply wear out too quickly. My stock tires were 235/45R and the new exclaim's are slightly larger at 245/40. Essential, that's around 9mm more rubber on the road and they're about 1/2" shorter overall.

After a few hundred miles, my early impressions are excellent. They grip far better than my stock tires and I haven't noticed any additional noise in the cabin. They also "look" very good and it appears that they'll easily last for 30K+ miles. As is the case with most value tires, I'll have to monitor their balancing and sidewall wear. Discount tire offers free lifetime rotations and balancing, so in my opinion that makes value tires more appealing. The purpose of this mini review is not to dis the high price, high performance tire market. If you race your G35, then you should look into a more performance oriented tire. For the average guy and gal, value tires will offer you 95% of what performance tires will. My advice to anyone in a northern climate like myself is instead of spending $1200 on ultra high performance summer tires, get a set of $600 value performance tires AND a set of winter tires. That will take care of your needs for years to come.

 

Thanks for your review and keep us posted if anything goes right or wrong with the UHPs.

 

I was just wondering if you had the coupe or sedan? I have the 6mt coupe and my stock sizes are 225/45/18 and 245/45/18. I was looking at these tires as well, but they don't make the 225/45's, only the 225/40's.

I've heard stories of messing up the vdc with the wrong size tires... Does anyone know if I can get away with the 40's? Thanks..

 

Essential, that's around 9mm more rubber on the road

Wider tires do not put more tire tread AREA on the road, they are just wider but the rectangular patch is just shorter........the Area of the tread is a function of weight on the tire and PSI inflation..........1000/35psi=28.57 square inches!