Woodie wrote:Actually that was a quite dismissive statement, I should have been more clear in that for what I value when shopping for tires they're not great. When they came up the page was sorted according to price and they were the cheapest of 77. That's not a good sign, but it's entirely possible that they're just overstocked on them and the price is artificially low right now. I saw that and the 400 UTQG rating and called them crap. I consider 400 to be the cutoff point for tires, anything above that I will not consider. My main concerns are wet and dry traction, I ignore any tire which brags about how long it lasts because that usually means it is too hard to give decent wet traction and braking.
I need to reminded from time to time that I'm not the only person in the world and that sometimes others have different, yet perfectly valid opinions. Sorry.
Yeah, keep in mind that these are "Grand Touring" tires and not Ultra High Performance or Max Performance Tires. I'm no expert on tires, but my research tells me that GT tires are intended for a prolonged service life for general use. They are basically intended to be quiet, comfortable, and last a longer duration for normal driving. Performance isn't a priority with GT tires.
UHP tires sway on the side of performance as the name implies but generally compromise on tire tread life by using softer compounds for better traction. Even then, UHP is still a compromise given nearly all All Season tires don't go beyond this performance rating. The stickiest tires for the best performance are Max Performance and the rare "Extreme Performance" rated tires. However, these are nearly exclusively Summer tires and aren't design to grip snow, ice, or even work ideally on cold tarmac.
So in the end, it's about where you drive and what you want out of your tires. Most people are fine with GT tires if they use their car for transportation more than pleasure. UHP offers more grip for performance without compromising too much when things get wintery (assuming they are All Season). Max and Extreme are for dry summer use or track use and need to be swapped out for winter tires for those in regions that get snow in the winter. I hear they are dangerously slick on snow.
Once I move to So Cal and the time comes for new tires, I think I'll get Summer tires for the first time ever, especially since I will no longer live on a mountain there. As for here in the Mid-Atlantic, I've been very pleased with my Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 tires I've had for over 25,000 miles.
