New tires

Athena

Athena

New member
It is that time
So it is the time for my Jetta SE TSI.
I am going to get new tires. The set that came with it has a lot of road noise but got me crazy good MPGs and handled great.
This time I am going for as low as I can get on the road noise. Any one have good idea on that? :cool:

I do not drive crazy like I used to. I engage the turbo maybe once every other month if I am lucky and average 35 to 45 MPGs so I hate to say I am pretty much a driver for smooth these days. I have a few friends in law enforcement so I drive what they suggest over the limit, no more no less. and I have never received a ticket other than a speed trap I got cleared up with a judge.:cool:

So, nice quite tires. Anyone?
 
205/55R16 near in between Milwaukee and Chicago, so from super hot 110 degree summers with melting roads that buckle up to -20 degree frozen winters with crazy ice and snow and everything that you can get in the middle. Floods, heavy rain, you name it. I keep trying to save up to the point I can get separate tires for winter and summer but I do not have the money. Even these have to go on a card because recent medical bills and I did not realize I was going to have tire issues and bought a CPU. Given that was only a hundred some bucks. But still.

I have about 40% usable tread left on my current tires even though I am over 10 grand past the tread life miles. According to the last inspection.

Those are the extremes of course so only a couple days here and there.
 
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Hmm starting my search I am shocked. I have been used to buying tires for my last two GTs. Tires for this sedan are dirt cheap. O_o

I can easily afford tires and not totally kill my card. I mean I hate using a card but I will pay it off with the tax return anyways.

I have to think about this. Maybe I should do like my cousin says and get both winter and summer tires so I am not slipping and sliding all over the road.

I just hate changing out tires. :(

What do you guys do that live in winter and summer places?
 
IF you have every weather imaginable, its best to have separate summers and winters.

I live in Canadia where the cold winter weather can unpredictably appear so IMO for summers I would recommend going against actual 100% summers and get a tire that is all season. IN those instances where the weather suddenly turns you wont be stuck sliding around on pucks.

In winter I use mud+snow rated tires cuz we can get pretty ugly winter weather here, and i'd want maximum traction.

I have a winter+summer setup with my Scion IM, but my BMW X1 is all season (will be switching to winter + summer later when the all seasons run its course)

Scion winter = Yokohama Iceguard IG53.
Scion summer = OEM, Bridgestone Ecopia 422
BMW X1 = Continential ExtremeContact DWS 06 (all season) .

The Contis are awesome tires and easy for me to recommend..
When I had a Corolla, I used to swtich between Michelin Xice winters and Continental DWS for summer. At some point I just didn't feel like switching the tires and just ran the continentals for a few winters. They were surprisingly good in winter conditions and felt like they were outperforming the Xice.

Fast forward to the time we got the BMW X1 and needed winters (Comes with OEM Summer only Bridgestone Potenza, but it was approaching winter season) we needed to save up some money for various other things, so we opted for all seasons with the X1 instead of a separate winter/summer setup. Found a good price for the Continental DWS so we got those.

So yeah, I'd recommend Continental DWS06, as either a summer tire set or an all season single set. They actually have a softer sidewall than typical Ultra High Performance all seasons (and definitely not as hard as 100% summers) so it makes things more comfortable. They're very good in ice and snow (but don't expect that performance to last the whole life of the tire)

Yeah smaller tires are cheaper, the BMW uses 19's, and whenever its time to get the winter/summer set going I don't think I can go smaller than 18's....(tire prices in that large wheel, low profile range...ugh)

My Scion is using 16's for winter, and 17's for the OEM size.
 
You definitely want winter tires for the areas you mentioned. Not only do they have better treads for wet conditions, they also have rubber formulated to stay flexible and grippy in the cold. Ars Technica has a excellent article on the subject.

As for which ones to buy, my family has had good luck with Michelin X-Ice Xi3 tires.
 
Thanks for the feedback

I have the OEM tires they are 'summer tires'. Just a bit of snow and the traction control is working over time. They were rated for 25 or 30 thousand miles only. I got the VW when VW was in financial trouble and selling them dirt cheap. I knew they had skimped on the tires but I never got around to having the money to get better ones. So I went through 3 winters of slip and slide. (this is the 3rd winter)

OK got the name off the tire. Never heard of these before this sedan, but till now I always drive sport coups, Ecopia? bridgestone ecopia ep422 plus.....
Well what do you think?
 
Athena said:
Thanks for the feedback

I have the OEM tires they are 'summer tires'. Just a bit of snow and the traction control is working over time. They were rated for 25 or 30 thousand miles only. I got the VW when VW was in financial trouble and selling them dirt cheap. I knew they had skimped on the tires but I never got around to having the money to get better ones. So I went through 3 winters of slip and slide. (this is the 3rd winter)

OK got the name off the tire. Never heard of these before this sedan, but till now I always drive sport coups, Ecopia? bridgestone ecopia ep422 plus.....
Well what do you think?
Click to expand...

hey same ones I have...they're.....just tires...
I think they're all seasons but their focus is fuel economy so its designed for quietness and low rolling resistance.
Like all OEM tires they're mostly terrible......average at best. Gets the job done for regular day to day driving when the focus is on getting from one place to another quietly and efficiently.

I thought about keeping them for one season and buying winters the next but it got a bit too squirrelly for my liking when I got to drive in the snow for the first time.....

If you drove sport coupes before then those had much better performing OEM tires in comparison.

Oh and don't replace OEM tires with OEM tires. They usually for whatever reason cost a lot more than better performing non-oem tires.
 
Id get blizzaks for winters and Michelin Energy for summers unless you have to have a sporty performance feel to scoot around on. Tons of choice in perf arena but they melt too quickly imo.
 
Rather than swapping out dedicated summer and winters every year I've just moved to all-weather tires (not all-season, all-weather).

They rock. I see all types of climates in Denver and they are very sufficient year round with AWD.
 
Are those the same as All Terrain tires? I was thinking of trying a set out but was thinking they would be noisy.
 
Mahjik said:
All Season != All Terrain
Click to expand...

Ya that list seems to be a lot of the same tires I looked at... but they keep trying diff things... different rubbers. I thought they were moving the needle again for a minute.
 
All weathers tires are basically winter tires that won't wear down during the warm seasons.

Its kind of like the opposite of all season tires where the winter capabilities are limited on an otherwise decent to good all weather performer.

Summers = only good during warm weather, becomes gripless pucks in winter.
Winters = good for winter traction, not made for prolonged use during the warm weather so it will wear out real quick if not used in winter.
All seasons = decent to good in all weather conditions, but not great in any. Winter capability is usually fairly limited and isnt ideal for really cold temperatures (jack of all trades, master of none)
All weather = AFAIK repurposed winter tires modified to wear normally in all weather conditions (cold and hot). Unsure how good or compromised the summer capabilities are in these applications.
 
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Sasquach said:
All weathers tires are basically winter tires that won't wear down during the warm seasons.

Its kind of like the opposite of all season tires where the winter capabilities are limited on an otherwise decent to good all weather performer.

Summers = only good during warm weather, becomes gripless pucks in winter.
Winters = good for winter traction, not made for prolonged use during the warm weather so it will wear out real quick if not used in winter.
All seasons = decent to good in all weather conditions, but not great in any. Winter capability is usually fairly limited and isnt ideal for really cold temperatures (jack of all trades, master of none)
All weather = AFAIK repurposed winter tires modified to wear normally in all weather conditions (cold and hot). Unsure how good or compromised the summer capabilities are in these applications.
Click to expand...

All weathers are expensive for good ones, and bad ones are sketchy.

Family has sets of cars and SUVs... Massive improvement over Three-Seasons on snow and ice. I'd rate them about equivalent to cheap winter tires for winter grip. A good dedicated winter will own them, but they also won't melt in +30'C weather driving down the highway.

The one disadvantage of All-Weather tires, is that they don't last nearly as long as Three-Seasons. Think 60-80,000km rated vs 120-160,000km rated.

Do take advantage of the free rotation service offered by most places that sell the good ones. As that will definitely help extend their life span.

Hakkas are the best.
Hankooks are good to garbage. :bleh:
 
pax said:
Id get blizzaks for winters and Michelin Energy for summers unless you have to have a sporty performance feel to scoot around on. Tons of choice in perf arena but they melt too quickly imo.
Click to expand...

I went with this.

Got Blizzaks on extra rims for winter now and will get low noise road tires for summer later.

Thanks for all the feedback. :cool:

Still can't believe how much cheaper tires on sedans are than my GTs had been!!:D
 
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