Tire Preferences

I know some people have their favorite brands. But I'm looking a little deeper than that. Each brand I'm sure makes a tire better than the others for a specific use. What are the best tires for the specific uses? Why did you come to that conclusion?

Touring - all weather, highway tire, durability w/a quiet and smooth ride (I prefer the Yokohama Avid Touring)
Street Performance - Some swear by Protenza's
Snow Tires -
Drag Racing - (M. Thompson I know is very popular)
AutoX - (Would Eagle F1's or Michelin PS2 fall under this category?)
Rain Tires - (ie Aquatread etc).
Pick-Up trucks - for a truck to be used for offroad work and not insulted with low profiles

I researched a bit on my last purchase and according to specs and cost the aquatread (II or III) was the best deal, not the best tire, but for the cost was the best deal. I was not at all concerned about rain either.

After having purchased them I am not real impressed with them in any catagory, especially in the ability to be rotated. Still pleased though.

These were just my everyday drivers. The only other catagory I comment on is the snow, I always bought radial buckshot mudders and studded them cause of the excellent traction.

Good value for street performance: Kumho, Toyo, Yokohama
Good value-priced tires: Dunlop A2, Bridgestone Turanza, Yokohama

Bad performance tire: Firestone Firehawk
Bad value-priced tire: Goodyear Viva


I've seen mixed feelings on the Douglas Touring tires. I think they're ok for the money, but keep in mind they're cheap.


I've heard good things about the Eagle F1's, but I have no personal experience with them.

(These opinions come from somebody who likes to drive hard on asphalt.)

I like Sumitomo (the higher end ones, cant remember the name) for autocross like stuff.

I previously had a set of YK420's on the Civic. They're a cross between street performance and touring. Nice tire, gripped great when cruising through the NC mountains. Over 76/77, got a little noisy and not as smooth. The web weather wasn't all that impressive but wasn't bad. If you're looking for cheap performance combined with durability, it's perfect. I had Yokohama Avid Tourings on an old '94 Sentra. The previous tires were top end Generals and were crap after the first 10miles. Those Avid T's were a giant leap in quality! Discount tire sold my reserved AT from under me and gave me the 420's for $100less because of it. 70k later I finally have the Avid Tourings on the Civic. Extremely quiet at any speed. Wet and windy weather and the tire grips like it's dry and calm. Very, very smooth. For some one who drives 45-50min each way to and from work on the interstates, they're perfect.

almost every serious Autocrosser uses Falken, Hoosier, Kumho, or BFG

The Eagle F1 is more of a "supercar" tire.

The big brands of snow tire are Nokian, Hakkapelita, and Bridgestone Blizzak

In my opinion Kumhos are pretty much the worst performance tire on the market.

Summer, auto X, touring, cruising = Toyo proxes T1S
Winster/snow = bridgestone Blizzak

In my opinion Kumhos are pretty much the worst performance tire on the market.
That tends to be the opposite of what I've heard. However, the performance stats I've seen says your right. Perception and reality are usually two very different things.