New tires - Which ones should I get?

[grampi]

I have a '93 Tercel which will be needing a new set of tires soon. The ones I have on it now are store brand all season tires and they handle like crap in the snow. I don't know if it's because of the tires, because the car is so light, or a combo of the two. I need a new set that will be good in the snow and have at least a 50K mileage wear rating. Know of anything? Thanks.

[grampi]

Anyone?

[grampi]

Come on! Jeez.

[grampi]

Don't everyone post all at once

[grampi]

This forum's about as useful as used toilet paper

[drdisque]

nobody's answering you because you're being way too vague. Tell us what tire size you need and how much you want to spend per tire.

[alphalanos]

Whats your price range? Try some BFG or Bridgestone.

[grampi]

Originally Posted by drdisque

nobody's answering you because you're being way too vague. Tell us what tire size you need and how much you want to spend per tire.

185/70/13 and about $60 a tire.

[drdisque]

Get the Yokohama Avid Touring, they cost $46 on victoriatire.com and shops will charge you $10/each to mount them, or, alot of shops will have them in stock or can get them overnight if you call first.

[grampi]

Originally Posted by drdisque

Get the Yokohama Avid Touring, they cost $46 on victoriatire.com and shops will charge you $10/each to mount them, or, alot of shops will have them in stock or can get them overnight if you call first.

I contacted a rep at Tirerack.com and he recommended the Bridgestone Turanza LS-T. It's an 80K tire and it's supposedly very good in the snow. I wonder how the Yok's compare to this tire? My wife's minivan has the Avid Tourers and I can tell you they are a very nice tire, but we haven't had the opportunity to drive in snow with them yet so I don't know how they handle snow.

[drdisque]

The Turanzas are good tires, they're probably a hell of alot more expensive though.

[grampi]

Originally Posted by drdisque

The Turanzas are good tires, they're probably a hell of alot more expensive though.

At the tire rack, the Yoks are $42 and the Turanzas are $61. One thing I noticed is the tread design on the Yoks is much more aggressive looking than that of the Turanza's, but then again, I don't know how that translates into actual snow traction, if it does at all. The snow traction rating for the Turanza is 7.5, while the Yok's rating is 7.2. It might be tough to justify the extra $19 per tire price difference for the Turanzas unless they perform considerably better in several other catagories. According to the numbers listed for both tires, the Turanzas show slightly better numbers, but nothing that really jumps out at you. The only knock against the Yoks that I've read in the review section is people seem to think the tread wear doesn't hold up as good as it should compared to the tw rating of the tire. This doesn't seem to be an issue with the Turanza. Does this make the Turanza worth the extra $19. Maybe. I suppose if the Turanzas actually last 80K, whereas the Yoks only last 60K, the Turanzas are probably worth the extra money, otherwise they probably aren't.

[grampi]

I think I've found my tire. The Kumho Touring A/S 795. It has a better snow traction rating than either the Turanza or the Yok, it ranked 3rd out of 30 tires overall in its class (the Turanza ranked 1st and the Yok ranked 7th), and it's the least expensive tire ($33) in its class. Reading the reviews for this tire, there were many statements like "better than tires costing twice as much" and "wouldn't hesitate to buy again" and very few negative remarks at all. The treadwear rating is slightly lower than that of the Turanza and Yok (70K vs 80K), but considering the price difference and better snow traction rating, it's worth the slight compromise.