New Tires OMG

[Blackhorse]

The last time I bought new tires was for my hot little 5-speed Focus with the big Mazda engine. Continental brand. Best wet and winter grip plus general handling I’ve ever had.

Now, after a week of exhaustive research, I just ordered 4 new ones for my KIA Soul that has only 36K. Good thing my daughter is still around so I can hock her to pay for ‘em. Four Continental Pure Contact LS 205/60 R16 installed was $550. Ouch. :face:

 

[huffelpuff]

Rubber isn't cheap by any means! Replaced all 4 tires on an 03 Ford Escape with 235/70R16 and 50k mile treadwear warranty Toyo tires. Grand total was $895! The horrifying thing is these were mid range price wise but have better warranty than the $400/tire option. Really hate buying tires for anything that has more than a 15" rim. Unfortunately these will probably only last me a year and a half tops. I tend to put between 30-40k miles on per year.

Jim

 

[Blackhorse]

Wow...that’s a lotta miles.

 

[huffelpuff]

Yeah with that kind of mileage you'd think I would be going long distances all the time but honestly I rarely leave town.

Jim

 

[Blackhorse]

You obviously don’t leave your vehicle either. :arrow:

 

[huffelpuff]

That's about right. I can't even begin to count the times I've pulled in turned off the ignition pulled the keys and never managed to get the door open. Wake up stiff and sore a couple hours later and realize its time to leave again.

 

[Blackhorse]

BTW - I have ZERO faith in any standard tire manufacturers warrantee.

 

[D.L.Ruth]

Buying tires is one of my least favourite things to do, I Judy harte it for some reason.

 

[Blackhorse]

Buying tires is one of my least favourite things to do, I Judy harte it for some reason.

Yeah...but the difference it makes is pretty amazing.  

Remember the DMV sloth worker in Zootopia?  That’s the “before”.    
Think Sonic the Hedgehog for the “after”.   :bounce:

:lol:

 

[Zeno Marx]

The tire thing blows my mind. I'd like to see a graph of inflation for these things. It must rival health care. I remember getting a set of four, installed, for my hatchback for $76. No discounts or sales. The last time it was over $500. And I swear I have problems with every manufacturer I've tried in the past two decades.

 

[huffelpuff]

Zeno, I believe it has more to do with the tire size than inflation per say. I remember buying tires for a pick up truck back in 95, the best price for a decent tire I could find was $250/tire plus mount, balance and road hazard. They were LT 245/75R16. My dad had a little hatchback at the time and was getting full sets of 5 tires for under $100 installed. Those were P165/80R13. He ripped me a new ass for spending that kind of money on tires. He proceeded to speed a week looking for a better price and failed. One of the only times he ever admitted to being wrong. Anyway given the similarity in size of those truck tires and my current SUV tire size I'd say the prices are pretty close.

Jim

 

[Zeno Marx]

That makes sense. If you want to drive those hogs, I guess you're locked into higher prices.

 

[user 2027]

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[ontariopiper]

i hate buying tires because every time I do the car get's totaled the following month or I decided to get rid of the vehicle.

Ha ha! This sounds familiar! Only I have usually just filled the gas tank too! :fpalm:

 

[Blackhorse]

OK...got ‘em installed. Night & day. For one thing the car used to not track straight. It wandered and you needed to keep correcting. Now it tracks straight as an arrow. Nice.

 

[Zeno Marx]

As an aside, those Mazda/Ford Escort/Focus collaborations were a great value. I never tried a Focus, but there were three Escorts in the family at one point. A couple hundred thousand miles out of all of them. Rare fixes, and when you needed one, most of them were easy and cheap to do. The last series of car I've owned that didn't require special tools or diagnostic meters etc.

 

[Blackhorse]

I agree. My ST has 120K miles and not ONE thing has ever needed repair. I might be looking at a clutch seal in the future but the jury is still out on that one.

It is indeed a joint venture thing...with the Mazda 2.3-liter 4-cylinder Cosworth-tuned Duratec engine, which makes 151 horsepower and 154 lb-ft of torque. So it’s down just 19 horsepower from the hot SVT version -- but owing to a different differential, it’s only slightly slower from zero to 60. The biggest difference between the standard 2.0 liter and the 2.3 l is the larger engine has WAY more apparent torque...enough to make a huge difference around our town, which is filled with steep hills. Underneath, the ST uses similar dampers and stabilizer bars to those of the SVT, as well as spring rates and other SVT spec goodies. Oh yeah...5-Speed...so you actually get to drive the thing.

Re rubber...a number of years ago I did my research and ended up with what was a special order...the Continental ExtremeContact. Stunningly excellent tires rain or shine. The best non dedicated snow tire in the snow I’ve ever had. We’ve had those tires on there a long time and they still look and feel great. Our experience with those tires is what tipped the scale with the new LS Tires for the Soul over serious contenders from Michelin (so overpriced) and Bridgestone (a very well built tire but not as good in the rain). And here in Oregon, it’s all about the rain.

 

[Blackhorse]

More boring junk...

The current cars:  2006 Ford Focus ST & 2016 KIA Soul+.  The Soul is a dark charcoal-blue called Fathom.  It’s not very common.

Of course, these are internet photos, not my actual cars.

 

[huffelpuff]

I like that color!!!

Jim

 

[eggman]

Sorry about dragging up an old thread. We have a2011 Lincoln MKX that runs p245/60/r18 Pirelli’s. After the cost of the tire, mounting and balancing, disposal fee of old tire, road hazard and taxes it runs me $296 a tire.

The car I had before the Lincoln was a Cadillac CTS with the sport package. That car was awesome. But the tires for it was very expensive. It ran p245/45r19 speed rated tire. It had a set of Michelin’s on it when we purchased it and got a little over 60,000 miles on them. Couldn’t swing Michelin when replacing them so I went with Goodyear eagles. They were still over $380 a piece.

On my 1997 Jeep Cherokee I put a set of LT 235/75 R15 Goodyear duratrac. Those darn things were $ 878 for the set with road hazard,all the fees and tax.