Are Michelin Pilot Sports worth the money?
12-08-2004, 09:30 PM
#31
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Regarding the Kumho Exta 712s... I got a set of these on new wheels for my wife's Infiniti J30 when we decided that it would be safer to run snow tires in the winter on that car (it's RWD and it's her daily driver). As others have mentioned before, they're pretty darn good when they're new, but they get pretty damn noisy when they're about half worn. I hadn't been in her car for quite awhile and when I finally was, I thought she had bearings going out (shop said bearings were OK and the tires were noisy!)
On my shark, I've run some Dunlop SP8000 (they were on the car when I got it in '99). Not too impressive, as I recall, then Potenza S02 PPs, and then Potenza S03 PPs. I've been pretty darn happy with the S03 PPs. Even though I generally avoid rain (shark is kind of a daily driver, but maybe more of a no rain, no snow driver; have a mini-van back-up vehicle
), it's nice to have a tire like the S03 PP that can shed water pretty well. A couple of years ago, I was way down on tread (S02s at the time, I think) and had a hydroplaning incident at speed with a rather high pucker factor. Enough of a jolt to keep me thinking safety when it comes to tires. And then I made the mistake of leaving my summer tires on a little too long and had one or two interesting "*** end trying to pass the front end" incidents on cold days. Good training.
I've become a pretty big advocate of getting good tires (doesn't necessarily mean expensive) and using the right tire for the occasion. Especially, that means (especially for RWD vehicles) keeping the Y/Z-rated tires off the road in the winter and being damn careful in the rain if you're running out of tread. And remember that while you might know the details of your tire condition, maybe your wife/SO/spouse/kid/whatever doesn't.
On my shark, I've run some Dunlop SP8000 (they were on the car when I got it in '99). Not too impressive, as I recall, then Potenza S02 PPs, and then Potenza S03 PPs. I've been pretty darn happy with the S03 PPs. Even though I generally avoid rain (shark is kind of a daily driver, but maybe more of a no rain, no snow driver; have a mini-van back-up vehicle
), it's nice to have a tire like the S03 PP that can shed water pretty well. A couple of years ago, I was way down on tread (S02s at the time, I think) and had a hydroplaning incident at speed with a rather high pucker factor. Enough of a jolt to keep me thinking safety when it comes to tires. And then I made the mistake of leaving my summer tires on a little too long and had one or two interesting "*** end trying to pass the front end" incidents on cold days. Good training.I've become a pretty big advocate of getting good tires (doesn't necessarily mean expensive) and using the right tire for the occasion. Especially, that means (especially for RWD vehicles) keeping the Y/Z-rated tires off the road in the winter and being damn careful in the rain if you're running out of tread. And remember that while you might know the details of your tire condition, maybe your wife/SO/spouse/kid/whatever doesn't.
