GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I'm glad you included the Conti's in there. I have never owned a set before but decided these would be good for the wife's Vibe, and so far they have NOT disappointed at all.On the other hand, I have ASX's on my own Mazda3 HB and will not be going there again. They slip and slide in the rain... mostly when starting out or braking. They scare the h*ll out of me. I can only imagine what they would be like in the snow or on ice. They are so worn after 17k miles that I can't imagine why they would garner a 340 wear rating. By 19-20k they will be gone and I got that out of the original RS-A's (240 wear) which I also hated.

I felt compelled to add the Michelin MXV4s on this list since this is a very Michelin-phoebic forum, and they are less than the $150 at Wholesale Clubs and probably at Sears and WalMart as well.

The Conti's are in my opinion the best. Low road noise, good wear, good handling and great braking, which is important since most of the long wear tires tend to be too hard of a compound and things like road noise and brake handling take a back seat to longevity.

Quote, originally posted by JetBlack09VibeGT »The Conti's are in my opinion the best. Low road noise, good wear, good handling and great braking, which is important since most of the long wear tires tend to be too hard of a compound and things like road noise and brake handling take a back seat to longevity. Thank you. Based on our opinion, my wife's and mine, we agree. Though they can be a little bit rough over patches and potholes, its still nothing like the tires I have had on my 3... or the BadYears that were on the Vibe when we bought it.Now, about tires I had on my 3: I also had a set of ZE-512's... still do actually. They are on the Mazda OE wheels. Let me tell you what I know about them:At first I loved them, but as they got older, and that happened rather quickly, they got slippery and unsure of themselves too. They begin to ride hard and not hold traction very well. They also got noisier, something that is really noticable in my Mazda.But the thing most people complain about with them is wear. I don't remember just how many miles I have on mine, but The Kumho's are my 3rd set of tires on the Mazda and I only have 54k miles on the clock now. OK, so some crude math should answer that question... BadYears= 19,600 and GONE!!Kumho's = +/- 17.5k and still kickin', but not for too long.That means I have roughly 16,900 on the Falkens and they are nearly "gone" too. They do have some tread left, but their useful life is over as far as I'm concerned.BTW Xmasguy, where in Bedlum do you hail from? You may not know this but my wife and I both grew up in the greater Easton area. Me in Martins Creek then Easton (College Hill and then SS), Wendy in Easton's West End and Palmer township.I moved out in '95, but Wendy married me (and moved here to Austin) in 2000.

Quote, originally posted by xmasguy »the Conti ExtremeContact DWS sounds like a real great product, but it's def outside my price comfort zone. the best local price for the I found for them is about $650 total with mounting and tax. I think I'm ultimately going to get the Hankook Ventus II's from Pep Boys, they seem to be the best value for my budget.My total was Order them from the Tire Rack. You may have to wait but they list some really good "recommended" local installers on their site. Its worth the wait and will not cost much more than the tires you are looking at now. I waited a month before my size was back in stock and shipped to my installer. I had them put on the very next day.

18 inch tires are definitely expensive. You have the wheels already?

Quote, originally posted by xmasguy »Gonna call Pep Boys later this morning and order the Hankooks, have them put on either Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll try to get some pics up soon after, weather permitting! no excuses... it's going to be sunny and 80deg on Saturday.

Am really happy so far with my Bridgestone Potenza RE960's. Will let you know if I have any issues, but they get great ratings at TR, and the dealer highly recommended them. They are technically classified as ultra high performance all season.

Those of you with the General Altimax HP's, how are they doing after you have had them on for a while?

I've had mine on for about 5,000 miles now and still love them.

I'm looking forward to getting rid of the stock tires.I just put some General tires on my wife's Accord (not the Exclaims). Best deal from Sears that day.

Bumping an old thread, are we?My criteria were: All season Touring (H-rated preferred, T-rated acceptable), available installed at a local tire dealer, better winter traction, hopefully a reduction in noise, and less than $150 each out-the-door.I went with Yokohama AVID from Big O Tires in early January 2011, about 2500 miles ago. I was looking for an All-Season with more winter traction, less noise, and less than $150 each out-the-door. The Yokohamas were highly rated at TireRack.com, and my local store could get them delivered next day.Upsides: Very good winter traction for All-Season tires during a particularly snowy/icy winter, but they were brand new. We'll see how they do next winter. They have a much less aggressive tread pattern, and are amazingly quiet compared to two sets of Barum Bravuris I had on the Vibe for the last 6 years. Not quite the excellent road feel and handling of the Barums, but still better than the stock Contis. And I can converse with passengers again!Downsides: The less aggressive tread pattern is ALMOST a perfect match for grooved pavement, and the tires DO attempt to 'steer' the car with the grooves. Fortunately, there is only one very small section of grooved pavement I encounter on a regular basis. On a recent trip to Michigan, I found lots of grooved sections on I-94, and the 'steering' was never dangerous, just a bit disconcerting. And the narrower grooves seem to grab and retain small stones and gravel. EDIT: 5000 mile update 07-28-2011Just passed 5000 miles, and ready for first rotation and (free) rebalancing. They're still pretty quiet, the 'steering' on grooved pavement problem has not changed, and now they're slightly out of balance, noticeable any time I exceed 70 mph.

the Kumho Ecsta ASX tires are the one's i've always used with the new rims. good all weather grip and the first set went around 100,000 miles. second set's lasting awhile too. about 10,000 on them right now.

100,000 miles Gracie? I was lucky to get 18k out of the ones on my Mazda3, and they did not instill much confidence in wet weather either.I ain't goin' there again.

The first set of tires (after the stock ones) installed on my Vibe where the Yokohama AVID W4S. Great tire in all weather including snow. Sometimes when the roads where dry and often when wet wheel spin was a problem. Now I'm running the Continental ExtremeContact DWS. They have been awesome in all weather including snow, and packed ice. I've had no trouble with wheel spin. These tires stick to the road better in all situations. These are the tires I voted for in the poll.The only downside on the DWS's is they don't look a cool as as the Avid tires, but that knock on them is completely subjective and irrelevant as to what is the best performing tire.

LOL snow and ice....

I wish I could change my vote. The General Altimax HP's are junk.

I know exactly what you mean. On several occasions over the last 10yrs I have bought tires that seemed to solve all my traction/handling problems in the beginning only to have them disappoint me a little later.We are also running the DWS tires on both our cars for over a year now and I'm still quite happy with them. I have to disagree w/SeattleJeremy on appearance though. I think they look pretty cool. Check out that tread pattern.The one drawback I have with them is steering response. They are not bad at all in day-to-day driving. Pumping them up to 38 does help. And the ride/road noise they offer is nice, but get spirited with them and though I have never broken mine loose, cornering confidence is a little shaky, even though traction is excellent. A better feel is what's necessary here, IMO. That said, I would buy another set in a heartbeat.

I can't recall if I voted or not but have been having good experience with the Bridgestone Potenza G019 "Grid" on my Civic.But we do not get any snow to speak of here.

I have Riken Raptor on mine and have been very happy with them.

I put on some Conti Extreme Contact DWS and love the wet traction. Can't wait for some snow to see how they do in that.

Aaargh!!! Purchasing tires is such a confusing and FRUSTRATING thing to undertake!!You research, you've got a price range to work in, you Google and read and read and read and read until they all start to blur together. The ratings people post on any given tire range from 5 Stars "MOST WONDERFUL TIRE.....EVER!!!!" to a "Wish they had a Zero star option" All on the SAME TIRE!!So I began to throw out the 5 stars, nothing perfect you know, then I threw out the 1 stars for often people exaggerate when they are bothered by something.So I end up with Dave's 2 - 4 Star rating system.So after all of this mind numbing effort I select a tire, pick up the phone.... ring ring..... blah blah blah...."Oh, that tire is on National Backorder until April." (a Bridgestone product, Bridgestone Turanza Serenity)AAAARGH!!! Back to the computer, select another, "well, we have only three of them in stock" Huh?? Who in the world needs THREE (3) tires?? Cooper CS4)Finally this morning, pouring rain, foggy, cold. I drove my wife to work, it's her Vibe actually, and went to a place I deal with a lot (I take care of a small fleet of vehicles) on a whim that he isn't busy."Dave!!" Says I.... HELP me!!!He wasn't busy and after chatting a bit and telling him my budget he started tossing out ideas from his experience and what his inventory is.He then used his computer and looked up ratings and feed back on his suggestions.I had my list of "must haves"...I wanted a QUIET tread design, these are noisy econo boxes, I don't want to introduce extra preventable noises.I wanted very good Dry traction (even though I am and drive like an old fart!!)I wanted Good Wet traction I wanted OK snow traction (I know you won't get good snow traction from an all weather, I don't run dedicated snows, we do get snow, at times significant snow, it usually isn't a huge storm and if it is, we simply stay home (our jobs allow us this luxury) or I take the Toyota Pickup 4x4 to go out)I wanted to stay under 5 bills if I could..... Out the door price.After looking at many options ranging from $200+ EACH to no name crap for $70,I finally settled on Yokohama AVID ENVigor 205/55R16 91Hhttp://www.yokohamatire.com/ti...vigorhttp://y ... .r.pdf$488 out the door, valves, taxes, installation, disposal fees.among other sites I used...http://www.tirerack.com/tires/...6V%29h ... s=205While some of the reviews aren't the best, they are decent overall. (no tire has all wonderful feedback) The snow ratings are hard to come by for many of these users are in Florida, California or Texas (NO snow yet they rated snow on their feedback?!?!) many others are reporting feedback after only 1000 miles or so (no real experience here, still running on emotion) and A few were long term users, 10,000 - 30,000 or more and these are the ratings I focused on. I also favored the snow belt users from Ohio, Michigan, New York, etc.I've done it, the pain of decision is over, I bit the bullet and laid out the cash, I'll see how they do. Thus far after about 100 miles they are great, but I'm comparing them to four mostly bald OEM Goodyears on a dank rainy day!!I feel I did good on the price, I feel the tire is overall a decent tire but that the snow performance remains to be seen, again, whatever it ends up being can't be worse than mostly bald OEM Goodyears!! I put a 2nd set of Goodyears on for some unknown reason, Actually it was a warranty tire deal that turned into four new tires at about 40,000 miles. The second set lasted to 99,500 miles which is today.I guess what I'm trying to say is that it was a MAJOR help to be at a tire store, talking to him honestly and using HIS computer to check out the feedback and quality on HIS inventory!! It really Pays to have friends in "high" places!!! BTW.......Yokohama has a 30 day trial period to return them if you hate them.These tires have 60,000 tread life (for what it's worth, I've made crap OEM tires last almost that long)To anyone else looking at tires intelligently....GOOD LUCK!! You WILL be needing it!!!Dave

I do agree with having a friend in the business! A fellow Mustang club buddy is a manager at a Firestone, so I get great deals on anything from him. He has steered me to the Bridgestone Potenzas for my last 3 sets and they have been great for me down here in Texas. I just got new tires on the 2010 GT simply because the dealer agreed to drop the price a bit since they would need to be replaced in the next few months, so I got the same tires my friend has on 3 of his vehicles. So far, with about 1,000 miles, great tires. Much quieter than the stockers for sure. They were not cheap, but hopefully they will last a long while.

Dave, It is certainly a task to choose a good set of tires these days and cut through all the BS, but frankly you would be happy with almost anything after the Bad Year's. With the bad reviews they have garnered, I don't understand why RS-A's are even still made available.In a rare rainstorm this summer, I passed a copOne thing I have found when researching tires is that narrowing down the reviews by make and model, if possible, helps tremendously. If you look I think you would find that most owners of one model will have similar comments about a particular tire. In other words Jaguar owners may consistantly complain about one thing, while Focus owners have another issue.

Quote, originally posted by 06pvibe »One thing I have found when researching tires is that narrowing down the reviews by make and model, if possible, helps tremendously. If you look I think you would find that most owners of one model will have similar comments about a particular tire. In other words Jaguar owners may consistantly complain about one thing, while Focus owners have another issue. If only I could have!! In all the reviews I read on multiple web sites, only one (1) indicated he/she had a Vibe. On this site I looked at the recommended tires. They either weren't available or in instances such as the General Altimax HP, the reviews deteriorate after time and miles have driven, going from a glowing "wonderful tire" to "slicker than a banana peel"!I'm slightly concerned about the grooved pavement critique on Yokohama mentioned here. As I said, we'll see. Wish we could add tires to the list here but you can't or I don't know how to.I'll report back after miles have been driven and snow has fallen about these tires.Dave

Well another possiblilty is to look for similar cars using that tire... such as the Corolla?For what it's worth, one of our long-time regular members on Mazdaforum just purchased a set of these for his '09 3 series car and loves them so far. He lives in NH, so he does see snow.Here's what he says: (WARNING: Long read!! ) http://www.mazdaforum.com/foru...27788/

Thanks for the link!! Interesting read.I know I didn't get garbage and thus far am happy. I'll report after many 1000's of miles tick away and let others who follow behind how these Yokohama's are.DaveEDIT:Just took a trip down to Woodbridge for dinner at JJ Bitting for dinner with some family. (Beer sampler and Prime Rib......yummmmm!!!! ) The trip involved a trip down 287 and 440, it was the First highway trip with the new Yokohama Avid ENVigor's on the car.The steering is much more crisp and responsive that the Goodyears were. The ride is indeed very quiet and smooth as I had hoped. Yet at the same time you've got a very enhanced awareness of the road. I wouldn't call it a rough ride or harsh but you know you've just crossed a tar joint or encountered some road surface irregularity. I figure the sidewall construction must be fairly stiff to transfer this sensation up into the car.Cornering is remarkably better! A real sense of staying put on the highway instead of sliding off. Drove up 287 to the area that the plane crashed on Monday, sort of sobering to think that 5 people died here just the other day!Ah well, just thought I'd give an initial report of these tires on the Highways of New Jersey!Happy Holidays to all!!Dave

Ok, I've had my Yokohama's for about 600 miles now.I've driven in rain - excellentI've driven on dry roads - excellentI've driven high speed freeways - excellentI've driven grooved pavement - no wandering as some have reportedNoise level is very lowSteering is more precisethere is more road "feel"The only big question is ice and snow....waiting, waiting.....come on snow!!!Dave

Ok, We FINALLY HAD SNOW AND ICE!!! I must report that my Yokohama AVID ENVigor 205/55R16 91H performed "OK" on ice. As expected without studs or special ice provisions. I was able to gain traction, stops took longer and anti lock was easily activated.On snow they were good. Not excellent by any means but I felt safe, I easily gained traction and there was minimal slippage.In short, I'm happy with these tires and haven't any regrets! I've got close to 2000 miles on them now and look forward to many many more.Dave

I added General G-Max AS03 to the list!

Ok, dredging up this old post to update my tire opinion.......

Do NOT purchase Yokohama AVID ENVigor 205/55R16 91H!

They were fine for 15,000 mikes or so and then a steering wheel shimmy set in mostly above 60 mph.
I Rotated the tires and was good for a few thousand miles...... Steering wheel shimmy......
Balanced tires..... A few thousand miles....... Steering shimmy......
Eventually the shimmy became all but permanent but would come and go during a drive!

I can only figure that the two tires would cooperate with each other at certain mated RPM cycles but once a few turns unsynched them, the shimmy would return again until they again got in synch! Like they fought each other, they were out of synch more than they were in synch!

When I got the Yokohamas my brother said...... "Oh......why didn't you just get Michelins?"

Anyway...........
I just put on a pair of Michelins taking off the un worn out Yoko's on the front! I just wanted these tires off of my car!

Michelin Primacy MXV4 205/55R16 91H. Item #36597
http://www.michelinman.com/tire-selecto ... re-details" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anyway..... 6/3/13 @ 129,020 miles.......

Time will tell if my brother is correct!

Dave