any experience with this brand of tire

[M4T5]

I agree with you maxnix over the point of not cheaping out on a set of tires. Your tires and brakes are among the most important systems on a vehicle.Though since I usually purchase Michelins, this time I may have to pass on them since the reviews on their sport tires are not that great. With that said, it kind of leaves me on the bench trying to research a better tire.Now, I have to listen to reviews on tires rather than my trust in one brand of tire.All my trucks get Michelin tires, and I have always been satisfied with their results. This time is different, I now do not know what tire to use. I was even thinking about the Goodyear Eagle Response Edge. I had good luck with that tire on a previous car, but that was on a 16" rim, not a 18" rim or larger.Any suggestions on a 18" tire and on a 20" tire? Those are the sizes in question at the moment.

J

[loystock]

I'm not complaining when I said you have to replace the Falken tires every 2-3 years. I'm just giving a heads-up to prospective buyers. Some people are more interested in 'long-lasting' tires. In fact, I'm on a 2nd set on my 97Q. Last year, Falkens were installed in the 99I and 04G (totaled last March). The 97I still has BS-Potenza while the 03Q has Toyo (a bit noisy but good traction. The 06M has Kumho Ecsta PST (no tramlining issue).

Traction is important to me. I remember one time driving a friend's car. We're slipping/skidding all over the place and it's not even raining. I checked the tire tread and they were still good condition. I asked him how old the tires and he said "7 years, maybe more." I told him to replace the tires as they were very old with marginal road grip. It's like driving with steel tires. He initially refused but eventually relented.

You can have very good traction driving with bald tires during summer - just pray and hope it doesn't rain. But you'd be a fool using bald tires in winter - an accident waiting to happen, which unfortunately, may involve other people.

Rod

[SteveTheTech]

OMG I missed this thread of win for so long. As soon as I saw this I smiled and got another beer this is gonna be an epic M thread.

I apologize for not joining this p*ssing contest earlier.

Amazing that owners will cheap out the only part of the car that touches the road, and is thus the major performance determinant on an otherwise up to new OEM specification car.

Also amazing the owners do not understand that "all season" is a marketing euphemism meaning "compromised summer tire and not very good winter snow tire."

Always good to know if the person giving tire advice maintains his car in top shape and if he has ever experienced the top performance tire from a Tier 1 tire manufacturer on it.

I don't think I have ever agreed with something you have said more than that. I hate to see people disgrace an M with the cheapest option out there. That is more of an outside judgement that I should not be making, but something like any modern Infiniti deserves a comperable level tire and we can debate the semantics of what determines level of tire. Personally I think point of origin is more important than the name on the tire.

I use Goodyear as an example of this. The RSA which was the standard equipment for Crown Vic police cars for YEARS with great success. These were the tires that were domestically made. Over the years the quality and point of origin have shifted and the overall quality has suffered. In the case of the M it was a matter of poor tire selection for longterm wear effects.

I hardly consider $193.00 per tire cheaping out. Plus $40 for delivery, $100+ for a road force balance, and whatever other fee they charge to "rebuild" as they say the TPMS. The cheapest tire tire rack had for the 245/40/19 size was about 101 per tire. And the reviews showed why it was only 101 per tire. I couldn't justify spending even more for a tire that had a summer only rating, along with a lower tread wear rating. The hankoooks I have now grip very well in the dry and rain but they are too loud and the tread wear rating is only 280. I drive 52.5 miles one way to work every day. The Kuhmos are rated at 600 tread wear. I hope I don't sound like I am spouting off but I hardly consider $1,000.00 for a set of tires cheaping out.

I am not at all knocking you or your choices and please do not take this personally.

The M45 with 19" wheels was a $60k three years ago and as such the overall cost of longterm ownership tends to be higher. The OE tires (REO50s) run ~$300/ea maybe more (I don't know off hand). That's >$1200 in materials alone. With RFB and 4 wheel alignment your looking at ~$1500. I'm not saying the dealer is the only option for tire replacement but these are average prices including shipping. I sincerely hope that you are using at least OE quality parts for the wearable items in your M. If not you are not going to get the most out of it. It does indeed require some investment to keep an Infiniti running. Especially when they run out of warranty.

I am not trying to preach to you I just hate to see people get dissatisfied with their cars. I doubt that many techs would admit that as their is more money to be made in neglected needed cars, I am just trying to be honest with you.

Some have exceedingly low expectaions and little knowledge of what is possible and thus are easily satisfied! That does not mean we should hope to limit others with our aspirational shortcomings.

Heck, some of us are so unaware we barely know which state we are in, much less where!

Some of us even maintained our Q45 well enough so that we still prefer to drive them.

In an extremely rare turn of events I agree with you twice in one post. Although a little harsh I feel that you are raising a valid point from the side of the Classic Infiniti Enthusiast (owners like us with cars over 10 years old).

I am all for taking the best care of your car you can financially muster. There are times when trying to do it yourself to save some money can really come back on you and a real man can admit when he doesn't know something. That is where Nico helps this is a great sounding board of ideas and points of view. I'm personally as cheap as I can possibly be when it comes to maintenance items, not in the neglect range but I hunt for deals and call in favors when I have to pay for something, and I can understand like minded individuals. But I still always run 93+ even in my J.

[szh]

Any suggestions on a 18" tire and on a 20" tire? Those are the sizes in question at the moment.

For 18", the best all-round summer tires are probably the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 and the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 (the higher load 100W model) in a 245/45-18 size for our M's.

Other summer tires I would consider trying would be the new Pirelli PZero, the Bridgestone Potenza RE050A, and Dunlop SP Sport Maxx.

I have not done any looking in the 20" sizes ... but something from those models above should be good too!

Z

[sdkhalsa]

I recently put on some Goodyear F1 GS-D2's on my 06 M35(30K) and I am very pleased with them. Vast improvement over the RSA's. The reason that I chose the D2's was that Tire Rack had a great price on them plus the fact that I am in Phoenix so there is no snow or water issue as has been reported by some. It is too early to tell the ware factor. There was a bit of tramlining before, but now it is gone. The noise level is quite acceptable, a bit better than the RSA's, and typical of most radials that I have used: Yokohama S, Michelin Pilots, Falkens, Continental Conti Sport

[SteveTheTech]

For 18", the best all-round summer tires are probably the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 and the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 (the higher load 100W model) in a 245/45-18 size for our M's.

Other summer tires I would consider trying would be the new Pirelli PZero, the Bridgestone Potenza RE050A, and Dunlop SP Sport Maxx.

I have not done any looking in the 20" sizes ... but something from those models above should be good too!

Z

Note the commonality of the tires that you mentioned not only in the name branding but they are all asymmetrical. That makes a world of difference. Many of the cheaper options are directional and have a pseudo aggressive directional tread pattern combined with a soft rubber compound that yields irregular wear.

Although as your alignment and driving conditions vary so do the life expectancies and overall impressions of the tires and subsequent driving experience. I am fortunate to see many examples of these vehicles equipped with the same tires and even people who live within five miles of each other and have similar mileage and driving routes have different wear patterns. That would lead me to lean more towards believing driving style impacts tire wear more than choice.

Z- I bet your tires wear perfectly and evenly and they always have. Maybe...just maybe a little bit of inner shoulder wear on the rears, but I doubt it.

[EcstaSPT]

I've read awful reviews about the REO50A. There's a reason there's so many used ones for sale out there on ebay and local tire barns, even on craigslist. I was looking for a used pair of 17s for my other car and once I went digging about them, I said no way.

[EcstaSPT]

I don't think $1200 - 1300 every 24-30K miles is unreasonable for a $50K vehicle in order to highlight the vehicles best performance features.

Best performance features? Like tire ripping power off the line? Nope. Regardless of the tire, it will still hook up and bog.Maybe handling like its on rails? Nope. Regardless of the tire, our cars will still plow through corners with enormous understeer and some body roll. A vast majority of M drivers don't push their car near to the limit for tires to matter performance wise. In regards to noise, wet traction, treadlife, cost, tramlining, that's another story.

[NightWatch]

Look at Michelin's Pilot Sport 2's. They are much better than the older Pilot Sport. Although if you're dissatisfied with longevity of these tires, that hasn't improved. Its always been a compromise between softer sticky rubber that doesn't wear well vs. harder less gripping rubber that wears longer....

[NightWatch]

There is a difference between saying "best performance" and calling the M a Performance Vehicle... I'm well known (and bashed) on this forum for insisting that the M is not a performance vehicle and shouldn't be compared nor treated as such. What that said I still say you should use the best match of components available to enable the M to perform at its peak and that includes the best match of rubber.