Post by
NJGuy »
https://forums.nicoclub.com/njguy-u191160.html
Wed May 29, 2013 6:44 am
Now that the tires on my EX are worn to just about 4/32 after 5 1/2 years and 50K miles, I figure that it's time to start shopping for tires. For the first time, I experienced a small amount of slip in the wet in the EX (though on a tight downhill curve). My wife and I have both been pretty happy with the OEM Michelins (225/60R17 Latitude Tour HP), and I'm looking for a replacement set that will perform just as well, if not better. With a new job, my wife is going to start driving the EX a lot more than she does now, and will therefore be putting much more mileage on the car.
The OEM size and speed rating (V) kind of limit the tire choices available, so I decided to cross shop different sized and H speed rated tires as well. I typically don't like to stray from the OEM tire size, but it looks like I have a couple more nice choices when doing so.
Here are the tires I've seriously looked at (in order of preference):
Top Tier
1. Michelin Primacy MXV4, 235/55R17 99H SL
2. Nokian WRG2 SUV, 235/60R17 106V XL
Second Tier
3. Goodyear Assurance Comfortread Touring, 225/60R17 98H SL
4. Continental PureContact, 235/55R17 99H SL
5. Michelin Latitude Tour HP, 235/55R17 99H SL
Third Tier
6. Goodyear Assurance TripleTread, 225/60R17 98H SL
7. Michelin Latitude Tour HP, 225/60R17 98V SL (OEM)
8. Nokian WRG3, 235/55R17 103V XL
Without getting into too much detail, here are a couple of my notes on each tire. (The inner 'geek' in me actually put together a spreadsheet with the physical specifications of each model.) Please note that these are just my opinions, and not cold hard facts.
Michelin Primacy MXV4, 235/55R17
Although it's not the OEM tire size, I'm leaning towards these Michelins for a number of reasons. It's been pretty much the top rated all-season tire for a few years. Also, I had this tire on a previous vehicle and was incredibly satisfied with the performance. On top of that, Michelins tend to have less balance issues than other brands and they seem to "age gracefully". What I mean here is that their performance seems to degrade slowly and very gradually as they age and wear. I've noticed that the performance of other brand tires kind of fall off a cliff after a certain amount of time. I don't like to come off as a Michelin 'fanboy', but I always appreciate a good quality product. While this brand tends to be significantly more expensive than the others, the Primacy model I'm looking at doesn't cost all that much more than the other tires I'm looking at; pricewise, they're actually in the middle of all the tires I've considered.
Nokian WRG2 SUV, 235/60R17
A close second to the Primacy, I liked the "all weather" designation this tire carries. I'm sure the winter weather performance of this tire is superior to the Primacy. However, the Primacy seems to perform well enough in winter weather. And I think the Primacy would do better and last a bit longer when used year-round when compared to these Nokians. Two of my co-workers have owned the WRG2 SUV, and they experienced a noticeable decrease in wet traction after a while (maybe 2 years or so?), even with plenty of tread remaining. Note that I picked the 235/60 size; the standard 225/60 size is available, but it's a full 1 inch shorter (diameter) than the OEM tires. For some reason that bothered me a bit. Looking into this a bit further, the 235/55 tires in the group I looked at are actually taller than the 235/60 WRG2 SUV tires. These were just a few knocks I found on what I otherwise think is a good tire with a really good reputation.
Goodyear Assurance Comfortread Touring, 225/60R17
This seemed to be a pretty good tire, with an incredibly good treadlife. I put it in the second tier because they don't seem to perform that great in the wet.
Continental PureContact, 235/55R17
This is a new model that, on paper, competes very well with the Primacy. However, the last time I bought a set of new model Continental tires that looked good on paper, I had a bit of buyer's remorse. It left me with a small amount of regret for not spending some extra money on the competing Michelin model. Maybe the next time I shop for the EX's tires, these Continentals will have an established reputation and I'll revisit this model; I prefer not to be an early adopter of new models.
Michelin Latitude Tour HP, 235/55R17
While I've been happy with the Latitude Tour HP model, these cost a good amount more than the other models I looked at. When comparing both the pricing and specs, the Primacy looks like the better buy.
Goodyear Assurance TripleTread, 225/60R17
The TripleTread tires typically have better traction in most conditions than their Comfortread counterparts. But I am a bit concerned about how noisy they can be. I also prefer non-directional tires that can be easily rotated to each side of the car. I recall that the old TripleTreads took a big bite out of gas mileage, but perhaps Goodyear may have rectified that with this model?
Michelin Latitude Tour HP, 225/60R17
Yes, these are the tires I currently have. These are the highest priced model in the group, and in addition, have the requirement of being special ordered (hence, very limited availability). No thanks.
Nokian WRG3, 235/55R17
Well, this tire was a bit of a stretch from the beginning. I think that the WRG2's are being phased out and I thought I'd look at the WRG3's. They haven't released the SUV version of the WRG3's yet. Anyway, these are much more expensive than the WRG2's I was looking at.
I'm almost dead set on pulling the trigger on the Primacy MXV4 tires. But if anyone wishes to share their opinions and comments on any of the tires I mentioned, or on my planned deviation from OEM tire specs, I'm open to listen. Thanks for reading.