Tire Choice

[qship96]

UGH ! I have been trying to purchase a set of Pilot Exaltos for over a month now, and tirerack {and others} cant get either the 225/60/V15 or the 215/65/H15- seems like Michelin has not produced them in this size for awhile,and they are not sure if they will ever become available again? My current set of Exaltos has 65,000 miles on them and are down to 3-4/32, so they MUST be replaced soon,especially before the winter weather hits. Next best option seems to be the H rated Japanese made Sumitomo HTR AS 01 if you believe the Tirerack tests........less expensive,and cheap enough to try I guess, but ???????

[maxnix]

No on Sumitomo. Third rate tire at best. Pirelli P6 was available in 235/60 not too long ago.

If you were closer you could use my 16x7.

[maxnix]

Truly grim. If not the pricey P6, then BF Goodrich. Yikes!

[qship96]

Truly grim. If not the pricey P6, then BF Goodrich. Yikes!

Rack does not show the pirelli in our size.....think I would rather have a sumi than goodrich.....rack actually rates the sumi near the top of its class {all season UHP} lookin grim indeed, and too late in the cars life to spend the coin on larger wheels in my book

[djwarner]

You might want to consider:

Kumho's Ecsta LX Platinum (KU27).

In Florida Kumho is getting a fairly good reputation. Don't know what your snow performance requirements are.

[qship96]

Khumo ASX is the one I was looking at, v rated ultra high performance all season.......that and the Sumi seem to be the only choices for what I need {performance,speed rated, all season}

[Infinitiguy19]

Your right no tires in any size that I like. I went all the way up to 305-65-15

[Q45man1]

My G50 was riding on Kumho ASX before I switched to 18" tires. Good tires and nice price as well.

[maxnix]

Truly grim. If not the pricey P6, then BF Goodrich. Yikes!

Rack does not show the pirelli in our size.....think I would rather have a sumi than goodrich.....rack actually rates the sumi near the top of its class {all season UHP} lookin grim indeed, and too late in the cars life to spend the coin on larger wheels in my book

P6 in 235/60-15 is ideal, but not inexpensive.

Kumho and Sumitomo like Falken are crummy tires. Remember Q45tech's post where he had to balance a Kumho 5 times before he retired it at less than 10K miles. It is a shame there is not even a Yokohoma available. Discount Tires Falken special 452 actually delaminated at highway speed on one member.

I think it has come to the point if you don't change wheel size, you are up that famous creek with no paddle. Don't even know if anything is available in 16" or 17" sizes. Such a shame!

[djwarner]

Sorry to hear about the balance problems with the Kumho. There's an old marketing saying that it takes 19 favorable impressions to offset one bad one. Has anyone had recent bad experience with Kumho?

[qship96]

Pirelli P6 is no longer offered in 235/60/15....or 225/60/15, or 215/65/15. Leaving the sumi or kumho.....oh the choices!


So the japanese made sumitiomo htr as p01 or the korean kumho V rates ASX ?????? Which is worse?

[maxnix]

Pirelli P6 is no longer offered in 235/60/15....or 225/60/15, or 215/65/15.

Sorry, its the higher performing P600

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp ... mpare1=yes


How about MXV4?

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?d ... htweiter=1


225/60-15 P6 are affordable

http://www.tirebuyer.com/tirebuyerwicke ... Item/10849

[qship96]

p600 is summer only,wont work for me. P6 has horrible reviews on tirerack,much worse than the others. mxv4 is in a whole lower catagory than high performance, more of a touring tire-had those once on the G,would not pay for that performance level again.........there is a firestone precision sport on the rack with pretty good reviews......hopefully I can hold out a while longer and maybe the Exaltos will become available,but starting to have to explore the sub prime available options in case they dont.

[maxnix]

Firestone wide oval is a downgraded SZ50EP which was a great tire made in Japan. Nothing in your size, though.

Pirelli is no Michelin, but way better than anything from the tire companies in the kimchee belt .

[tegva]

I had kumho and two of four developed a dangerous crack on the inside at less than 20k miles. Hills Garage replaced them with continental DWS.

[qship96]

I had kumho and two of four developed a dangerous crack on the inside at less than 20k miles. Hills Garage replaced them with continental DWS.

continental DWS not made in 15 inch size according to tirerack.

[maxnix]

http://www.nextag.com/Michelin-PILOT-EX ... rices-html

Sears, TR and Tire Buyer.

[qship96]

plenty of online places list them in the correct size, but actually physically HAVING them in stock for delivery-not so much! I have already been down that road.....one even takes your CC info,then calls you back in a few days trying to convert you to a different tire! Why I will only deal with tirerack as far as online tire purchases from now on !!!! Luckily I have another 2-3 months worth of usage before I am forced to pull the trigger.

When you actually go to tirebuyer site and enter your zipcode, even the listed 225/60/15V exalto option magically disappears.....not available!

[maxnix]

I didn't go that far. Thank god for 18" wheels. Good luck.

[Infinitiguy19]

http://www.cokertire.com/ if your desperate?

[maxnix]

if your desperate?

His desperate what? If you are trying to contract "you are", that would be "you're."

[Infinitiguy19]

First you take my oil filter then you insult my English?!? When will it end?

[qship96]

guys, the Pilot Exalto is dead and buried in any size that would work for the 15 inch factory alloys...... Today,Tirerack confirmed Michelin has no plans to produce any more in either 215/65/15 or 225/60/15.....a sad day for those of us still running factory wheels. Sumitomo,here I come!

[3Q Jay]

Khumo ASX is the one I was looking at, v rated ultra high performance all season.......that and the Sumi seem to be the only choices for what I need {performance,speed rated, all season}

KU21 in 96V. Nice smooth rollers, had to send one back could n't get road force below 10 lb, but second one was fine. the bad is that they do not grip enough for my liking, but otherwise suitable. I ran these for ~12k before putting on the PS2's and they are all still 7/32+

[Rex]

It's time to either retire the Q, or move up to 17's .

But that might only be a stop gap, as it may only be a year or so before no decent 17's are available.

Still surprised you're not running dedicated snows in Baltimore for the winter months.

[qship96]

Surprisingly,the Exaltos have never left me stuck even in some pretty bad snowstorms, combination of tires, traction control, and more importantly,a driver who has, except for the G20, always owned only rear wheel drive cars.

makes no financial sense to me to purchase new large wheels this late in the vehicles life,and even earlier really had no interest due to poor road conditions and personally dont care for the big wheel look on older cars.....just screams youth behavior "I just bought this 10 year old shiny car and want to soup it up" dont care for the image it evokes so to speak.

[DeatschWerks]

You guys don't change your tires often enough. :P

I'm lucky if a set of mine last a summer season. Never had any issues with Kumho, Hankook, or Bridgestone. Though, all of the tires I've bought new were in the EPS category.

I don't think the Kumho ASX is a bad choice, though.

[ericthered]

I had kumho and two of four developed a dangerous crack on the inside at less than 20k miles. Hills Garage replaced them with continental DWS.

continental DWS not made in 15 inch size according to tirerack.

Bummer on the Conti DWS.... put them on my Rabbit, fantastic tire, especially in rain, though other pure summer tires can perform better on dry.
For the 15" rims choices are very limited these days. I'll be selling my '92 shortly, and chose Sumitomo's for it for the price/performance trade-off.