all-season for better ride?
 

2006 RX-8 MT with sport package. Have OEM rims and original RE040 tires. According to Tire Rack survey, these tires give both a stiff ride and poor wet grip. With cold weather approaching, I want to replace with all-seasons (no need for snow tires since wife's SUV is available).

I'd also like to improve the ride/noise over the RE040s. I'm willing to give up 20-25% of ultimate grip/handling for commensurate gains in ride quality & noise. Also considering bumping up to 235/45/18 or 225/50/18 for a little bit taller sidewall, again for ride.

Have looked at many threads here, but there are some newcomers to the mix. Tire Rack has a few different recent tests, but not sure if the ratings between tests are comparable to each other. (I.e., if a tire has a score of 7.1 and is the highest of the 4 tested, but then a different test of the same class (UHPAS) shows some other tires at 7.2 or 7.5, can subjective ratings be compared across tests?)

I'm considering:

Bridgestone RE960AS 225/45 or 245/45
Goodyear Eagle F1 All Season 225/50
Yokohama Advan S.4 245/45
Yokohama W4S 225/45 or 235/45
Pirelli PZero Nero M+S 225/45 or 245/45

I could even drop down to a GT tire (Bridgestone Turanza Serenity or Michelin Primacy MXV4) but that might be too much loss of handling.

Anybody have advice/experience with these tires, from the standpoint of ride quality and/or adverse weather?

Thanks.

I'm pretty happy with the Pirellis. No problems getting stuck in the snow. Only thing I noticed is that the front end plowed a little bit when trying to turn in several inches of snow. I did get extra siping done on them since I use them year round.

I had the OEM dunlops, not the bridgestones, so I can't give you a good comparison. But I do think they ride a bit better, especially in the cold, when the summer tire compound gets very hard.

i just put my winter tires on, bridgestone blizzaks. but i need the snow capability, i live in md and this is my dd. i had the potenza re040 225/40/18s and the blizzaks are 225/50/17. and the ride is much much smoother. i dont feel all the small cracks in the road anymore. and the medium to large bumps and cracks are greatly reduced.

the ride is really incredibly different. its not comparable to a bmw 7 series, but its noticeably smoother. a step or 2 in that direction.

I highly suggest the Kumho ASX! Cheap, good performance, and lot less "noise" than the Bridgestone crap...

check out the new GoodYear F1 All Seasons, those new F1 all seasons look really nice.
Or You can try to search at
http://www.tirerack.com/
http://www.discounttiredirect.com/
I like these sites for tires.
If you want to buy new tires, recently there is a coupon (Buy tires get a free digital picture frame at tirerack)
You can have a look:
http://dealstudio.com/searchdeals.php?deal_id=61212