Is anyone using all-season tires? If yes, what do you have? Do you like them?

I'm thinking that rather than buying snows and wheels, I'd rather just buy new tires, peddle the current Bridgestone Potenzas on this board or eBay and be done with it. Yes, I'm aware that they will be not as great handling as the summer tires, and, they aren't as good in snow as winter tires.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks.

Stew

 

I edited this down - some of you 29 that read it, please let me know your thoughts if you are so inclined ...

 

I've been asking the same question myself. I'm going to keep the stock wheels (18x8) but change the rubber to 245/40-18 .. I'm thinking Falken ZE512 ... I have that on my Audi Allroad. I love the Falkens. It may not be as hard as the Dunlops ... but it's all weather and will work in snow. Falkens can grip the road tight and is sooo quite. I'll trade my Dunlops in a few days. The Falkens have a 360AA rating. I hate changing tires and I think the Falkens will do the trick for all season.

 

I have Kumho Ecsta and look/feel great for all seasons. If snow traction is half the rain traction, I'm better than a SUV ;o) Check my sig for tire details. Buddy of mine is having P-Zero Nero M/S all seasons and is happy with them. I got them on tirerack.com.

 

Awesome, thanks guys. Omicron sent me a private message and he's running PZero Neros as well and having great luck.

 

Um you could always use the search fiunction.

I had many posts about my All season tire install!

 

Kumho makes 7 different non competition tires using the ECSTA nomenclature. Which ECSTAs do you have?

 

Search doesn't seem to work for me - I get this weird warning about doing more than one search every 20 seconds.

 

I happen to know a guy that owns a few Cooper stores so I am going to get Cooper Zeon 2XS. Just can't pass it up. Set of 4 plus labor for just over $500. I doubt anyone has these but just in case comments?

 

Did you try waiting 20 seconds and searching again?

Either way, I would steer towards the Pilot A/S If i'm getting something all season. Just realizing that A/S doesn't mean snow friendly in all cases.

 

Keep in mind that all seasons are going to be a compromise both ways- not optimal in either summer or winter driving. Since you both autocross and live in the Chicago area, I think you'd be a lot better off with dedicated summer and winter tires. I have some 18" Dunlop WinterSports that I swap with my OEM Potenzas, using just one set of wheels (the 18" OEM's), and it handles incredibly well in the winter... much better than my AWD Explorer with all seasons in fact.

 

Well, here's the deal. I'm lobbying the wifey for the hall pass to drop $1200 on a set of dedicated wheels and Hoosier racing tires for autocrossing. Kinda hard to justify if I say to her, "and oh, by the way, this car ALSO needs a $700 set of winter tires too ..."

;-)

 

Well, I can completely relate to the wife/RX8 toys justification process. I was able to find a good deal on my winter tires- I think they were $380 shipped, but my wife was still quite PO'd that I would buy a sports car in the middle of winter and had to buy new tires for it as well. The day I brought my car home from the dealer it was snowing, so she got to see first person how horribly undriveable the Potenzas are in just 1/2" of snow... fortunately I had the snowshoes waiting at home to get mounted the next day.

Good luck with the Hoosiers... I would love to see how well the 8 would handle if it could really stick to the track.

 

StewC625,

While I am still using the stock Bridgestone's for my summer tires and recently bought Pirelli Winter 240's for the snow, I did drive a dealer car for a few hours one day that was equipped with All Season tires when I was looking to buy my RX-8. The tires were Continental ContiExtremeContact 245/40/18. I actually liked them quite a bit. I didn't feel that I lost much, if any, traction from what I have on the Bridgestone's. Keep in mind that the stock Bridgestone's aren't exactly the holy grail of tires.

However, I was pleasantly surprised and I would actually consider purchasing these as my spring, summer, and fall tires once my Bridgestones wear out, because I would like a tire that would give me a significantly longer life.

Just my $.02. If you are going to drive extremely agressively and really want to push your car to its handling limits on dry roads, then I would still highly recommend going exclusively with an ultra high performance summer tire.

 

I was thinking of All-Season's so I can drive my car in the winter when there is no snow. The Bridgestones are awful when the temp. drops below 30. I have not seen Kumho A/S tires in the original size. Does anyone know if they are available?

 

I hear the BF Goodrich Comp TA KDW2 tires have been very good.