the wagon needs new rubber. The Michelin primacy LCs have lasted 44k, with still a bit left. They've been great from a ride/quietness viewpoint, which is what I want. I'm interested to hear of what works for people: Bridgestone Ecopia? Turanza? Toyo nanoenergy 3? Kumho KU/kh27?

thanks

I hear Toyo Teo Plus are quiet and smooth

their website says the nanoenergy 3 is even quieter, but it would be nice to hear the opinion of someone who's used them.

I hear Toyo Teo Plus are quiet and smooth


They sure are quiet and last a long time as well. Its a shame they don't grip well, they are particularly bad in the wet. I was very disapointed given that they use a silica rubber. Now I got a pair of Bridgestone Turanza serenity plus tyres on the front. They grip well, even in the wet and are quiet. At $105ea for 205/65 R15 they are a bargin. The older Bridgestone GR-90 model was even better but they were made in Japan and more expensive.

Jimbo, what is the noise like on the Serenity plus tyres compaired to the Teo plus?

+1 for Bridgestone Turanza Serenity Plus.
When my GF needed new tyres for her '13 Hyundai i30 about 8 months ago I was given the job of finding the quietest tyres I could for her, but still with reasonably good grip and wear.
In the size of 205/60R16.
I did a heap of research and the Serenity Plus seemed to be the go. Just edging out the Teo Plus for quietness but considerably better grip.
The clincher was a Bridgestone deal at the time of four tyres for the price of three and a $100 fuel voucher.
Since then these tyres have proven to do what it said on the tin - quiet, good grip, and wearing well.

thank you, that's interesting. The b'stone website shows they no longer do serenity plus in 205/60, I'd have to go to 215/60, which I think would work. The Toyo website shows the nanoenergy 3 has having better wet grip and being quieter than the teo plus, which is intriguing.

Jimbo, what is the noise like on the Serenity plus tyres compaired to the Teo plus?

Its too close to call.



The clincher was a Bridgestone deal at the time of four tyres for the price of three and a $100 fuel voucher.

I remember the deal being that if you bought 4 tyres you got a $100 fuel card. This effectively made the 4th tyre free. Now they have a similar yet less versatile offer of a $100 card to spend on car services at the Bridgestone Tyre Shop.

Wish I'd taken up the offer at the time but I didn't want to replace tyres only a year old with 80% tread left, now I'm stuck with a pair of Toyo Teo Plus tyres on the rear which can slide out widly on certain roundabout if I'm not very carefull. The Bridgestones on the front hold on very well in the same roundabout and the previous Turanza GR-90 tyres were phenomenal when they were new. Even the oringal Bridgestone RE92's were better than the Toyos for grip.

A lot marketing goes into selling tyres so one needs to be wary of this. Makes it hard to select a good tyre as all you get is subjective information designed to tug at your emotions rather than objective facts and figures which you could use to compare different tyres.

Its too close to call.



Even the oringal Bridgestone RE92's were better than the Toyos for grip.

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wow, that's good to know. The RE92s lasted well but didn't have that good a grip; the primacy LCs grip much better. I don't want go back to the grip level of the RE92s.

So here's my shortlist:
-Michelin primacy ST. (might be the quietest, acc. to reviews)
-Bridgestone Turanza ER300
-Bridgestone Serenity Plus (in 215/60)
-Toyo nanoenergy 3

is there anything from continental that I should consider? They make good tyres.

I had Turanza ER300 on a Mazda 3 (OEM tyre)
When new their wet and dry grip was phenomenal, however wear rate was not so good and after about 20,000km they became so loud and rough that I took the car to Mazda for a warranty claim. They insisted it was the tyres but I wouldn't believe them.
I ended up putting Michelin PS3 and the car became quiet and smooth.

I have Turanza ER300 on my 380 but have had a different experience to Spetz.

Mine have done 30,000k and are still excellent. Less than half warn (perhaps 35% at most) I expect to get 70,000+ from them. Any loss in grip and increase in road noise since new has not been perceptible.

They have been great, quiet and very safe tyres.

You get what you pay for when it comes to tyres.

I did get a full alignment done at time of purchase, I do rotate them every 5000k, and check the pressures every month or so.

The Toyo Teo Plus would have to be shocking to have less grip than Bridgestone RE92s!
When I bought my TE Magna in 1999 it had OEM RE92s on it, about half worn, and they were shocking, couldn't replace them quick enough.
Very average grip in the dry (squealed and slipped if I took a corner anything over Driving Miss Daisy pace), and almost zero grip in the wet.
Mitsu should have been canned for fitting this rubbish as OEM fitment.

RE92? Grips well, wet and dry, last well too. Must be your driving style, TreeMan! lol
Then again, the RE92 is one of those tyres that harden with age and lose grip, unlike some other brands. As above, no wet grip, lots of noise in the dry. Wheel hop from the front wheels if you take off too quickly, pain in the beep!

Don't buy Firestone - 25,000 km on the front of my TL wagon, and they are just about gone. Turanza ER300 when the Firestones die. And a few nasty words to the guy who recommended the Firestones. lol

I had Turanza ER300 on a Mazda 3 (OEM tyre)
When new their wet and dry grip was phenomenal, however wear rate was not so good and after about 20,000km they became so loud and rough that I took the car to Mazda for a warranty claim. They insisted it was the tyres but I wouldn't believe them.
I ended up putting Michelin PS3 and the car became quiet and smooth.

My experience with the Turanza GR-90 was similar. They didn't get that noisey but they lost a lot of grip as they scrubbed on the outer edge. I put it down to not rotating them for 30,000km. I did see the same tyre on a Toyota Tarago van and they had scrubbed out on the outer edge as well. Tyres I put on since have not scrubbed out so that rules out the alignment.

My wagon has Bob Jane all rounders in 205/65/15 which are awful and squeal in corners. Its been almost 9 years since I replaced magna tyres in 15 in fitment, but the RE92s were sensational, quiet, grippy and long lasting, im hoping they are still available, but im sure they used to be made in the Salisbury factory which has now closed. The best feature of these I found was the square edge which kept the tread flat discouraging the corners to wear off, meaning replacing tyres with 80% tread but worn edges.

has anyone used ContiComfortContact tyres, from Continental?

My wagon has Bob Jane all rounders in 205/65/15 which are awful and squeal in corners. Its been almost 9 years since I replaced magna tyres in 15 in fitment, but the RE92s were sensational, quiet, grippy and long lasting, im hoping they are still available, but im sure they used to be made in the Salisbury factory which has now closed. The best feature of these I found was the square edge which kept the tread flat discouraging the corners to wear off, meaning replacing tyres with 80% tread but worn edges.

my RE92s lasted 72k and still had some left; the grip wasn't great, and the ride and quietness definitely not as good as the michelin primacy LCs I replaced them with. I would rather have less durability than the RE92 and better grip/comfort/noise

I had some RE92s on the rear which were made in 2002 (same year as the car). I think they were there from new. I replaced them in 2010 at 136k as I was worried about their age, they still had a legal amount of tread on them to.

I put a set of Toyos on my "good" TJ Solara to replace the OEM RE92s which seemed to last forever. The Toyos are quiet and have good grip. On the other Solara we were a bit more cash-strapped so we had to economise. Tyres are something I don't normally skimp on but they tyre guy assured me that the budget Chinese tyres he was recommending were really good... grippy and great in the wet. So, being cash-strapped, I gave in and went for his suggestion. I bought a brand called "Sailun" and the model is called " Atrezzo". I was very sceptical about them but after having travelled about 5,000 kay on them he was right. They are quiet, seem to have similar adhesion to the road as the Toyos on the other car and didn't cost me a bomb.

EDIT: Here's a review I found about them on the web:

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2013/07/sailun-atrezzo-z4as-tire-review.html

RE92's are a tyre that is not fit to call a box trailer home. End of story.

On the strength of a friends recommendation who has a set fitted to his TL VR wagon I have gone with Pirelli Cinturatos in 215/60/16.

They are quite, comfortable and the wet weather grip is astonishing.

As has been mentioned previously in this thread you get what you pay for.

If you want to spend $60 or $70 a corner on Chinese rubbish don't complain when you end up on your roof in a ditch the first time it rains.

I like continentals ...use sport contact 5 at the moment ...awesome grip

yeah, I like contis too, and the comfortcontact sounds good; views from someone who's got them would be great.

Mudfish, what Cinturatos did you have? As there are a lot of different models

Never tried the SportContact or the ComfortContact, but I did run a set of Conti ExtremeContact DW on the Jag for a short while before I upgraded to the 20" rims. Very good grip both wet and dry, reasonably good ride and not too noisy.
But that was in 255/45R18, so who knows what they would be like in the smaller sizes.

the p7 have the right sizes, don't know about the price or the performance

I replaced the OEM RE92s with Yokohama A-Drives about 3 years ago, and at the time the improvement in dry grip and cornering stability was, frankly, astonishing. I recently replaced the fronts with Yokohama BlueEarths, the rears still having 80-85% of their tread, and have found them to be very similar to the A-Drives. I can't really comment on quietness, I don't recall them being any more or less noisy than the Bridgestones but to be honest I care far more about handling than road noise. It's still a very quiet car, wind noise is the biggest factor over about 80kph.

I've got a slightly different spin on things. When I got my ts, the first thing I did was to go to a tyre shop and found out that an OS of 225 is listed as ok ( I found through use that the front inner guard rubbed, no problem. thread a wire through it and bend it to accomodate or unfasten that portion and bend it up a bit.) so I went for the best recommended sticky tyre. It wears faster but the grip aand water dispersal is well worth it. There is also a relative lack of road rumble. I had some remarkable emergency stops with them, never a cornering concern and never a slide (except on a country gravel road). (ABS). As a bonus they made the car look better proportioned and less 'spindly'. Oh yes, another thing. I've forgotten the name of it but it was a speed rating that indicates the max speed one can break fully on without the tyres shredding. At 187 kph, that would mean taking into account an engineered safety margin that makes them for me with my driving always within specs. Can't remember the name of the tyres. I asked for oversize cop grade tyres and looked through some writeups and decided to give them a go. That was 11 years ago and they cost 200+ each fitted, balanced and aligned.
atm I'm back to 205's and I don't like it. As soon as I can afford it I'll go back to the 225's

I've had A drives before. Poor grip in the dry and even worse in the wet was my experience

I like continentals ...use sport contact 5 at the moment ...awesome grip

I got these 205/45/17 OEM on my rio at the moment, lots of grip, wont squeal in corners to save themselves, ive had all 4 wheels going sideways just trying!

but I did run a set of Conti ExtremeContact DW on the Jag for a short while before I upgraded to the 20" rims.
Privately imported or locally sourced?

Privately imported or locally sourced?

Imported from the US via Tire Rack.

Tire rack: would you do it again? how much was freight?

Tire rack: would you do it again? how much was freight?

I did do it again! I got my current 20" tyres from Tire Rack, as they were much cheaper than buying locally, even after some $300 in shipping cost.
Shipping cost for the Contis was $319.79 US.
Cost of the Contis was $170 US each.
The exchange rate back then (Nov 2013) was a fair bit better than it is now though.
Also, the shipping cost means that it's only economical to get fairly high-end tyres from Tire Rack, where you can save quite a lot compared to the Oz price.

I hear Toyo Teo Plus are quiet and smooth

Yes - I was going to suggest these too.

yes, but their own website shows they have less grip than some other tyres.

I have Hankook Optima's on my TW and they're very good, but the tread pattern and look of the tyre is a bit average. It looks like a tread pattern a pensioner would go for, but brilliant tyre nonetheless and beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess.

yes, but their own website shows they have less grip than some other tyres.

What's your budget? When I had my last Magna I was tossing up btw the Teo's, the Primacy LC's (which you've had) and a couple of others. I bought the Michelin's in the end but I'm sure the Teo's would've been on par. Also had a set of ER 300s which were very good - for grip and quietness.

Hi 380Mitsu, my shortlist is pretty similar to yours. We had ER300s on our falcon and they were v good. I'd like to keep the cost below about $180 ea.

I'm very happy with my Toyo Proxes (exact name escapes me right now). Fantastic grip both dry and wet and very quiet. Plus mine are made in Japan. Coming from Federal 595s it's like having am radio static on all the time to now having the radio off lulz.