Tired Tire Travails

Hello Hive,

Looks like my '07 Scion tC took a piece of hardware in the left front tire.  Currently, they are Kumho Ecsta ASTs in a 215/45/17 H rating that were with the car when I bought it last year and are a little long in the tooth age-wise.  So I think I might squirt for some new meats all around.  The Kumhos howl like banshees to the point where I'm considering Dynamat under the rear carpet.  My criteria would be quieter operation and excellent wet-weather traction since the car could use a limited-slip final drive and the Kumhos spin at the slightest provocation wet or dry.  I'm thinking fresher rubber and a different tread pattern will do the trick for both traction and noise.

I would depreciate some feedback if you are driving something with a similar size in a front drive configuration.  Yes I can read tire reviews but I don't know what possesses someone to write a tire review after driving them back from the tire store.  The real-world-long-term accounts of pain, anguish, triumph, and ecstasy from a GRMer is what I crave before I throw down the hard-earned ducats.

Thank you in advance,

Jerry

I run Continental DWS on my MINI CooperS and really like them. Good in the wet, good in the dry, quiet and comfortable. They're my 2nd set and I usually try something different with each purchase.

Falken all seasons. Had a similar size on one of the mazdas. Iirc, the 950 is the current model that replaced the 912. Great daily tires and i average about 40k a set.

I put General AltMax RT 43h on my Fiesta.   I am very pleased with them.  Good in rain.  Even a little snow I ran into yesterday.   Handling is good.

+2 for Continental DWS.  I have had them on several cars and they have been great in all conditions.  They did very well on my supercharged Ford Focus.

BFG SportComp2 A/S

Put them on my wife's daily FoST last year. Great all around, and I can autoX it too when called up for duty.

Another strong + vote for the Continental DSWs. I have them on my 2004 Lancer Ralliart wagon. 3000 pounds, open differential. Superb rain tire, even with the extreme tropical downpours that we get here in Florida. Excellent dry traction as well. Smooth ride well into triple digits. 

I've had them on the car for at least a couple of years, so probably about 15 to 20 thousand miles.

Floating Doc said:

Another strong + vote for the Continental DSWs. I have them on my 2004 Lancer Ralliart wagon. 3000 pounds, open differential. Superb rain tire, even with the extreme tropical downpours that we get here in Florida. Excellent dry traction as well. Smooth ride well into triple digits. 

I've had them on the car for at least a couple of years, so probably about 15 to 20 thousand miles.

What's the wear rate?  Could I get 40k out of them?

Also, is it DSW or DWS?

 My picks are the BFG Comp-2 A/S if you want a sporty tire, or the General RT43 if you want a "normal car" tire.  The DWS are probably in between the two.

Jerry From LA said:

Also, is it DSW or DWS?

DWS, it stands for Dry, Wet, Snow.

Sorry, got it wrong. It is DWS, for Dry Wet Snow. Yeah, I think that it's possible to get 40k out of a set, but as always that would depend on how you drive the car, maintain alignment and pressures, keep up with rotation, etc. 

Also, these are on a relatively light car, and my commute is almost straight highway with about two turns and one stop in 12 of the 18 miles. 

I check tire pressure once a month at the very least and rotate every two oil changes or so. I hate spending money I don't have to spend so I'm irked about tire punctures because I didn't get full life expectancy.  In this case, the tires are aging out anyway so I just want to make as informed a choice as I can given the time constraints.

Had a slit on the inside sidewall of the left front tire so no repairing it.  Went to Mountin View Tire across from Autobooks-Aerobooks where I work.  They installed a set of Conti Extreme Contact DWS 06 tires.  all I've done is a quick lap around the block but the silence was blissful.  Thanks everyone for your  recommendations.

I think that you'll be happy with them. I definitely would buy them again. 

I can feel the taller sidewall on these tires over the Kumhos.  However, the difference in sidewall height helps with the noise level and the less-harsh ride so I'm good.  I've driven many a hurtlin' piece of E36 M3 so I'm used to noise and harshness. However, my wife found it fatiguing after 350 miles or so.  Also, this car will find itself in some frog-strangling rains both in the mountains and here in the city.  Improving wet performance alone is worth the price of admission.

So you put on a different size ?

In reply to iceracer :

Nope.  Same size.  However, there's alway a variance in how manufacturers interpret tire size.  The Contis are taller than the Kumhos.  Kumhos tend to run that way in my experience.  I remember going from BFG to Kumho on my old Camry.  They were so much smaller than the tires they replaced, I thought the tire store put on the wrong size or just mounted up something close because that's all they had.  However, I read the sidewall and they were the same size numerically as the BFGs.