Just picked up a set of 15" wheels for my 300TD daily beater. Now I need to figure out what shoes to put on them. Must have great traction in wet and dry, and last 2 or 3 years at 12k miles/ year. Budget cap of $100 per corner, mounted, balanced, yadda yadda.
Looking at THESE. Seem like a pretty good bang for my miserly buck. Thoughts/Opinions/Alternate ideas?
Those should outperform anything a 300TD can throw at it. Sumitomo makes pretty decent low cost tires.
I shod my underwhelming N/A 850 with Cooper CS5 Ultras based on a few positive reviews from others here. I went with Ultras, tire store tried to talk me into the Grand Touring, but maximum tread life wasn't the biggest priority. I've been very pleased so far, had them for several months now. The GTs are a little cheaper than the Ultras, similar tread pattern, and 80K tread wear vs 60K on the Ultra.
If shipping for a set Sumitomos from Tire Rack is $60 for you like it is me, it makes the Coopers fairly competitive.
Amazon has Prime eligible 91T CS5 GTs for $70.87 ea. If you don't have Prime, Discount Direct has them for $78 ea. shipped.
Just FYI, those Sumitomos are also sold at Discount Tire stores as Falkens. Price is much higher though (or at least it was in the size I looked at).
bigdaddylee82 wrote: I shod my underwhelming N/A 850 with Cooper CS5 Ultras based on a few positive reviews from others here. I went with Ultras, tire store tried to talk me into the Grand Touring, but maximum tread life wasn't the biggest priority. I've been very pleased so far, had them for several months now. The GTs are a little cheaper than the Ultras, similar tread pattern, and 80K tread wear vs 60K on the Ultra. If shipping for a set Sumitomos from Tire Rack is $60 for you like it is me, it makes the Coopers fairly competitive. Amazon has Prime eligible 91T CS5 GTs for $70.87 ea. If you don't have Prime, Discount Direct has them for $78 ea. shipped.
IIRC shipping was like $14/tire. I can get the mounting and all done locally for another $15/tire, which puts me around $90 a corner all in. I'll look at the Coopers, the mechanic we use for stuff I don't want to fix carries a pretty good selection of them usually. Treadwear isn't my highest priority either, however I bought a pair of Goodyears which lasted me exactly 1 year on the front of this car. On the front. Of a rear wheel drive car. Yeah. 
That's unacceptable.
I had a set of those on my Toyota Pickup- they started out great, but after 10k miles they were TERRIBLE in the rain. Dry performance never had an issue, but the wet performance fell off sharply as if I had worn through the "good" compound and ended up with hockey pucks. Other than that, good tires.
In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:
You're talking about the Sumitomos?
In reply to volvoclearinghouse:
Yep.
I used the previous compound of G-force sports on my RX-7 some years back and was SUPER impressed with their wet/dry-traction (I plan on using them again on my Alfa, should I ever finish working on it...).
I checked and they're not available in a 205/50R15, BUT with a 195/55R15 you're actually getting 1.5" MORE tread width vs the Sumitomos you linked. The down side is you'll suffer a 3mph difference in speed-o reading at 65mph (reads 65, actually traveling 62).
I like my BFG G-force Sport Comp 2s. Some people complain about them being noisy, but I don't hear it. They're not quite as amazing as the KDWs were, but they're really good so far.
We run G-forces on our LeMons car (75 LTD) and they've been great tires. 245/50R16 on the LeMons car.
I'm swayed to the Coopers now, though. Hmmm...
Aw come on man! Everyone who's cool is doing it. Don't you want to be cool? 
Hungary Bill wrote: Aw come on man! Everyone who's cool is doing it. Don't you want to be cool?
I think those might be a little too good a tire for my 85 horsepower autobahn burner. The CS5's have a 6.61" tread width in the 205/60R15 size, and are cheaper. The bigger sidewall will ride nicer and survive the pothole-ridden blacktop that passes for streets around here, better, too. 
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