chevygirl

iTrader: (69)

I am needing to buy a set of 275 40 17 and just started researching and finding out there are not alot of choices. Looking for the smoothest quiet ride since my 99 camaro z28 is just a daily driver for fun. Looks like BFGoodrich, Continental ExtremeContact DW, Firestone Firehawk, goodyear A/S tire, and Kumbo. Any experiences thoughts would be helpful.

Firebrian

There have been some recent threads on this exact topic. The choices you have listed were some of the ones mentioned. Last year I went with the BFG Comp 2's as they were priced pretty good at $555/set mounted/balanced/aligned/taxed/with coupons applied...or net out the door. But I would have really liked to try the Continental DW as they probably give a smoother all-around ride, for a bit more money. The top Michelins probably give a nice ride....at >$1,000-$1200/set. The Continentals (DW or DWS) probably give a good compromise between price, performance and ride quality.

I think you'll find most of the tires on the ultra-perf. summer list to be a little bit rough. If I could do it over again I'd pay a little more and get the Continentals. Nitto's aren't advertised on Tire Rack so not sure how the 555's would stack up on ride quality. They should stack up well against most the ultra-perf tires. Any of the tires you listed above could work out fine.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...y.jsp?type=UHP

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...ay.jsp?type=MP

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/index.jsp

chevygirl

iTrader: (69)

That is good to know info. Sounds like the comp 2's were okay. I have hankook ventus now and they don't make this size. They were great tires. Did you have your tires shipped and mounted somewhere in town? I am trying to figure out all my options on that as well. I have had some bad tire mounting experiences so I am thinking of going to a dealer here in town with the high end equipment.

Double-aught_Z/28

iTrader: (11)

I got a set of Cooper RS3-As last fall for like $450 shipped to my door from Discount Tire Direct. For the price, I don't think they can be beat. Great even in the cold this winter.

98redSS

iTrader: (2)

I just installed a set of continental extreme contact dw (different size), and I'm very happy with them so far. Noticeably a better/quieter ride than my previous tires, and great traction too. I will be curious to see how long they last, I only have about 200 miles on them so far.

Firebrian

Comp 2's are ok. Still under 1,000 miles on them so getting used to them. Having orig 16 year old shocks on a 16K mile car probably confuses the ride quality even more. I found the best advertised price on my tires at BJ's and then took that price down to my local Town Fair Tire where they advertise to beat any advertised price (by approx $25-$50/set). They were better than Sears, Tire Rack, Discount Tires, etc. Town Fair has done several tire changes for me over the years and no real complaints up until then. They had the tires brought in over the next 1-2 days from one of their warehouses. I later sent in the $70 Goodyear rebate/card application. I was ticked that the installers put a chip in the paint on one of the wheels when mounting it on the balancer. I specifically talked to the manager earlier about handling those wheels/tires carefully to avoid damaging the finish. Despite my best intentions they still managed to scuff them up. Maybe I should have used a higher end shop. But, it's a pain to order the tires from one place and then drag them around to another. None of the on-line tire stores could match the price I got from BJ's. BJ's ofter their own coupons for Michelin/BFG tires. The $15 per tire shipping fee from the on-line discount stores does count. Town Fair, BJ's and others stock enough tires so that you avoid that $60. My one issue with Continental is that rather than a $70 "cash" debit card like BFG, they offered a $60 card good towards hotel reservations. Since I wasn't planning any trips in the near future that didn't do me any good.

Ensure you check the date codes when you get your tires such that they are no more than 6-9 months old. You don't want to get any 2-3 year old tires left in inventory that will eat into the recommended 6+ yr "tire life." It does happen. It's a 4 digit code that's part of the DOT sequence ("4614" would be 46th week of 2014). I know Tire Rack isn't the only source out there. But, I'm no expert so I figured why ignore the huge amount of data they have in professional driver tire surveys and tire customer reviews? I googled numerous other on line sites for other views as well. There must be some luck of the draw from any performance tire batch. There are always some reviews that say the tires stink, even the best ones costing over $1,000/set. You can attribute that to bad manufacturing on any particular day or week of the year, a lousy driver, a car that is poorly tuned/maintained, or some other quirk. Town Fair offered a 30 day tire return if the tires didn't meet my standards. And in that time frame I saw no issues. I made sure I drove the car 500 miles in that first month too. Had they not felt right, I'd have traded them them back for Continental DW's or Nitto 555's. My tires alone listed at $560 w/tax on the invoice. And the tire shop installer fees added another $135. Discount coupons took off $140. I guess I could say that the tires less coupons ran me $420/delivered including sales tax.

chevygirl

iTrader: (69)

I am concerned that the DW continentals won't last and I will have to go thru the whole process again too soon. I would like to get 30,000 miles or more on a set. I see some good reviews on the firestone firehawks but I don't see much on here about them good or bad.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

I wouldn't expect 30k miles of "good" use out of any of the ultra high/max performance summer tires, they all just seem to be too soft for that (and rightfully so, as 'performance' is the priority, not tread life).

I've personally gotten 30k+ miles out of high performance all-season tires (specifically BFG KDWS - long since discontinued), but never summer-only tires. If you want long, useable tread life it would be best to look at the all-seasons IMO.

Latch

iTrader: (8)

The new BFG Comp-2 A/S looks pretty good at only $128 each from Discount Tire.

Rise of the Phoenix

iTrader: (27)

I sure did like my Continental Extreme DW tires that I had on my 19/20" CCW setup. For 19 and 20" wheels, the tires rode damn good, minimal to no road noise, and believe it or not, they hooked pretty damn well too.

dailydriver

That, or it's higher priced, 'elitist' cousin, the Pilot Sport AS/3.

IF I could afford them, my next pure summer, non-R (or even >200 tread wear rated) compound tires would be the Pilot Sports, as I've heard some amazingly great reviews of them claiming they do things traction wise, that a 300 tread wear rated tire should NEVER be able to do!

KW Baraka

iTrader: (7)

I've had the Kumho ASX (all-weather) in 285/40-17's last 45K miles on my Impala SS.

Got great traction too, considering it's a 4400LB car that had about 420hp and 450tq to the wheels at the time.

Jus' sayin'......

KW

Firebrian

Continental also offers a DWS all season tire with a 540 tread wear rating and almost identical ride quality. That's as high as anything out there....and quite a bit higher than the 340 tread wear rating of the DW. The DWS is only an extra $50 over the DW. The Firestone Firehawk Wide Ovals are a decent tire for the price (320 rating)....but the same issue with tire life as the DW. There are plenty of people who think the tread wear ratings are pretty worthless when comparing brands.

Doesn't appear that the Firestone FH WO are made in this size for all season. I think the ride quality in the BFG all seasons will be less than the Continental DWS.

RevGTO

iTrader: (12)

I recommend the Conti DWS as well. Nice riding tire. Also Riken Raptors. Avoid any BFG "g-force" tires (Comp 2's etc.) They have a sidewall insert that makes for quick turn-in response and tight cornerning, but at the price of a harsh ride.

rudytirerack

The Continental Extreme DWS would be an excellent choice. Very good ride comfort.

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

I was comparing the DW vs DWS and came to the same basic conclusion. Once my tires that came on my wheels are worn out (Nexen n3000, they're ok) I think I may be trying the DWS. That may be a while though since I only have put 5k per year on the car, although I have no clue what kind of life I can expect out of the Nexens. They came with the wheels when I bought them from OE.

KLaBZ28

iTrader: (4)

I have Sumitomo HRT ZIII's and love them. Real nice quiet smooth ride, good grip, good in rain. Pretty affordable too.

chevygirl

iTrader: (69)

Ride is number one priority, second would be looks and close third tread wear. The dws tread pattern isn't my fave. I like things matching and symmetrical but I see most tires are not like this now for this size. The firestone is a nice looking tire but if it rides bad I don't want that for sure. My dad has the new impala with firehawks gt on his car and says the ride is too stiff so I am leaning towards dw contis right now. I only drive 9000 miles a year.

chevygirl

iTrader: (69)

Wow the reviews on the continental tires are not good on the tire rack website. Now I really am getting confused.

guppymech

iTrader: (7)

The Conti DW was on my short list but I saw the same reviews on Tire Rack, not good. I currently have the previous version of Conti's Extreme Contact all seasons and they're pretty stiff but also are 8 years old. I'm considering Cooper RS3-S tires, they're uni-directional so you can get a full rotation sequence out of them. For me the tires would get old and hard before they'd wear out. I've been happy with Coopers on my daily drivers.