I bought my 05 roadster in March 2012 and the dealer had just put new tires on it. I've been a tire salesman for 30+ years and didn't recognise the manufacturer Primewell. My woes began immediately with the sound of a 4 wheel drive with mud tires and a ride that matched. Yes, I finally found a tire that's worse than a Hankook!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My criteria was simple I wanted a value not cheap and only looked at tires I knew were of a good quality, in the long run they are lower priced when you consider cost per mile. I only looked at Michelin, Pirelli, Dunlop and BFG based on past experience. Michelin technology is far superior with their sidewall plies being used for later stability control and gives a smoother ride with great handling and superior mileage. I ended up buying BFG and replaced my 4,000 mile Primewell's that were cupped out badly - not from balance, but a poor belt package. What a difference, yes there's still some noise (normal with a Z rated tire) but smooth both in ride and cornering. I didn't mention thet BFG is owned by Michelin and I feel I've answered that old saying - you can pay me now or you can pay me later!

Bob

 

I have seen Primewell's and the low price tries to suck you in, but I have resisted thus far and, with your post, I believe that it will be much easier to resist now . Thanks for the post.

 

You must be pretty tired of your business after 30+ years, time to retire I'd say.

What's your beef with Hankooks? Lots of members here use them including me.

 

Their prices are not cheap! Distributed by Firestone in the Southeast. With the usual markup, even on a Chinese tire.

http://www.primewelltires.com/PZ900

 

Not sure about buying through Firestone or for their sport tires, but they can be had through Walmart for cheap. I love Hankooks though. I also have have good luck with Nankang NSII, they are cheap and last, grip, handle well. I put them on my wifes new altima coupe and they are great performers on wet and dry pavement.

 

Beaner is a Nangkang convert and the way he goes through rears, he needs to be!

 

As I mentioned tires were my business for many years and I worked for 3 companies over that span. Everyy company was dedicated and proud of their tire affiliations and sold them with confidence and pride. The company I worked for in Florida took on the Hankook like to try and be more competion for the customer looking for a low price, the results were failures at an alarming rate, worse we had ever seen. It was so bad that the entire like was sent back to Hankook, that's the only time in my experience I'd ever seen that happen.

Hopefully they've inproved their product, they had to - it still remains my not if it's the only one availabe!

Bob

 

When was this? As I said many here have them and as far as I recall there have been no epidemic of failures.

 

This experience was over 10 years ago and I know where you're going with your question. I'm sure they've probably improved their product, but in my mind, I will never trust their quality!

Let me challenge you with this - shop several tire stores and have the salesman give you feature and benefits of lhis tire line. Don't just accept what he says, but ask why. Question the body plies their construction and material and be sure to ask why - ask about the rubber used in the flex area of the sidewall ( better companies use multiple compounds to aid the flexing which improves handling. Especially look at cross sections of the tire which will show this construction and you can see things like how fall up the sidewall the body plies wrap (better tires the wrap goes further up the sidewall leaving the flex area with fewer plies to keep it flexi\ble and the most important thing because of lthe width of the tire is the belt package, how far does it extend to the outside of the tread area. This is extremely important in any tire but the V rated tire will not survive on the outside tread area without proper support. You need to try and gain every bit of knowledge you can, cheaper tires are cheap for a reason and it's usually what's left out.

Also remember that any deviation form a normal high mileage, smooth riding and long lasting tire is a compromise. Hi speed tires give you handling and high speed performance but the trade off is smooth ride and longevityl.


My challenge to you is buy whichever tire meets your needs, but do it with knowledge and imlput from others with experience. My choice will ever remain the Michelin family,,
Milchelin is the leader in technology and they are the ones the others try to copy, while you're checking with tire stores be sure to have them explain the system Michelin uses to gain sidewall stiffness without using the hard riding stiffeners that other companies use.

Bob

 

have had my hankooks on for two years next month.
bought them from discount tire america.
have had no problem with them.
hit 130mph with them.
my $.02

 

Obviously you know your tires from all your experience but sadly if you go into a tire store the salesman was probably selling siding the week before. Chances are they know nothing about the products on hand and would like you to buy the tire that has the most profit in it.

When you buy something like this you are best to do the research before you enter the store as you'll find little help inside the store.

Hopefully they will install the tires correctly, which they did not do the last two times I had four tires installed, the first time they were not inflated anywhere near the correct pressure, two were high by 5psi and two were low by 8psi. It is not rocket science as every one knows the correct pressure is on the door pillar on all cars. The other time a wheel was loose. I will not be going there again.

 

Oh geez, just pony up for the Michelins. I have them on both and absolutely no complaints (err...I live in California and what is winter? what is salt on the roads? etc.). I think Michelin and Pirelli are best for the west.

 

Loaded question... Tire likes/dislikes are like beer likes/dislikes. Jump back many years to the Firestone/Ford explorer fiasco. Firestone took a huge hit when Ford blamed Firestone tires on the rollovers. Litigation appeals vindicated Firestone, as Ford was telling owners to underinflate their Firestone tires to improve handling/lower CG. All this is available as a matter of record so google away. Cut through the branding BS and go for what works for you. I find most people who put michelins on their car are uppity types who point their noses upwards at others for not paying hundreds more for something for 'their expensive cars'. Yes, even those who have a real inexpensive car jump into the hype and put michelins on their car because they either believe the tires are better, or they themselves are better, for having an overpriced set of tires on their car. Nuff said!

 

Not quite 'nuff said, Michelin makes great tires and I use them a lot of the time. I have had Michelin winter tires on all four corners for years. All season tires not so much, they were on the NA and SRT and they were fine, except for the front tread noise due to a bad wear pattern on the SRT.

Call me uppity if you like but I buy what I want within reason and would pay for Michelin tires if I felt like it again. I'm not cheap like some.

 

I personally have never had the "opportunity-I guess" to own a 4 wheeled vehicle with Michelin tires, but I will testify that their motorcycle tires are pathetic! No grip unless you buy the hypersport tires. Then, they only last 2500 miles on the rear and way overpriced! Believe it or not, Continental makes a great street/strip bike tire that grips as well as the Michelins and wears MUCH MUCH better and it is cheaper too. I am sure that some of this could very well carry over into car tires????

 

I call it reasonable, or thrifty, sometimes cheap when self degrading (sometimes)... I take it from your last two sentences that you found it necessary to include yourself in the 'most people' portion of my post? If so, I excuse your implying I am 'cheap', as I have many times hit the reply button before engaging the brain.

You can spend your monies any way you see fit, I can tell you if someone wanted to buy me a set for any vehicle they want, I would not refuse them. If michelin wanted to give me a set or (sets) I would not refuse them. Spending my (or when I was purchasing for the gov on many occasions) the governments hard earned dollars for michelins they would have to be less expensive than others that would do the same task. Tires rated "V" would suffice any speed limit available here in the states. I do not plan on exceeding 150mph, if I ever got the chance to exceed that speed it would only be for a very short period of time (track, straight line, just because). My 2002 B4C ex police interceptor (camaro) has "V" rated tires on it, they came with "Z" rated tires. I have only been up to 135mph (Doc, you missed out on catching me on that, LOL) i the camaro and the "cheap" maxxims performed flawlessly. The Hankooks I have on my ranger P/U also perform flawlessly. The conti's on my XF right now are noisy but still very serviceable but when replaced I will put something on much less than the price of michelins (unless conditions above ie free or reduced comparable to whatever I select). I stand behind my comments 100%, since they represent an opinion I have about most products branding. A stellar example, Whirlpool makes a fantastic washer/dryer series and their pricing shows it. The Roper brand of washer/dryers are made by and with all Whirlpool parts. The pricing between them would shock you, given the same features on each. The only differences are the name on the machine/box, the advertising, and a few extremely minor trim/goodies in the box.

 

You may have an axe to grind with Hankook but if you look at the tire tests conducted by several car mags, usually with the help of Tire Rack or similar, you will see that the recent Hankooks have scored pretty well overall and by price are D---- good. Personally love the EVO12's.

 

By the way, I have an almost new (less than 1000 mi EVO 12's and stock SRT6 wheels for sale if anyone is interested.

 

I respect your choice and my intent was not to start an argument, it's simple I have had extremely poor luck with them. My intent when I responded was to give you ideas as to researching VALUES in tires and not just buying because of price. With a performance car such as the Crossfire you might consider viewing other forums for performance cars such as Viper, Corvette, Ferrari, etc. You're never going to agree with everything that's said, but if you value your car as much as I do, I choose to use the safest tire I can and try and buy as much as I can for my dollar. This area would be a better source for making a decision than a magazine artricle that only tests tires when new.

Bob

 

I do understand what you are saying, I had a bad experience with Firestone back in the 70's and will never buy one again. I changed my tires to 245-35-18's and 275-30-19's and there are not a lot of choices in this size, there's not really a lot in the stock sizes. Also, I don't track my car so I expect to get decent mileage from them. You are correct about the tests being with new tires but I've never seen a test done for mileage or when they had 40K on them, so all we can do is use our best judgement. When it comes time for new skins, I will take what you've said into consideration and I do appreciate the info.