I am thinking about buying new tires for my 98 C5 - I currently have Goodyear run flats - any suggestions on a good replacement tire that are not so expensive ?

i did some poking around, and here is what i came up with:


Kumho ECSTA MX (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Kumho&tireModel=ECSTA+MX&partnum=445YR7EMX&partnum=74YR8EMX&vehicleSearch=true&index=7)

that would be around 660 for all four, plus shipping, which was abut 10 bucks a piece for 204-40zr17s..i dont know where you live, but to have them shipped to detroit would cost 33 bucks. so youd get all 4 tires for under 700 bucks. I have used kumho, and while they are certainly no BFG or goodyear, theyre a pretty good tire, especially for the price.

Sandy, try tire rack (tirerack.com) for the best prices and selection. They ship to your installer or will give you an installer in your area. I just purchased a set of Goodrich G force KDW 2's for a little over 600 bucks with shipping. I had them in 2 days!:) Excellent tires for non-runflats. If you have to have run flats they have those as well.

I'd have to agree with Patrick, i've been running with the Kumho's for several years now, and am completely satified with there performance and driveability. that and there much cheaper than the factory goodyears. [sm=americanasmiley.gif]

the problem is that people assume that goodyear=good and cheap=bad


i wouldnt have goodyears if they were FREE. [:'(]

hey sandy, i am selling a set of 4 stock run flats, check out my forum on here in the classifieds, i can save you a nice penny :) email me if interested.

...then check a recent edition of Car & Driver. Although they used "only" a 325 BMW as a test mule, you are very likely to experience similar results with your C5. To minimize variables such as driving techniques, track surface temps, etc, C&D enlisted the help of the Tire Rack and their test mule vehicle. Although the track used was small, it's lined with sprinklers that can soak the asphalt. "It took three days to perform all the tests. We accerated to 50 mph and then braked to a standstill. There was a benefit to that lower speed: It ensured that we were measuring the braking performance of the tires and not just brake fade."

"In addition to factoring the wet and dry scores, we gave points based on a tires's price and tread-wear grade, which is a rough estimate of how long a tire will have usable tread." "Our test focused on measuring performance, so we decided that results in the dry-lateral grip, for example - would carry the most weight."

So, without further adeau, here're the results:

(Best to worst):

NUMBER 1: Goodyear GSD3: "As an all-around performance tire, you can't beat this Goodyear. It was the best performer in all three wet-track tests and was very competent in the dry. It generated .94g on the dry skidpad, only .01g off the first place (dry) BFGoodrich and tied with the Yokohama and Hankook.
The Goodyear gripped so well, that you might not have been certain that the road was wet. It held onto the wet track with .82g of stick, an impressive figure considering the worst tire in that test made only .67g.
...And like the Continental, the Goodyear had a high 280 trad-wear grade. At $145, ieach, it's $34 cheaper than the most expensive (guess which tires have THAT distinction!).

2nd place: Continental ContiSportContact 2: "It simply didn't feel as sporty as the others.....on dry surfaces, the Conti never rose above third from last among 11 tires. It felt soft and imprecise. But in the wet, the spread from best to worse was 15 percent, which made for a larger point spread (giving the Contis a boost). Plus the Continental had a 280tread-wear grade that was the highest (tied) for this test.

3rd place: Yokohama Advan Neova AD07: Excellent dry performance, but a bit on the slippery end in the wet stuff - expensive at $175 apiece.

4th place: Michelin Pilot Sport PS2: "At $179, the PS2 is the most expensive tire in the test." Competent, but expensive sums up this tire.

5th place: Hankook Ventus R-S2 Z212: At $99 each, these are the least expensive tires - very good on dry pavement, but "greasy and slow to recover" on the wet stuff.

6th place: Dunlop SP Sport Max: "In the dry, the tire seemed to lose its confidence..."

7th place: Pirelli P Zero Rosso Asimmetrico:"In the dry-lateral-grip test, the Pirelli tied for second to last, and it finished seventh in the dry-braking test.

8th place: Toyo Proxes T1R: "...the Proxes never placed higher than eighth in any test"...nuff said!

9th place: Bridgestone Potenza RE050A: "it felt dull and disconnected and was somewhat soft and imprecise when driven hard."

10th place: BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KD: Outstanding performance on dry surfaces, but very scary on wet surfaces - don't get caught in a rainstorm wearing these shoes...

11th place: Kumho Ecsta MX: "They didn't offer much grip and the time of 30.28 seconds in the dry autocross was .62 second slower than the fastest tire. That may not seem like much, but our course was only 0.3 mille long, and on a longer track, that gap would be commensurately greater." "And although the MX - at $136 per - was the third-least-expensive tire in our test, the high score in the price category wasn't enough to regain ground lost in the performance tests."

On a congratulatory note, the first place tire is made right here in the USA by an American tire company!

I took the run flats off .i could have run a super swaper mudders and run smother. as far as the 17/18 stager to me it a big joke .after 2 month of looking for the right wheel and tire combo. there was a lot of fighting with the local tire and wheel stores. the net was even worse. i went to the guys that always helped me with my pro street projects WELD WHEELS. these guys are the bomb .talked to the tech and got more info in 5 min than 2 months of sale men BS.i drive my vet evey day back and forth to work about 120 miles.so keeping the tires rotated is a must.the large wheel look of 20s was what i wanted but 20s will rub on front and being that 20s can only be 255/20 way to narrow . so the is the set that i went with was weld evo [andro 5] 19 x 9 1/2 with 285/30/19 toyo t1r all the way around.

That is a good solution given your driving and need to rotate tires, and those wheels look pretty good. I'm curious if you notice any strange handling characteristics given that you have similar size tires and wheels front and back (my point being the car is set up for wider rubber at the rear so I would expect it to oversteer a bit more now).

Toyo T1Rs tend to wear rather quickly from what I hear. One thing to look at it the wear starts getting expensive is Hankook - they are nearly as good as Kumos but really inexpensive and wear quite well -- I had a set on my Audi S4 for a while and I'd guess they would go 60K miles a set.

if you live near a pep boys they have z rated tires i have them on my vette, they are a good tire, they hook up, they handle great, z rated .smooth ride.and only cost 98.00 bucks a piece, cant beat that,every body thinks name brand name brand.well today all these tire companies are just living off there name. so brand really doesent matter any more.

local://upfiles/1664/4F4E0E7C1FFA40C6A9281106E6C4E131.jpg

Uh, you might want to take a look at the list (above) that was generated by Car & Driver recently. The Goodyear GSD3s are incredible tires (compared to the others) and wear very well. I agree that performance, cost, and wear are all important, but you could easily buy the cheapest tires and get not only sub-par performance, but may have to replace them twice as often. What kind of savings is that?. You do get what you pay for when it comes to ultra-high performance tires; that's been proven!

the answer to the push on the front is there is none. in fact the car handles better than it if did with the stager tires. as far as wear out fast this is not true. all this talk about the GS3 GOOD YEARS I HAVE RUN THEM ON MY old c4 got 44000 miles out of that set but that was rotating them ever 3000 miles .now i have about 22000 on the T1R toyos and it going to a close to 40000 to 45000 out of them. i ran the toyo because of the size tire there are very few tire makers for this size 285/30/19 most around 450 to 500 bucks. the toyo were not cheap by no means . this is the biggest 19 u can on the front and to me the wider up front the better.the only real change is the front tire is 1/2 inch taller than the old 17 . sounds like a lot but it only rased it by a 1/4 inch and after pulling measurments on diff brands tires there is as much as a 3/4 inch in height diff from brand to brand.this set up works great for me and all the feed back from people that have seen it and drove in it agree. this might be a every day driver car but make no mistake i put it throught the paces. its truned 6500 rpms and seen well over 180 mph and still get 31mpg driving it at 75 on the interstate.

I have 100,875 miles on my 2001 C-5 - - - the Goodyears lasted about 35,000 miles - - - I then bought Yokohama AVS run flats from Tire Rack - - - I thought they were great tires - - - I had to buy a new set last week and could not afford the price of Yokos, so went with Kumho Ecsta MX XRP run flats from Tire Rack for a little over $850.00 including road hazard and freight to Houston - - Had Corvettes of Houston mount them - - I've only driven about 200 miles since putting them on and so far the ride, quietness are great !!! My car is a daily driver; no competitive or spirited driving. Living in Houston, there's no way I would not have run flats if for nothing else but the peace of mind of not being stranded somewhere and putting up with all the idiots on the road down here.
As I put more miles on them, I'll fill you in!
Thanks,
EEL
Houston, Texas

Wow, that is some tread wear -- and me with my 345x1x BFG drag radials on the rear of my vette. I got 4600 miles to the most recent sent and felt lucky - the first set lasted only 3700 miles.