3amigos

Having decided to keep my car for the time being, but realizing the Firestone GTA's are not very good in the snow - I am wondering if and when you have replaced you tires (mine are 215/50R17) what did you replace them with...

I would prefer an all-season over summer and winter tires, but I would consider buying both and getting some steelies for the winter...

Any thoughts?

urbexHHR

I'm not a huge tire person...my dad does that, and I've never bought a set of tires in my life thankfully. My only opinion is getting summer tires and winter tires... I had them on my truck, and I loved them. Plus you get the best of both worlds...good summer tires and good handling winter tires. Plus let the steelies take the beating from the salt rather than the nice wheels!

Old Lar

I got Goodyear Assurance tire at 53,000 mile. I wanted a good wet weather tire as we get some occasional heavy showers. They are a very quiet running tire.

CarlsSS

You should definitely consider these General Altimax HP tires I put on my Riviera this winter. They are excellent all-season HP touring tires and they are a great value! See my review in this post...

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/general-hhr-4/new-general-altimax-hp-tires-27833/

twistrman

I put the Continental Extreme Contact DWSs (Dry Wet Snow Ultra performance all season) on in that size a month ago. So far I love them. great traction in dry, rain seems to be good, and already drove through snow and they were great. Just over 1k on them so far.

On my way home from Michigan the wind and turned the road literally into a sheet of ice. The entire road, all ice, i was still doing 40mph safely. Some of the reviews i read said you can do 80 in a downpour with ease.

There are tests on the tire rack website, they tested against other leading tires and these came out in the top (or at the top) of the list.

The route i took was to pricematch treadepot.com at discount tire. TD had an additional 25 coupon code that i applied to the cart when i printed it out, and if you sign up for discounts email list they will send you a $25 off in a few days. I was able to stack it all and was out the door for $500 (their retail price was almost 700)

If you want more info on them, send me a PM. I am beyond happy with my choice. Wear rating is supposed to be pretty good too.

zbear

Is there any body that makes 16" "white letter tires" for my panel. Trying to figure out what I want to change to make it different. Thanks, Bear

hyperv6

You may find one if you look but often they are poor quality, rare or hard to find. Note most lettered performance tires are the base models.

The white rubber used for letters and whitewalls is a non strength rubber that leads to retaining heat if the tire is run hard. It prevents them from being speed rated like many 16 inch or larger tires are.

This is why they are not seen much anymore. The is a small market for muscle cars and the like so they are mostly 14 and 15 inch.

You sometimes can find a speed rated larger size tire with some kind of color lettering but often they are a glued on letter or rubber based decal. They hold up very well.

Many of the lewtters on racing tires like in Indy car and Nascar are heated stick on transfers.

unique_w

You may also want to consider the Kuhmo Solus KH16.

All seasons may be slightly nosier, depending on tread design.

Always used a winter and summer set of tires and wheels as stated by others herein, no longer need to.

Here is a site where you can view and compare a number of major brand tires by manufacturer -

http://www.buywheelstoday.com/categories/?id=12

jay loukakis

any thing other than the Firestone, mine at 42000 miles the tread looked as new had a sidewall stress test the tread was about to come off as Ford had this problum years ago I will never use Firestones again, I had never heard of a sidewall stress test glad I had it done.

Smoke Wagon

My 06 came with Yokohamas and they lasted 50k miles, with only 1 rotation. I got a slow-leak in a rear(formerly front) after 10k miles of rotating them. wear bars were getting close, so I bought two for the rear and rotated them to the front.

They are Sumitomo's

quieter than the Yokos, and they do better in the wet(lots of rain here lately).
I'll match them when I replace the rears in a few months and rotate the new ones to the front.

67k miles on the two rears right now, so the Yoko's definitely last. of course, I do 90% freeway, so I suspect just about any tire would last a long time under those conditions.