Junk the OEM Firestones and go Michelin !
 

Up until this week, I had been highly unhappy with the Firestone Firehawk GTA tires that came as standard equipment on my 2LT with 17" wheels...

Terrible hydroplaning, even at slower speeds, and only 15k miles on the treads. Pure crap and plain dangerous.

I dropped the dime, or more like $700 at Costco this week on Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S tires. Today, I drove during a severe thunderstorm with heavy down pours and lots of water on the roads. Perfect conditions to test the new tires.

These new Michelins are awesome. I highly recommend them to any HHR owner. I have regained confidence in driving this car again. I have 65k miles on some Michelins on my pickup and they've been great, also.

Oh, and if anyone in Northern VA wants to buy some cheap used Firestones, and 2 Goodyear tires, same size, make me an offer. I have 5 tires total for sale. :nuts:

I was in the same storm today and my Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S tires were flawless! I too HIGHLY recommend them for the HHR!!!!!! They are also excellent in the snow.

I bought mine from Tire Rack.

Peace,

Man I can't believe the Firestone affinity on the LS's and 1LT's is a better tire than what they put on the 2LT's, but it sure sounds like it. I love the Affinity's on mine. They did okay this past winter in the snow and they do well in rain. I hate to hear about the 17" Firestones having to be changed out. Chevy should put a better tire on the 17" wheels.

When I upgraded to the OEM chrome rims they came with the Firehawks...the Affinitys on my 16" rims were a much smoother tire(which is hard to say!)

These Firehawks have MAYBE 3000 miles on them and they spin like crazy when taking a left if I need to give it just a little bit of gas...on dry ground! 2.2 Ecotec must be a monster to do that lol...Noticed they are very slippy on wet roads as well


Exalto is a great tire..had them on my Matrix and they were smooth and quiet..maybe next summer I'll go to them




Goose

I too dumped the Firehawks the same day I bought my HHR. Traded them in at Discount Tire for a set of Goodyear Assurance Triple Treads. Wow are these a great tire. Not cheap by a long shot but are supposed to be good for 80K so if I get 50K out of them I'll be happy. And they go good in the rain and from what I have read from other peoples reviews excellent in the snow which I wanted.

Thats what I put on after the stockers expired @ 30k miles. 10k miles later on the Goodyears (including some pretty nasty hail and rain here on the coast) and they still look brandnew and work great!

Last Oct I installed Goodyear Triple Tread... RAIN, ROAD and ICE treads... for our truck. can t rember the model right now.

they are not performance tires... but they did everything they said they would.

this fall I plan on putting them on our HHR. I use Blizak winter/ice tires before but it is a drag changing tires twice a year.

did the hydroplaning have anything to do with the larger diam wheels? It would seem the tires with the lower profiles are made more for performance... and not so much all weather tires... so is it the mfg or the tire performance rating.

would have quoted you on the my previous post... as far as snow and ice... washington state had it s whitest winter in decades... never had to chain the truck once... no slips or slids... and you know we get rain... great... and they are quiet.:thumb:

My 06 still has the stock Firestones on the rear. They will be going away as soon as my car is back from the body shop. Going around an off ramp that was wet, the Firestones broke free with no warning at all and spun the car. I Slid off the road to the inside of the curve doing $4500 worth of damage to my HHR.

I was already thinking about replacing the Firestones because I was not happy with their performance.......Guess I waited too long.

:red:

They are not a "performance tire" but compared to the Firehawks that are stock they might as well be "performance tire" Stuff that I know would have ended badly with the Firehawks has just been taken in stride by the Triple Treads. As long as they wear good and get anywhere near the mileage they should i'll be completely happy with them.