Best tires for your Regal

[LLninja]

One thing everyone has to remember, when you have worn down tires after 30k miles, any new tire is going to feel better than what you just had. It's really hard to remember what the car felt like 3 or so years ago when you had new tires. That said, I bought my TourX used, so I only have my current tire condition to compare with. It's a shame there isn't a place which has a test track and a bunch of different tires already mounted on rims where you can just try the tires out. I would pay extra for such a serivce. When you are about to spend $600-1000 for a set of tires and be stuck with your choice for the next 30-60k miles, an extra $200 for the ability to select the right choice for you seems like a bargain.

 

[2007LucerneCXL]

A tire rental well that's a interesting concept, I'll put that on the list right below the wife rental.

 

[LLninja]

A tire rental well that's a interesting concept, I'll put that on the list right below the wife rental.

There's always girlfriend rental, but that's illegal in most states except Las Vegas...

In all seriousness, it's not really tire rental, but immediate tire test drives where you put maybe 2-5 miles on each type of tire you want to try out. Basically the tire place would need to have a bunch of stock sizes of rims and tires and swap the tires out like a pit crew. But after you make your selection, the put new tires on your rims. It all seems very doable if the tire place was setup correctly.

For example, I go to a place named Walker Tire (family owned) as when you pull in, within 30 seconds they have the car up and 2 or more techs are already working on removing the tires off the car, they have 2 tire machines which remove/install the tires on the wheels in parallel, and one guy dedicated on the balance machine to get you in and out in less than 10 minutes. Compare that to the Tire Barn where you sit in the waiting room for hours while they assign 1 tech per vehicle and he/she easily spends 30-40 minutes on your car changing the tires in series.

 

[2007LucerneCXL]

Have you suggested this to Walker Tire and what was their response? Not really practical as a business model for a tire chain stores, but if you can get a shop to do it let the forum know or just check Rent A Wheel.

 

[LLninja]

Have you suggested this to Walker Tire and what was their response? Not really practical as a business model for a tire chain stores, but if you can get a shop to do it let the forum know or just check Rent A Wheel.

Walker doesn't really have a test track at their disposal, though I guess I could just drive around town (and risk a puncture). I don't see this as a viable option for most people who aren't willing to pay extra for this service, but certainly there are enough discerning car owners out there who see the value in this. Maybe instead of calling this Rent a Wheel, it could be Automotive Tire Concierge Service. I've lucked out that my Chevy Volt, Cadillac CTS and Buick TourX all share the same bolt pattern. On Independence Day Weekend I hope to move my CTS wheels and tires to the Buick to see for myself whether the ContiSilence vs. Yokohama Avid Ascends make any difference with respect to road noise. Alas, I'd be going from 18" wheels to 17" but it's all I've got in the driveway.

I also plan on getting new center caps to reuse my Volt OEM rims with Yokohama snow tires which I purchased after Snowageddons 1 and 2. The tires are a bit skinnier and will drop the car by 12mm, I confirmed with Tire Rack that the tires and wheels will indeed work. I'm not too worried about the drop in ride height as it would still be above what a Regal Sportback's height is. Even though I've barely put even 500 miles on these tires, I'd say they were the best purchase I've ever made. They've done a great job of warding off any future snowageddons in our area (just like after I bought my 3 point hitch PTO generator for my tractor, we haven't had any long multi-day power outages). Snow tires made my volt a beast in the snow. I can't wait for a big snow or ice storm to see how well AWD and snow tires work with the TourX. On the flip side, since I work remotely and don't commute any more, I really have no reason to leave home. My only saving grace might be that my youngest daughter is a Sophomore at th University of Wisconsin in Madison. So maybe Thanksgiving of Christmas holidays will give us a snowy adventure to try this out.

 

[PrincipalDan]

One could always check out the tire tests over at Tire Rack. At least you could get a comparative baseline among tires that you are interested in.

 

[LLninja]

One could always check out the tire tests over at Tire Rack. At least you could get a comparative baseline among tires that you are interested in.

That’s exactly how I chose Yoko Avid Ascends years ago

 

[RTF]

A little off topic, but I thought I’d ask here and see what the collective groups opinion is. I’m helping my brother and sister in-law put together a winter tire setup for their FWD sedan. I have tried to explain that they could probably get by with a good set of all weather tires, but they insist on full on winters. Normally my go to is Bridgestones WS/LM line as I’ve always been impressed in the past. My only reservation is the noise associated with them as well as the performance drops of pretty quick after 2 winters of use. This leads me to the Nokian Hakka R3s, and wondering if any of you have any experience with them? I have heard about these tires for years and I’m curious if they live up to all the hype.

The car is a white sedan with a black roof, so using smaller black OEM 16s, black tpms, with black Mcgard lugs to finish it off. Open to anyone’s opinions on the hakkas!

 

[mike69440]

A little off topic, but I thought I’d ask here and see what the collective groups opinion is. I’m helping my brother and sister in-law put together a winter tire setup for their FWD sedan. I have tried to explain that they could probably get by with a good set of all weather tires, but they insist on full on winters. Normally my go to is Bridgestones WS/LM line as I’ve always been impressed in the past. My only reservation is the noise associated with them as well as the performance drops of pretty quick after 2 winters of use. This leads me to the Nokian Hakka R3s, and wondering if any of you have any experience with them? I have heard about these tires for years and I’m curious if they live up to all the hype.

The car is a white sedan with a black roof, so using smaller black OEM 16s, black tpms, with black Mcgard lugs to finish it off. Open to anyone’s opinions on the hakkas!

Wear wise Nokian Hakka R3s > Bridgestones WS/LM but that sure is not saying much! Enjoy the first few winters, and at least the Nokian's you can get away with wearing them out in the summer once you don't want to use them in the winter. Bridgestones WS/LM are an absolute no-no in high temps IMHO.

As the family has a virtual fleet of different types vehicles, regrettably I get involved in a lot of tires.

 

[2007LucerneCXL]

Rent A Wheel is a real company, so if looking to try before you buy it's a option.

 

[RTF]

Wear wise Nokian Hakka R3s > Bridgestones WS/LM but that sure is not saying much! Enjoy the first few winters, and at least the Nokian's you can get away with wearing them out in the summer once you don't want to use them in the winter. Bridgestones WS/LM are an absolute no-no in high temps IMHO.

As the family has a virtual fleet of different types vehicles, regrettably I get involved in a lot of tires.

Thanks for the reply. You hit on a big selling point for me, the wear. The Blizzaks in warm temps are gone almost immediately. From what I’ve read on the Nokians is they wear incredibly well, one journalist even noted he drove them to Florida from the north and experienced minimal wear!

 

[DrFaustus]

Nokian Hakka R3s

I ran these on my '06 VW Jetta TDI. I loved them. They worked even better than my Blizzaks. Not by much though, and I'd certainly be happy with another set of Blizzaks. I'll be in the market for a set of wheels with snows for the TourX as soon as I sell the TDI.

 

[PrincipalDan]

I'd try to talk them into Michelin Crossclimate 2s although not truly a "snow tire" it's a hell of an All Weather tire.

One caution is that even Michelin is very clear about "rotate religiously every 5,000 miles" or imbalances will develop very quickly. So if someone is lazy about tire rotations its a bad tire for them.

 

[LLninja]

Thanks for the reply. You hit on a big selling point for me, the wear. The Blizzaks in warm temps are gone almost immediately. From what I’ve read on the Nokians is they wear incredibly well, one journalist even noted he drove them to Florida from the north and experienced minimal wear!

I ride on Yokohama Avid Ascends almost all year round because they last a very long time, much better than OEM in my experience so far with my CTS and Volt. Then I have a set of Yokohama snow and ice tires (forget their name) mounted on the OEM wheels using custom wheels for my most of the year look in the volt. With the extra set of rims, I just do the quick tire change with my trusty floor Jack and Dewalt cordless impact wrench. Takes about 15 min to do the swap if I’m not distracted with texts and phone calls.

 

[LLninja]

Rent A Wheel is a real company, so if looking to try before you buy it's a option.

I looked at their website and it appears to be one of these no money down, not rent for a short time deals. No thanks. I suspect if I do the math I’m probably paying double or triple what I should as they get you with the $30-40 per week which you think you can afford, but you really shouldn’t.

 

[2007LucerneCXL]

Didn't say it made any sense, then again neither would a NASCAR style tire change at a shop just to try out a set of tires to go around the block lol.

 

[Wlepse]

One thing everyone has to remember, when you have worn down tires after 30k miles, any new tire is going to feel better than what you just had. It's really hard to remember what the car felt like 3 or so years ago when you had new tires.

This is only partly true. A worn tire should actual be performing it's best in the dry which is what most of us drive in the majority of the time. The decreased tread block height reduces squirm so turn in should be slightly sharper than new and dry grip in turn should feel a little crisper. Even in the rain the worn tire should perform like new so long as the depth of the water doesn't exceed the tread depth. But if your roads are anything like what we have here there will be lots of standing water from poorly laid roadbeds.

But with that said I was never fond of the OEM tires cornering in the rain. Straightline they did great through standing water, but just wet the road a little and try to do one of the many off camber turns I drive and you can feel they are letting loose. But they were progressive so it was easy enough to real things back in.

Overall I am still happy with the BF Goodrich Comp 2 AS Plus.

 

[RTF]

I'd try to talk them into Michelin Crossclimate 2s although not truly a "snow tire" it's a hell of an All Weather tire.

One caution is that even Michelin is very clear about "rotate religiously every 5,000 miles" or imbalances will develop very quickly. So if someone is lazy about tire rotations its a bad tire for them.

Thanks Dan,

I showed them this exact tire, as I thought it would be a great tire for year round use, they are still set on a true winter tire. They have a few reasons for this and I understand where they’re coming from. They just moved to a new area for work and only have 1 vehicle, and while they’re both still WFH, they will have some obligations this winter that they will need to travel regardless of the weather.

They live in the Pittsburgh region, and while the area itself doesn’t get any insane amounts of snow, some winters do produce frequent storms. They also travel to see family through the Laurel Highlands, and this area in particular tends to get quite a bit of snow and travel can be much more difficult.

I just ceramic coated the wheels for them yesterday, so think they’re going to continue with the Hakkas and see how they work. I’m a little jealous as this is turning out to be quite a nice/quality winter tire setup for them. Thanks to everyone who replied, if anyone has anything more on the Hakkas, feel free to pass it along!

 

[LLninja]

This is only partly true. A worn tire should actual be performing it's best in the dry which is what most of us drive in the majority of the time. The decreased tread block height reduces squirm so turn in should be slightly sharper than new and dry grip in turn should feel a little crisper. Even in the rain the worn tire should perform like new so long as the depth of the water doesn't exceed the tread depth. But if your roads are anything like what we have here there will be lots of standing water from poorly laid roadbeds.

But with that said I was never fond of the OEM tires cornering in the rain. Straightline they did great through standing water, but just wet the road a little and try to do one of the many off camber turns I drive and you can feel they are letting loose. But they were progressive so it was easy enough to real things back in.

Overall I am still happy with the BF Goodrich Comp 2 AS Plus.

Agreed. Slicks definitely perform better on dry pavement, and I guess my statement was more for wet and snow traction as that is usually what I notice first, when the traction control light starts flickering.

 

[bloomer]

Agreed. Slicks definitely perform better on dry pavement, and I guess my statement was more for wet and snow traction as that is usually what I notice first, when the traction control light starts flickering.

Has anyone mentioned all weather tires? Personal experience with Toyota Celsius. One vehicle is fwd lives in Fargo, the other is awd lives in mn. Tires have performed as advertised. I found a consumer reports test at the time I was looking. (2019) Now that I have lived with them for a few years test was consistent with my experience. Might be worth looking into for some people.