Best tires for your Regal

[fng]

RTF mentioned that his relatives live in Pittsburg, which has some steep hills, so I can understand the desire for snow tires for winter use.

 

[LLninja]

And if you believe in global warming, I think that also means harsher winters. AMD if you don’t, we’ll there’s still regular winters.

 

[ready2fly]

And if you believe in global warming, I think that also means harsher winters. AMD if you don’t, we’ll there’s still regular winters.

You could try Yokohama Avid Ascend GT on your TourX and post results here. I was considering it myself, I have a set of Yokohama Avid Ascend LX on our other car - 2009 Toyota Avalon, they have excellent handling, but mileage dropped around 2 MPG. My new set of ProContact TX without ContiSilent has been great for 25k miles so far. I would still prefer to upgrade to something with better cornering, but straight line performance of new ProContact TX is excellent.

 

[ready2fly]

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 service. 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.

I returned a brand new set to Costco in the past and I returned 2 new sets to DiscountTiresDirect. I feel very sad doing it since I am adding to pollution, but if I don't I will be stuck with a terrible daily ride for two years and I use my car for a long commute.
I tried different tires on my previous car and I have to say rims make a huge difference as well. Wider rims, lighter rims, narrow rims are all different even when used with the same tires. I would say it is best to try different tires using stock rims for the best results.

My top picks to try would be: Michelin Primacy Tour. Conti PureContact LS and Pirelli Cinturato P7 II

 

[LLninja]

You could try Yokohama Avid Ascend GT on your TourX and post results here. I was considering it myself, I have a set of Yokohama Avid Ascend LX on our other car - 2009 Toyota Avalon, they have excellent handling, but mileage dropped around 2 MPG. My new set of ProContact TX without ContiSilent has been great for 25k miles so far. I would still prefer to upgrade to something with better cornering, but straight line performance of new ProContact TX is excellent.

Like I said in another post, I do have the flexibility to move the avid ascends on Cadillac CTS wheels to my Buick to test them out before I buy a set. But I predict I’ll have a tough time to tell any difference in the ride since moving the tires and properly torquing the nuts will take awhile, so before and after comparisons will have a sizeable gap between runs. I wish I had more floor jacks or a lift… maybe in a few years when I build my dream garage then start filling it with rare 80s/90s muscle cars.

 

[ready2fly]

Like I said in another post, I do have the flexibility to move the avid ascends on Cadillac CTS wheels to my Buick to test them out before I buy a set. But I predict I’ll have a tough time to tell any difference in the ride since moving the tires and properly torquing the nuts will take awhile, so before and after comparisons will have a sizeable gap between runs. I wish I had more floor jacks or a lift… maybe in a few years when I build my dream garage then start filling it with rare 80s/90s muscle cars.

Well, why don't you pull both cars to the shop and let them reinstall your Cadillac wheels on the Regal just to test it out? They will also put them back on both cars. Small local shop will probably do it for like $100. I would've already done it if I were you.

 

[LLninja]

Well, why don't you pull both cars to the shop and let them reinstall your Cadillac wheels on the Regal just to test it out? They will also put them back on both cars. Small local shop will probably do it for like $100. I would've already done it if I were you.

I don’t let other people torque my nuts because they typically overtorque them and end up bending my rotors. Between every 3 or 4 times I’ve had my car into any shop where they touched the wheels, the rotors warp and start to throb. Ever since I’ve banished these places from touching my wheels, I’ve never warped a rotor.

‘Once, the dealership stripped the threads causing me to pay for a new bolt.

So when I do tire changes, I bought a wheel and tire package from TireRack and installed them myself. Since then, I’ve added snow tires to the OEM rims and then use the snow tires as temporary tires while I remove the exising tires and haul them to the tire shop. Luckily my volt. CTS, and TourX all share the same bolt pattern. The Suburban on the other hand has 8 lugs.

 

[bollox74]

Bump - finally managed to curb one of the OEM Conti's to death on my way to the store yesterday. With just a hair under 15k miles on them and they were wearing great. (with probably 5k on the winter set I sold in MN) I've recently relocated south to Savannah Ga & I'm going to start with fresh rubber - Michelin Primacy Tour H rated on order at the local dealer - so I'll update once they are installed.

 

[D2R]

Bump - finally managed to curb one of the OEM Conti's to death on my way to the store yesterday. With just a hair under 15k miles on them and they were wearing great. (with probably 5k on the winter set I sold in MN) I've recently relocated south to Savannah Ga & I'm going to start with fresh rubber - Michelin Primacy Tour H rated on order at the local dealer - so I'll update once they are installed.

When I was in Warner Robins I see people running in Summer all year long and they were curious why I was using 3 season tires. 🤔

 

[LLninja]

When I was in Warner Robins I see people running in Summer all year long and they were curious why I was using 3 season tires. 🤔

I used to do government contracting work with the Air Force where my program was moving from Wright Patt to Warner Robins. I had a business trip there once, but left the company shortly afterwards for greener pastures. But, my daughter now lives in Decatur GA so I’m often in the area. Alas, she drives an AWD Crosstrek where the AWD is hardly ever needed in Atlanta. it was definitely needed when she lived in Boston.

 

[ready2fly]

Bump - finally managed to curb one of the OEM Conti's to death on my way to the store yesterday. With just a hair under 15k miles on them and they were wearing great. (with probably 5k on the winter set I sold in MN) I've recently relocated south to Savannah Ga & I'm going to start with fresh rubber - Michelin Primacy Tour H rated on order at the local dealer - so I'll update once they are installed.

I don't really get it how you got them to wear at 15k, mine lasted until 30k and they would go for another 5k, but they started to fall apart. But please update on Michelin Primacy Tour.

 

[abizzle]

I don’t even need to know how they will perform on the car to give you the correct answer. The top 3 are: Michelin, Michelin, and Michelin... in that order. I installed tires for 3 years at a Sam’s club. In that entire 3 years I never received a single defective Michelin tire.

I don’t care if you have a Prius or Dodge Crew Cab Diesel, Michelin is the quietest tire. If you want to know if they’re worth the premium price, the answer is yes.

 

[Abbott Martin]

I have had nothing but good experiences with the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S series on other cars.

 

[bloomer]

I can verify Michelin Pilot Sport 4s. Even in mn winter they were better than expected. Had Michelin TRX’s on a mustang turbo in 79. Great tire but not so great engine.

 

[abizzle]

Just curious about how many miles y’all are getting on the OEM tires? I bought my Sportback with 40K miles and it came with brand new tires. I’m sure after 40K miles the OEM tire didn’t have enough tread left to justify not changing them. I would expect any potential buyer to have the dealer install new tires before buying.

I’m assuming Carmax is who replaced the tires and they went with the least expensive tire they could find. I can’t remember the brand off hand, but they sell for $105 each. I have a friend who runs a tire shop and he told me they were decent tires and they performed better than you would expect at that pricing point. But can I just tell you... they’re loud AF!

I just checked. They are iMOVE Gen 2 All Season. They are Z rated though.

 

[LLninja]

Just curious about how many miles y’all are getting on the OEM tires? I bought my Sportback with 40K miles and it came with brand new tires. I’m sure after 40K miles the OEM tire didn’t have enough tread left to justify not changing them. I would expect any potential buyer to have the dealer install new tires before buying.

I’m assuming Carmax is who replaced the tires and they went with the least expensive tire they could find. I can’t remember the brand off hand, but they sell for $105 each. I have a friend who runs a tire shop and he told me they were decent tires and they performed better than you would expect at that pricing point. But can I just tell you... they’re loud AF!

I just checked. They are iMOVE Gen 2 All Season. They are Z rated though.

Wow. Never heard of that brand. I have always been partial to Yokohama as all 3 of my other cars and my daughters’s Crosstrek have them. Incredible tire life.

 

[abizzle]

Wow. Never heard of that brand. I have always been partial to Yokohama as all 3 of my other cars and my daughters’s Crosstrek have them. Incredible tire life.

It’s been a long time since I was installing tires, but the best tread wear came from Pirelli and Cooper.

 

[LLninja]

It’s been a long time since I was installing tires, but the best tread wear came from Pirelli and Cooper.

I’d hate to say you are wrong, but you are wrong. Just go to the tire rack, look for every tire available for the TourX, then filter by Pirelli, Cooper, and Yokohama and you will find the highest UTOG rating for Pirellis is in the 700. The highest for Cooper is in the 640s, and the highest for Yokohama is 740. That is a tire wear rating where the higher is longer lasting and the lower is stickier, but wears quickly. It’s the only measure we have on these websites to measure these differences of other than the customer surveys. I used to ride on Bridgestones because that was what was on my first car, then there was that Bridgestone/Firestone blowout scandal which caused me to do my homework rather than blindly stick to a brand. Since then I’ve been riding on Yokohama Avid Ascends on all of my cars as I can get 60-70k miles on them (usually I change them at 40-50k far in advance of when the wear bars appear as trying to eek out that last $100 worth of wear isn’t worth it to me compared to the safety of me and my family. When I drove over 20k miles per year than meant paying $600 every 2 years or so, but now that I don’t have a daily commute, it will definitely be longer between tire changes.

 

[abizzle]

I’d hate to say you are wrong, but you are wrong. Just go to the tire rack, look for every tire available for the TourX, then filter by Pirelli, Cooper, and Yokohama and you will find the highest UTOG rating for Pirellis is in the 600s. The highest for Cooper is in the 600s, and the highest for Yokohama is 740. That is a tire wear rating where the higher is longer lasting and the lower is stickier, but wears quickly. It’s the only measure we have on these websites to measure these differences of other than the customer surveys. I used to ride on Bridgestones because that was what was on my first car, then there was that Bridgestone/Firestone blowout scandal which caused me to do my homework rather than blindly stick to a brand. Since then I’ve been riding on Yokohama Avid Ascends on all of my cars as I can get 60-70k miles on them (usually I change them at 40-50k far in advance of when the wear bars appear as trying to eek out that last $100 worth of wear isn’t worth it to me compared to the safety of me and my family. When I drove over 20k miles per year than meant paying $600 every 2 years or so, but now that I don’t have a daily commute, it will definitely be longer between tire changes.

In all fairness, I did say it had been a long time since I installed tires and I spoke in past tense, meaning at the time I was installing. I don’t ever recall seeing a Yokohama tire come through the shop and Sam’s did the highest volume of tire installation in the city.

Now... I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong, and I may very well be, but you’re gonna have to provide facts that are less subjective than you’ve presented here. Using the UTOG rating as the sole basis for a determination doesn’t satisfy the burden of proof. It’s not an apples to apples comparison. UTOG ratings represent the standards for how each of the three components are measured. A tire with a higher rating isn’t guaranteed to last longer or wear more efficiently. If tread wear was the only component of the rating, then you could make the case that it will last longer.

It’s entirely possible that a tire could perform well for temperature and traction, and poorly for tread wear, and still achieve a higher overall rating. The manufacturers score their own tires and are not required to base those scores on their test results. They are not supposed to inflate the numbers and they are expected to provide documentation justifying their scores. Tread wear is not a representation of how long a tire will last or how many miles it will travel. There are several factors and they’re mostly related to driving conditions and operating environment instead of the actual tire. This causes significant variances between tires in the same series.

They had good intentions when they developed the UTOG rating system, but it never became an accurate representation of overall tire performance. At best, it’s a general indicator of overall tire quality. You could put the same tire on two matching vehicles and end up with two totally different outcomes. If one driver is aggressive and the other is a Sunday driver, or if one car is used in a harsh environment and the other has optimal conditions, you can expect one tire to last much longer than the other.

Having said all that, I could still be wrong.

 

[LLninja]

In all fairness, I did say it had been a long time since I installed tires and I spoke in past tense, meaning at the time I was installing. I don’t ever recall seeing a Yokohama tire come through the shop and Sam’s did the highest volume of tire installation in the city.

Now... I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong, and I may very well be, but you’re gonna have to provide facts that are less subjective than you’ve presented here. Using the UTOG rating as the sole basis for a determination doesn’t satisfy the burden of proof. It’s not an apples to apples comparison. UTOG ratings represent the standards for how each of the three components are measured. A tire with a higher rating isn’t guaranteed to last longer or wear more efficiently. If tread wear was the only component of the rating, then you could make the case that it will last longer.

It’s entirely possible that a tire could perform well for temperature and traction, and poorly for tread wear, and still achieve a higher overall rating. The manufacturers score their own tires and are not required to base those scores on their test results. They are not supposed to inflate the numbers and they are expected to provide documentation justifying their scores. Tread wear is not a representation of how long a tire will last or how many miles it will travel. There are several factors and they’re mostly related to driving conditions and operating environment instead of the actual tire. This causes significant variances between tires in the same series.

They had good intentions when they developed the UTOG rating system, but it never became an accurate representation of overall tire performance. At best, it’s a general indicator of overall tire quality. You could put the same tire on two matching vehicles and end up with two totally different outcomes. If one driver is aggressive and the other is a Sunday driver, or if one car is used in a harsh environment and the other has optimal conditions, you can expect one tire to last much longer than the other.

Having said all that, I could still be wrong.

Agreed, when I drove like Jeff Gordon in my Volt, I was definitely going through tires faster than when I was driving like a grandpa. And since I am driving the cars, I have complete control over the tire wear. But I have excperienced the tire wear driving the same way in a tire rated in the 500s and am extremely happy with how the tires I have since purchased in the 700s last quite a bit longer. That is why I am a Yokohama fan, but my personal testing has been limited to Yokohamas vs. Bridgestone vs. Goodyear vs. Nitto vs. Sumitomo. Once I experienced how long Yokes last, I have become a lifetime customer. I will be watching the wear on these Continentals as I’m at 31k miles and I believe these are the OEM tires. It will be interesting whether I will notice more road noise if I switch tp Yokes. Obviously new tires will likely automatically be more noisy than older ones with less tread. I just wish I had the ability to try before I buy as I’m not opposed to Continentals. I just hate the idea of buying something then having to wait 3-5 years or more to correct the mistake if I don’t like the new tires.

One quick experiment I could do is to put my CTS wheels with Yokes on my Buick and drive it around to see if I notice any big differences. The lug patterns are the same the wheel sizes aren’t the same, but I think the overall tire sizes are really close.