Owner reviews for tires

Everybody has their favorites based on dynamic values i.e., cost, grab & release, noise, and/or life of tire. I just completed a modified Cannonball Run with my daughter on her Spring Break from college. Near the end of our 2,300 mile run we arrived one night in Niagara Falls with 34 degrees and slick rain. When we left the following day we cruised south to NYC via Wyoming County NY which was 78 degrees and sunny. We made it to NYC a day later in pouring rain. My Nokian enTyers were superb! Quiet, all weather dominance, and (Subjectively) a slow wear rate. The OEM Continentals had a firmer sidewall and turned in great fuel mileage but the Nokians earned my loyalty with how quiet they are.

Replaced the OEM Hankooks with Michelin Premier A/S; much improved wet and dry traction and far less road noise. The Hankooks were crap.

I've had P7's on my about to depart 2013 SEL for about 8 months. Really happy with them dry and wet. Amazing improvement over the crappy OEM Hankooks.

I have had two sets of Michelin Premier A/S on my Passats and I swear by them. They wear extremely well and perform excellent on wet and snow/ice. On both sets, I've gotten well past the tread wear rating.

Ran the V12s on my 370z and they were fine, with longer tread life than PSS (on that car anyways). Hankook is a solid brand, and unless you track your car, etc. just save the money for something else.

Change the stock tires. Trust me. Noise difference is night and day. I have no idea what Subaru was thinking with those particular Yokos. I mean, just read the reviews:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Yokohama&tireModel=AVID+S34D

I changed mine to some new high quality Pirelli's not even 1k miles after I got the car and holy cow what a difference in traction/stopping-power and noise. Had to do so out of my own pocket since the dealer didn't get convinced by my explanation of the poor tire choice Subaru made. Anyhow it was worth it, I feel a lot safer on the road now and every bump is smoothed out very pleasantly.

Find the Goodyear trailer at the track. After the race sometimes the tire guys will sell you one over the fence. Got one a few years ago for $5 at Milwaukee.

If you just want a used racing tire, (maybe Goodyear, maybe not), check out your local short track. The one's I've been to usually have piles of them laying around.

I had Michelin X-Ice 2 on mine (and didn't like them - not enough actual snow traction, ice traction was good of course, so was dry/wet performance and noise/comfort). The TDI engine was easily able to overpower the front wheels while starting...

I had Nexen N3000's on the S2000 when I purchased it. While I know they aren't N5000's, they seemed to have an odd reputation on message boards. The 3000's were deemed fairly acceptable for the first half of their tread life, but then horrid at the second half. They went from having a bit of grip to driving on frozen hockey pucks. Mine were already fairly worn on the S2000, and they were SCARY. They were promptly replaced with appropriate rubber for the car.