Tires Pirelli or SUMITOMO

I just got 4 Sumitomo HTR Z III's and they were super cheap, 300 treadwear rating, pretty sweet tread pattern, and reinforced sidewall, all for $107 a piece from TireRack, pretty reasonable. There's almost no road noise and they grip pretty well, I just hope they last!

After seeing the performance of Pirelli in WRC, and some of the direct massive pothole shots my OE Pirellis have taken, I'm impressed with them

My experience is that they balance just fine but yes, they do have a thin (2 ply nylon?) sidewall, which is why I inflate them to 51 PSI as per manufacturer's spec and they do great! This is a diesel Jetta so the fastest I've driven them at a constant speed was about 80mph from central Connecticut to midcoast Maine. I also drove the Jetta from Maine to Seattle 2 summers ago with over a thousand pounds of "stuff" in and on the car. They behaved just fine and did excellent in the horrible rainstorms I encountered in Illinois.

Had them on the Jetta for 2 years now. Great summer tire for general use. Don't expect it to handle sporty or go anywhere in the snow. But they do have a very low rolling resistance and will reward you with better mileage.

I've been happy with my Pirell P-Zero Nero M+S... Good in cold, wet, slush, muck and even a few inches of snow... very good in the dry too.

My original Pirelli's were loud after 10K miles. I couldn't wait to get rid of them. The Yoko's are very quiet with exceptional handling characteristics.

I love my PZero Nero M&Ss. They're VERY confident in the wet.

Car feel slippery, sway little left to right constantly when on freeway (I noticed it only does that when at high speed--freeway speed--especially when vehicle is running on those comb-lines cement paved.

those sumitomos are a good deal but i put those on my wifes passat wagon in april and all them ****s is hopping now. its like they are 'almost' shifted belts.

The Factory 18" tire is the Pirelli P6, not rated so well either but not anything as bad as those Goodyears.