New Tires
 

I'd like to buy a set of all-season tires for my wife's 2009 Pontiac Vibe. I've been checking out Discount tires, 4wheelonline and Tire Rack but their wide selection left me confused. Any recommendations?

Are you just saying you don't know which tires are good vs. not good? Or are you saying you don't know what size to pick? Although I keep an open mind to all brands, I tend to gravitate to Michelin tires, as they usually produce the best tires on the market. I use the Michelin Premier A/S on my Subaru Impreza wagon, which is a very similar car to your wife's Vibe. They are great tires for everyday all season runabout use.

I think Cooper tires are the only brand still made in the USA

I agree Michelin tires are one of the best. Expensive but very good.

I have had a lot of luck with Nitto’s lately. I put a set of Falkens on my wife’s charger and they just didn’t seem to last.

I would read the comments section on tire rack- it really helped me when I was looking for aggressive off road tires that weren’t loud. I ended up with the new Nitto off-road tire. 50k miles later they still ride great and have a lot of tread left.

I have had good luck with NTB matching tire rack prices but it depends on the manager

I'd rather prioritize tire quality over country of manufacture. Cooper tires are a lower tier product compared to the big players like Michelin, Continental, Bridgestone, etc.

We used to buy Michelin but seemed they lost the benefit of their higher cost about 10 or 15 years ago.

We have had good luck with General since then.

We put Altimax RT on our Outback a year ago and they have been good so far.

The original tires got annoyingly noisy after a couple years and these Generals are much quieter. Jury is out on life but I had a set of Generals on a Jetta that went 40K and still had life left with no issues when I sold the car.

Don't know where you got that idea about Michelin tires losing their edge. As a road course track instructor, I can tell you that it's absolutely not true. Michelin is consistently at the very top of the heap when it comes to tire technology and performance, which is why they are standard equipment on new Porsche GT cars, C8 Corvette, and on and on. You will not find a single person in the automotive sphere who frequently tests tire performance that says differently about Michelin. They are known as the industry gold standard, and are worth the extra cost.

General and Altimax are budget brands. Cooper is ancient history. They're fine for most people (and certainly fine for an '09 Vibe), but if you're going for the best product, it's not going to be offered by any of those brands.

In any regard, it's pretty easy get a better sense of how tires stack up by doing research online. Tire Rack does tire comparison videos, which can be helpful. There are also channels on YouTube devoted to objective tire testing, such as https://www.youtube.com/user/TyreReviews.

My personal experience with Michelin has been marginal. I put a set on my '92 Bonneville SSEI and didn't feel they were any better performing than the tires I replaced and got worse tread mileage (despite having the tires rotated for free religiously). When I bought my Cadillac ATS4, it had Michelins on it from the factory. Got 24,000 miles out of those and wasn't happy with the ride. Replaced those with a set of Bridgestones, got about 36,000 miles out of those but they rode worse than the Michelins.

I went with Continental this time. Much better ride and the tread life warranty is 70,000 miles.

As to tires being made in the US, Cooper is NOT the only brand made in the US. And not all Cooper tires are made in the US.

Cooper, Goodyear, Michelin, Pirelli, Continental, Bridgestone, and Yokohama all make tires in the USA. Michelin produces the most tires in the US.

I've had all the brands listed above with the exception of Cooper and Yokohama. I agree with "Ham" above on Cooper tires.

FWIW, I've had defective brand new Michelin tires, on a light truck application, they're not perfect by a long shot.

I've had better luck with Continental tires, but that's just my experience. I currently have Continental tires on my wife's 2008 Vibe, so far they're the best in 300,000 miles on her car.

We had Pirelli, Coopers, Hankook, Firestone, etc. etc. on her car, the Continentals are performing the best so far.

I now have Continental tires on all my daily drivers, 1999 GP, 2005 GTO, and 2008 Vibe.

Bringing up tire brands in threads is just about as effective as asking what brand of oil is the best......:D.........:focus:

Agree with you there! ;)

I have switched to Generals on my past few purchases...... been very happy so far

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...1&d=1592453402

I apologize if I wasn't clear, but my statement was simply that we stopped thinking they were worth the extra cost for all-season tires on our family cars, not that Michelin was a bad brand.

I worked with an elastomer formulation chemist a long time ago that convinced me Michelin had a superior product line and we bought nothing else for years. Then we had a bad experience with a set of Michelins and we subsequently had better luck with lower-priced Bridgestones and Continentals.

Given we have a budget car, budget brands are fine for us and we have had good experience with Generals. They cost less than the Continentals that Subaru originally put on our car (which were good tires for us) and to us they ride and handle as well with the bonus of being quieter.

Given our Outback is not a Corvette nor a Porsche, we don't need the "best" performance. I believe you that Michelin is originally on those cars for good reason.

We do tend to look at online hype and ratings before we shop. Here is an example stating Consumer Reports ranked the Altimax higher than the Michelin "equivalent" all-season tire:

https://www.motorbiscuit.com/the-bes...sumer-reports/

Michelin’s are still made in America. Have a plant in Anderson County

Some Michelins are made in America, but Michelin is a French company and produces tires in France, Serbia, Poland, Spain, Germany, the US, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Thailand, Japan, India, Italy and several other countries.

BTW - it was established that Michelin (and several other tire manufacturers) produced tires in the US in post #8 back on the 17th.

generals are great tires & usually in the top 5 on customer reviews & they are almost always cheaper price than the bigger name. they are made by continental. tire rack has a good chart showing ratings in numerous categories. & shop around for prices.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/surve...y.jsp?type=HAS