New to the forums. I have an '09 Sport since January which I love. Drunk neighbor backed in to it and killed a tire. I'm at around 30k miles on it and would like to only only buy a pair of tires. If I do this, I'm told I am stuck with the original 185/55R16 tires. I have only been able to find two options for it so far. One was the Bridgestone Potenza "Grid" G19s. But the sales rep said they are crap and would make me sign a waiver if I bought them (Costco). The other is the Dunlop SP7000 all season. I didn't see a lot on them. Every tire place I called said this is a weird size.
So, does anybody have any advice? Choke the $450 and buy a whole new set and move up to 195s or just buy a pair of 185s?
Are there other 185s that are better?
One other option. Get one 185 and wait for the other three tires to wear out and then move up on all four. I'm guessing this is not my best option though.
The tires are factory original. What kind of tread-life is typical? The car is driven pretty conservatively.
I am simply looking for your typical all season tire with decent tread life.

 

I replaced the stock Turanza EL470 with the Potenza G019 Grid. I really liked the Grids compared to the OEM Bridgestones. They definitely had more grip and steering response than the OEMs.

 

Wtf is going on here?

Go back to the Costco and get the Grids and talk to the same sales rep and talk him down on the price since they're so dangerous you're going to take them off his hands!

Sign the waiver, take a scan and post it here, I wanna see.

 

What is the tread depth on the remaining 3? That'd be your measure of how fast they wear, and what you are trying to frugally "use up" before changing all 4.

I'd buy at least a pair over a single tire. Put them up front.

At least the way I drive on the Fit, the fronts wear out twice as fast as the rear. So then you don't necessarily need to rotate the tires (If you aren't a 1 directional cornering demon)

When they're worn out just swap out all 4.

 

Car won't be out of the shop til tomorrow, so I won't know tread life remaining until then. But I thought new tires went on the rear because braking you don't want the front to grip more than the rear (or something like that)...

 

You're trying to save money by only switching 2 tires and saving 2 of the old tires. The front wheels are doing the majority of the work in our car, you as well put the good tires there so they get used.

You are not at risk in regular driving of the rear suddenly getting loose and kicking out. If so, you're rear tires were way too bald, not just a little bald. You're not in such a precision driving situation that you're changing brake balance and affecting your lap times.

But it's your car do what you wish. If you feel doubtful just change all 4 tires for piece of mind. You can ask the guy at the shop for their advice looking at your actual tires.

 

Opposite of what you are thinking.

When Braking hard, you may need to swerve and the front is EXACTLY where you want your traction. Also, when you mash on the brakes, the car does a nose dive and all of the weight is shifted forward so the front wheels do the majority of braking. (that's why there are only drums on the rear and almost all rear disc brakes are smaller than the fronts). you also want the additional grip during acceleration and cornering.

~SB

 

Yes and no on tire placement. If there's a marked diff in tread wear the best go on the rear to prevent losing rear traction in emergency/cornering situations. I've run into this in tire shops when replacing tires on my Sedan Deville. In rear wheel cars best always went on the rear.

Slight diff or one tire tread wear and front mount best tread is okay.

 

I've never understood the "good tires in the back" thing?

FF back gets loose = press the gas?

I guess because the average person is going to panic and slam on the brakes? I don't get it.

 

I just went to "Skid School" on Monday as part of my Job training where we threw different vehicles into a few different situations where emergency maneuverability was key and the points they discussed was two fundamental things. In an emergency maneuver, Get on the brakes HARD first, (enables antilock braking and moves the weight of the car onto the front wheels) and then steer second. Then they put us through it. I was able to move the vehicle from one lane, into the next, and back into my lane (avoiding an object such as a deer) and come to a complete stop without hitting anything, from 60MPH Without being hard on the brakes, the car was MUCH more "squirrely" and harder to control. The results were similar on a newer Volvo S40, an Early '00s Ford Taurus, and a Chevy Impala in regards to handling/loss of control with the Volvo obviously handling the best and stopping in the shortest distance. I would not have expected a large sedan like the impala to be able to be stopped like a much smaller Volvo but it did. Grip is most important on the front of the vehicle in emergency maneuvers as you WANT to be able to steer out of the way. While great traction in the rear might make you think you can stop well in a straight line, it won't be able to handle stopping in corners and due to the sheer amount of weight transferred to the front's, unless you have super-bald tires (like others have said), it won't aide you in stopping much at all.

And remember, these are emergency maneuvers and not track conditions and often times, what is best on the track, isn't what's best in emergencies.

~SB

 

Good to know on the braking. I had got a pair of new tires on our other car and the tire place put them on the back citing basically what I said. I'm not that knowledgeable (which is why I posted my questions in the first place).

So does anybody have any experience with anything other than the Bridgestone Potenzas in a 185? It looks like the only other choices are the Turanzas and a cheap Hankook.
Am I correct that of the three sizes (185, 195 and 205) that 205s have the greatest selection? If I went for the 205s on all fours, what would be your suggestions for a good general purpose tire at a great price?

 

Just to weigh in on the new tires on the front vs back debate, this is what Tirerack suggests Tire Tech Information - Where to Install New Pairs of Tires?

I believe the thinking is the driver is more likely to feel a loss of traction in the front wheels than the rear wheels, and can compensate before losing control if the worn tires are in the front. Of course, this would seem to mean that you would, sooner rather than later, need to replace the other set of tires, so there may be an ulterior motive.

Let's assume, for example, that you're going to perform a cornering maneuver that will exceed the traction limits of the worn set of tires but not the good set. If the good set is in the front and the worn in the rear, you will lose traction in the rear and spin out (this is exacerbated by the weight shift to the front).

On the other hand, if the tires are switched, then you don't spin out, but you may not make the turn and/or stop in time, BUT you might have felt the loss of traction in the steering wheel and gone slower than you might have... either way, I think normal people tend to handle understeer better than oversteer.

Really, the best solution is to have equal traction at all 4 corners, and this would by my own preference -- replace all 4 and pick a more common size.

 

Checked with a tire place today. The current tires are Turanzas (original set I assume, so about 30k miles on them). The tire guys said they appear to have quite a bit of tread life left, so it would appear that I need to just buy a pair of 185s and not go up size. Of course the guy just glanced at the tire and didn't actually measure anything.
Does 40k sound reasonable on the original Turanzas?
Of the 185 tires, I basically seem to have the choice of the Dunlops or the Potenza Grids. Which would you choose?

 

It's never good to mix and match tires. If you have Bridgestone Turanza's on the car and will be keeping two of them and buying two new tires, they need to be Turanza's.

If the two tires you have on the car are still good, but have 40,000 miles on them, go ahead and replace them all, and my recommendation would be for Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires.

They have a 540 treadwear (will last about 50k miles) and are one of the top ranked all season tires out there.

Fantastic tire that only cost a little over $100 each in 16's.

BTW, hope your drunk neighbor is paying for this.

 

If the 'tire guys' are simply saying 'it looks like' and not measuring tread depth all around I would say find a new tire shop - seriously, do you feel like you're interests are being served by this???

Follow through this recent thread and go Conti DWS is my suggestion - https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...t-do-next.html

 

Except that Turanzas appear to be on a national backorder (why the bodyshop didn't replace the tire and instead opted to kick a few $$ back to me to do it myself).

They have 30k, not 40k. I don't know if that changes your point.

Will check out pricing here. I've read other positive comments about these.

Yes. Aside from being a drunk, he was enough of a stand-up guy to admit he trashed our car ($3k damage) plus three others trying to park.

 

Well, I picked the car up from the shop at 4:45 and I managed to catch the tire shop guy literally as he was walking out the door at 5:02 so I don't really hold it against him. That said I won't necessarily go to that shop (it was closest to where I picked up my car).

Read over it and it sounds like basically my situation. Thanks for the link! The Conti's definitely sound nice, but by the time I get them from Tire Rack.com and have them installed I'm looking at $540 minimum (more like $600 with shop fee and tax) according to tire-rack. Is $150 a reasonable "out-the-door" price for installing a set of tires?

 

I just did a quick search around Louisville and it looks like Bridgestone reigns supreme. Tire Rack will most likely give you the best tire price. I would take them to WallyWorld and have them mount them. $15/ carry in tire mounted and life time balance.

 

Good call on Wal-mart. I called them and they said it would be around $30 or so for all four wheels (sure beats $65 from Tires Plus/Michel Tire). Went ahead and bought the ContiExtreme DWS in a 205/50/16. Should work out to just a bit over $500 or so total ($476 shipped plus mounting at Walmart).

I plan to keep one of the Turanza 185s for a spare and pick up a rim to use with it. Any ideas on that? I'm about to call salvage yards, but I'd settle for a cheap steelie rather than the luxury of an aluminum rim.

 

Excellent decision on the DWS's. I'm thinking about buying a set for my new '12 Fit Sport and going ahead and selling the Dunlops currently on the car (that only have about 265 miles on them).

BTW, doesn't your Fit have a spare rim with a tire already mounted? My car came with one.