SW17LS

So I need to order tires for the LS, they're down to 5/32nds and they have become scary in the rain. Any takeoff from a light breaks the rear loose, applying any throttle in a curve such as an on or offramp will cause the rear end to try and swing around. They also just feel unsettled in the wet. Before winter really rolls around it needs new tires.

The last few sets I've run have been Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus, thats whats on the car now (put them on it when it had 300 miles on it). They ride great and are very quiet which is what I primarily want, but rain and snow traction in the back half of their life isn't great.

Looking around on Tire Rack, they enthusiastically reccomend the Vredestein Quatrac Pro. Did extremely well in their latest testing with great ride and low noise, but they also have the 3 peak/snowlflake symbol for winter traction (which is really rare in a grand touring allseason tire) and they scored very well in wet traction:

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...andard%20Tires

Review:


My concerns are obviously that I wont get the soft quiet ride out of them I really want, no experience with Vredestein tires at all. They're also 102 load rating and Y rated in my size while the OEM is 98 V.

Anybody have any experience with these specifically or at least the brand?

patgilm

No experience here but wow, never heard of them but the reviews looks really promising. I’m a big fan of Continentals (Extremecontact DWS06) for my daily drivers and I just received a set from Tire Rack this week to put on before winter.

Given the reviews on the tires you are looking at it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try them out. The good thing about Tire Rack is most of the people that work there have tried the tires and can give you an honest assessment.

mmarshall

I've never had experience with that brand, but have plenty of experience with Continental Contipro-Contacts, which, I believe, will give you what you are looking for. They combine excellent ride/handling and good noise characteristics with a long tread life. I consider them as good as some Michelins.

I'm curious, though, on one thing. If you don't have the traction/stability system turned off, and the system is working properly, the rear tires shouldn't be breaking loose at all, even with worn tread, unless you are in really slippery conditions, and even then, the system should (instantly) power back the torque until they grip again..even of that grip is very minimal. It's not the equal of AWD, of course, or even FWD (which we have discussed in Car Chat many times), but it still shouldn't let the rear end have a mind of its own like that.

A far as where to buy tires, there are many good tire shops, but I have always liked NTB (formerly NTW). Their prices are good, they have many convenient locations, and, if they don't get the tire-mount or balance right the first time and you end up wth a shimmy, they will usually re-do it for you free, at another NTW shop, on another machine, until you are satisfied. I've seen cases where it took them 5 or 6 times..but they made good on it until they got it right. And tires, today, are built to more precise standards of runout than they were back then.

One last thing.....as a customer, whatever shop you are at, insist that the Technician mounting the tires uses a torque-wrench, to factory-specifications (usually 75-80 ft-lbs), rather than the typical compressed-air impact-wrench. Those air-wrenches are bad news...they tend to over-tighten the lug nuts, setting the stage for several possible different problems.

UDel

No experience but I am very interested in these tires and will likely try them as my next set, they got good reviews on the latest Consumer reports I was reading. The Quatrac 5 is priced very attractively at least for my GS, only $148 on Tire Rack.

SW17LS

Yeah they look almost too good to be true LOL

The traction control steps right in and corrects it, so you have maybe 1 sec of wheelspin and then the traction control kicks in and stops it. Same when the rear steps out, you'll feel it give for a second and then the VSC steps in and corrects for it. Still, what you want is for that not to happen all the time.

I always order from Tire Rack and have them installed the same place which does a great job, road force balance, never chip or scratch a wheel, never needs to go back for balance, etc. They use a torque wrench too.

Yeah, they look very good. I read the review from CR also.

SW17LS

I emailed TireRack to ask them their thoughts on ride and noise levels of these tires and the Bridgestone Turanza QuietTrack vs specifically the Pirellis I know so well. If these won't hurt the ride, I'm inclined to give them a shot. Will post the response here.

patgilm

I used to have Bridgestone Turanza Serenity tires on my two LS’ I owned and they were great quiet tires. I wonder if the QuietTrack is the new version of the Serenity.

SNiiP3R

iTrader: (3)

I can’t comment on that specific model, but I had vredestein ultrac sessanta high performance summer tires in the past.
I cannot say anything bad about them, they performed very well. Great traction, low noise, great thread wear.

SW17LS

Yeah, the QuietTrack is the successor to the Serenity

stasek

Not sure if you’ve ever shopped at simpletire.com, but they seem to have much better inventory and pricing than tire rack.

SW17LS

I’ll check them out

oldcajun

I had friends that raved about Vredestein winter tires but that was back when it was a Dutch company. It now belongs to an Indian tire company so I'm not sure about quality anymore.

SW17LS

They're still largely made in the Netherlands.

Och

iTrader: (3)

I try to stay with Michelin tires whenever I can. They just seem to be made to better specs than the rest, and it usually reflects in their price, but they always balance perfect and retain most of their performance through their lifetime.

SW17LS

Michelin hasn't made any grand touring tires that stand out in any way in some time. They don't make a great riding quiet tire, if you look at comparison tests on TireRack and elsewhere you'll see their products, even their brand new ones are pretty mediocre.

I used to exclusively buy Michelin tires, but they just don't stand out like they used to.