Decided to go with Pirelli P7 for my LS430
10-21-16 | 05:47 AM
#601
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Joined: Sep 2016
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From: PA
Yeah, H rated is probably the better choice for the LS and what was recommended stock. I just hit 20K miles with my Premiers and they have been phenomenal, but I might just pick up a set of H rated P7AS+ just to compare, but keeping my Premiers. Then drive the P7AS+ 20K miles and swap back to my old Premiers. Then do the same at 40K miles and 60K miles, just to see how they compare. My Premiers are V rated, so it won't be a exact apples to apples comparison, but it shouldn't make that much difference.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....el=Ecsta+4X+II
10-21-16 | 06:56 AM
#602
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From: SC
I've always heard that V rated have stiffer sidewalls and are less compliant over bumps. If you want a better ride, get the H rated. If you want better handling and performance, get the V. Not sure if that is absolutely true, but I've heard it from multiple sources over many years.
10-21-16 | 07:20 AM
#603
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From: Illinois
I've always heard that V rated have stiffer sidewalls and are less compliant over bumps. If you want a better ride, get the H rated. If you want better handling and performance, get the V. Not sure if that is absolutely true, but I've heard it from multiple sources over many years.
10-21-16 | 07:34 AM
#604
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From: VA
I have not tried both H and V......but when talking to Tire rack and local dealer explaining to both that i only wanted comfort and quiet they said go with the H rated. Being that I have 17" wheels and H rated I think I get the optimal ride quality.....I believe the guys with the older LS s even had 16s that rode great on MXV4s.....That being said I know several club members with LS460s have switch to P7s and given the tire very high marks and i believe they have 18" wheels.
Bob if you were to do your experiment the data gathered would be the holy grail sp? of interesting to me.....Its the answer I have been trying to figure out for 2yrs now.....I feel like Indiana Jones. Although in saying that I guess there have been several folks that have tried both but I can only recall one real live data reply and that was from the guy that came over and drove my car. Maybe SW15 is another one....but he drives a 460....would be good to hear back from him again as he has probably logged some miles by now.
Bob if you were to do your experiment the data gathered would be the holy grail sp? of interesting to me.....Its the answer I have been trying to figure out for 2yrs now.....I feel like Indiana Jones. Although in saying that I guess there have been several folks that have tried both but I can only recall one real live data reply and that was from the guy that came over and drove my car. Maybe SW15 is another one....but he drives a 460....would be good to hear back from him again as he has probably logged some miles by now.
10-21-16 | 08:35 AM
#605
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From: PA
Tire technology is interesting in how low the profiles have gotten. My RF rim is scraped by one of the previous 2 owners, and the tire is not that low, it's a 45. I think that the biggest effect on handling would be the sidewall height--the taller the better, for comfort. There really is zero advantage to a larger rim, if the tire if the width is the same (on my wife's SUV, 19's are standard, 20's are optional, and the width is the same @ 255). In such a scenario, there is more metal, and less rubber, adding to unsprung weight. BMW goes to great lengths (or they used to) to reduce unsprung weight. On 8 cyl. 5 series, they rivet aluminum hats to the rotors, just to save 4 lbs. per corner. I think larger rims work against trying to reduce unsprung weight.
I have to admit--when I got my BMW, only 17s and 18s came with the car, no 19s. 19s came a year later. If they had been available, I would have gotten them. AND, the width was the same, with the larger rims, doing exactly what I said was bad, i.e. adding unpsrung weight. But look at cars today with 20's, 22's....from the factory!
I have to admit--when I got my BMW, only 17s and 18s came with the car, no 19s. 19s came a year later. If they had been available, I would have gotten them. AND, the width was the same, with the larger rims, doing exactly what I said was bad, i.e. adding unpsrung weight. But look at cars today with 20's, 22's....from the factory!
10-21-16 | 11:20 AM
#607
Instructor
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 800
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From: State
when I bought my tires a week ago the manager really tried to sell me something else. he said the P7+ was a discontinued tire and would be like the Primacies I wanted to get out of. I drove past 2 other stores because this store said they had 4 in inventory. I really felt that he was trying to give me a good deal and I was fighting him all the way. so get them while you can....if you can
10-21-16 | 12:50 PM
#608
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From: SC
when I bought my tires a week ago the manager really tried to sell me something else. he said the P7+ was a discontinued tire and would be like the Primacies I wanted to get out of. I drove past 2 other stores because this store said they had 4 in inventory. I really felt that he was trying to give me a good deal and I was fighting him all the way. so get them while you can....if you can
10-22-16 | 07:04 AM
#610
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From: SC
Discount Tire in Columbia SC told me the same, that the P7AS+ was discontiued, and then tried to sell me the new Strada that is supposed to be an exclusive only sold they them. Claims it is the same tire with minor treat change, but I'm not buying that.
10-22-16 | 07:32 AM
#611
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From: Texas
10-22-16 | 07:55 AM
#612
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From: wi
I have driven 250k miles on LS's and driven h and v rated MXV4's and will take the V rated all day long. Just more precise steering and handled better lost nothing in ride quality. I drove a 98 honda and thought I would get aTuranza t rated tire like my Caravan as it got 70 k warrantee versus 45k on the Turanze H rated whcih wore out(great tire). I got the t's and in 2 days my arm was so tired from incremental steering adjustments on my 90 mile R/T to work I had to go back and they put me in the H rated like a had before the tired arm was solved. I see the V rated usually are a few bucks more but I do not see a ply difference or construction difference which would make em really stiffer riding nor have I noticed this. My other cars going from h to v rated always improved my steering, with no loss in ride comfort. So I think V for VICTORY!!!!! I got my P7 pluses 245/45/18 for 48 bucks a piece plus shipping and was so fricking happy it was the V rated ones as the sale was gone in a few days.
10-22-16 | 08:58 AM
#614
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From: Somewhere...
While I appreciate what you are trying to do here and have been guilty of this myself, I recently had a statistician buddy of my mine set me straight about this type of data when he asked my opinion about a tire purchase. When I showed him the tire rack site and pointed out +.1 here and -.5 here variables, he literally laughed his *** off at me. He reminded me that every piece of data collected was subjective and had almost no scientific value to it. He basically said, and I now agreed with him, that you could probably determine what is a good tire and what is a bad tire from that data, but there is no way in 40 hells that you could compare 2 good tires and accurately determine that one was better than the other based off +.5 here and -.1 there. He also pointed out that tires will low mileage are going to score better and high mileage will likely score lower, and that lumping those results together pretty much makes the data useless. He also said that people who pay less generally seem to rate their purchases more favorably, while people who pay more tend to expect more and be more critical. And like I said before, he also stated that everything is subjective and that without strict definitions for scoring, there is really no way this data can be accurately used to answer any questions about these tires in comparison to each other outside of probably good or probably bad.
Good info, and I agree. I realized when looking these up that it's not empirical by any means, and is entirely subjective, but then again, it is the only data I have! There's not much objective info aside from reviews, and comparisons don't really apply since they don't usually compare tires across categories (standard touring against grand touring, for example), rather they compare tires that fall in the same category - for good reason.
So take my post with a grain of salt, by all means. I should have probably stated as such in my original post. What swayed me more than anything was the explanation that one category of tire tends to emphasize comfort more than another, since all of the data points were pretty close together.
As an update on the tires, they're doing well. Pretty comfortable and quiet, and tread wear seems pretty good so far. I had one tire on the passenger side replaced under Tirerack's road hazard warranty after my gf hit a nasty pothole on the right side, it bent both of the right side wheels (!!!) and the front tire had a bubble as a result. Rain traction is good, haven't tried them in the snow yet but I probably will within the next few months.
Would I buy again? I wouldn't exclude them, but I might get something different just out of curiosity since I like to try different ones.