FWCruiser

Hello all, Picked up my 2004 last night here in Fort Worth. Red with ecru interior. After lurking here for about 2 months, I knew to be concerned about the runflats. Apparently the 04's come with a new Dunlop runflat. Sales manager said they are supposed to be softer riding. Hope this is true. They seem to be fine so far but I really did not test drive the 03 enough to be able to compare. They had 2 04's my red and a blue. Mine had the optional wheel center caps, the blue had the pie plates. I'm sure I'll have a lot of questions so you'll be hearing from me. David

ron36330

David;
I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine. I have had no problems with my SC 430. It is a great cruising car, especially with the top down. It's comfortable, quiet and a real pleasure to drive. My only complaint with the run-flats is yes over RR tracks or potholes the ride is jarring. Otherwise I have had a completely comfortable ride. When I do replace the tires I plan to look at the new Michelin run-flats. Only because Michelin normally builds a great all-around tire. It is great to own a car where the only time you have to go to the dealer is for routine maintenance.
Enjoy and welcome to the club.
Ron

Phu

Great choice on the color combo. I'm sure you'll be quite happy with the SC. I changed my runflats to Yokohamas and the ride is much improved.

Gojirra99

Congratulations David ! Welcome to the club.

Joe Peters

David,
Let's get together this week end. We live
on the west side and have a 02' blk/saddle
with Goodyear EagleF1 GS D3 non-runflat
tires.
Joe

1NICESC430

Joe ...

I swapped my RFs for F1's, too and really enjoy the difference. I like the handling and I like the ride.

One thing about these tires that surprises me is that they feel out of balance when they're cold and don't get to normal until I drive about 5 miles. Does this happen to you? By cold, I don't mean winter cold, but just not driven for a couple of days. A guy at Tirerack told me this is common in high performance tires and when I said my RFs were high performance tires and didn't do that, he said, "in some high performance tires".

David ...
Welcome and good luck with your new wheels.

ekovalsky

Congrats on the new acquisition!

Make sure your car doesn't have the dreaded door rattle, if it does make the dealer fix it. Also post some pics! I especially want to see the new wheel caps.

golfkwesi

David,

I was not so fortunate: everything was set to go for me to pick up my Blue/Saddle SC which was being purchased from an individual but being sold to me by his Lexus dealer ( in/out service ) then yesterday his girlfriend applied the final blow and he backed out of the deal!

Great to hear that you "made it to closing".

Michael

flatfoot

David, Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new toy. Great color choice (although there really aren't any bad color choices ). Post some pics if you can, and best of luck with her.

Flatfoot

FWCruiser

Thanks for the welcome guys. Love the car, as I knew I would. I don't have a digital camera but maybe I'll figure out something. I really like the different wheel covers but I also like that they give you the pie plates too. Maybe in a few months I'll swap them for a new look, for a while anyway.
Joe, I'd love to get together sometime. I get off work about 2:30 Saturday and I'm off all day Sunday. I also live on the westside (near Williams Rd and Hwy 377). Do you have a digital camera? I had planned to get in touch with you anyway after I saw you own that hat shop downtown. I've never been a hat person but now that I have this convertible I'll have to get me one. (I'm half bald and the other half is shaved.)

JCtx

Hey David, congratulations on your new baby; you beat me man. Still waiting for that phone call to pick up my '04 silver/ecru. Hopefully next week.

I didn't know Dunlop made RF tires; can you please post here the model # from the sidewall? Hope mine has those too. I'm disappointed to hear '04s don't come standard with the star center caps; I was optimistic they would, based on some comments about the caps elsewhere. Oh well.

As a last comment, regarding the harshness of RFs: How soft can a 40-series tire be? I'd think the difference is minimal, but apparently not, based on converts. Anyway, I'll stick with RFs for safety, but will try the Michelins, unless the new Dunlops (if equipped on my car) win me over.

We need pics buddy

JC

FWCruiser

Elp, it is Dunlop SP SPORT 5000m DSST. I'm pretty sure all of the 04's will have this tire. In general I'm OK with runflats but the fact that every time I get a screw or nail I'm supposed to spend $400 to replace the tire bothers me. With regular tires you just spend $10 to fix it. I know someone posted that they had theirs fixed with a plug but I don't know if that is a good fix.
David

JCtx

Thanks David. I like the tread pattern of the SP8000s; the 5000s is pretty generic but hopefully it'll work okay. You can plug a runflat the same as a regular tire David; the same rules apply, but you're a lot safer with a tire monitor and a run flat than a regular tire. As long as you don't damage the sidewall, and the hole is not too big, you're fine. The only problem with runflats is not everybody has the equipment to mount and dismount them without damaging the wheels, and therefore the shops that do charge a lot more than for regular tires. On my corvette, any repairs are free for the first 1/4 of tread life; check your warranty manual. I expect at least the same than a stupid chevy.

Only money I'm going to spend on the car is on window tinting (35% light smoke) and chrome exchange with star caps; will inquire about a shop in Albuquerque, so I don't have to go thru the hassle of mail order.

Enjoy your car buddy. I'm missing the best weather for open-top motoring, but there's nothing I can do. I wish the dealer hadn't lied to me and get me all excited for nothing. Two more weeks .

Later.

JC

FWCruiser

JC, I'll get my windows tinted and have Expel installed coming Thursday. David