Tires, tire, tires

[superchow]

So I have gone through a few tires with our manual 2007 Honda Civic since we got in almost 5 years ago to the day, and I feel a comparison of tires is on order. We put on 123,000 miles on the car and now we are rolling on our fourth set of tires. (Note that we didn't mod our car except for a removable grille block that comes out in the warmer months.)

Goodyear RS-A
Tire Wear: 3/10 - after 17,000 miles we were down to about 4/32nds. I expected more from the OEM tire...
Dry Grip: 8/10 - Good grip in the dry.
Wet Grip: 3/10 - Roundabouts became ice rinks, starting uphill from a stop made the tires spin out way too easily.
Road Noise: 7/10 and 4/10. 7/10 when the tires were new, 4/10 when we swapped them out. Not their strong suit really.
Rolling Resistance: 8/10. We always got decent mileage and the tires rolled quite easily.
Price: 10/10 - Came with car, so this is a hollow victory really... When shopping for this tire the price seemed way too high for what you got.

Michelin Primacy MXV4
Tire Wear: 8/10 - Great wear
Dry Grip: 8/10 - really good grip, with somewhat stiff sidewalls, yet comfortable ride.
Wet Grip: 7/10 and 5/10 - Good grip when new, but then at about 50% wear something interesting happened. The tread is designed not to be as deep at the edges of the tire as in the center. So now we had somewhat of a slick tire on the edges and a 7/32nds tread depth tire in the middle. Going and stopping was good, aquaplaning was minimal, but turning was very skittish. The unpredictability made me switch to other tires before the end of its life.
Road Noise: 9/10 - Very nice tire, very smooth.
Rolling Resistance: 8/10 - On par with the Goodyear, quite good.
Price: 8/10 - Pricey tire, but very good value if you consider the ride and tread life. Just avoid those wet corners.

Bridgestone Turanza
Tire Wear: 8/10 - Very long lasting tire.
Dry Grip: 8/10 - Grippy tire, predictable behavior.
Wet Grip: 9/10 - Confidence inspiring grip. Very good!
Road Noise: 6/10 - 20,000 miles of good (not great) noise comfort, then slowly but surely the tires had a weird humming noise develop from the tread. Treadwear was OK, nothing abnormal to see. Maybe just an issue with the Civic? But it eventually drowned out the engine and wind noise at almost any speed. Also, it was the worst when going 27 mph and 56 mph.
Rolling Resistance: 7/10 - Not as good as the previous tires, but decent. I thought the wet grip would outweigh the rolling resistance, but then I had road noise as another "con" and we really wanted to switch.
Price: 6/10 - OK value in our case, but may be better for others.

Yokohama Avid Touring S
Tire Wear: ?/10 - So far so good, no news is good news I guess...
Dry Grip: 7/10 - Not as good as the Michelin or Bridgestone in outright grip, but the softer sidewalls make for a more progressive loss in hard cornering. A tire that communicates well.
Wet Grip: 6/10 - Better than the average tire, but not as good as I have experienced. Again, progressive loss in grip as speed increases keeps me within my driving and within the car's limits.
Road Noise: 8/10 - Very good comfort. Probably a good definition of a "touring tire". Easy going with a few sporting pretensions,
Rolling Resistance: 9/10 - Very good! Much better than expected. We gained about 2 MPG over the Bridgestone tires and about 1 MPG over the Michelin.
Price: 8/10 - All things considered a great hypermiling tire for those who like the twisty sections as much as the EOC sections!

Obviously these opinions are quite personal and subjective, but maybe someone can derive some use from them. Thanks for reading!

[Frank Lee]

I expect a good 50,000 miles out of a set of tires, even on the F150 (1994, 113,000 miles, on 3rd set)!

[superchow]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I expect a good 50,000 miles out of a set of tires, even on the F150 (1994, 113,000 miles, on 3rd set)!

Yes, I replaced a couple of them before it was their time. The Michelins were @ 50% after 45,000, the Bridgestones at 40% after 60,000. But since maintenance on our car was minimal, I wanted to make sure we had the best insurance to keep the shiny side up.

[NickelB NL]

I have winter tyres from meteor under the ECoupe. Front are gone after 75000km but the rears are stil around 80%. But i take the corners hard to save speed. And drove the whole year. But they were good. Also really stable in snow. But my new front will be winter tyres again. Hope to put in lrr tyres under the ECoupe next year. Hope to see 5% better fe, or even more

[star_deceiver]

Alright... I'll add to this:

Goodyear RS-A - Came with the Vibe, and the OP's review is bang on

Firestone Winterforce, fully studded 205-55-16
Tire Wear: 3 winters, about 35000kms. Started throwing studs this spring. 5/32 left. They will be replaced before winter.
Dry Grip: 6/10 Ok but not spectacular
Wet Grip: 4/10 An easily controlled 4 wheel drift when you push too hard on wet pavement.
Snow Grip: 10/10 Hands down, no compromise!!! Youtube search - "Winter Freeway Driving"
Ice Grip: 8/10 w/ Studs.
Road Noise: 2/10 They're loud!
Rolling Resistance: 3/10 Very open tire and very heavy too.
Price: 8/10 One of the cheaper tires on the market.

Hankook Ventus V4 205-50-17
Tire Wear: 6/10 My first set lasted about 50000kms. I'm not nice to them...
Dry Grip: 10/10 for my car. Push them as I do, they don't let go!
Wet Grip: 10/10 when new. They don't hydroplane even in standing water! 8/10 at the wearbars!
Snow Grip: 4/10 Believe it or not light snow isn't too bad and you can get around if you're careful.
Ice Grip: 0/10... ever tried running on a frozen lake while wearing bowling shoes? Yeah......
Road Noise: 8/10 Tires are quiet... for a poorly insulated car...
Rolling Resistance: 8/10 They're pretty good!
Price: 10/10 for the first set... 7/10 for the second set as I didn't get a good a deal as the first go-round.