Tires Firestone or Cooper
Running them on my quattro Audi. Love them! Best value tire for a daily driver... Once my OEM tires went at around 21k miles (goodyear eagle F1 summers), I went to a set of summer michelin PSS and those were extremely sticky and insanely responsive but also very noisy and became very unsafe under about 40°F (plus they're a bit expensive). Those only lasted me 15k miles so i was disappointed in the longevity, then I heard firestone came out with this tire right when I needed new ones so i ordered a set (I was the first in my entire area to have them) and they've been pretty good to me so far. They're not as good as the michelins at the very edge of handling but they are much quieter, less harsh on the ride, and work in a much wider range of temperatures (I've had them down to under 20°F). For the price and the fact that they're almost as good as the michelins and certainly better than the goodyears I would definitely recommend them.
Firehawk Indy's 500's superb summer tires! Hello, I had them running first on my 06' GLI then when I sold that I put them on my 08' Audi A3. Love the tires!
indy 500s I'm running them on my wifes Jetta and I just got my set on my Mazda 3. I love the grip, it's quiet and pretty good in the rain. I had the BFG COMP A/S but these seem better.
Awesome tires, I got 255/35/18 and they grab really good. Low noise, no vibrations, and they look slick.
I run them on the street in the summer on my 135. Cheap as chips, and they handle pretty well. Want a cheap summer tire that's fairly comfortable and handles well? This is your frickin' huckleberry.
After my stock rubber wore down I decided to look into other (cheaper) options for this summer. I landed on getting a set of Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 205/40/17 tires and have been on them for about a week now in both rain and dry. The TLDR of this would be buy these tires!
The longer version of it is that these tires to me at least feel much more comfortable than the stock tires both in terms of ride comfort and road noise. On top of that the grip in the wet is impressive to say the least! I got a lot of rain here in Oregon so wet performance was really important to me. On the stock tires I always left my TC on and was careful going around turns especially as the tires wore down further and further. These Indy 500 just keep on gripping in the wet and I haven't had any problems at all. The first day I had them out in the dry I would have sworn my car was actually faster accelerating! Probably because there was less wheel hopping or it simply just grabbed the road better. I haven't tried a launch on them yet but hope to do some auto-crossing and such in the Spring.
I am so tempted to put some Cooper AT/3s on mine. The stock Continentals are not great and I have already picked up two screws in 3 months. I never got any holes in 50k miles on the AT/3s on my Pathfinder.
It finally came down to the Cooper Discoverer AT/3. The reviews I read and watched said it has good wet road traction and does decent off road. My experience for the last 50k miles on them supports that conclusion.
Great tires, I have them on my GTI. But, unless you have a death wish, don't even think about using them in snow.
I bought the RS3-G1s in 205/55R16 for my 2016 Sportwagen (stock was 225/40R18, have also had 195/65R15 snow tires and 195/65R15 LRR all seasons on it) - and they are EXTREMELY rough riding tires compared to any of the other tires, including the 18" P-Zero Neros. I almost pulled the wheels and tires off and listed them for sale within the first 500 miles. I had specifically gone 16" as a reasonable compromise of tire selection, price, looks, comfort, and gas mileage as the 18's had been a ~4MPG hit compared to the 15s, but any dreams of comfort went out the window with the Coopers. YMMV, but I wouldn't buy these again and regret doing so.
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