Quote:
Originally Posted by BonzoHansen
I don’t have to answer anything to anyone! What I say is gold, Jerry, gold!
As a busy tire dealer for 7+ years I saw lots of tires. It’s all about compound and carcass design. Tread design might be 25% of wet performance, but I even doubt that. Tread design is more about marketing and mitigating road noise.
GY do test well at consumer reports – and they are often good tires out of the shoot. But C/R doesn’t know its ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to tires. C/R tries to simulate tire wear by shaving the tire. Yes, why would 30,000 miles of heat cycles & UV matter? They once named the Dunlop D60 (I think that was it) a top pick in part because of their wet weather testing. I probably sold thousands of that tire with a different name (private label) and wet was a constant complaint. So they fail at that too. For the record I think Dunlops were great bang-for-the-buck tires, but that was pre-GY owning them. Not sure now.
My opinion of GY is their compounding does not wear well. I took off many GY tires with good tread (>50%) that had become nightmares in the rain and cold, and even warm weather performace had suffered. They were often hard as rocks. That is one of the reasons I generally like Michelins, I think they are easily the most consistent tires throughout the life of the tire. In most cases the way a 75% worn Michelin performs is perceivably the same as one 10% worn. I cannot say that for GY. If you plan to run the tire into the ground in 3 years a GY is a fine choice. If you plan on running it past there go elsewhere. I’ve been out of it for a while now, but I doubt that has changed much.
I’m generalizing brands and every brand has winners and losers but generally that is my thought. And I already told you that you should probably try your best to match your front tires by staying w/i the same brand, as carcass design and compounding will probably be more consistent. Buy 2 Firestones (I’ll even say Bridgestone as well, but I preferred f/s tires over b/s) or do 4 new ones. But what the hell do I know I’ve only been factory trained on these things – Michelin is in a lovely part of SC, BTW. And you love to complicate stuff. 
I’d like to hear Al’s input on this I bet it is similar. |
I will say that GY's older tire technology has failed, but thier new stuff has seemed to hold up. When they first launched the GY Assurance Trippletread, lots of people were worried about its wear and what that would do to grip, handling, etc. I have never heard much as far as complaint, and I have had people that have maxed out that 80k with no problems.
Most if not all the new GY tires seem to be holding up well as they have been investing a crap load of technology into them. Carbon fiber, Kevlar, different rubber compounds, they just have been doing a lot to make thier tires better.
Reguading the GS-D3's, I have heard nothing but good reviews over the tire. Now sure, people arent using them every daily on their Camry or Malibu, but I have read up on the GS-D3's and they seem to be one of the best, if not the best ultra high performance tires out there.
Michelin has been and will continue to be the king. You spend the money, but they are overall the best tires you can buy. Something that Mich would have to compare the teh GS-D3's would be the Pilot Sport 2's, which are outstanding. there is a reason they are on such cars like the Corvette ZR1, the new CTS-V, and countless German performance cars and sedans.
Question is, for the price spread of the GS-D3's vs teh PS2's, are you getting THAT much better tire?
Now you said 275/40-17, so looking at Tire Rack, the PS2's are 289 a piece. the GS-D3's are 234 a piece. Thats 55 bucks a piece more a tire. The savings is almost like getting one tire for free. I think that the PS2 and the GS-D3's are equal in almost every aspect, so IMO the GS-D3's are the way to go. Its up to you if you want to spend the extra money for the Mich.
Bridgestone makes some really good performance tires as well. The one I see there, the new RE760 are new enough to where I have no idea.
Im surprised no RE050a's in that size....
