New shoes.

Coming up on 30k service and decided it was time to change the stock tires. They were Hancook somethings and seemed to wear well though fast. Mostly because of my spirited driving in the past.

I will be on the highway quite often in the coming years so went with one that is supposed to give me some lasting power there.

Michelin Primacy MXV4. and had them put nitrogen in my Bridgestone spare.

did you notice a significant difference in the ride quality?

So far.. around town it seems only to have better grip and traction. Tomorrow I will be on the highway and will report what I feel/hear there.

Well, I just realized something today. Right rear wheel is DEEPLY gouged by the tire mounting machine. I did a much closer inspection of the other 4 and all 4 are either nicked around the bead edge or scratched in some way. Not sure if these wheels are powder coated or painted or what. Not exactly happy, Especially considering how much I trusted the place I took it.

torrimac said:

Well, I just realized something today. Right rear wheel is DEEPLY gouged by the tire mounting machine. I did a much closer inspection of the other 4 and all 4 are either nicked around the bead edge or scratched in some way. Not sure if these wheels are powder coated or painted or what. Not exactly happy, Especially considering how much I trusted the place I took it.

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Yea, and most places today no longer will cover any sort of damage to alloy wheels (a carry over from the early mag wheels days).

So unless you have steels, you're pretty much SOL.

erose said:

did you notice a significant difference in the ride quality?

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I put on a set of the same tires a few weeks ago. Coming from ContiPro Contacts I would say there wasn't much of an improvement in ride quality. Keep in mind I have 17s and we have pretty poor roads here. The only difference was probably going from almost completely worn tires to brand new tires.

The big improvements I've seen are road noise and traction which, to me, are slightly more important than ride quality. I'm very happy with my purchase.

Well after driving over the weekend on the highway a bit ive noticed the road noise is WAY lower than before. Also the traction is much better both in dry and wet conditions. I dont think this is just because its a new full tread tire. I always had grip issues with the previous set.

The tire shop came and got my car today and took it to try and "fix" their scratches. They tried to buff it out and pretty much wore the paint or powder coat down to the primer in several spots. The owner dropped it off personally and said they are working on a fix though he did not tell me exactly what and they would be in contact in a day or so.