spect2k Posted February 22, 2008 Author Share Posted February 22, 2008 Buy some 17" wheels and get the Contis 215/50-17. Size is very close to OEM and extra sidewall is good for pot hole season. Save the OEM wheels/tires for summer. HECK NO!! One of the main reasons I bought the spec B was to get the beautiful (IMO) 18 in rims. I think they are great. Why on earth did I spend all of this money for the car if I am going to take off the 18s and put on some crap 17s. I never understood why people did that....there are many better alternatives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vimy101 Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 HECK NO!! One of the main reasons I bought the spec B was to get the beautiful (IMO) 18 in rims. I think they are great. Why on earth did I spend all of this money for the car if I am going to take off the 18s and put on some crap 17s. I never understood why people did that....there are many better alternatives. I got 17"s for three reasons. First, there are a lot more tires available in the 17" size. Second, I wanted extra sidewall (215/50-17) for pothole season. Third, I didn't want to have to spend money and time getting the tires changed up twice a year with the accompanying wear/tear/scrathches that would inevitably occur. Come spring though, the 18"s go back on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spect2k Posted February 22, 2008 Author Share Posted February 22, 2008 I understand the rationale there, but once you go up to a 225/45-18, there are tons of tires to choose from and the 225 is safe from a 7-8.5" rim, so we are good there. I never really think of 215/45 tires as ultra low profile. The roads here in CT are good enough that I don't have to worry there. What I don't get though is that you bring up the point about not spending the money for the changeover and the incompetence of the places that do it - but thats exactly what you are doing, that goes against the point you are trying to make. In any case, I understand the rationale behind switching them, but it doesn't work for me. We can agree to disagree I suppose. I would just never take the nice 18s off, even in the winter, to throw on some budget 17s....maybe it also has to do with the climate, you probably get more snow out in Chicago. In CT, it is usually just cold in the winter, not really snowy. Anyway, whatever satisfies! Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vimy101 Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 I understand the rationale there, but once you go up to a 225/45-18,.. Wider is worse for snow/slush performance. That was a criterion I forgot to mention. I change my own wheels. Mounting and remounting tires = added expense and wear and tear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heybige Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 I heard ContiExtreme were good wet/snow biased All-seasons. I just bought a set for my SVX but haven't had a chance to try them out. I can tell you that the tread pattern looks almost identical to my WinterSport M3s. ContiExtremes are a good choice for all-seasons. They're a little on the soft side (most owners bump up the pressure a good deal to compensate). But for the money they're a decent all-rounder and they've provided good traction in wet/light snow. Not the greatest as a dry performer though... If money is no object, go for the Pilot Sport A/S. Pricey but good tires in most conditions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vimy101 Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 ^ I'd argue that they do very well in moderately heavy snow as well. I've started from a dead stop on a steep upgrade with snow over the fogs and away she goes. I can't say how they perform in heavy snow because I haven't had the chance to test them in those conditions. Dry performance is fairly good not excellent but certainly more than adequate for most drivers. Wet performance is superior. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heybige Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 ^ I'd argue that they do very well in moderately heavy snow as well. I've started from a dead stop on a steep upgrade with snow over the fogs and away she goes. I can't say how they perform in heavy snow because I haven't had the chance to test them in those conditions. Dry performance is fairly good not excellent but certainly more than adequate for most drivers. Wet performance is superior. From the DC area, so moderate/heavy snow hasn't been around for a few years Glad to hear they'd do well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjundi Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 ^ I'd argue that they do very well in moderately heavy snow as well. I've started from a dead stop on a steep upgrade with snow over the fogs and away she goes. I can't say how they perform in heavy snow because I haven't had the chance to test them in those conditions. Dry performance is fairly good not excellent but certainly more than adequate for most drivers. Wet performance is superior. What is your opinion on lateral traction, move along and taking a bend on snow packed or few inch deep snow with ContiExtreme. I find my RE960's(WRX) fine at getting car moving(although AWD is likely large factor) and braking on ice/snow very good. However cornering offer no real inspiration or confidence (I go slow). My control is our LGT with Nokian WR G2's which has excellent lateral control and even if drifts a bit fully controllable. I find every single published winter tire (or biased test) useless since they leave out corning traction. Its great tirerack recently reviewed this, too bad the Conti was left out but it was outclassed (summer testing) by other tires in the mix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vimy101 Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 What is your opinion on lateral traction, move along and taking a bend on snow packed or few inch deep snow with ContiExtreme. I find my RE960's(WRX) fine at getting car moving(although AWD is likely large factor) and braking on ice/snow very good. However cornering offer no real inspiration or confidence (I go slow). My control is our LGT with Nokian WR G2's which has excellent lateral control and even if drifts a bit fully controllable. I find every single published winter tire (or biased test) useless since they leave out corning traction. Its great tirerack recently reviewed this, too bad the Conti was left out but it was outclassed (summer testing) by other tires in the mix. Lateral traction with the ContiExtreme Contacts is adequate. The Nokians with their deeper tread are obviously more snow biased than the CECs. The heavy directional pattern on the CEC work against it for stopping power in snow. The "V" pattern digs in nicely to get you going but that works against you in snow. Stopping is not nearly as positive as forward acceleration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokinduc Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 = Death in the snow. My spec B - 215/45-18 Pirelli PZero Nero M&S. Driving in the snow today, can barely get that thing to stop....horrible snow tires. my lord - I can't believe how bad they are in the snow.... good as a performance tire though! I have Pirelli Winter 210 SottoZero's on my car. They are full-on snows and they are AMAZING. Excellent in the wet and surprisingly really good in the dry also. It hasn't snowed here too much and I was worried about driving them so much in the dry, but so far wear has been minimal. It's an EXCELLENT winter snow tire in our OEM size. Highly recommended! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spect2k Posted February 27, 2008 Author Share Posted February 27, 2008 ^^ how much $?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokinduc Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 ^^ how much $?? Got them locally for 780.00 mounted and balanced. About the same if I boought them from Tire rack and then paid a local shop to mount them. I think they are one the few that are available in OEM size for the SpecB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joneric Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 i have really hated my pirelli m&s nero tires. they were ok for the first 10K miles, but then became extremely loud. the discount tire guy (they are not to be trusted) said the tread has cupped, accounting for the unbearable noise. i'm going to switch to CEC or michelins ASAP. i now have 30K on the tires. they were acceptable at best on the snow. tread life is also piss-poor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spect2k Posted March 21, 2008 Author Share Posted March 21, 2008 ^^ thats too bad. I have about 6K on them now and no problems yet. I would not be so generous however with the acceptable rating in the snow. I got them, as smokinduc said, because they are a rare tire that fits the OEM size for the spec B in an all-season and probably the best of the bunch. I will be going up to 225/45-18s though being that I am told it is safe to put 225s on 7 inch rims. Toyo proxes 4 will be my new all-season rubber once these wear out (which shouldn't take long as you are saying). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim1969 Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 The Proxes 4 aren't very good in snow either. If you do a search going back 4 years ago, one member (lemming) put the pirellis on his legacy and the toyos on his wife's legacy. The pirellis were actually better in the toyos in snow. If you want an all season, get the Goodyear F1 A/S. They are now TireRack's #1 UHP all-season tire. I had the pirellis, now I have the GY. The Pirellis are slightly better in the dry but the GY are much, much better in snow, rain and slush. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spect2k Posted March 21, 2008 Author Share Posted March 21, 2008 Thats funny, I have got through sets and sets of toyo proxes 4s (none of the legacy however) and found them to be MUCH better in the snow that any other all-season I have ever driven. In all reality though, if I were looking for a truly good snow tire, I would go with a winter tire. I love the overall performance of the proxes4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooby Fan Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Good to hear. I'm about to get some advan wheels with these M+S tires and want to run them 3 seasons a year. Not that I'd try to run the advans in the snow anyways, but I'm glad to hear that they can handle themselves if we get a freak dusting and I'm too slow on the swap/ November can be a real tricky bitch sometimes up here... I'm 3 years on the stock RE92's n for God's sake and I haven't killed my family in a horrible fireball yet... so the Pirelli's couldn't be worse. I've had them on for the past 2 winters....no problems at all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Conti Extreme Contacts do well in the snow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooby Fan Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 If you want REALLY good "All" seasons...nothing better than Nokian WR and WR-G2s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SubLo Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 UDATE: These tires SUCK for Auto-X and Drag My review for the street stands (excellent all-around 4 season tire). However, they are a death trap when pushed to the car's limits like I did today in auto-x. They're as bad on auto-x as my RE050's were in snow - major suckage. ________________________________________________ [URL="http://legacygt.com/forums/vbpicgallery.php?do=view&g=1980"]'05 BSM OBXT Row-your-own, W.I.P. :rolleyes:[/URL] [URL="http://legacygt.com/forums/vbpicgallery.php?do=view&g=1242"]'06 Shrek B # 64 - The car the wife loved to hate :( Sold...[/URL] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spect2k Posted April 27, 2008 Author Share Posted April 27, 2008 not exactly meant as a tire for drag and auto-x are they? these are performance all-seasons for goodness sake, not up to par with summer tires much less racing tires! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grecod Posted December 26, 2009 Share Posted December 26, 2009 We just had the biggest snow storm in years in PA and then a rain that caused road flooding everywhere. I just switched from Kuhmo Ecsta's to Pirelli and the difference is night and day dry, wet and with snow. Tire Rack pretty much hits it on the head. They are great all around dry performance tires, very good wet and mediocre in the snow. Either way, I drove rear wheel drive for years in the snow and even with the Khumos my Legacy GT is a joy to drive in it by comparison with any tire on those cars. If you have the money, the Michelin's are the best but the Pirelli's give it a run for the money in every category but warranty, snow and wear. The best tire depends on you budget and where you live. The Conti Extremes are the best if you live where it's raining all of the time for like Seatte for example. As for the guy trying to run an all season tire on the track and expect it to handle like a race car give me a break. You need to run a track tire or summer tire at the very least. The way they make the rubber compound in an all season tire it sacrifices some of the "hot" performance to compensate for noise, comfort, wear and cold performance on the street. It doesn't matter which brand you go with in that respect. As far as the wear, the Pirelli's are a little soft which is why they corner so well dry and road noise is minimal. It's also why they wear fast. AWD chews up alignments in these cars and if you don't rotate and align the car every 6-8000 miles you are going to wear tires out in less than 30000. If you aren't beating them and keep the alignment and rotation right you should get 35000 out of them, maybe 45000 out of Michelins. That's my hope at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RabidWombat Posted December 26, 2009 Share Posted December 26, 2009 I had these on my Volvo S70. Excellent traction for an all-season. Good in the wet or dry conditions, I never tried them in snow. My previous tires were Michelin MXV4s, and these had significantly better grip. The main issues: 1) They wear quickly, and need regular rotations. Mine lasted about 30k. The FWD Volvo eats front-tires, they may wear better on a AWD car. This results in them being somewhat pricey. 2) They will track with grooved concrete. This can be very disconcerting the first time, since you car will shift left/right without the steering wheel moving much. It happens on concrete freeways with ~1 in grooves parallel to the direction of travel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naimouasta Posted December 26, 2009 Share Posted December 26, 2009 i had these on my 02 wrx. i had a good alignment, etc etc, and they wore very quickly. about 10k miles and they were halfway done. they were sticky for an all-season though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spect2k Posted December 26, 2009 Author Share Posted December 26, 2009 Just to clarify, there is a difference between the Pirelli PZero Nero M&S and the Pirelli PZero Nero All-Seasons. They are both all-season tires, but the M&S is the old name for the tire and is no longer made. The tread pattern even looks very different. Here is a link to the M&S: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Pirelli&tireModel=PZero+Nero+M%26S Here is a link to the all-seasons: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Pirelli&tireModel=PZero+Nero+All+Season According to tirerack and other tests, the all-seasons are far superior to the m&s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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