Living down here in Texas, they have annual safety (and where I live emissions) inspections to keep the junkers off the road. Part of the safety inspection is (reasonably) the tires. My stock 235 Pirellis are running on the wear bars on 3 out of 4, so there's no way they're going to pass inspection (which is due by month's end). That actually probably leaves me enough tread depth to run em a couple more months, but I don't have that option.

Most of the tire threads I see on here are about 20"s, and then 18"s, so I thought I'd put this out there. I'll be keeping the stock wheels, which I rather like, and think complement the car. This means I'm pretty limited to a choice of sizes, 235/55 or 255/50 by my best guess. I need to drive the car year round, and there are a couple days a year in Houston where the temperature gets low enough to nix a Summer tire choice (besides, I might want to take a road trip to chilly places). I don't have a tuner or anything to correct for a larger diameter tire than stock, so (as much as a hair more sidewall would look good on it) I'm looking to stay away from those. Besides, most of the ones I've found seem to be truck tires.

Obviously, I could put the stock Pirellis back on, which I really don't have any complaints about. If there's a tire out there, though, that's significantly better for a not significant difference in price, I'm all ears. Mind you, I bought the car used at 23,500 and the tires looked fairly fresh then (maybe, though not necessarily new) and I'm about to turn 50,000 19 months later, so I need a set of tires that'll last that long at least (25,000, if I managed 50K on them that would be okay too)... I don't want to replace tires every 10,000 miles.

That said, I'm kinda liking the idea of the slightly wider 255/50s for a slightly more aggressive look, and some of them (in the rather limited selection on TireRack) are only marginally more expensive than the Pirellis, and show similarish numbers.

What I'm looking for is, basically, suggestions of High/Ultra Performance All Season tires in 235/55/17 or 255/50/17 so I can go comparison shopping next week. Price is a factor, so I'm not really looking for $200/a tire, but I'm not trying to kill myself running a $80 S rated tire either.

I thought about posting some options that I'd come across up here, but I don't want to really color anyone's judgment. Anyone else actually keep their 17"s and put some new tires on them?

 

Have you done a search on tirerack or other similar sites? Tirerack has all the tire specs so should be able to find as wide a tire (if you want wide) that'll maintain the same equivalent OD. They also have a fairly useful comparison chart for each tire category.

 

Yeah, there's a good selection is 235/55 with similar prices. Only 2 in 255/50. The ratings are useful, to a degree, but something I see all the time with customer ratings on the internet is that when something isn't quite to the liking of the purchaser, they rate like, 1's or 0's to voice their displeasure, rather than giving the product a fair score, and then explaining why.

Also, the ratings for a given tire are for all sizes and applications of that design on all vehicles. Now, I'm not saying it's useless information but I thought some folks around here that have the same car, likely with similar expectations, and that are willing to write out both the positives and negatives of a tire would be better suited.

 

So, no one here has re-shod their pony in 17" rubber?

 

Since you're in TX, you can disregard the all season tires, leaving you some nice choices in a summer tire. I really don't think you need the gripiest tire since your sig doesn't indicate a lot of power adds so I'd say it's up to price and one that's very good in rain. I don't put a ton of stock in what the masses say since there are so many variables that will skew the info. I'd pick a few choices, post those and see what comments you get.

 

Have you looked at any of the offerings from Nitto or Toyo (tire mfrs), or from places like discounttire.com, vulcantire.com, or 1010tires.com?

Some places in TX probably do get cold enough to where a summer tire isn't giving its best grip, but on the other hand if you can get 50,000 miles out of the original tires you shouldn't worry about getting only 10,000 miles out of any tire with more than about a 140 treadwear rating or that is specifically advertised toward street tire autocrossing.


I'd tend to give Tire Rack's testing commentary more weight than a few scattered adverse comments from buyer reviews. Filter the buyer comments by vehicle, or at least to include only cars that use a live rear axle (ex. Camaro, Firebird).


Norm

 

Just do your research for a the set you think will fit best. everyone has different opinions on tires.

 

With what I've found I'm considering possibly the Kumho Ecsta ASX in 255/50/17 ($115, I like the slightly wider rubber, and they review 7.95 for spirited Fords on TireRack, with a lot of new Mustangs in the mix), or the stock Pirellis ($88 from NewTakeOff which review a slightly lower 7.63 for spirited Fords, mostly new Mustangs). Goodyear Eagle GTs ($121) also look potentially appealing.

Of course, there's other brands that I don't see alot about from tire rack... F'rinstance neither Nitto or Toyo are sold there, nor is Cooper (just one brand off the top of my head). And I can't seem to find much in the way of reviews for them, either on the other sites.

I'm off tomorrow, so I'll hit my local Discount Tire (down the block) and the local NTB (down the street) and get some quotes on what they have/sell and see what I can come up with.

 

I replaced my tires with the Fuzion ZRi 255/50/17 and was completely satisfied for daily driving and several track days. Handled and wore well. I know they are not all-weather but living in Texas, you should be fine if you avoid snow and just be carefull and don't drive hard at near freezing temperatures. In snow conditions, you really should have snow tires and not all-weather tires anyway. You will find the car handles better than stock and they are not wide enough to worry about tramlining.
The only other tire,I found in the same size was the Nitto and they are not readily available up here. As an aside, I did not drive them over the winter.

Cheers.

 

The Kumhos seem to be a better deal than the BFG KDWS. You can get them in all season 255/50/R17. That would be my choice if you want all seasons.

Regarding summer tires in that size Nitto makes two. Invo and NT555. Both should be good summer tires.