Tire Rack Ratings???

[CnP]

I am about to purchase new tires and am 90% convinced they will be the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus in a 235/55 x 17. I came to my decision based on what I have seen posted in the threads on this site as well as Tire Racks ratings. My question is this.............

How credible are the so called buyers reviews on Tire Rack? They rate the Pilot Sport A/S Plus @ 8.9 and 8.3 respectively for "ride comfort" and "noise comfort" and the OEM tires at a 6.9 and 6.3 respectively. Yet, from the posts I have seen the Pilot Sport A/S Plus is a harsher and noisier tire??? I really don't want a harsher and noisier ride but the tire I really wanted (Primacy MXV4) is on a national back order and Michelin says they will not begin to start manufacturing them again for another 4 weeks.

By the way................. I have the OEM's on the T'Bird that I just bought and they have 52,117 miles on them.

[2K2BIRD]

Re: Tire Rack Ratings???

Customer ratings are so subjective that I only listen to those I get from close friends. Since tires on many different vehicles, I would suspect they would behave differently on different cars especially when compared to the tires they had before. At least the information you get from owners here relates to how they respond on T-birds, assuming you can trust their butt-meter, ha!

Since you live in Michigan, are you using your car as a daily driver? Most folks that own these cars "up North" (as we say doen here) do not use them much or at all in the winter. If you fall into that category, what difference does it make if you have to wait 4 weeks for the tire you think you want?

[CnP]

Re: Tire Rack Ratings???

Unless it is an emergency, the car will not see much snow. Unfortunately however, I am sure I will have to drive it now and then in "light snow". With the way our 2 car garage is I have to back the car up a slightly inclined driveway and back it into our garage. The wife drives our awd 2010 Fusion to and from work 5 days a week. I am retired.

My second choice for a tire was/is the Michelin Primacy MXV4 but they are the ones on a 4 week national back order. I talked to Michelin this morning about that. I think Lonestar has the Bridgestone Turanza Serenity and from what I've read he is pretty happy with those except for the looks. I have to agree with him about the looks though. LOL.

I totally understand what you are saying about the subjective opinions.

[Lonestar]

Re: Tire Rack Ratings???

Yes, I had a set of Bridgestone Serenity and in my opinion they were smoother, quieter, and handled better than the OEM. However, I sold them as a package as there were mounted on a set of 21 spoke wheels I sold so I am now back on the OEMs.

I will couch the following by stating that everything below is accurate based on my understanding. If anyone knows different then please feel free to speak up.

First, in my opinion the A/S is a better choice for a Thunderbird than the Primacy MXV4. The Primacy MXV4 will allow the car to roll (sway) much more and will not be as sure footed in overall handling. As with the Pilot series, it appears that Michelin is expanding the Primacy series and have / will have everything from tires for grocery getters to moderate levels of “sports” cars. I place the MXV4 in the grocery getter category. They are OEM on some Japanese and Korean moderately priced sedans and minivans to help those things be a bit quieter and to provided assistance to lacking suspension systems (help smooth out horizontal cracks in the road and such). There is no doubt that the Primacy MXV4 on a Thunderbird would be softer and quieter on a straight section of road but other than that there would be little advantage, if any, over the A/S.

In regards to ratings. When you read the test results performed by the Tire Rack folks then you are reading their opinions based on whatever criteria they have established for evaluating tires. They also provide you a bar graph where they compare like type tires to each other. I have never seen a comparison of say a high performance grand touring tire VS a standard grand touring tire. They compare apples to apples in other words.

Now, when you see the ratings that are broken down by categories (dry, wet traction, ice, snow, hydroplaning, corning, response, ride comfort, noise level, treadwear) i.e., the “Survey Results”; these represent a culmination of the ratings people who have evaluated the tires in the Tire Rack survey have given. So, Tire Rack “experts” provide the testing results and Joe Public provides the ratings you see when you are looking at a specific tire. So how credible are the results? The people who generate the ratings are just like you and me and thus the rating represents our mental model of what is good or bad for each category.

[CnP]

Re: Tire Rack Ratings???

Ok.............. so............. A rating of 8.6 in let's say "noise comfort" for an "ultra high performance all season tire" may be very, very good but STILL might not be as good as an 8.1 rating for noise comfort for a "grand touring all season" tire, even though 8.6 is higher than a 8.3. The reason is because you can't really compare 2 tires in totally different classifications. Then you throw in subjectivity because a person could be comparing it to their z mart special that they have had on their vehicle for 60,000 miles.

I think I'm getting this. I think I'm getting this.

[Lonestar]

Re: Tire Rack Ratings???

I do not know if there are NTBs in your area but they currently have an exclusive $70. rebate on Michelins, $40. more if you use their credit card, and then $40. more for something else totaling $150. off. A few weeks ago everyone had the $70 mail in rebate for Michelin but now only NTB has it. Now I would suspect you would have to negotiate the price per tire for I think their price is not all that good as compared to Costco, Sams, Discount Tire, or Tire Rack.

[THX1138]

Re: Tire Rack Ratings???

I bought my bird with a little more than 25,000 miles with original rubber. The last set of Michelins I had was on my 61 Thunderbird that I put more than 120,000 miles on without a tire failure, when I was I crazy teen. I am sold on the brand, because of the outstanding service provided by the Michelin brand every time I've used them. I will replace the tires on my Thunderbird with whatever the Michelin tire is recommended for my TBird because they have demonstrated quality evey time I have used them.

[tbird6t4]

Re: Tire Rack Ratings???

I bought my bird with a little more than 25,000 miles with original rubber. The last set of Michelins I had was on my 61 Thunderbird that I put more than 120,000 miles on without a tire failure, when I was I crazy teen. I am sold on the brand, because of the outstanding service provided by the Michelin brand every time I've used them. I will replace the tires on my Thunderbird with whatever the Michelin tire is recommended for my TBird because they have demonstrated quality evey time I have used them.

Can't go wrong when you go with what you know!

Gord

[steelblue5505]

Re: Tire Rack Ratings???

I have the Michelin Sport A/S Plus on my 05 Bird. Put them on early Nov.
My Bird is our daily driver. From the very first day we have been very pleased with the performance of these tires. They are quiet and smooth. They have been in 5 inches of new snow as well as hard pack. They grip and hold tight.
I do not consider myself a aggressive driver but I do not go into turns gently. I usually hit a curve at the posted speed of the straight away not the cautionary yellow posted curve speed, these tires do not feel soft in the curve, but they also do not slide on the curve.
I enjoy having them on the Bird, they are directional tread and must be installed correctly and rotated correctly.
I recommend these tires to any retro Bird owner. I also would advise you to shop carefully not only for the best price on whatever tire you decide on but also exactly what you receive for your money for the install, mounting/balance, road hazard package, old tire disposal fees and after sale customer service such as rotations. Some major players are not the best price when you finally get ready to roll out the door.

[CnP]

Re: Tire Rack Ratings???

Thanks for all the information/opinions guys. As a result of all the wisdom I have gathered from this thread as well several other threads I think I have decided - It will be the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus in a 235/55 x 17. I got a pretty good price from Bell Tire - a large chain in SE Michigan - and will be going thru them. They have been good to me over the years from both a price perspective as well as a customer service perspective.

[blue731]

Re: Tire Rack Ratings???

Interestingly, I had a very good friend come over today who just bough a new car (Hyundai Genisis) which has ultra high performance sport tires as standard OEM. The tires work like crap for every day driving, so he investigated the issue, and got in contact with a former race car driver who is now a tire analyst. His take is that for the past few years, sport touring cars have been fitted with the wrong tires in order to perform at "track level" driving so that the reviewers will get impressive results when they do their high performance testing on the track for speed, handling, stopping, etc. His take is, "on the track, these tires are necessarily good performers, off the track, they are dangerous and cause many accidents, as they perform badly under normal driving conditions, particularly as they get near the 50% tread wear life".

I say this because the Bridgestone Turanza Serenity was mentioned in this thread. This happens to be the tire he recommended for both my friend's Genesis and the T-bird as one of the best choices of tire. The price point is very attractive, as it is less expensive than the MXV4, and as a note, he said that price has nothing to do with performance, that marketing costs play more for price difference than the technology or performance.

Just thought I would share something I learned - I am in the market in a month or two for new tires (all 4) and I'm leaning toward these.

[steelblue5505]

Re: Tire Rack Ratings???

You are correct about marketing controlling both performance & technology. That one point is so very true in almost every product. Back in the day when I was in the engineering dept. we often held meetings with marketing trying to arrive at a balance point between cost of manufacture and marketing price point to sell our product.

It kind of went like this; if marketing wanted a particular feature on our product the first question asked was does the competition have it. Then it was, what will it cost to build it with or without that feature and would it sell. Often marketing can make it sell and sometimes the product falls flat.

[Sweet T]

Re: Tire Rack Ratings???

I do not know if there are NTBs in your area but they currently have an exclusive $70. rebate on Michelins, $40. more if you use their credit card, and then $40. more for something else totaling $150. off. A few weeks ago everyone had the $70 mail in rebate for Michelin but now only NTB has it. Now I would suspect you would have to negotiate the price per tire for I think their price is not all that good as compared to Costco, Sams, Discount Tire, or Tire Rack.

NTB will match Tire Rack. Just show them a print out of Tire Rack's prices.

[justjon]

Re: Tire Rack Ratings???

I have to agree with the oem tires being best ... tires make such a ride handling difference I can't believe Ford would cheap out on such an icon and expensive car. would they??

[CnP]

Re: Tire Rack Ratings???

Just an fyi................

I ended up buting the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus in a 235/55 x 17. I have less than 50 miles on them so it's not really fair to compare them to the oem tires I had on the T'Bird when I purcahsed the T'Bird 2 months ago because there were 51,000 miles on them. But I will anyway. The ride, tire noise and handling is MUCH better. In general, there is a HUGE improvement in pretty much everything. However, I have not driven in light snow or wet roads yet and those 2 driving conditions are the main reason I wanted a different tire.