Consumer Reports Tire Review
 

The November issue of Consumer Reports has an excellent review of ultra high performance tires. I was quite happy with my brand new Bridgestone RE960's until they let me know they were crap. To stop the suspense, the top tires were the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 and Pirelli P-Zero. They rated a total of 36 tires.

Check the thread here for the full scan....

http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-general-discussions/13459-tire-should-i-buy.html

I looked at that article plus an older consumer reports tire article. I don't understand why everyone told me I'd go broke on tires with this car.

From their reports, it looks like you can get a set of falken ziex 512's for about 400 bucks, and those tires seem to be at the top of the pack relative to all of their more expensive all-season competitors. Seems like a good choice to me!

I had a C230 sport Kompressor that had expensive Michelin's on it. After only repeatingly getting 10-12K miles on a $1000+ set with relatively VERY normal driving, I decided to go with $400-500 Falken sets for the last 2 tire changes and not only did my tread life improve significantly, for day-to-day driving the difference was purely neglible. It was traded in for a new 2008 C350 Sport a month ago and the tires still looked and performed great.

:cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

I had a C230 sport Kompressor that had expensive Michelin's on it. After only repeatingly getting 10-12K miles on a $1000+ set with relatively VERY normal driving, I decided to go with $400-500 Falken sets for the last 2 tire changes and not only did my tread life improve significantly, for day-to-day driving the difference was purely neglible. It was traded in for a new 2008 C350 Sport a month ago and the tires still looked and performed great.

BTW, Here is a pic of my new 2008 C350 SPORT. Love the car!

http://www.tractorforum.com/c350.JPG


:cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

meerzee,

Sweet ride ! MB had an event in Chicago about a month ago and I had a chance to test drive the new C class - what a car ! I really liked it. Not quite ready to dump my 98 C280 yet though...

( Do you live in New Orleans proper or in the burbs ? I went to school in Alabama and had a lot of friends in Mandeville and Metairie )

Good luck with the transport of your Boxster. Look forward to seeing pictures when it finally arrives.

Nick

I live in Metairie near the lakefront. I have lots of family in Mandeville and nearly moved to Marigny Trace subdivision (new homes being constructed in the back) after Katrina, but the prices were SKYROCKETING then so I decided against it for now. I may end up back there, but I have 2 homes to sell first. One of which should be closing by end of this month. (I hope) --- So, I hope the Boxster shows up some time and hopefully in one piece, if not, I guess I just have to find another car and start over with my Porsche experience... :D

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, I love the C350.

I really like my PS2's performance, good and sticky, much better than the Falkens I use as my winter tires. But I think when I finally wear out the front PS2 tires, I will need to put on a cheaper set. It really seems like as soon as I put a set of rear tires on, they seem to start to wear away before my eyes. Its almost like if I take a fast sweeping onramp, I could look behind me a see a trail of my nice sticky tires on the road ( I dont, it just seems that way from how they wear.)

I got about 5K out of my first set of rear PS2's. I chalked up the low miles to me learning about what the limits of traction were with the tires. I now have a little over 2k on my second set of rears and I have been behaving myself with hopes of doubling that milage with the second set, no way, even with only 2K on them you can see the wear.

Its interesting to me how much the rears wear compared to the front tires. It looks like the front tires with 7K on them sare showing less wear than the rears with 2K. I thought I would have to go through two sets of rears until the fronts were gone, but it looks like it will be 3 sets of rears to one set of fronts. BTW, I'm pretty sure my alligment and tire pressure are setup properly, interesting cars, these Boxsters.

Ed

:dance:

When I need a new toaster or info on a new vaccuum, I go to Consumer Reports. When I want info about car stuff, I look elsewhere.

Just my $.02.

I ALMOST waited long enough to buy the new C class, but I didn't have the patience. We have a baby on the way, so we traded in the new toyota solara for the four door lexus IS250. About 2 weeks later, they started showing up at Benson. Oh well, it's a great looking car!

I too will skip consumer reports for automotive reviews. Next year, they will have the same tire review with completely different results. The Oreck vaccuum will always top their list though.