Need help -- get Nitto Invo tire, or Michelin PS2 at twice the cost?
 

I've got a 2007 Boxster S which I've been thoroughly enjoying for the past 3 1/2 years. Time to replace the rear tires. So far I've always replaced the tires with the Michelin PS2's. A friend has highly recommended I try the Nitto Invo at half the price (and he says the same performance.)

At www.discounttiredirect.com the two tires both get four out of five stars rating.

Also, I'd be replacing the rear tires ONLY, as the front tires still have lots of miles to go!!!

So what say you all?????

Skip the Invo. Good tires, but there are better ones out there for that price. Check out Sumitomo HTRZIII. Probably closer in performance to the PS2 than the Invo.

Dunlop Direzza Star Spec Z1

i just got the sumitomos and am not sure how i feel about them yet. just driving around they feel softer than the potenzas i replaced. they are quieter but that's not my main concern. i know most people who have switched to the sumitomos have given good reviews.

BUT if you're just replacing the rears and leaving the fronts alone keep the same tire. you can ask the tire place to give you the two front ( which i did ) in case you want to switch back then you only need to buy 2 more tires.

Never mismatch front & rear tires.

Bite the bullet and buy another rear pair of PS2, once the front gets worn the same as the rear replace all 4 with Dunlop Z1 Star Spec.

Since they don't have the size of the Z1 Star Spec I need...
 

...which is closest that will fit?

My current tires are:

FRONT: 235 / 35 ZR19
REAR: 265 / 35 ZR19

THANKS...............

I just replaced the Pirelli Neros N rated ones I had with a full set of Hankooks Evo V12s. Extremely pleased with them. All 4 for $600.

CR

Agree with Ekam, you need to change out all 4 if you plan on going with a diffrent brand.

i have the htzr II sumitomo's and they handle well.

PS2 s are so overpriced like porsches . I think hankook make's a better tire

Can you explain why this is important? Logically, side to side tire differences could cause handling issues, but front and back? If the rears are worn, they're already different than the fronts. What harm is it to put new ones on the back and wait to get full usage from the front before replacing them.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=31

"How many tires do I need?

Since tires affect the personality and performance of your vehicle, all four tires should be as identical as possible or handling problems may arise. If your tires don't match, it is possible that one end of your vehicle won't respond as quickly or completely as the other, making it more difficult to control.

A PAIR OF TIRES?

If two of your tires have a lot of remaining tread depth, but you need to replace the other two because they were damaged or have worn out, you should replace them with a pair of tires that come as close as possible to matching your existing tires. While identical new tires are desirable, others of the same size and type can also provide good results. Only consider selecting new tires that are from the same tire category as your existing tires. New tires should be installed on the rear axle."

Ok, what I get from that is: tires on one end should match general category as the other end, but that's a long way from "Never mismatch front & rear tires."

It's the unpredictability and the mismatch handling characteristics of the front & the back tires that's the issue. Why are you not matching them, unless the tires are discontinued. For many people, it's money, but I never could figure out why people want to save money on a safety item.

Imagine driving in wet or icy conditon and unexpectedly losing and regaining either front or rear grip. Are you ready to handle your car in that condition in a narrow road or on the busy interstate? Not saying that's going to happen tomorrow when you take your car out but that's why they call it accidents.

I don't think it's an economic issue necessarily. Tire selection in general is always a compromise taking into account all of the conditions that will be experienced. The best dry tires are not the best in rain and vice versa. Four identical summer tires are not going to help you on that icy patch.

As an experienced auto-crosser I've slid from one end on one turn and the other end on the next with four identical tires. Unfortunately there is no tire combination that can compensate for driver error.

There is no excuse for driving on inferior or damaged equipment at any time but its been my experience that two brands of matching tires of similar specification on opposite ends do not adversely effect handling.

Each tires have its own limit on wet/dry/cold/warm/icy/snowy conditions, not to mention different wear levels and there's already so many variables out there, using mismatch tires just throws another unknown variable out there that will effect handling that can be minimized. It's fine if you want to play with different tires at auto-x or at the track, but on the street there's very little room for error when you have other cars around you. That's my 2 cents.

I had the same dilemma....... This time buy the Michs. Since rears outwear the fronts 2-1, replace them all with a suitable and cheaper alternative as suggested by posters above. Don't mix brands, etc.
That's what I'm doing when my Contis wear out this time. I don't drive wild enough to justify overpriced tires on a car that gobbles them up too soon.

Don't mix and match different brands and/or models of tires. As some of the members have indicated, tires have certain characteristics that are unique and peculiar to themselves alone. I agree, that you should either replace just the tires that are worn with the same brand and model, or opt for 4 new tires that are the same. I would caution you to steer clear of the Goodyear Eagle F1's. Despite their good performance, they produce a
ride that is harsh enough to knock your dental work out. Furthermore, they were a bastard to road force balance . In fact, on a couple of occasions 2 out of the 4 tires where so far out of "spec" that they would not balance within acceptable figures and consequently had to be replaced . Unfortunately, Goodyear only agreed to warranty 1 of them .

I call BS on the alarmism about mixed tires. The front and rear are of a different size on these cars anyway. Sure, there may be some incremental change in the balance of how the car behaves and I would like a matched set of all four for extreme conditions, as going to the track - but for street traffic, where at least I never go anywhere near such margins that this would be significant, I'll happily be e.g. replacing worn rear tires before the front tires.

The safety rules for this would be not to mix on the same axle and not to have significantly worse shape tires in the rear than up front so as to avoid surprising oversteer.

edit: oops, didn't note the dates. Sorry for kicking a dead horse.

The manufacturer, retailer (Tire Rack) or you the driver can neither predict or explain the handling of your car if you mix brands. A great tire may be on a car that handles terrible or a crappy tire may work surprising well. These combos have not been evaluated or tested, so it's anyone's guess how well or safe the car will perform. Yrs ago grandpa bought any tire that was on sale and bought 1,2, 4 or whatever and didn't have a problem. But all tires were crappy then and he wasn't driving a performance sports car (not my gramps anyhow). Dad always bought recapped snows for the rear. That was common and worked fine.

This is always an interesting topic, reading opinions as different as the colors of a rainbow.

FWIW I'll throw in my 2cents as I am sort of the crash test dummy of tire choices and mix-n-match. So far just tests, no crashes:) I have rarely run 4 of the same tire on the street.

First of all the OP is on 19s so he has few good choices and they are all pretty $$$$. Of the size he needs only the Bridgestone Potensa RE050A will be a close match in terms of wet traction, ride quality, and dry grip. The Continentals will be ok but not much savings so might as well stick with PS2s. The Nitto Invo is a decent tire but not a close match to PS2s. I would not put 2 on the rear. None of the other tires mentioned as substitutes in this thread are available in that size. This was a pretty good comparison test for those of us on 17-18 wheels:
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/comparisons/09q2/tire_test_nine_affordable_summer_tires_take_on_the _michelin_ps2-comparison_tests

Over the years I have swapped mismatched tires around a lot and while most have been a pretty close match, a few sets were horrible. For kicks we ran a set of Conti Sport contact 2s on the front and put on a set of Kumho All Season tires on the rear and ran a session at Spring Mountain to see what would happen. It was terrible... like driving on unpredictable ice with a lot of breakaway oversteer. I managed a few off in the dirt moments and decided these tires didn't play well together. We pulled the Kumho's and ran Sumi's on the rear... balance restored. A good match and the tires were excellent on the dry track and even later in the rain.

I am currently running out an older set of Pilot Sports on the front and put Nitto NT05 on the rear on my 17 street wheels. The Nitto's have a much higher level of dry grip and are pretty good in the rain. They are more of an extreme performance tire than the Pilot Sport so the result is more "push" and the ABS will kick in early under heavy braking in the wet or on painted surfaces. I can live with that on the street. The NT-05 rears never let go. Once I finish off these front Pilot Sports I may go with NT-05s all around.

I guess the moral of the story is: if you are going to mix-n-match, make sure your rears have better wet/dry grip than your fronts and the car will be predictable. The closer you match tread style and tire compound, the better your balance will be.

He's right but get this..
 

bobiam is correct but in my case The Tire Racks recommendation for snow tires for the SLK230 was absolutely dangerous. Add to that the fact the tires were the same brand and Tire Rack said " these new Blizzaks should be compatible with the Blizzaks you have on the front.

As one of the other posters offered, the front and rear of the car acted like they weren't connected to one another and the car wanted to change ends, if you made any sudden turns with the steering wheel.

Totally wrong information from them and I won't do business with them again. Their recommendation was dangerous to say the least.

So if you want to mismatch brands go right ahead it's your life, just let me know what roads you take so I can go a different way! :D

Anyone ever drive a car with a spacesaver spare tire? Did you adjust your driving accordingly? How about a new Cayman R with a slow leak in the right-rear tire, leaks to 10psi? Drive your 1967 El Camino SS 100 miles on the freeway at 85mph to buy a used refridgerator & drive 85mph back home? Are any of these vehicles unsafe to drive? Does the driver need to make adjustments to their driving style to allow for the reduced capability of their vehicle? A driver should never exceed the capability of their vehicle or driving skill. It's like building a race engine: the weakest link will break first. Tires are no different, if you choose to downgrade the handling capability of your car you must adjust your driving to suit the weakest link.

I haven't had to replace the rubber on mine yet. Why would the rear tires wear at a rate 2:1 faster than the front? According to one poster and not previously challenged or questioned. Very curious.

The rears typically wear faster than the fronts since they are doing all of the work in moving the car (propulsion) and Porsche drivers tend to be a little (hah!) lead-footed. And the majority of typical driving is mostly in a straight line so the fronts are just along for the ride and not really doing much work.

Fronts will typically wear at the same rate as the rears if you are doing a lot of canyon carving or other driving where you're spending a lot of time cranking it in the corners. In this case, the understeer built into the car will cause the fronts to scrub and wear at a rate similar to the rears.

If you track at lot, you are cornering hard on a fairly continual basis so you may find the the fronts wear even faster than the rears, especially if you haven't adjusted your tire pressures correctly and/or increased negative camber to minimize understeer and even out the wear across the tire (inside to outside).

Thanks for that. I spend half my time in the city and half in the mountains - so I guess I'll see what comes of my situation. Unfortunately the "wider in the rear" set up eliminates the ability to rotate all the way around.