Nankang, Sumitomo, Nexen and other inexpensive tires
 

I know the top line tires are Michelin, Bridgestone, and Continental. I don't have $800 to spend on tires and I don't do anything too crazy with my car. I use it mainly to get to work and the rain season is coming soon so I need some good inexpensive tires.

I bought Nankang NS20 tires yesterday, they went for $92 rear and $68 front. Does anyone have any experience with these tires? I've been searching past posts and google with some luck but they're outdated. Most the reviews I've seen were positive though. I can always return these tires if needed.

IMO any second tier tire will wear about twice as fast as a Michelin or other Top tier tire. You get what you pay for.

I have a set of Nexen's on my boxster for two years now, they are wearing fine and handle good

There where Kumho's on the rear when my car was purchased. It seems they lasted @ 20,000 miles. Fairly even tire wear across the carcass. I opted to replace with the same tire - they should be here in a few days. I figure for the price - I left no tread unused.

Not familiar with those brands. I was running BF Goodrich g-force KDW (the ones with the cool tread), but they quit making the correct sizes . I just switched to the g-force Sport Comp 2's. Very happy with both tires, and they don't break the bank. About $500 a set, shipped from TireRack.

Bridgestone Potenza RE760's(225/45r17 & 265/40r17) around $480 shipped straight to my house from TireRack and found a small local tire place to mount and balance at $10 a wheel(carry in) :) . But if you're looking for tires that aren't top brand, also look into Federal tires and Cooper tires.

Sumitomo HTR Z III is a good max performance summer tire, I use them as my street tires and have done some track and autocross days with them. In 17"s a set of 4 is,around $400'ish with the backs being slightly more $$ than the front. They last pretty good, in my experience 30,000+ on the fronts and 15,000+ on the backs.

Not overly familiar with the Nankang tires, but on my daily I also decided to go cheap and put on some Primewell Sport AS tires. It's the Hibdon's house brand and was $304 for the entire set, mounted and balanced with lifetime road hazard warranty.
So far put about 10,000 miles on them. They perform well with no appreciable signs of wear.
This is the same car that ate through my expensive Michelins in about 20,000 miles.
We'll see what the next 10,000 brings on the Primes.
My weekender wears Continental DWS's.

The Sumitomo HRIII are a very good tire. I have never put them on the Boxster, but have on other cars. I just put a set of Michelin Super Sports on for about $600. But that was rear only.

I have been through 8 sets of rears to my front set of Michelin tires. I do not spin the tires or drift. I do accelerate hard though. The magic of the 3.6l engine I suppose. I went through Sumis, toyos, Michelin, Falken and contis so far. The contis and the Michelin wear the longest. The Sumis were the shortest.

I have been running Hankook Ventus V12's on my street and track rims for a couple of years and I'm quite happy with the grip, wet traction, treadlife, and especially the PRICE. Cheap!

BTW, the Michelin PS2's I had on my new street rims a few years back didn't nearly as long as I hoped they would, but they were definitely superior tires to anything I've ever had. Quiet, sticky, and they didn't get out of round with age.

+ 1 for the Hankooks and Sumitomas. I run both and they perform just as well as the high priced ones at half the price. Used nothing but Michelin for 40 years and never did they stand behind a bad one. The last set I bought 3 of the 4 failed before they had 3000 miles on them and their representative ( appeared to be a 20 year old girl that had never really seen a tire up close ) told me they couldn't possibly have made a defective tire and it must be my fault. Even had 3 different Michelin tire dealers tell me that Michelin never will take responsibility for a defective tire and they can't adjust it. They think that because they have a relationship with Porsche that we are stupid enough to buy them no matter what.

I've got a set of Nankang NS20's for my autocross car. They are not the race tires (those are Hoosier A7). I jokingly call the Nankangs my state inspection tires, however, I really like them as a day-to-day driving tire. They perform well in the wet, make very little noise, and wear well, even with big camber. $400 spent every three years on the Nankangs helps to budget $1700/year for Hoosiers.

Mike689,

Reference tires for your Boxster:

1) I have been very happy with Sumitomo HTR Z II & IIIs.

2) They are about $300 for HTR ZIIs and $340 for HTR ZIIIs (that is a set of 4, 17 inch tires)

3) ZIIs are Ultra High Performance Summer and ZIIIs are Max Performance Summer.

4) This first tier and second tier stuff is BS. Tires are regulated they have to meet certain standards. All you have to do is check their ratings (Temperature, Traction, Wear). The better tires will be rated higher in each category, and of course you will pay more for higher ratings.

5) HTR ZIIs are rated 360 A A
HTR ZIIIs are rated 300 AA A

6) I've had both and I currently have HTR ZIIs on my 99 Boxster w/255,000 miles.

Just my 2 cents.
MNC-I

Thank you everyone for your input.

I have run nexen n3000 for 10 thousand miles. Had them on for the trip to parade, plenty of rain. Would recommend them for a daily driver.

I have faulken all weather great tire so far good grip. They retail about $85-$100 - when I need tires again I'll get the same ones.

Michelin Pilot Sport all around. Just did rears for $500.

Like riding on a pillow of air, stick like glue. Great grip.

The nankang tires aren't too bad. They're quite and feel pretty good so far. I just hope the wet traction is ok and it lasts at least 15k mile. I just changed the rear since the front are PS2 and they still have plenty of life in them. The rear PS2's I had before barely had any tread left. Next time I'll just change all of them with PS2's.

I have been running Hancook Ventus V12 Evo2 for a while and really like them for street and spirited back road drives. They perform really well dry and what little wet we get here in San Diego they were good as well

Not the best for the track or AX. When they get hot they get slippery. I found I need to drop the pressure from 30/36 cold to 30/32 hot for that use

I got a set of 18's mounted and balanced for $740 for all 4
Good tread life rated 320 I have around 8k on them and they have about 75% left