I'll be in the market for a set of 4 tires for the wife's car. It's a 2006 Hyundai Elantra. As of now I am looking at a set of Bridgestone Potenzas. I can get them at Costco for a few pennies under $400 out the door.

Anyone have any different recommendations? Does anyone have any experience with these tires?

The GoodYear Assurance Tripletred gets my vote, for good all weather traction and comfort.

This is what I had last time, before going to a cheaper tire and I really, really miss these. Best slick road tire I've ever owned.

Rick I believe Potenzas are what we have on the wife's car, they've been good tires so far. $400 seems like a good price too.

After checking out the highly rated Hankook Optimo H727's we decided to instal Toyo Versado's on my girlfriend's Honda, too early to tell after only a few weeks, but they ride nice and quiet. We bought these partly because I had Toyo Open Counntry HT's on my last Silverado which I felt were excellent (Winter directional stability was good due to the deep grooves in them, but traction was somewhat below average). Toyo has some decent rebates this spring that you may want to check out, if you go that way.

I can't comment on the Potenza's but a friend of mine has Bridgestone Duellers on his Sante Fe as does his wife on her CRV. His are lasting alright but hers were done after 60,000km(40k miles). Even though they are both Duellers, they have slightly different tread paterns on them for some reason.

I would check out the Hankook Optimo 727's as well as the Toyos. There's some other good brands out there too...

I've heard good things about the Potenzas and that seems like a very good price.

I just put Potenza's on my RX-8. Best tire I've ever driven on. Shockingly good in the rain, they just plowed through standing water like it wasn't there.

We got my wifes Michelens for her Honda Pilot at Costco, nice that you get a great price, and free rotations, and fixes anytime you have a problem.

We don't have a Costco but our Sam's bites for automotive purchases, I'd go in to get my free tire rotation and they would ask if I had somebody to pick me up. The lady in the automotive department is a real jerk to boot so I quit buying anything from them.

I now buy my tires from a local guy right up the street from the house who will match anybody's prices and any tire bought from him gets free lifetime rotation and balance. I've got nearly 190k miles on my little '08 Corolla that I bought new in '08 and it's been through it's share of tires, I buy the cheapest tires I can get, run the piss out of them and replace them with another set of cheapies. The guy gave me a killer deal on Terra Grapplers fro my truck too. Oh and Sam's ... they don't even have a rack that will lift a 3/4 ton pickup truck but "You can buy the tires here and have them installed someplace else though."

Oh really?

The very best tire I have ever had are Michelins.

I'm a big fan of Bridgestone Revos (maybe Dueller Revos, there are a few different tread types). The ones I like have odd diagonal tooth-shaped tread blocks and fairly soft rubber, so tread life is maybe 80% of other tires but snow ice & rain adhesion is *really* good. Might be light truck only though...

Then again I bought Revos because the Goodyear TripleTreads were impossible to find at the time. Never used the TripleTreads but they seemed like a no-brainer for northern US weather.

Don't know anything about Potenzas, sorry. Do you plan to run separate winter tires or same tire year round, and do you drive on salt or snow in the winter ?

These will be all season tires. Drove on dry, wet and snow.

Similar to the Goodyear Triple treads are the Yokohama TRZ's. I had those on a previous minivan and very much liked them, good ride, quiet and great traction - well, as good as you can expect on a mini van! The Potenza's do have a good reputation as well.

Rick I lied to you, my wife got in a few minutes ago and her tires are actually Bridgestone Turanza Serenity, not Potenza.

OK, Wid, I assume you're talking about 195/60-15s. I checked Tirerack.com and selected the highest rated tires (8.0 and above) and below $400 for 4.

The General Altimax HP - set of 4/ $284. High marks for comfort/quiet and performance.

Bridegestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Positions, set of 4/$348. Very high marks.

Continental ProContact with EcoPlus Technology. Very highly rated. Set of 4/ $328.

Hankook Optimo H727, very highly rated, set of 4/ $332 (I use a set of high performance Hankooks on my S2000. Love 'em)

I had a set of General GMax tires on my 2005 Acura RL. They were much better than the OEM Michelins. I recommend the Generals. If you cruise the Tirerack.com site and read the surveys and test comparisons, you'll be surprised at which modestly priced tires topped the most expensive ones.

Good luck!!

I'd put a lot of faith in the TireRack recommendations. I've had Continentals on my wife's Subaru for a few years, and I've never seen a tire wear so little! I think they'll die of old age before they wear out.
That said, Michelin has always been my personal tire of choice for performance and wear, but they tend to be pricey.

I haven't heard anything bad about Contis. I almost got a set for my S2000, but had to go with the Hankooks, combination of performance and price made it an Axiom like pick. Same for Generals for sedan service.

Rick, if it's 195/60-15, I'd suggest spending more and getting these .

I only buy Cooper tires. I much prefer them over the Goodyear's and Michelin's that I've replaced. The last set I had on my 300M (a two ton car) lasted for 8 years and almost 80k miles.

I ended up getting a set of Bridgestone Ecopia ep422s. They are really quiet and give a really smooth ride.

Over all with a $70 rebate the total price came in at around $385. This was at our local tire shop.

Can't believe I missed this thread...

I put a set of these on my 300C a couple of months ago and liked them so much I put a set on my kid's 78 El Camino. Other than dedicated track tires, these are the best tires I've had on a vehicle - ever. If they were available in the right size, I'd put 'em on my wife's car as well.

I recently bought a new set of Coopers (forget the model) for my wife's Mini Cooper. However, that was really only because she liked (read "insisted") that they continue to say "Cooper" on them to match the car.

That being said, they have been a great all season tire. The first year we had the car it even saw a little snow as it was our only vehicle for a bit due to an accident. Both the car and the tires did surprisingly well in light snow/slippery conditions but they certainly would not match a true snow tire and we didn't drive it in more adverse conditions.

I don't know a lot about street tires but if you ever need advice on off road traction, feel free to ask.

What happened to the good old days when you had a maximum of 5 or 6 different tires to choose from. My head hurts just looking at the array of tires available for a given vehicle.

It's nice that Tire Rrack puts them into different categories so a guy like me can make sense of them, but really, do we need performance, advanced performance ultra performance and ultra super-duper performance with extra more categories?

::Fred goes to tyre store::

"Hi. I need some summer tyres."

"What kind sir?"

"Um, round ones... with a decent amount of rubber, but not to much... and not so little that I look like a goof for not having alloy rims... maybe a little performancy, but not, like, ultra superdedupery performancy..."

That should narrow it down to a selection of around 200 models.

Kumho. Great performance, bummer of a name.

Gimme the black ones.

Sound like more of a command than a name.

I always hear it like "Hodor" from the Song of Ice and Fire books.