It's about time to replace the tires on my LS400. I'm trying to find
some decent information, which is hard especially since I got burned
last time I did a bunch of research. Last time I did what was a pretty
respectable amount of research and bought Falken ZE512's, which has
proven to be a terrible decision. Website reviews on places like
eopinions on just about every tire there is are about evenly split
between "it rocks" and "it sucks" so it's pretty useless.

My first priority is that the tires are quiet and give a good ride.
Next, I want them to last a decent interval, and still be quiet with a
good ride for the whole time, not just the first few thousand miles.
Handling is third priority, since most of my Lexus driving is done on
highways or commuting -- I won't be carving up mountain roads with it.
After getting burned by the cheap Falkens I won't make low price a high
priority, but I don't want to overpay either.

I would appreciate any advice, or any pointers to good sources of info.

thanks!

On 29 Nov 2006 11:39:46 -0800, xyzzy.dude (AT) gmail (DOT) com graced this
newsgroup with:


We have three Lexi in our family. An LS, ES and a GS. I have on my
LS430 Sumitomo's. Nice ride, quiet and inexpensive. I like them.
Excellent traction on wet pavement.

My wife has Bridgestone Potenzas on her ES300. By far the best tires
we have ever owned. Very quiet, superior snow and rain traction and
we've got 60k
on them and I estimate about another 5k before we'll need to change
them.

On our daughters GS300, we have SP 5000's. They're "ok" but their
noiser than the Potenza's. Traction is about the same as my
Sumitomo's.

The *best* place, IMHO to check out and order tires is Tirerack.
www.tirerack.com

Actual tests on the tires by the Tirerack team as well as opinions
from people who's bought the tires. Prices are excellent and they
can drop ship to your house, place of business or a local authorized
Tirerack install facility. Delivery is usually within 2-3 days.

Costco *used* to be a great place to buy tires until they started
selling Michelins almost exclusively. As far as cost goes, they're
better than local retail tire stores for Michelin's but they're still
expensive tires and debatable quality in comparison to other
comparable tires in the same performance/reliability range.

Our 2003 RX330 SUV has Michelin in it, very quite ride, stick to the
road, we are very satisfied with it. It is much better then OEM
Goodyear that previously had.

My 1997 SC400 has KUMHO tires in it. Very good traction, but kind of
noisy and no as good handling as Michelin. But it is almost half of
what Michelins' cost.

Hope this helps,

V.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
max (AT) dontspam (DOT) me wrote:

In the last 30 or so years of driving Michelins I have not had one
problem with them - no blow outs, no bad treads, no bad traction
problems. Sure they cost more, but they do tend to last longer and they
are safe. I tend to drive my cars hard, so I appreciate safety. I even
paid $10,000 more for the early collision prevention thingy on my
current rattle trap. Needless to say, I am going to replace its lumpy
little Dunlop tires with Michelins. But then I like as much safety as I
can get. I also like reliability. Now if I could only find reliability
and comfort in one car.

On 3 Dec 2006 17:59:53 -0800, "mcbrue" <mcbrue (AT) aol (DOT) com> graced this
newsgroup with:


If only you'd have a blowout at 80mph....