cc16177

Hello everyone,

This is my first time buying tires outside of the Northeast where I had to worry about snow. I've always used Continental Contiprocontact which worked very well as all season tires.

I guess for FL I want max performance summer tires? What does everyone recommend? I noticed there's a summer version of my tire but not sure if I should consider a different brand altogether.

Thanks in advance!

Munich77

I would get all seasons - Michelin Pilot Sport A/S.

Peachy

Why would you get all seasons in Florida? There's no snow. "Summer" tires is a misleading name, they work just as well as all-season tires in the rain. All season just allows you to drive in the snow, but not as well as snow-tires would.

I use Potenza S-04 Pole Position tires on my car but I don't use the stock rims. They're max performance summer tires, I live in California and I never go anywhere with snow.

Groganm@live.co

When it rains in Florida the roads get slicker than
snow covered roads in New England. Mercedes uses Michelin Primacy MXM4 and Conti Pro Contact tires as original equipment. Both are Grand Touting All Season. I've used both with excellent results.

Peachy

Know Your Tires: All-Season vs Summer
^Read this article

"All-season" doesn't mean the tire has great performance in all seasons. It means that the tire is a compromise—the designer traded wet grip to gain some mobility in snow, give drivers tires that could provide adequate year-round performance, and save them the trouble of changing their tires before and after the winter.

KEY08

Seems every time I visit Florida it is raining 50% of the time and coming down in buckets. If I lived in Fl I would want a tire that is safe for driving in heavy rain. I have no clue what tire that may be, however. I hope you find the right tire that performs as well on dry pavement as it does in a deluge.

Swoosht04

Tire rack has a pretty good setup that helps choose a tire for you. Check them out.

cc16177

I've looked but I'm curious if anyone has any particular recommendations they have personal experience with.

VegasE

They are ultra-high performance summer tires with great grip/cornering in dry and rain. The trade-off is most UHP summer tires last about 20-25K miles. If you want to compromise performance and get longer lasting tires, I like the Michelin MXVs, good for about 35K.

thefisch

I've heard from local tire shops that Michelin and Conti are best for MB. I've always used Michelin in Florida and they've been great. You can't go wrong with either.

Arrie

NOKIAN zLine. UHP tires that beat big names hands down and cost less as nobody knows about them (except me I guess). Nokian is known for winter tires and do not advertise hence the lower price.


Just changed a set after 33500 miles. The rear tires wore out as I forgot to rotate. Fronts still had 5 mm tread left. If I remembered to rotate could probably have used another 5000 milers. These were 245/45-R17 tires all around as I tried smaller rims for smoother ride but not make a big difference. Back to my factory staggered setup also with zLine.


Extremely good wet grip and quietest tires I ever had in any of my cars.


go to www.tiresbyweb.com if you want them. Dealers cannot buy other than who have contract with NOKIAN but "tiresbyweb" will ship for free.

jahquan3

I don't have a specific brand recommendation for you but if you're thinking of getting summer tires go for it. I think a lot of the all season differences is within the composition allowing it to function in colder temperatures without stiffening. The grip on a quality summer tire should be fine for the rain. Good luck and let us know what you settle on.

Arrie

Quoting my own post.


Just happened that I bent my right side original front rim so bad the car became almost impossible to drive at any speed above 60 MPH. Had to get new rubber for my 17" rims that I have. Went to NTB and the only one they had in 17" size was a Sumitomo tire. Not a good one but went for it to get something as they had a performance guarantee allowing refund against something else if I'm not happy. Well, I knew I was not happy after only 1 mile of driving on wet road. Just no grip compared to nokian zLine that I just took off.


Called the place and we ordered Michelin mxm Primacy tires that were put on just 7 days use of Sumitomo. I expected a lot better performance as these cost nearly twice.


What a disappointment! Wet grip is just slightly better than with Sumitomo but my slip control blinks very easily on wet road.


I had to really work to get the tires slip with the Nokian zLine on wet road surface and on dry was not possible at all.


This was just a FYI...

TheInfuse

South Florida driver here. I agree that the wet road performance is probably the most important factor here. It also seems that depending on where you live the roads are just TERRIBLE. I absolutely hate how bad the roads are in my area and as soon as I hit some fresh new pavement the ride improves 100%.

My tire and rim setup is pretty unique so I doubt my tire brand or sizes would be of any help..

jahquan3

What did you end up getting?
I got some ADVAN Sport A/S Yokohama's Ultra High Performance All-Season less then a year ago and I love them so far. Great in rain, solid in snow and the noise isn't bad at all for the price I paid. The warranty on them through tire rack is 5 years/ 50k miles. I've probably put about 20k on them already

fosterelli

I've been running Continental ContiProContacts for two sets (previous set un-staggered, new set staggered). With south Texas heat, lots of miles driven (average 200/day), and TONS of downpours & flooding, they have been decent with wear and great with grip. No hydroplaning, no traction control going crazy, and never wished I had something different.

listerone

Continental Extreme Contact DW are highly rated and I like them a lot.

GuestFromTampa

I have General G-Max on the rears and very happy with its performance. Would recommend it to anyone.
http://generaltire.com/tires/performance/g-max-as-03
on the front i have Hankook ventus v12 evo2 which is not a bad tire for its price.