Has anybody tried this tire? I'm looking for a set of summer tires for my '89 BMW 325i in a 205/55-15. I'd normally wait a few months to buy them, but Costco has BFG on sale ($60 off a set) the next couple of weeks, and I've been wanting to try BFG anyway.
Other tires I'd consider are BFG Traction T/A, BFG G-Force Sport, Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2, and Bridgestone Turanza LS-V. The Turanzas and Pilots are egregiously expensive, and I think the Traction T/A and G-Force (and also Pilots) might be too hard-edged to suit the all-around use I'm looking for.
Has anybody tried these? I like the idea of a "touring" type tire, meaning a tire that is performance-oriented but without the stiff sidewalls and loud tread noise of an all-out performance tire. Something that will be comfortable, and last well, but still stick satisfyingly when pressed.
Opinions welcome.
- Glenn
BFGoodrich Touring T/A Pro
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I was in the Costco Tire Shop in the Durham, N.C. area Sunday morning.. I did in fact lay my hands on one of the new T/A Pros. It's a new model just getting into the tire shops now from what I understand. I had ordered a set of T/As V rated for my son's Mazda. Personnaly, I liked the looks of the Traction T/A V rated tires versus the T/A Pros. Shop around, you will find Costco's tire prices are hard to beat...
They are hard to beat. If I buy at the Tire Rack, shipping and mounting makes them more expensive than Costco, and that is without all the other perks and before the $60 coupon. However, Costco has disadvantages that usually outweigh the advantages for me.
Back to the tires, though. I too like the Traction T/A, but I want to avoid the tread roar that all "performance" tires seem to get after a while. I've noticed some comments about that in reviews of the Traction T/As, so I'm leaning away from them for now. They look like a great balance of traction and price, and they have a 60k mile (!) tread warranty, remarkable for a performance tire. I just find the noise objectionable. You know, when the tire is partly worn, and not only is there noise, but each tire is worn slightly differently, so you get a "beat" sound rrmmmmrmmmmrrmmmmrrrmmmrrrrmm as you drive, plus the noise from each tire. It seems to me that you don't have to give up much performance in the design to get rid of the noise, and I don't mind a slightly softer sidewall, so a "touring" tire appeals to me at the moment.
I'd be very tempted to go with the Turanzas. They sound like a first rate tire. But they're extremely expensive, have less warranty, and are less available. Also the Touring T/As might be just as good. I think BFG is positioning themselves at a price/quality sweet spot right now - a premium tire without a premium price. My hunch is they're a first-tier company that is largely ignored by the market, and they want to build their image and market share, starting with great tires at a good price. Sort of where Bridgestone was years ago. Now Bridgestone products are FULLY priced.
- Glenn
I can't find much info about this tire. There is no info on BFG's website. My guess is its a private-label tire for the warehouse clubs.
I did find a pic and the tread design looks a lot like the BFG Touring T/A, a tire that's been around a long time. The Touring T/A gets average reviews on Tire Rack. I seem to remember it was OE on Chevy Cavalier's and Lumina's in the 1990's. It strikes me as an old skool touring tire.
Give em a spin if you're interested but I wouldn't expect anything too wonderful from them. Based on your comments it sounds like the Bridgstone Turanza LS would be ideal. The Michelin Energy MXV4 would also be a good choice but they might not be as sporty as you'd like, plus they're expensive.
Hope this helps!
I bought a set of four of these last spring for my aging (1991, 200K miles) Infiniti Q45. They are certainly adequate for touring use, handle quite well, are quiet, and seem to be wearing quite well.
And I think this is a line of tires primarily marketed through warehouse clubs. I got mine at "xx Wholesale" (the censor program on this site does not allow me to use the actual letters instead of "xx"), which is a regional warehouse club primarily in the northeastern states.
I buy almost everything from Costco EXCEPT tires. I have seven vehicles and five drivers under my roof and have learned from experience which tires fit the driving style and performance/value needs of each vehicle/driver combination.
But Costco has their thumb up an orifice with regard to which tires they will sell you and mount on a specific vehicle.
For example, I get best overall highway performance from 255-70 x 15 BFG Radial T/A's on my Suburban. But Costco will not put these on my truck because they're CAR tires, even though the weight capacity (2100 lbs per tire) is the same as OEM truck tires.
And they won't mount SR or TR tires on my wife's and daughter's BMW's because the original equipment is HR or VR-rated. No matter that none of us exceed 80 mph, forget 130 or 150 mph. Not only do the high speed tires cost a lot more, they wear out much faster too.
These guys would probably faint if I told them I normally run 39 lb in my truck's "35 lb" tires! And I get 60-70,000 miles per set of tires from this 5-7,000 lb (depending on load) vehicle.
Have fun with the counter monkey like I did at Sam's a few weeks ago: Order the tires you want, then dismount the wheels at home and take them in back of your pickup to the tire place. Counter guy will stand there scratching his head for a moment, and you ask "is everything OK?"
He responds, "yeah, just checking something, what model car is this for again?" and I say "it's not for a car, they are for the 15"x8" rims in the back of that truck parked outside. You can scrap the rubber that's on them now." To which the now even more confused tire guy says "uh OK, just a minute." Goes outside, comes back in, makes call, scratches head some more, then "Did you want them balanced, sir?" To which I reply "No, can you un-balance them for me? The vibration keeps me awake while I'm driving drunk." (Smiling, wink, wink) Everyone has a good laugh, and I get the tires I want.
I don't know about this tire but I just put a set of the BFG Premier Touring tires on the wife's minivan. These tires are made exclusively for Costco. No one could touch their price in the same type of tire. The savings easily paid for my membership fee this year. Ratings of 640 treadwear, A traction, B temperature, 70000 warranty. They were just what she needed. By the way the original dunlops only went 30000 miles.
The Touring T/A is being discontinued and replaced by the Traction T/A. I was going to buy some Touring T/A's, but they didn't have my size any more, and I didn't want a directional tread pattern, which the Traction T/A has.
We're kind of reviving this thread, but for the benefit of someone else with the same question, the Touring T/A's were an upper middle class tire in terms of handling. I chewed off 5 sets of them in the N. CA mountains. They came OE on the company issued sedans I used to get. The treadlife was about 30-50% of the aftermarket A/S tour tires I always replaced them with. The T/As handled a bit better at the limits, but I always chose replacement tires with a more aggressive A/S tread design to better handle the late and early snow I had to cope with.
I have a set of Traction T/As on the wifes Celica, and the results have been good. Handling seems very good for an H rated aggressive all-season. Rain performance is also very good. Although the directional tread has a bit of stair-stepping to it, noise has not been a problem yet, and the tires are about 50% worn. Treadlife has been about average - unremarkable either way.
I expected to have to reverse them during the rainless CA summer to prevent them from getting noisy and rough, but that has not been a problem. Overall, I would recommend them for better than average traction in all conditions, and very good performance in heavy rain conditions.
FWIW, I am running a set of Bridgestone Turanza LSV 225/60R16 on my 99 Chevy Lumina sedan, and they are the best tire I have used for street duty. Yes, they are very expensive. They also stick like glue, even and especially on wet surfaces. If you want to go 85mph in a driving rain, there are better choices in tires with a more open tread design, but for all around use, these are great.
Two notes, they are stiffer than you would expect in a touring tire. Not a bad thing in my book, but noticible. They are also noisier than you would expect in a tire that has a conservative, non-directional tread pattern. It is a high frequency sing at higher speeds that I noticed immediately in my vehicle. You may or may not notice this depending on how readily your vehicle transmits high frequency noise.
The tires seem to wear very well, particularly for a V-rated tire. Two thumbs way up on these (but no hands on the wallet!).
[ April 11, 2006, 01:39 AM: Message edited by: mzugg ]
They look like a OK tire. I noticed one thing, they are not made in BFG or Michelin plants, they are made in Korea at a Hankook factory, since I looked up DOT T7, and it's registered to Hankook.
quote:Thats cause it is a lawsuit waiting to happen. No good tire shop will do that favor for you unless they know and trust you.
And they won't mount SR or TR tires on my wife's and daughter's BMW's because the original equipment is HR or VR-rated. No matter that none of us exceed 80 mph, forget 130 or 150 mph. Not only do the high speed tires cost a lot more, they wear out much faster too.
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