Thursday night, on the way home from her weekly domino game
, Mom skinned a curb with her RF tire.
No visible damage to the wheel, or even the wheel cover, but that tire now has a blister/bubble on the outer sidewall. Some background:
Car: 1994 Mercury Grand Marquis, 4.6 L V-8,RWD
Tire size: 215/70/15, stock steel wheels
Tires: Regul Pacesetter Plus ww(off brand, mfg by Kelly?); warranty 72 mo/60,000 miles
Tires mounted: 7/22/03, at 84,504 mi
Now: 10/29/06, at 107,954 mi
So: 3yrs, 3 mo old; 23,450 miles; 2 on front now have rounded tread, 2 on back very good, evenly worn tread.
And: in the past month-6 wks she's spent about $800-$900 on the car at the local dealership, it uses no oil, shifts fine & should be good to go for at least another couple of years. The car itself was paid for long ago, of course- she's owned it since Jan. '96.
Many years ago I drove a total of thousands of miles without mishap on blistered tires like that, but know it was foolish, & sure don't want my 77 yr-old Mom driving on that tire.
So, gotta replace *at least* one tire, two would be better, plus have the alignment checked(too bad, was aligned about month ago!
)
I've never been that happy with the way these tires drove on that car, and they are kinda noisy on most road surfaces, very noisy on rough surfaces.
Option 1: if the seller will allow enough toward a new tire, just replace that one tire with a new one, same brand/model assuming they still make it- pretty sure they do. Certainly the cheapest way to go, & just wait another year or so to replace the tires- thus throwing away a tire with less than 10K on it. Honestly, I think that's sort of throwing good $$ after bad.
Option 2: replace both front tires with something different. I've been looking around hard, & pretty well settled on the Kumho Touring A/S 795 in the stock size(215/70/15). On my 2nd set of Kumhos on the Neon now, they offer excellent bang/buck IMO. The national chain Discount Tire shop in Longview, TX has those in stock, & it'll cost about $160 out the door for two. I've read *lots* of reviews on this tire from TR & DT, & virtually everyone who puts them on big cars likes them a lot. Lotsa folks remark on how quiet they are too. Get two new better tires, keep the two good Reguls for now, & maybe replace the Reguls with 2 more Kumhos next summer.
Option 3: Just go whole hog & install a full new set of the Kumho A/S 795s. Might even consider a slightly narrower tread for possible(miniscule) gas savings, say 205/75/15.
#3 seems unlikely, though the guy at Discount Tire said they might make some small trade-in allowance. Assuming no trade in allowance, ~$322 out the door for a whole new set of the Kumhos.
#1 certainly the cheapest way to go for now, but it'll wind up with unmatched treadwear on at lest one axle.
Strongly leaning toward #2 for now. What do you think?
Car: 1994 Mercury Grand Marquis, 4.6 L V-8,RWD
Tire size: 215/70/15, stock steel wheels
Tires: Regul Pacesetter Plus ww(off brand, mfg by Kelly?); warranty 72 mo/60,000 miles
Tires mounted: 7/22/03, at 84,504 mi
Now: 10/29/06, at 107,954 mi
So: 3yrs, 3 mo old; 23,450 miles; 2 on front now have rounded tread, 2 on back very good, evenly worn tread.
And: in the past month-6 wks she's spent about $800-$900 on the car at the local dealership, it uses no oil, shifts fine & should be good to go for at least another couple of years. The car itself was paid for long ago, of course- she's owned it since Jan. '96.
Many years ago I drove a total of thousands of miles without mishap on blistered tires like that, but know it was foolish, & sure don't want my 77 yr-old Mom driving on that tire.
So, gotta replace *at least* one tire, two would be better, plus have the alignment checked(too bad, was aligned about month ago!
I've never been that happy with the way these tires drove on that car, and they are kinda noisy on most road surfaces, very noisy on rough surfaces.
Option 1: if the seller will allow enough toward a new tire, just replace that one tire with a new one, same brand/model assuming they still make it- pretty sure they do. Certainly the cheapest way to go, & just wait another year or so to replace the tires- thus throwing away a tire with less than 10K on it. Honestly, I think that's sort of throwing good $$ after bad.
Option 2: replace both front tires with something different. I've been looking around hard, & pretty well settled on the Kumho Touring A/S 795 in the stock size(215/70/15). On my 2nd set of Kumhos on the Neon now, they offer excellent bang/buck IMO. The national chain Discount Tire shop in Longview, TX has those in stock, & it'll cost about $160 out the door for two. I've read *lots* of reviews on this tire from TR & DT, & virtually everyone who puts them on big cars likes them a lot. Lotsa folks remark on how quiet they are too. Get two new better tires, keep the two good Reguls for now, & maybe replace the Reguls with 2 more Kumhos next summer.
Option 3: Just go whole hog & install a full new set of the Kumho A/S 795s. Might even consider a slightly narrower tread for possible(miniscule) gas savings, say 205/75/15.
#3 seems unlikely, though the guy at Discount Tire said they might make some small trade-in allowance. Assuming no trade in allowance, ~$322 out the door for a whole new set of the Kumhos.
#1 certainly the cheapest way to go for now, but it'll wind up with unmatched treadwear on at lest one axle.
Strongly leaning toward #2 for now. What do you think?