Guys -

I need new tires finally, after 67k miles on the oem wranglers. Money is tight, and Id like to find replacements on a budget of $300-400. Id like to hear suggestions, but please, no $140 tires. I dont care how good they are, I cant afford them. I want something that will last, something that wont alter my 27 mpg highway mileage, and something fairly quiet. So treadwear, rolling resistance, and noise are all primary factors here. Im looking to spend about $50-80 a tire. Any suggestions?

I use the car for alot of highway driving, about 40k miles a year. No offroad tires will do for me. Ive spent hours looking through posts on this board, and at the survey results at tirerack.com, but the best tire I can come up with doesnt seem to be available in my area. The Kumho Road Venture, at $67 per tire, comes in a 225/75/16 size - which, according to other posts, will work on the Element....? But its damn difficult finding it stocked locally. I hate to spend $50 of my tire budget on shipping by using tirerack.com. Gotta be something available locally.

Id take any of your factory tires for $30 a piece, which is what people claim to let them go for, when replacing soon after taking delivery of the car. Ive read all the posts regarding how terrible the Wranglers are, but Ive had great experience with them. Granted, I also dont drive like a 16 year old anymore.
Ive never experienced wandering on the highway, or sliding in turns, or anything anyone else says about them.

Anyone put passenger tires on the E?

seems like the Coopers from this other thread are pretty much what you are looking for and at $420 a set, pretty close to your budget.
http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29071
Just a thought.

I went for the $140 tires myself....but I am usually much cheaper than that.

Cooper makes a similar quality tire under the Mastercraft label. I've had those on my RAV4 for longer than I've owned my Element.
paulj

I went for the $140 tires myself....but I am usually much cheaper than that.

Yeah, I admit, it would be so easy to drive down to walmart right now and order up any number of the more expensive tires. Very easy. Its shopping for a good tire at a good price that'll drive a guy insane. But Im sticking to my guns.

Thanks for the pointer on the coopers, I'll check them out. And the mastercaft tires too. Thanks guys! Keep the ideas coming!

That is were i purchased my General Grabber UHP tires for about $300.00 excellent tire i think i went with the 225/70/16's aggresive lookin tire, and handles good in wet and dry conditions. Great reviews for the tires also. You should check it out.

The Yoko Geolander HT/S is available for about $90each locally. Very nice quality tire, mostly "Highway" but should be decent in bad weather and light off-road. Supossedly very quiet too....it came highly recomended to me by my local tire guy, but I wanted something more aggressive for the types of driving/use my Element gets.

Will

I liked the yokos until I kept hearing how noisy they were.....another Element user here noted how they "sang" at 70mph. Tirerack reviews indicated noise was a big factor too. A recent post indicated Consumer Reports tested the worst rolling resistance on this tire too. It will affect mpg....

also should have mentioned that Im trying to steer clear of street rod truck tires.

have u tried tirerack.com

I got some awesome Pirelli Scorpians at The Tire Rack for around $94.00. Love the ride I get.

comes in a 225/75/16 size - which, according to other posts, will work on the Element....? ....Anyone put passenger tires on the E?

Did you mean 225/70 not 75 ? The 75 might be kinda tall, and mess w/ your fuel mileage a bit. 225/70 is just a tad taller than stock and hasn't seemed to affect my mileage.

What about the Avon Ranger TSE ? I've heard it mentioned a few times here on the board. The Kumho Solus ("Touring" not "SUV" tire if it matters) looks decent. A friend put some on the "commuter" minivan and liked 'em alot. He said the price was excelent, but he's worried about performance in the snow.

Have you posed a "Want Ad" in the Trading Post section? Maybe a local board member has some gently used stock Wranglers you can get cheap. Check dealer for take-offs too.

Good luck.

Will

No, you read right, I meant 225/75/16. I doubt I would select that size, knowing it would be overly large. I just fell in love with the Kumho price, and then later learned that was as close to stock as they made. Scratch the road venture off the list.....

Yeah, i saw the avon tire at tirerack, but it didnt even place in the survey table. Ive also been slowly looking at some pass car tires (touring you mentioned) and think I might go that way, as it becomes obvious an LT tire will not be had for under $100 a shot.

Im checking the prices of the pirellis, thanks!

firestone had a great tag line with their ads, 'where the rubber meets the road'
imho, tires are very important. find a good value, but don't go 'cheap'
i just got the same tires as honu (nokians) because here in the northeast, we get every kind of weather condition possible. plus they look awesome!!
check out yokohamas locally. i think the 'singing' from one member was a fluke.
good luck!

In terms of tire construction I don't think there is a lot of difference between (passenger) all-season and (suv) highway-all-season tires. There is some difference in tread design. Also the stock tire size is on the large end for all-season and on the small end for highway all season. Actually, you'd have to double check this, but there are few, if any all-season tires in the stock size.

225/60/16 is a common size for all-season, and there are some good deals in this size. It will work on the Element, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's a bit too small.

235/60/16 is a better choice for all-season. The diameter is close to stock.

A set of lightly used tires can be a good deal, especially if you are not picky about brand. I ran 225/70/16 GY Integritys for about 6000 miles before deciding on my current set of Coopers. The Integrity tires probably were takeoffs from a Pilot or minivan.

paulj

Well, I think I found my huckleberry. Called around to a few local mom&pop tire shops, and found some Hankook RH03 in the stock size at $88 each, out the door. This tire got good reviews from a recent CR study, posted in another thread, and we dont get much winter driving weather here in Kansas City. Kinda the equator of the US.

This is a bit over my budget, but I can cut it from somewhere else this month. My second choice before finding these were the BFG Long Trails, but the only cost-effective place to buy them would have been Costco, and that would have required a membership (additional $50). These tires got almost the same rating for rolling resistance as the BFG LT's, and that was a biggie criteria for me. I use the E for mucho highway travel.

I'll post a report on road noise as I get some miles under them. Thanks for all the advice fellas. These boards are great for educating yourself.