04 Acura TL Tires

[CJR238]

Just looking for some input on tires guys. I'm going back to my 235/45R17 and have used ToYo Proxes 4 with a W rating. They were very good performers however not so good in the snow and rain. I loved there stability at high speeds but want to have my cake and eat it too.

I actually liked the stock Bridgestone EL42's but they wore quickly and got flat spots when they sat for a while.

Any suggestions for a very aggressive driver on windy back roads and some 100mph + highway. Good choices i have been told are Yokohama AVID W4S & Continental Conti Extreme Contact.

[TSi+WRX]

Just looking for some input on tires guys. I'm going back to my 235/45R17 and have used ToYo Proxes 4 with a W rating. They were very good performers however not so good in the snow and rain. I loved there stability at high speeds but want to have my cake and eat it too.

The Toyo Proxes 4s, in the Subaru community, is known as a very capable all-season tire, but, as you said yourself, ranks lower in terms of winter-weather performance.

Along the sliding scale of tires that are popular matches to it, in our community, the Proxes 4's rank in-between the somewhat more fair-weather capable (but even less "winterable") Pirelli P-Zero Nero, and the more winter-capable (but softer sidewall'ed, even for aggressive street drivers) Falken ZIEX ZE-512 (that's right, the old 512s, not the newer 912s, which are less winter-capable than the 512s, but offer better performance otherwise).

I actually liked the stock Bridgestone EL42's but they wore quickly and got flat spots when they sat for a while.

Of the tires mentioned above, the P-Zero Neros also have a penchant for flat-spotting, particularly in colder weather.

Any suggestions for a very aggressive driver on windy back roads and some 100mph + highway. Good choices i have been told are Yokohama AVID W4S & Continental Conti Extreme Contact.

I've had no experience with the former, but with the latter, the Contis get high remarks from the Subaru crowd for their winter capability. Certainly, their compounding isn't going to be all-that, for sub-freezing weather, but their tread pattern is aggressive enough that you should be OK, provided that you do exercise due-diligence in wintry precip.

Our all-wheel-driven crowd, as of the last year, have really come to favor the following:

Yokohama Advan S.4
Goodyear Eagle F1 All-Season

Both offer "newer" tire-technology, compared with the Conti., Toyo, Pirelli, and Falken tires cited above.

Of "older" tire technology, the Kumho ASX also saw favor, particularly in the MazdaSpeed6 crowd.

Given that your vehicle is not AWD, though, as well as the difference in terms of weight distribution and overall suspension characteristics, I'd honestly say to take this question to your dedicated vehicle-specific hobbyist Forums, to see what your fellow TL drivers have to say.

Be sure to, as you've cited above, give them some idea of both your physical location (thus a decent description of weather) as well as your driving preferences and performance needs. The more background info., the better.

-------

Speaking of newer tires:

Something that recently caught my attention was the Kumho Ecsta LX Platinum:

Kumho Ecsta LX Platinum

- which offers a very, very interesting tread pattern, with typical "performance winter tire" tread ("waffle tread") on the inboard edge.

Although, theoretically, these should thus give better-than-average winter traction compared to other comparable all-seasons, I can't help but wonder what the tread compound may do, once it gets that cold, and whether or not these tires will actually see any advantage at all, over their more conventionally patterned counterparts.

[CJR238]

The Toyo Proxes 4s, in the Subaru community, is known as a very capable all-season tire, but, as you said yourself, ranks lower in terms of winter-weather performance.

Along the sliding scale of tires that are popular matches to it, in our community, the Proxes 4's rank in-between the somewhat more fair-weather capable (but even less "winterable") Pirelli P-Zero Nero, and the more winter-capable (but softer sidewall'ed, even for aggressive street drivers) Falken ZIEX ZE-512 (that's right, the old 512s, not the newer 912s, which are less winter-capable than the 512s, but offer better performance otherwise).

I've had no experience with the former, but with the latter, the Contis get high remarks from the Subaru crowd for their winter capability. Certainly, their compounding isn't going to be all-that, for sub-freezing weather, but their tread pattern is aggressive enough that you should be OK, provided that you do exercise due-diligence in wintry precip.

Our all-wheel-driven crowd, as of the last year, have really come to favor the following:

Yokohama Advan S.4
Goodyear Eagle F1 All-Season

Both offer "newer" tire-technology, compared with the Conti., Toyo, Pirelli, and Falken tires cited above.

Of "older" tire technology, the Kumho ASX also saw favor, particularly in the MazdaSpeed6 crowd.

Thanks, I will look into the Yokohama Advan S.4 & Goodyear Eagle F1 All-Season. They may work for me too, I just need a litle better snow and wet traction than the Proxes 4s.
The big thing I don't want to loose that i get from the Proxes 4s is really good stability. And I herd the Contis don't have the as good of stability.

These are the Conti's:Continental ContiExtremeContact)

I don't really care what I spend, but I find it funny how cheaper tires fair pretty well over expensive ones.

Update!! The guys on the Acura forums are morons. They are suggesting the most crappie tires ever. God help me.

Back to looking for a better Acura forum.

[upstatedoc]

^^ There is no good all season (snow performance) for the '04-'08 TL.

I put 4 Blizzaks on my '05 and it still wouldn't get up my hill, torque steer was a ***** too. The guys over on edmunds.com have mulled this issue over for years, maybe you can do a search of "Acura TL tires and wheels"
Good luck.

[YTCD]

The goodyear all season are really around the best your going to get. And the other options provided, theres really no great snow tire. Unless driving an AWD car your pretty much screwed anyways! Some scenarios regular tires can do alright but when you have those certain situations that your talking about going into then really the TL isn't going to do that great. Ice, no matter what car your in is screwed, haha.

[PMoth]

I've never seen a set of good all-seasons that performed well in snow. If performance is what you crave, get a set of high performance summers and a good set of winter tires. I believe the saying is "All-season tires = NO-season tires." My buddy has those Contis on his B6 S4 and loves them. But the S4 is pretty bad@ss and he does have Quattro!!!

[CJR238]

Thanks guys, I know there is no perfect solution but I want the best I can get. Its starting to look like the Goodyear F1's or Yoko AVID W4S. The conti's will be my alternative.
I actually haven't had to many problems with the Toyo's just that I want better. They always preformed well with snow and did real good on dry, and in all actuality they did pretty darn well all around. However if there is something better that's what I want.

Personally i feel front wheel drive does better than 4 wheel drive in allot of scenarios. I remember driving a 4wd S10 Blazer and it was all over the place but when i jumped into my old front wheel drive mini van it rocked.

My consensus is the Goodyear Eagle F1's are the best all around, and if they are better in the snow than the Proxies 4 than I will be happy. I drive way to aggressively in the other 9 months of the year to not get something with good performance.

After looking a a few TL forums the Goodyear F1's come up allot, would we agree they are the best?

[PMoth]

Yokos and snow do not mix!!!! I don't care which Yokos they are. Please look elsewhere.

And I'll disregard that "fwd being > 4wd" comment. You're a CT resident so i'll forgive you. And just for the record, AWD p3wns ALL!!!

[CJR238]

Yokos and snow do not mix!!!! I don't care which Yokos they are. Please look elsewhere.

And I'll disregard that "fwd being > 4wd" comment. You're a CT resident so i'll forgive you. And just for the record, AWD p3wns ALL!!!

, it was an old S10 Blazer vs a caravan.


Yokos are really that bad in the snow? it got good ratings from TL users and some websites? They almost were going to be my choice.
Goodyear F1's look like the only choice than. I just had a bad experience with Goodyear's on my Expedition truck, My TL with balled tires did better than that truck with AWD.

[shumax]

I just put the Avid W4S on a V6 Ford Fusion with the SAP package -- 18" rims and tuned suspension. It's a company vehicle.

Anyway, the vehicle came with Goodyear RSA's. For 15k, I put up with vibrations (despite many, MANY attempts at balancing -- including the roadforce machine from Hunter), poor wet performance, etc. Finally, even though they were far from worn out, I tossed them and put the W4S's on. Unreal the improvement. Wet traction is great and dry even better. They are silent and vibration free up past "throw you in jail" speeds. I can't comment on the snow, but I get the impression it will be good (for an all season tire) as the wet was fantastic.

I'd give them a hard look...

Good luck!