need help picking tires

I have a chrysler sebring convertible, the model with the 200hp engine.
It is time to pick some new tires and I'd like to get some advice. Where
I live we have the full four seasons, temps down to below zero on
occasion and over 100 during the summer. I get my tires at big-o which
offers the following for my car:

http://www.bigotires.com/index.asp?PG=2&Sub=12a&Tire=P205/60R16

Tire: P205/60R16

Category, Treadwear, Traction Rating, Temp Rating
 

Big O, EURO TOUR, 500, A, A

DUNLOP SP SPORT A2, 420, AA, A
 
MICHELIN ENERGY MXV4 PLUS, 400, A, A
 
YOKOHAMA AVID H4s/V4s, 500, AA, A
 

 

Although Big O has great service, their website is sadly lacking.
Go to tirerack.com and shop for tires, then click on the "survey results"
to get much more info than the three DOT ratings. You can also
compare these (except for the Big O tire, unless you know who's
actually making them for Big O)

Floyd

 

This "Euro-tour" seems to be a house brand for Big-O. I doubt you'll
find much in the way of third-party opinions on it.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=HPAS

High Performance all-season. Retails for $77 USD. Ranks a little low
on Tire Rack's list (8'th). Over 22 million miles reported for this
tire (one of the top-5 tires in terms of reported milage - must be a
very widely-purchased tire). Snow traction rating of 6.7.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=GTAS

This is classed as a Grand Touring All-Season tire. It's expensive -
$109 USD. It doesn't rank that well in it's catagory (11'th out of 16
tires). It's the volume leader in this class (23 million miles
reported). Snow traction 5.7. Note that there is a MXV4-A Plus
version of this tire that ranks a little better (8'th) - Snow traction
6.2.

Bridgestone Turanza LS is the preferred tire in this catagory (snow
traction 7.4).

High performance, all season. Retails for $64 USD. Ranks second in
this catagory. VERY few miles reported (113k miles). If this tire is
purchased by a lot of people, they aren't reporting their experiences
on tire-rack. The few that are really like this tire. Snow traction
rating of 7.9.

--------

If you're limiting yourself to an "all-season" tire made by Dunlop,
Yokohama, or Michelin, then you have 10 tires in your size. 7 of them
are variations of Michelin's MXV which are all more expensive that the
Dunlop SP Sport A2 and the 2 Yokohoma Avids (T4 and H4S).

If you live where snow is on the road continuously each winter for
weeks at a time, and you're NOT considering a second set of steel
wheels for snow tires, then basically it won't really matter which
"all-season" tire you buy - all of them will give mediocre performance
in snow.

In any case, given the above choices, I'd go with the Yokohoma Avid
V4S.

(The Bridgestone Potenza RE950 seems like best tire based on it's
score and the number of reported miles, but I don't think it's made in
your size).

 

I'd avoid the Sport A2's. I'm just a sample of one, but I had to get
rid of a set prematurely (after about 15k miles) because they got
unbearably noisy and at least one got seriously out of round on my
Concorde. In their defense, I think LH cars bring out the worst in a
substandard so-called "hi-performance" tire, don't know how they'd do on
a Sebring. I get the impression that the Sport A2's are priced low for
a reason (i.e., no such thing as a free lunch). Keep in mind that the
manufacturers - in general - will not make good on a warranty issue on
any so-called "hi-performance" tire short of spontaneous
self-destruction - so choose well. IMO, other than slightly better road
grip, compared to a good touring tire (like the Cooper LifeLiner Touring
SLE) they are, in general a very poor value: Cost a lot more, get 1/2 to
1/3 the tread life, no warranty if problems develop, prone to becoming
noisy about half-way thru their tread life due to the larger tread
blocks.

Bill Putney
(to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with "x")

 

I hated the Dunlops on my car. They wore real weird. I put 60 000 KM a
year on my car. They wore off in about a year. I had my alignment done and
shims put in and everything.

I have a 2000 neon with 185/60R15 on them.

Mike

 

Both Michelin and Goodyear have recently introduced a line of tires that
have it all. 800 or so wear ratings, great hydro resistance, good snow
traction and very good dry road characteristics. The Michelin is the
HydroEdge, the Goodyear is the Assurance TripleTred. The Goodyear is less
expensive and better in the snow but not quite the 800 rating of the
Michelin.

Richard.