Hello!

I lost a tire today. Fortunately, no damage was done to the car, but she's riding on the spare tire at the moment. Problem is, $$"s tight, so I don't want to replace all 4 tires...I'll probably just replace the front two for now and replace the rear two when $$ allows.

So, my question is, is there a halfway decent tire out there that doesn't cost a mint? This is probably a pipe dream, but ideally, I'd love to pay less than $50 for both tires...

Thanks!

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2001 VW Jetta TDI, 5 speed, daily driver
1991 Ford F-350, work in progress
1984 Ford F-250 4x4, 6.9l turbo diesel, 5 speed manual
Previous oilburners: 1980 IH Scout, 1984 E-350, 1985 M-B 300D, 1979 M-B 300SD, 1983 M-B 300D
Spark-free since 1999

I just put a set of BF Goodrich 195-70R14 from Sam's Club on Thing One's wagon. Turnkey (balance etc) was something like $140.

He says they are sticky! Of course the tires he'd come from NY on were the infamous 'Maypop' brand.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Kuhmo tires. Good, inexpensive, and approved by LarryBible. I bought them for Perfesser Leaky and was very happy. Slightly more than $25 a tire though. Tire Rack has their Standard Touring tire for $35 each.

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Rick Miley
2014 Tesla Model S
2018 Tesla Model 3
2017 Nissan LEAF
Former MB: 99 E300, 86 190E 2.3, 87 300E, 80 240D, 82 204D Euro
Chain Elongation References

I cannot support Kumho. Based on Larry's experience and that of some other forumites I bought a set of Kumho Advantage S tires in February of this year.

I spent the next four weeks trying to get the sorry things balanced. They would balance out just fine on the machine but at anything over 60 mph they would just about shake your teeth out.

I junked them with less than 2000 miles of wear and bought, Gawdforbid, a set of Michelin X-Radials from Sam's.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

agree with R leo...
kuhmo tires are pretty bad in my experiences...

after i got my 300D 78 up to factory spects...changing out injectors and measuring acceptable compression values, i can now bust up my 300D all the way to 94 max mph with no problems...however it takes a while..LOL.

at those speeds, it really feels like your flying through flak in a B-17 over germany doing a bombing run.....shakes extremely bad. I only had the tires for a good 10,000 and looks like there is no more tread on these bad boys...oh well i guess you get what you pay for...time for some bigger rims ---> 16's and wider tires possibly 205 or 215's

I got a "Lehmans" (sp?) tire from a local Firestone store for $54 installed out the door. Since your tires are smaller I bet you could do better. Go to a good local place and get the cheapist one they have. It is only my spare tire but it looks like a pretty decent tire.

I like Yoko's I have a set of Avid tires on my car and their great! No vibrations and their wearing like iron.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

The Michelin's X1 are great on the the TDI, but will try the Harmony's since they have discontinued the X1.

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

I agree. You really cannot beat the Avid for the money spent. I bought a set of two from Tire rack for about $100. delivered, however, they were 235-75-15 for the van. The 195-70-14's should be less.

Kuhmo 795's here, just passed the first thousand miles on them. All is well. $230 or so for 4 installed by colony tire.

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One more Radar Lover gone...
1982 VW Caddy diesel 406K 1.9L AAZ
1994 E320 195K

My votes for yoko avid touring ,got them on two of my 126's.I have tried the high priced spread but overall like the yoko's better.......

William Rogers.......

Warden,

Why not do some recycling and look for some used tires? I get used tires all the time and have very few problems. Even if you buy new tires, very soon they are used anyway.

P E H

Yes, there have been times when I've scrounged up some used tires for pretty good $ per mile cost.

The complaints here about the Kumhos are the same complaints you will here about ANY brand tire. All of them will sometimes end up with stiff spot and be "unbalancable." Go to the tire forum and you can read about zillions of them of all different brand.

If you run into this with any tire, a dealer with a Hunter GSP9700 can prove the excessive road force vibration (stiff spot) and replace under warranty. You are as likely to get a bad tire from Kumho as you are from anyone else.

I've seen raves and lots of good experiences on this and other sites. As with other brands there will be a few defects.

The Kumhos on my 300E now have about 15,000 miles on them and they show very little wear. I had the car up to 100MPH yesterday passing a truck and they were SILK SMOOTH.

Good luck,

Another option is the Firestone Affinity LH-30. Very nice ride, good wet/ice/snow traction for a touring tire, and decent price (half what a Michelin VX-4 costs). Probably not $25, though!

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

PEH, the tire that just died was purchased used in a semi-emergency situation, and while in the short run it got me home, in the long run it was more of a headache than it was worth. I'll admit that it lasted a good year and a half, but it had a constant slow leak, and when I tried to have it repaired (only after trying to find and patch the leak myself and not succeeding; I still don't know what it was, other than that it wasn't something simple like a nail), I was told that it was too worn.

Used tires are useful in an emergency, but if I can afford it (jury's still out on that), I'd much rather go new this time around, simply because I'll know the history of the tires. I did consider just putting another used tire on the car this time around, but decided not to...otherwise I wouldn't have started this thread.

Thank you everybody for the feedback thus far...any more thoughts would also be appreciated. I'm still on the fence, and need to make some calls. Those Yoko Avid tires sound good, but out of my price range...unless maybe someone local has them cheap...

It's good to know what causes this sort of thing with tires since you cannot necessarily believe what the people at the store tell you.

I, for one, was extremely dissapointed that the Kumhos I had didn't work out. Afterall, I'd heard great things about them. I guess if I'd bought them locally (not off the 'net) I would have been willing to stick with to it until I found some sort of resolution.

As it were, I coiuldn't justify incurring any more expense (mounting, shipping etc) on a $140 set of tires.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.