Whats up guys, just wanted to get everybody's opinion. Planning to run the 300D here in a couple of weeks for the winter so I can park the truck. So part of the process has been re-doing a ton of things including rebuilding the turbo which came out nice......I needed new tires. I saw that I could buy the nice Michelins, but at 100 a piece, I was questioning it, not that they weren't worthy, but whether I felt like spending that. I decided not to and got GTRadials 195/70R14 for $262 shipped to my door. They have a 40k warranty, which should be fine for me as I only expect to put about 5-7k miles a year. I wanted to get your guys opinion as to what you think. Thanks.

They're fine.

Here in the desert, if you don't drive a lot it isn't worth it to get Michelins. They won't go bald before the sun and heat dry rot the things into dust. What a waste it is to take off 50% left Michelins just because they dry rotted and the cracks in the sidewall are dangerous.

As long as you skip the cheap Chinese tires, you'll be fine with whatever you buy. Keep your pressures correct, rotate them on time, and make sure your alignment is correct. You'll get several years out of them no problem.

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'84 190D 2.2 5MT (Red/Palomino) Current car. Love it!
'85 190D 2.2 Auto *Cali* (Blue/Blue) *sold*
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I recently went with a set of Kumho Sense. I'm mainly interested in dry grip, but I still need a bit of snow performance since my 300D is also my foul weather rig. I've only put 48,000 miles on the car in nearly 10 years of ownership, so tread life wasn't a major consideration. I generally prefer two wheels when weather and mission permit.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

I'm currently running Yokohama Avid's. I'd never buy overpriced and overrated Michelins.

As far as car tires in 195/70-14, for which the selection is pretty bleak, I'm with Frank. However. I do have a Michelin Pilot Road 3 (front) and Pilot Road 4 (rear) on my Kawasaki. I'll most likely be going with PR4 front and rear for my Triumph when I wear out the stock Dunlop Qualifiers.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

Lots of feedback on tires at TireRack.com.

Generally speaking, with tires, you get what you pay for. While you can pay too much for a tire, it's much easier to pay too little.......

For me, when buying tires for a low annual mileage vehicle, I look for a tire that has a treadwear rating of less than 400, 300 being a good reference point. Much stickier, more fun.

Jim

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14 E250 BlueTEC black. 45k miles
95 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 66k miles
94 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 152k miles
85 300TD 4 spd man, euro bumpers and lights, 15" Pentas dark blue 274k miles

Even bleaker if you look for the H rated cars which our cars were supposed to have. Even worse for 205/70-14 for my R107.

My SL only gets driven about 2000 miles a year at most. Current Michelin tires are hardly worn, but must be almost 14 years old. Car is garaged and not used for 7 months of year, so no cracking or other visible deterioration. Mostly city or back road driving at lower speeds. Experts say I should change the tires.

My 300D has Kumho Solus KR21 tires. Rated at 90T. Have worked well for 30k km.~19k miles).They are 8 years old. Still lot's of tread. Car almost never goes on highways. Also garaged and stored for 1/2 the year.

Both cars have the problem of too little mileage to wear tires out before experts say they should be replaced. With winter storage approaching, I have until next Spring to think about tires for these two cars

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

Isn't that the truth! I just lost the tread on a tire that was in brand new shape....only put them on a few months ago....noticed cracking....figured I could get by with them over the winter till more funds became available....nope.....no such luck.....now I need to get four more tires to replace these tires that still had enough tread for 40k miles...

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My view is that with the age of the car, it is more likely the suspension will come out of alignment and prematurely wear the tire than you driving over the number of miles associated with the lifetime of the tire. Therefore, I buy cheap tires.

Dkr.

Lots of truth to that! I just had an upper control go and wear the inside of one of the front tires.....and not to long ago had a sway bar/torsion bar bushing go and wear the inner tire on the 78....

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How about $216 shipped.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

You guys also know that your local walmart, also has good deals on tires....I just seen four michilelin on clearance for 50$ and mounting is 12$...They were p195/75r14...

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Well that would be the case, but since I live in Louisiana, they add a bunch of small fees(Environmental is one of them) for EACH tire, and they charged for valve stems. I ordered it from that website that you posted. I can post my order form so you guys can see the breakdown of charges. Exact tire and everything.

I have a set of Champiro snow tires on our E320 that I bought used. Their snow tires did quite well on tests carried out here in Canada. From what I could find, those are Chinese tires.

That seems like a heck of a low price. Good reviews here.

Personally, I would try and buy tires locally and have them balanced and mounted as well as have an alignment done.

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

Both my 300D's have the factory size (P195/70R14), installed in last 3 years. One has Yokohama Avid S Touring from America's Tire (or Discount Tire). The other has Cooper Response from Sears. Both tires have straight channels, which I think looks better, and makes it easy to measure toe-in w/ a tape measure. I can't say which set performs better (not a tire aficionado, ditto for audio).

Sears was a rush job on a Sunday before my son took the car away. We prefer America's because they have stores all over CA and I always get the road-hazard warranty, which we have used many times.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans