[tickerguy]

Wally World has the Douglas Performance line in the correct size. These are a private-label Goodyear (really Kelly-Springfield, but owned by Goodyear) tire made in the US. V-rated (plenty for this car) and the proper load range.

$75 each. Just put four of them on my '15 Sport.

First impressions: They're quiet.

REAL quiet; better than the Comp2 A/S I had on there (and wore out) which were a material improvement over the Yokos the car came with.

I'll say more when I've got more than 20 miles on them and can make some intelligent comments on performance factors, but if they grip anything like they ride I'm going to like these tires a lot.

Especially for the price.

Oh, and if you get a bad one or damage it? You can get it replaced anywhere; there's a Supercenter within the "donut"'s safe driving range pretty-much anywhere in the US.

BTW I had a set of their other, "touring" tires on my '03 Jetta. The kid finally wore them out after close to 60,000 miles and replaced them. She put another set on -- for the price and service they gave there was nothing else close.

 

[tickerguy]

OK, now with a couple hundred miles on them, including some spirited cornering and a couple of attempts to break 'em free from a standing start.

They're damn near every bit as good as the Comp2/AS tires that were on there in terms of handling performance and dry traction -- maybe even a bit better. At 30% less money, and available locally, plus replaceable anywhere if you damage one instantly (unlike those you must order, or get from some local store with limited national coverage.)

No rain experience with them yet (it hasn't rained yet ;-)) but that'll get checked out over the next few weeks, as I have some long-distance driving planned.

Oh, did I mention they're quiet on the road? Yes, yes they are.

Folks, these are THE shoes to put on these cars if you have the 17" wheels IMHO; they're also M+S rated, incidentally, so for "light white" they're probably ok. We don't get that stuff down here and I rarely go anywhere it does that on purpose so I doubt I'll ever have meaningful commentary on their performance under that particular set of conditions.

 

[S100Y]

Ticker thanks for the useful info about Douglas Performance tires. I am also looking to replace the OEM Yokos and been researching a bit. I shortlisted Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring and General EXCLAIM HPX AS V-rated.

Uniroyal has 70K miles tread warranty, very good reviews and lists at $89 at Walmart. It has 35K miles more warranty than Douglas for $14 more per tire.

General EXCLAIM HPX - 'V' has 65K miles warranty and lists at $92 at Walmart. It is a new tire with no reviews, that is the downside. General's site describes it as Balance of high performance responsiveness, traction in wet and light snow conditions with excellent tread life.

 

[tickerguy]

I have had Tiger Paw's on my Jetta before and will never buy them again for ANY vehicle. They're one (of two, over the last 20 years) that I have had a belt break on while in service -- fortunately it DIDN'T result in immediate detonation of the tire on the highway. Oh, the warranty would have paid for the ONE tire, but it was about half-worn which means I would have had to buy the second on the same axle out-of-pocket in order to replace it safely. I ditched them; said "warranty" thus proved to be worthless.

Further, they were at least as loud as the Yokos and quite harsh in ride quality as well.

BTW, treadwear "warranties" are basically worthless, and second, they are NOT a result of the inclusion of more tread to wear out in the first place. They are, instead, more or less a measure of the hardness of the rubber, so the trade-off you make is that a "longer wearing" tire is one that provides less dry traction (and possibly less wet traction as well.) This is why UHP summer tires have shorter treadwear warranties than "all-season" tires do.

I got nearly 60,000 miles out of my 400-rated (that is, 40,000 mile) BFG Comp2/AS tires; they were put on just short of 50,000 miles and I am now just over 110,000. They had roughly 4 to 3/32 of tread left; not to the wear bars YET, but getting there, and wet traction and noise had both degraded to the point I considered it unacceptable. The Douglas tires are rated 420, so I'll likely get close to the same out of them. This is buttressed by the set of other Douglas tires that my kid just replaced on (what is now her's) the Jetta, on which I put ~30,000 miles while I had it, another 35,000 while she had it over the last two years, and which she just had to buy tires for -- and she replaced them with the same (for the money, and the proved service life, why not?)

The so-called 70,000 wear warranty tire has a 560 UTQ rating .vs. 420 for the Douglas Performance. For that you sacrifice some traction and ride quality; UTQ ratings are objective, so-called "warranties" are a function of whether the manufacturer thinks you'll put up with the tires down to 2/32 of remaining tread, which you have to in order to make a claim for early wear-out. You choose.

That is, be aware that "treadwear warranty" is (1) pro-rated and (2) all the way down to the 2/32 wear bars. That's the legal wear limit and yet you're flat-out nuts to go that far; you really ought to change tires between 4/32 and 3/32, yet there is NO warranty coverage at that point even if you're short.

In other words "treadwear warranty" is mostly a scam. It sells tires but (1) it DOESN'T really tell you jack and squat about tire wear rates. UTQ figures do give you that information, but again, the trade-off for higher UTQ wear figures is a harder compound which means both poorer traction AND probable worse ride quality, especially as the tires wears.

I have no experience with Generals.....

 

[Byakuya]

Great review ticker, thanks for this. I'll add it to my 1 stop shop.

I'll toss in that treadwear warranty is the manufacturer's estimate of tire longevity based on pretty rough conditions and usage. Tires wear depending on the type of driving you're doing, and how much. People like us who drive long distances each day can get FAR more miles out of our tires than people with very short commutes.

The expanding and contracting of tires as they warm up from usage plays a significant role in how much life you get out of them. Extended periods of highway miles are actually easier on tires than many short commutes. Just my $0.02.

 

[tickerguy]

Yep.

The other thing to pay very close attention to is where can you get a replacement and when?

See, here's the issue -- places like Tire Rack are great for price, and Wally World shows a LOT on their web site they'll have sent to the store and installed for you (as is the case for most of the national tire chains.)

But what matters when it comes to any warranty claim, INCLUDING ROAD HAZARD IF YOU BUY IT, is what's in-stock on a fairly-consistent basis where you operate your vehicle.

Think about it. You're halfway to BFE and you have a road hazard incident. You now are on the Donut, which means you need to find a replacement tire within ~50 miles or so. Is there a place with that make, model and size, IN STOCK, within that 50 miles?

If not the warranty, road-hazard or otherwise, is worth exactly ZERO because you will be forced to buy TWO tires (for the axle involved) right then and there. Yes, you can fight (later) with the original warranty issuer, but good luck with that because they're going to want the damaged tire to examine. Are you going to haul it back to wherever you bought it? No, you're not, so guess what -- you're screwed. Let's say you DO find one of the chain's stores close to where you are, but they don't have that tire in stock. If you're traveling or need it changed NOW (e.g. to get to work the next day) you will eat it anyway because otherwise you have to wait while they ORDER THE TIRE and have it shipped to them.

If most of your mileage is away from wherever you buy the tires (that is, you travel a lot) then the ONLY way any of the warranty (and road hazard, if you buy it) is worth ANYTHING is if the tire is one that is commonly in stock in your size across the ENTIRE area where you are likely to be driving while they're on the car. If nearly all of your mileage is a local commute AND you can afford to be without the vehicle for a day or two while the place sources a new tire this is less of a concern but for people like me who are all over the place, literally, road hazard has a near-zero value and so do so-called "warranties". I have TWICE had to buy tires on the road over the last fifteen years due to belt breaks not associated with impact (e.g. pothole) damage (which are CLEARLY warranty issues) because there was no location within a reasonable distance that had them in stock and was a dealer for that brand and model of tire, nor could I rationally haul the carcass of the destroyed tire back to the seller. Note that absolutely NO tire warranty I have ever seen will cover consequential damages nor the need to replace the second one on the same axle due to differential wear once any material amount of use has taken place.

This is one major advantage that the Douglas brand has -- since it's a WalMart "house brand" it'll be available at darn near ALL the WalMart service centers nationwide and will probably be in stock. Thus, the odds of being able to get a warranty replacement IF you need it are higher. I personally refuse to buy "road hazard" coverage in any event because once you use a material part of the tread you really need to change BOTH on the same axle, yet the "hazard insurance" will only pay for the one damaged tire -- you eat the other since it's NOT damaged, yet you really do need to change both unless you put the differential wear tires on the non-driven axle and never rotate them -- never mind the fact that if the tire isn't in stock and you need it now you'll be forced to buy two so they match on that axle anyway.

 

[S100Y]

I finally went with General Altimax RT43 'T' rated tires. Ordered them online from Walmart and had them install. Initial impression after about 100 miles of driving is that they are quieter than the Yokos. I used to have the radio volume up at 30 but now 26 works. The 2014 Mazda6 to begin with has poor sound insulation so I did not expect a dramatic difference but the Altimax made a noticeable difference. Road grip seems to be same as Yokos in dry pavement, tried a few sharp corners at 55-58 mph and it did not disappoint.
Will update wet/snow traction after some winter driving.

 

[tickerguy]

Have now put close to 5,000 miles on these (nice long trip) and I like them a LOT. Excellent performance wet or dry, and QUIET.

They're keepers and the price is right.

 

[MazdaRex]

Any idea if they make them in a 225/45R19 for the 2016 big wheel Touring or GT cars?

 

[dasrider]

^ Doesn't look like they carry Douglas in the 19" size.

I've only put about 1,000 miles on a set of Kumho Ecsta Platinum tires but so far I've been pretty well impressed.

 

[BrianU]

Have now put close to 5,000 miles on these (nice long trip) and I like them a LOT. Excellent performance wet or dry, and QUIET.

They're keepers and the price is right.

5000 miles in a month! I'm glad I haven't had to drive on a daily basis any more around Houston!

 

[tickerguy]

I like to drive...

 

[S100Y]

I finally went with General Altimax RT43 'T' rated tires. Ordered them online from Walmart and had them install. Initial impression after about 100 miles of driving is that they are quieter than the Yokos. I used to have the radio volume up at 30 but now 26 works. The 2014 Mazda6 to begin with has poor sound insulation so I did not expect a dramatic difference but the Altimax made a noticeable difference. Road grip seems to be same as Yokos in dry pavement, tried a few sharp corners at 55-58 mph and it did not disappoint.
Will update wet/snow traction after some winter driving.

Wet traction update - Drove through the Smokey mountain national park's twisty roads in a downpour, the tires gripped like glue. Cruised comfortably at 80 mph for about 200 miles in heavy downpour on interstate highways from TN to VA via NC, they had great traction, never gave me a moment of worry.

Did the tail of the dragon road (11 miles 318 curves) , zoom-zoom put a smile on my face

https://roadtrippers.com/stories/tail-of-the-dragon

 

[dasrider]

Did the tail of the dragon road (11 miles 318 curves) , zoom-zoom put a smile on my face

https://roadtrippers.com/stories/tail-of-the-dragon

Nice! I've done the dragon in a 2000 Miata probably a dozen times and at least twice that on a few different motorcycles. This is about the best time of year to get up there too. Fewer crowds on the weekends and a lot less hectic, but still warm enough to ride/drive as many passes as you care for. There are also tons of great curvy roads all around as well.

 

[tickerguy]

Update: A recent trip took me to Northern Michigan to go skiing -- in *snow* -- and they handled it well. For all-seasons, VERY well.

They remain quiet, they're wearing well, their traction remains as they were, they remain in balance (no vibration at all) and did I mention they were definitely priced right?

When I wear these out I'm buying four new ones unless some other manufacturer makes something comparable at a better price -- which is rather unlikely.

 

[tickerguy]

I've now got ~20,000 miles on these and still like them a lot. A recent trip took me to Northern Michigan -- in *snow* -- and they handled it well. For all-seasons, VERY well.

They remain quiet, they're wearing well, their traction is still good and did I mention they were definitely priced right?

 

[hotred49]

Hello!

Anybody used bfgoodrich g-force comp-2 a/s - size: 225/45zr19 ? The Mazda6 2016, has Dunlop 5000's, with almost 21K miles on them. The tires are loud and squirrely on packed snow/ice. While the B.F. Goodrich has 45K mile warranty. I've only found a couple of good reviews. Unfortunately, they are about $170 a piece. I'm not into all the car stuff, hope you'll forgive my ignorance. Something I don't pay alot of attention to. I have 15 mile commute one way. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[idrive]

Not much help on the best tire for you but don't expect any tire at any price to not be squirrely on packed snow/ice.

I'm pretty lucky in having a really good (locally owned) tire shop that has always recommended the best tire at the best price for me. I tell them what I'm looking for/wanting out of the tires and they hook me up. Have yet to be disappointed.

 

[MZR-6i]

I've now got ~20,000 miles on these and still like them a lot. A recent trip took me to Northern Michigan -- in *snow* -- and they handled it well. For all-seasons, VERY well.

They remain quiet, they're wearing well, their traction is still good and did I mention they were definitely priced right?

hey is there a website link to this?

 

[tickerguy]

At any WalMart....

Try here: https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=douglas performance tires&cat_id=0