Which tires for a 2000 Legacy?

[Leroy]

I'm looking to replace the tires on my 2000 Legacy L, and after spending a lot of time at tirerack.com & some similar sites, I've narrowed the field down to Michelin Hydro-Edge or Bridgestone Turanza LS-T, both of which get high ratings.

 

I live in Vancouver BC, so rain is a big factor. Most of my driving is in the city, but once a month or so we'll be heading down to Portland to visit with family.

 

Does anyone have any experience with either of these tires, or anything else they might recommend? My mechanic is recommending tires made by Falken, but they must be pretty new, 'cause there's not much info about them.

 

Thanks.

[Yukonart]

What size will you be running?

 

I have a set of Bridgestone Potenza RE750s on my car and swear by them. A slightly more all-season alternative would be the RE950s. Very competitively-priced, they offer a fairly agressive tread patter, evacuate water very well, and will get you through the snow if need be. They're not overly-loud, and have an excellent treadwear rating.

 

I have no experience with the other two tires you listed. However, I think you'd probably be happier with a set of RE950s over the Turanzas.

[Setright]

I used to a be a Michelin addict, but in the last few years I have turned to Bridgestone.

I would also go for RE over anything Turanza, but better Bridgstone than Michelin.

[NOMAD327]

I run bridgestone firestone tires on all my vehicles and have had excellent luck. My dealer told me his Subaru customers were only getting about 35,000 to 40,000 miles on those tires and welcomed me to use them and come in for warranty replacement should they in fact wear out ahead of time. My original michelin tires on my 99 lasted almost 65,000 miles and i decided to stay with michelin on that basis. Hydroedge are near $120 a tire so they had better hold up!! I actually got them for $99 a tire at sears on sale, and they are wonderful! Very good all around handling and as good in rain as advertised. I had no problems driving in snow and they are quiet. The only thing i'm not crazy about is they are unidirectional so they can only be rotated front to back. As they are supposed to go 80,000 miles, I want to keep the wear as even as possible.

[Setright]

All else being equal, harding wearing tyres will have less grip.

 

My Bridgstone RE720'ies have lasted about 30k miles, and would go for a little longer. BUT, since I tear around bends the the outside shoulder on all four tyres are looking a bit rough.

I am not complaining, this a good lifespan for a grippy, sporty tyre, that handles wet weather surprisingly well, and has never been anything but progressive and informative.

Tyres that will last 80k miles does not sound like my kind of tyre.

[Commuter]

The only thing i'm not crazy about is they are unidirectional so they can only be rotated front to back. As they are supposed to go 80,000 miles, I want to keep the wear as even as possible.

This is one thing that I'm not crazy about either. I will be due for a third set of tires soon on my 97 OB and I'm not sure which way I'm going to go.

 

One thought I've had about unidirectional tires is "flipping" them half way through their life. This is an extra cost, but it would get them over to the other side of the car. I don't know if it would be worth doing or not. I guess it would depend on what the wear is looking like after 30 or 40k miles.

 

I've had Michelin X-Ones which I was quite happy with. Not the greatest in snow, but very good otherwise. I got 100,000 miles out mine and there was still tread left. The HydroEdge is the replacement tire. The reports all seem to be very good.

 

The past 3 years, I've run Toyo 800 Ultra. Very similar to the X-Ones in performance. Equal in dry and wet grip, very good in rain, better in slush and snow, bit of road noise at highway speeds. I now have 110k miles on them and still tread left. I haven't been totally happy with them. I've had to fight a slight vibration at highway speeds. They are sensitive to balance, or not quite as 'round' as they should be. Whatever. This tire has been around for a while and I suspect it is due for an update soon. Toyo has excellent warranties.

 

I have no experience to speak of with Bridgestone, except for some very crappy OEM tires on a Civic nearly 20 years ago.

 

I've had some excellent Yokohoma all season tires in the past. I'm not up on their current offerings. But... I've also had a couple of defective tires of theirs as well.

 

One thing you might look for is a tire shop that will allow you to run the tires for 15 or 30 days and 1000 miles (sort of thing) with the option for full return. Personally, I'd feel funny going to return brand new tires, but, there really is no way to "test drive" different tires on your car.

 

Commuter

[bbart]

I have been very happy with my Continental ContiExtremeContact (205/55VR16). Wearing well, great in rain, adequate in snow.

[slo5oh]

Tires are like undewear... everyone swears by their own.

 

I've run several different tires on a lowered 5.0 ('86 that for all intentions is a '87 to '93). Most tires after rotating them every 5k are toast after about 15k. I drive kind of hard . Falkens (245 45 17s) lasted me forever... something like 30k, but damn was it slip and slide... I had no traction. I went from them to a set of potenza RE 930s (225 45 17s)... they were pull offs from a BMW a buddy of mine hooked me up with, I don't like running the skinny 225s, but the price was right ($75 for a set of 4) and they looked almost new. I was amazed at the difference. No longer was I spinning the tires in second gear, and I could hang corners 10 to 20mph faster. I still get a grin thinking about a ford contour SVT (woo hoo) that I passed on the outside of a hard banked long loop freeway exit. It's marked 35mph and usually me and my friends take it as fast as we can anyhow. This guy saw me coming off the freeway the same time as him and nailed it sticking to the inside. I went into the corner on his rear bumper, and I came out with him over a car length behind. He thought his car was the $hit.... before that.

Now I can't tell you the RE 9xxs are great for all weather... but I will tell you the 930s are great for dry and wet pavement. Those 930s held the road better then any tire I have ran.

[Phillip]

I put a set of the new Goodyear Triple-Tred tires on my 1999 OBW about 5,000 miles ago and highly recommend them for wet weather driving (I live in Eugene Oregon). I've been driving for 36-years and have never owned a better tire!

 

I'm looking to replace the tires on my 2000 Legacy L, and after spending a lot of time at tirerack.com & some similar sites, I've narrowed the field down to Michelin Hydro-Edge or Bridgestone Turanza LS-T, both of which get high ratings.

 

I live in Vancouver BC, so rain is a big factor. Most of my driving is in the city, but once a month or so we'll be heading down to Portland to visit with family.

 

Does anyone have any experience with either of these tires, or anything else they might recommend? My mechanic is recommending tires made by Falken, but they must be pretty new, 'cause there's not much info about them.

 

Thanks.

[Ranger83]

I replaced the Michelin X Ones on my 97 OBW with Hydro-Edge at 120,000 miles last Fall so I'd have them for the rainy season and winter. My car now has 145,000 miles. I commute from Boston to Manchester NH (50 miles one way) several days a week and travel throughout northern New England over the winter.

 

I usually buy premium tires for all our cars and have had Goodyear Eagles, Continental, and Dunlops on several other cars we owned. I used to autocross as well so I got some extreme handling testing for some of them.

 

The Hydros are simply the best passenger car tires I've ever owned. They are superb in the rain and were also very good in snow. I will measure tread depth when I rotate them soon but they seem to be holding up well. I kept a good X-One and just bought a 5th alloy wheel so I'll have a full size spare now, given the gyrations required for the donut spare.

 

This tire was developed as a premium passenger car tire, not a high-performance vehicle tire, and Michelin was very aware that there is some consumer resistance to directional treads. They apparently bit the bullet for the performance advantages. I haven't found it to be a problem thus far.

 

The consumer resistance factor is pretty formidable. When I was trying to buy them one tire dealer told me, "the tread doesn't look like it will be good in snow." Last week another dealer told me, "Oh, try and drive them in snow." Been There, Done That. We staged an impromptu time trial against an AWD Ford Explorer (with snows) on a flat stretch of snow and ice covered road and the Subaru was faster.

 

I considered getting dedicated snows for the winter but they don't seem to be very good in rain, dry handling, or wear. Most of the Subarus I see in VT have year-round tires as well.

[Leroy]

Just when I think I've made a decision, another suggestion comes along that looks better than the last one.

 

So far, the contenders are the Michelin Hydro-Edge and the Goodyear Triple Tread. Both get very high marks from the reviews at tirerack.com. A few people mention a balancing problem with the Michelins, but everyone seems happy with their performance.

 

Now to see if any of the local dealers can get them at a reasonable price.

 

Thanks to all for your interest!