Looking For A Tire Recommendation?
“I am looking at getting an all season tire, I do city and hwy driving, the 1995 855 turbo is our current travel car, so hwy is mostly what is has been seeing lately. I do care about wet performance, and not so much on high performance street tire as this car is more a travel car.”
“I have hear of some good things about Kumho Ecsta ASX which I found at tirerack.com for $62 + shipping + road hazard.”
Responses: “The OFFICIAL size was changed by Volvo in mid ’96 when
JRL » The OFFICIAL size was changed by Volvo in mid ’96 when everyone was bending wheels.
The correct size now is 205/55/16.
Personally, if you want a real nice ride and GREAT wet handling go with Conti Extreme Contacts.
Not too expensive and a great all around tire
Ozark Lee » I second JRL. I have 205/50/16 tires on the ’94 and 205/55/16 tires on the ’96. With the 50s I can feel every pebble on the road. The 55s are much smoother riding.
The 50s do handle a bit better but your post indicated comfort over handling.
MadeInJapan » I have had Kuhmo’s on another car- they feel firm with good grip but are a bit noisy and as stated, wear out quickly and I doubt that the side wall strength is up to the weight of our Volvo’s especially when cornering.
In trying to decide on which tires to get, I compared (among others) the Michelin Primacy MXV4’s vs. General Altimax HP’s (which falls into the All Season Grand Touring category- but honestly they don’t look like touring tires at all) and came to the conclusion that the Altimax was worth the risk ($85 a tire w/ 91 side wall strength!). So far with a couple of thousand miles on the General’s, I’m sold on them being great tires…they have 55K mile warranty (for the “H” that I run- and btw, nothing wrong with “H” on our cars) too and I expect them to last quite a bit longer than most other tires. Also, I love the tread design- really accentuates my S70!
I know that JRL likes his Conti’s (and it is not surprising of his reaction to a seemingly unknown or “common” sounding or even “generic” sounding company) and there’s nothing wrong with these tires- I hear great things about them. Btw, they are an ultra high performance all season tire. Here is a picture of the tread design on the Continental Extreme Contacts:
They have a 400AA rating (as do the Altimax’s), but don’t have a tread life warranty (what’s with that?). The other difference is that the Conti’s have an 87 side wall strength rating but are “V” rated compared to the Altimax I run which are “H” rated. Therefore, the Conti’s may feel softer for you at least when cornering but with the difference between H and V, you might not feel much of a difference at all. Both tires have very close numbers when compared across different driving surfaces (and with tire noise, handling, comfort, etc.) w/ the Altimax’s being given slightly better numbers, but this is comparing total driven miles which are considerably greater for the Conti’s over the Altimax’s, so numbers might be inflated at this point for the Generals (my opinion). Btw, the Conti’s are $90 each (vs. $85 for the Generals) in the 205/55/16 size.
All of the above was gathered by comparing the stats for each tire that are published at http://www.tirerack.com I did not look at the ratings by the consumers here (although I did when I made my decision on which tires to get). Read up, especially on how Volvo owners liked each of the tires and compare your type of driving with theirs as well. I didn’t say much about the Primacy MXV4’s (#1 rated for its category of General Touring All Season) or the Bridgestone Turanza Serenity tires (which we put on our V70 and is top rated in its category for Grand Touring All Season tires) which were also hugely considered for my S70.
I hope that the above will help someone with their decision making.
Read More — Tire Recommendation
Last Updated on June 27, 2022
