Flip2cho

Let's talk about tires. All the choices from aftermarket tires to the crappy Goodyear RS-As, to the 19" Sport bridgestone Potenza RE050A's both all season and summer performance tires. Before I read the complaints about the RS-As I didn't even know what am RS-A was. The only thing I knew about the tires on my car was that they were obviously 19s. I started to google "Maxima" and "Tires" and found that Nissan has been putting these RS-As on their flagship for a long time now and since the beginning there has been complaints. Why would they continue to do this to their flagship when people have clearly spoken out on how they feel about that tire. That I don't understand. I even found our smarty666 on some of these other forums talking about how much the loaths these tires.
After reading the Nissan site I found that on the Sport they offer a standard all-season 19" Bridgestone Potenza RE050A V rated and a "max performance summer tire" 19" Bridgestone Potenza RE050A W rated. The upgrade from the all season to the summer tires is at no cost. I'm some review on the 7th gen they have commented on the difference in these two tires saying that the stopping and road grip of the 7th gen is nothing without the summer tires. They commented that the cars suspention is only as good as the tires it has on and the best match to the sports "tuned" suspention is the W rated Summer tires.

How many people have the sport model that the dealer did not upgrade to the summer tires? ( I'm sure location has a lot to do with which tires the dealer chose to match up to the sport). Do most of the sports owners have the W rated Summer tires?

I was looking up prices of the tires that come on the Max to see what to expect when it comes time to replace these tires. On Tirerack.com they have the OEM RS-As at $124 a tire. On the same site they have the Potenzas listed at $272 a tire. That would be more than I've ever spent on a single tire.

What are peoples opinion on these RE050As? When the time comes to replace the tire would you get the same tires or would you opt for a different set? What kind would you choose to match up to your 19s?

I guess the same question would go for the RS-As. When the time comes to strip these "wonderfully sporty" tires what are you going to replace them with. What do you think would have been a better choice to put on the 7th gen?

A lot of people have upgraded rim sizes. What things did you look for in a tire?was it more than just price?

smarty666

Oh my God Flip, I can't believe you started this thread! My Nissan stealership admitted to me that when they put grand touring Michelins on the Maxima, it gets rid of almost all the vibration/shimmy issues, dramatically improved ride quality, and very low noise level. So if money was no object, I was slapped on four Michelin Primacy MXV4s on this puppy!

Funny you should mention how long Nissan has been putting these crap OEM RS-As on their flagship sedan. Infiniti ran into the exact same problem with the M. For years, they put these crappy RS-As as OEM tires on their flagship luxury sedan. For years, people complained about the ride, the noise level, and vibrations they had in their 50 some thousand dollar luxury automobile and you know what Infiniti's excuse was, "oh, Infiniti is a sport oriented luxury company so we put sport profile tires on and these RS-As are designed to give a sporty feedback to the drive!"

Can you imagine spending over 50k bucks on a M to have these tires put on for OEM and having these kind of issues after paying that kind of money??? Its crazy. Enough people complained and complained over the last several years to Infiniti and every single 2011 M I've seen thus far finally come from the factory with OEM Michelin Primacy's.

These are the tires Nissan should be putting on as OEM for the S, base SV, and SV with premium package because they are designed to give a quiet, smooth, non vibrating ride, which the new Maxima is designed to do. I can understand Nissan putting a all season HP or all season UHP tire on for the sport package since those buyers are looking for a firmer, more responsive, gripping ride, but the Michelin Primacy's would be the best OEM for the other non-sport trim levels and because it comes in 96V, exactly what the OEM load and speed rating is on the RS-As. I mean it wouldn't cost Nissan that much more to do this. They already have a contract with Michelin for these tires in the 16inch for the Altima SL because ALL Nissan Altima 2.5SLs have Michelin Primacy MXV4 as OEM. That being the case, it would not cost Nissan that much more to add to the contract and buy in bulk, Michelin Primacy MXV4s in the 18inch tire size for the Maxima!

In regards to a cheaper type of OEM tire for the Maxima, which still would be 10x better than the stock RS-As would be the Kumho Solus KH16 grand touring tire or Goodyear Assurance ComforTread. Both these tires come in the already established 96V load and speed rating for the Maxima, and both have no vibrations, comfortable ride quality, and low noise as their primary attributes, as most would agree, the Maxima wants to be, but is unable to because of these RS-As!

P.S. - By the way Flip, check over in the 2011 charted changes discussion for my post about what my Nissan stealership said about the RS-As and the Maxima as a car!

Jagamov

I have a Sport and it came with the RS-A's. After looking around, it seems almost all the Sports have them.

Dealers don't seem to have any idea what they are ordering. This goes to the other thread about the amber displays and how Sports w/Monitor is very rare. I think I only saw 2 Sport cars in the whole city that had the summer tire option.

FWIW, I don't seem to have any issues with my RS-A's, they are relatively quiet and don't shimmy/vibrate...This is my first car with 19's, but they are way nicer tires than the crappy Bridgestone's our Altima had on it...Those tires sucked.

Norm Peterson

Before the RS-A's, Nissan was putting Bridgestone RE-92's on the Maxima. Good enough dry weather performance, but not enough to make up for its shortcomings. I only mention this because IIRC, people liked those even less on their 5th Gens than people now regard their RS-A's. RS-A's are probably a little better than LS-A's, which I hated even on the rentals I drove that had them, but that truly isn't saying much.

Some version of the RE050A tire is fitted to our Legacy (2.5GT, the sport-oriented version). So far, so good, but yes they are a little pricy even in 18's. There seems to be quite a variety of these RE050A tires, and I'm only guessing that they are produced in several slightly different versions optimized to suit a variety of differing OE requirements/specs as well as for general aftermarket consumption. They most likely AREN'T quite the same as each other.

I really think that if you're going to buy Bridgestone and aren't rather hardcore about your tires or drive anywhere near their absolute performance limits that the RE960AS would be a good option - I have a set of those on our 5th Gen Max. I also think it comes in the 19" size you need. In GY, Eagle F1 Asymmetrics if you can swallow the price without choking.


The RS-A's – you get what you pay for. Decent-performance 19" rubber is pricy (I'm finding that even good 18" stuff is bad enough).


Price is something that you should use only to put you in the right ballpark, since obviously you have to be able to afford whatever choice you make. $200 vs $300 is probably a valid basis for decision, while being hung up over a $20/tire difference is not.

The real criteria are the various aspects of performance, and what I've found is that once or twice per set of tires you can expect to use every bit of braking or cornering grip that they can give. At such times, things like tire price, treadwear, and even NVH levels become essentially meaningless. Use those criteria as tie-breakers among affordable tires of roughly equal performance.


Norm

MaxLoverAz

iTrader: (1)

Go to every car forum, no one ever likes the OEM tires. It's the first thing that everyone attacks, the same goes on in my Honda and Z forums. I don't have the sport so I have the 18" RSA tires and they are just fine for me so far, no vibrations, quiet and seem to be lasting longer than I actually expected. Maybe it's the 18" RSA versus the 19" RSA?

smarty666

Oh, your absolutely right man, Nissan is not alone in this. Even Acura, Audi, Honda, and many more car makes put on really crappy or mediocre at best OEM tires! We are paying a lot of money for these vehicles, you think they would make sure a better quality and more appropriate tire would be put on these cars.

smarty666

I noticed a lot of you are mentioning UHP tires for the Maxima. While that might be the best option for the Max's with the sport package, I don't think it would be the appropriate tire for the S, Base SV, and SV w/premium trim levels for the Maxima. In all honesty, the non-sport package Maxima's drive, behavior, and ride more like a luxury sedan then they do a sport sedan and I think a grand touring tire would complement that better than a ultra high performance, again unless your getting the sport package, where in that case I think a high quality ultra high performance tire would be the best option!

Keep in mind, UHP tires sacrifice a little bit in ride quality and noise level in order to have better handling and road grip compared to their equavlent grand touring counterparts. If people are complaining, like myself, about the poor ride quality and high noise level of the RS-As, I don't think a all season UHP tire is the answer, unless you are getting the sport package!

In my opinion;

S, Base SV, and SV w/premium = all season grand touring
SV w/sport package = all season ultra high performance

LtLeary

I put the Primacy MXV4s on my Premium after 72000 miles on the RSAs. Sears had them for a little over $210/per so I walked out the door at around 1100 for the lifetime balance/rotate/roadhazard/taxes etc.

As I only have 2500 miles on them right now I don't know how long they will last but I can say I have much less "wonder" (on groved pavement), much less vibration (at any speed), and as a result of the first two, I "feel" more in control. Also, road noise is much less to my ear.

Norm Peterson

Smarty, you're probably going to find that a substantial percentage of internet forum tire recommendations that come with substantially better reasoning than "you'll really love the mad tread pattern those XXX's have" are going to come from the folks who actually do use their tires fairly hard. Maybe a majority. Yes, the perspective is likely to be a bit skewed toward the hardcore. I'll admit it.

Once you're buying 19's, you aren't going to find very many tires in the 'Touring' categories. In 245/40-19, Tire Rack lists only 7 tires out of 53 at "high performance" or lower. Three touring tires and four HP all-seasons.


It's also very difficult to get everybody understanding subjective descriptions in the same light.

Right here in my office is a guy about my age (62) who is familiar with the various tires fitted to late model Subarus (his son works at Subaru USA HQ in Cherry Hill). Anyway, his straight-away opinion of the RE050A's in 225/45-18 is that they absolutely must ride hard because of the short profile (he probably would be a lot happier on 17" x 55 profile tires). Me, I honestly find the ride surprisingly supple, and I've even got them aired up slightly from the door sticker pressure recommendations for slightly sharper cornering response.


Just so you know, GY Asymmetrics were intentionally designed to with better ride quality in mind than most Max-P or UHP tires have. Yes, they do give away a little response, at least that's Tire Rack's own test opinion. Speaking of which, you should assign a lot more weight to TR's staff opinions than on those of most random consumer submittals when trying to come to your own decision.


Norm

smarty666

Your right Norm, that is why I said that people who opt for the sport package with the 19inch wheels are going to be kind of forced to get UHP tires, simply because of the size and options out there. In the 18inch size though, there are a few grand touring options, some at a extremely reasonable price.

bk2k3max

The Tires are Nexxen 3000 18" I wanted to keep the stock ride feel as much as possible but I have the Eibach Pro Kit which helps to set my car off along with a Stillen FSTB and Stillen RSB. Check them out here: http://www.wheelmax.com/product.asp?ProdId=114120

Norm Peterson

I would still pick among those with the performance aspects given far greater weighting than price, treadwear, or any of the other factors. It's still better to have to spend a little more or buy a few more tires in your life than every once in a while wish that you had. Occasional emergency braking/cornering situations aren't going completely avoid you just because you have installed touring tires on your car, even if you do drive more conservatively because of them.

I'm also a bit leery of tires with what I call "cutesy" names. I get the very uneasy feeling that a psychology-based attempt is being made to sway me into buying something that might well be inferior in its intended function. For example, compare the following Goodyear tire model names for psychological content (listed in alphabetical order). Which tires would you expect are being marketed toward those with little or no knowledge about tires? Not saying that any are actually bad, but which are more likely to imply more than they can deliver when the chips are down?
Assurance
Eagle GT II
Eagle NCT5
Excellence
Integrity



Even Consumer Reports consistently publishes similar advice regarding "performance first" as part of their occasional tire test reports.


Norm

smarty666

I definitely hear you about the names. Goodyear, as you pointed out above is a big offended of this, so is Bridgestone. To be honest, I have yet to have a Goodyear product that has been good, last long, had low noise, etc etc. I try never to put them on my cars, continentals as well, though the new DWS's, thus far, are doing pretty well for Continental and people rave about them on tirerack. I'm still waiting for the 30-50k mile reviews of the DWSs!

Flip2cho

Anybody with a Sport model, who has the bridgestone summer tires? I haven't heard of anyone else having the bridgestones and I am just curious to see how many are out there.

sgirgiss1214

Im actually glad I DONT have summer tires because honestly, I dont throw the car around much and stuff like that and plus, I cant afford to drop 700 bucks when winter rolls around, for right now, the RS-A's are doing good for me and on paved roads, the car is just a pleasure to drive.

Chivalrous Catfish

+1

mines ocean gray, too.

lightonthehill

In looking through the inventories of Nissan dealers a year or so ago, I noticed that most Sport models sent to northern states had the all-season tires, but many Sports sent to Florida, southern Texas, southern California, etc, were equipped with the summer tires. I think Nissan factored the climate into their tire decision.

Mreim769

I am acutally very happy with the fact mine did not come with Summer tires. I wouldn't be suprised if ten months out of the year we would get snow at some point with most of those months having the ground covered with snow for the entire month. In fact, I was helping a friend move in the middle of June and of course it decided to snow. Crazy stuff. All seasons come in handy quite often up here.

Dedicated summer and winter tires were a necessity on my old 300zx because of the amount of power I was puting down to the rear wheels and the fact it was my only vehicle. Now that I have switched to front wheel drive I think I may just stay with All Seasons. Consider me one of the many that are counting down the days until we can switch out the POS Goodyear RS-A's. Anybody want to have a centralised "Getting rid of our Goodyear RS-A's" party?

Kmoney

i have the S model and mine came with the Goodyear tires

lightonthehill

Yep. All 'S' Maximas came with the Goodyear RS-As, all 'SV' Maximas except those with the Sport option came with the Goodyear RS-As, and only a small portion of the 'SV' Maximas equipped with the Sport option came with anything but the Goodyear RS-As.

anish3232

Continental DWS seem to be good, got some on the M35 sport and it drives 100 times better.

Flip2cho

I've come to realize it's an extreme small amount without the RSAs. I think I might have ONLY HEARD OF ONE OTHER on here that said their car came with bridgestones. Didn't you say you had seen some numbers on the amount of vehicals shipped out without RSAs light?

smarty666

I was just thinking the same thing flip. They must have started that with the 2010 Max Sport Package giving them Goodyear RS-As. B/C I remember when I was looking at 2009's for several months that all the sport package ones had Bridgestone Potenza's on them. I remember even telling my Dad at one point, oh, you have to get the sports package in order to not get the Goodyear. Now, I've seen the RS-As on the sports package since I would say last fall.

Flip2cho

What's up Smarty?
Yea It's like a curse. No matter how hard Nissan tries to get away from those dang crappy RS-As they just can't do it. They just keep coming back! I am starting to think that they get them for DIRT CHEAP or that Nissan has stock in them. Haha

sgirgiss1214

You think about it, there is so much value in these cars for their price tag, Nissan has to cut some corners to make extra revenue and thy decided to curse Maxima owners with bad tires!

lightonthehill

Actually, what I 'saw' was that, about a year ago, I was perusing Nissan dealer inventories trying to get an idea of what versions of the Maxima with what option packages dealers were stocking. I probably checked between 70 and 100 dealers, trying to get a feel for the national picture.

In doing that, I noticed that there were very few cars with the optional summer tires. Maybe a fourth of the SVs with Sport package in Florida, the southern half of Texas, southern California, etc, but very few at dealers in the northern part of the country. I think any Maximas with the summer tires in the northern part of the country were specifically ordered by the individual dealer, not sent randomly by Nissan.

If we take the country as a whole, I found that no more than around 20% of the Maximas with Sport package came with the summer tires. As Maximas with Sport package make up only around 20% of the total number of Maximas, then we see that not more than 5% of '09 Maximas have the summer tires, and much of that 5% is concentrated in warmer areas of the country.

anish3232

I am about to pick up a White SV Sport + Tech. Nashville has 3 dealers with the car (Nashville is stocked with Maxima's about 20 a dealer) I am guessing this is because Nissan HQ is in Nashville. Out of the 3 Sport SV 2 have Goodyears and 1 has the Bridgestone Potenza RE050A Summer Tires. Luckily the dealer that has the Potenzas will give me 10,000 for my 03 G35. I will report back, going to pick the Max up tomm!

Rixtur

I am so glad I ran across this thread! I'm scared to death when I drive in the rain with my 2010 Maxima SV Sport equipped with 19" Goodyear GS-A's. I live in Indy, though, so summer-only tires is not a good option.

Plus I am leasing, so I don't need to drop a lot of extra cash on this vehicle and then just turn it in in 3 years. Safety is important, however, and maybe trading in new-ish tires would generate a healthy enough credit to make the swap worthwhile.

Any suggestions?

Flip2cho

nice color choice man! In 3 years you would have gotten a lot out of a new set of tires. Some people here were talking about the DWS tires. The seem to be a pretty popular upgrade if the Summer Tires aren't what your looking for. I think the money is worth it for tires. They can make or break the car plus safety is very important and good tires are one of the best things you can do to improve saftey.

sgirgiss1214

After everything I've been reading in this thread, Im afraid to drive in the rain now, lol.

Kmoney

i have been driving in the rain since the day i got my max and never experience any problem or whatsoever with my tires so don't be afraid

sgirgiss1214

Thanks for the vote of confidence Kmoney.

Rixtur

I know that part of my fear may be that I just totaled my '08 in the rain, and I've just finally healed from the fractured ribs. (The side & curtain airbags work perfectly!) But the car does slip some on dry pavement - the way I drive at least! - so I am still cautious at high speeds in the rain... and wondering what might happen if the unexpected pops up.

Rixtur

Thanks, Flip2cho! I appreciate the input. Really like that option, too - though I am also considering saving a buck by going with replacement tires from Goodyear, per discussion on another thread here. I think I will compare both prices, plus check with my dealer on what they might do for me under the "wheel & tire protection" they sold to me.

brisk

Expensive tires!

lightonthehill

I have had good performance in the rain with my RS-As. The things to be careful about are:

1 - Following too closely. Wet roads lengthen stopping distances, and following closely also results in more sloppy, dirty water being thrown on the windshield by the car ahead of us.

2 - Puddles. Slow down for puddles. On one side of the lane, they tend to pull the car to that side, while a puddle across the entire lane can easily cause hydroplaning.

3 - Curves. Tires do not grip as well on wet pavement, and curves require good tire adhesion.

Those with the summer tire option need to be aware most summer tires do NOT do well in wet weather, and the summer tires Nissan is using are worse on wet roads than most.

PetitFrereMaxima

iTrader: (2)

anish3232, are you picking up your car with the Bridgestone Potenza RE050 summer tires? Those tires are great, but do not last. And as lightonthehill just pointed out, summer tires are not that great in wet weather. That is why I will only buy All Season tires on all my cars.

My wife's M35 Sport came with Bridgestone Potenza RE050 245/40/19 summer tires and at 9000miles, tires were gone! And in this hurricane season in Texas and rains, the car had been acting as if it was shy going through water. So, I bought her a new set of Yohohama Advan S4 255/40/19 all season tires. Car handles and roars as a real sports car!

PetitFrereMaxima

iTrader: (2)

anish3232, are you picking up your car with the Bridgestone Potenza RE050 summer tires? Those tires are great, but do not last. And as lightonthehill just pointed out, summer tires are not that great in wet weather. That is why I will only buy All Season tires on all my cars.

My wife's M35 Sport came with Bridgestone Potenza RE050 245/40/19 summer tires and at 9000miles, tires were gone! And in this hurricane season in Texas and rains, the car had been acting as if it was shy going through water. So, I bought her a new set of Yohohama Advan S4 255/40/19 all season tires. Car handles and roars as a real sports car!

Norm Peterson

I don't know offhand of ANY tire that's as grippy in the wet as it is in the dry, and some summer tires are as good or better than some all-seasons.

The RE050A is getting a bit long in the tooth - Car and Driver included it in a comparative test all the way back in December of 2005. Odd thing was the wet performance was actually its relatively strong suit. We've got them on the Legacy (225/45-18), but haven't yet had to drive through any really heavy downpours. C/D also implied that a compliant ride was an important design criterion for this particular tire, which I fully agree with.

However, when shopping for replacement tires, you might give a little extra weight to tires with unidirectional tread patterns. Correctly mounted, they offer a small mechanical benefit in that they evacuate water a little better than most non-directional tread designs. Losing the ability to rotate tires side to side (without dismounting & remounting at least two tires) isn't a factor worth worrying about, assuming that you keep up with inflation pressures and alignment.

If you want to tweak the car's behavior to suit your individual driving better, you can tweak the alignment settings a little.


Norm

Flip2cho

Wow. Gone at 9,000. That weird because I'm at 7,500 and I have plenty of tred. I wonder why hers we gone so soon