I have a 04 Max SE with 25K and the original RSA's are getting close to needing to be replaced. Would like recommendations. I want to stay with original 18" size.

Type of Driving

Southern California
Lot's of stop and go.
No racing
No to being in snow

I would like to get a trade off between performance and mileage. Seeing that the RSA's are good for 25-30K under normal use I would like to get up to 40K on my next set. I have had replaced 3 times the struts so don't want a tire that will introduce front end suspension issues such as wobble. I would like a tire that dampens the ride but not most important issue.

Look forward to your replies.

 

I have an '04 SE that was recently purchased used and had RSAs. The dealer just swapped them out for free with Conti CH-95s. They seem quieter but I have yet to see any significant difference. I never had a chance to evaluate the RSAs in the wet nor the CH-95s. Maybe during the next hurricane?

 

Try some michelin's. They seem to ride alot better from my observations with other peoples cars. If you are going for a quiter ride. If you want performance I don't know that one check out www.tirerack.com and look at the tires and read the reviews. That should point you in the right direction. Good luck.

 

Thanks, KDEJOUR

Anyone in SoCal ride an SE and had experience with the Continental ContiExtremeContact (Ultra High Performance All-Season) 245/45WR18? Would like to see your opinion. They are also about $90 less than the Michelin's

Good price at TireRack and seems to be one of the best reviewed.

The RSA are hammered in the user review section on this site.

 

Goodyear has some good tires that are for summer type driving. I did not consider them because we do get snow in Colorado, but you should check them out -- seem ideal for California and no snow.

I went with Michelin Pilot Sports. I got 32 K miles on the original tires and expect the Michelins may wear out at about the same mileage. They are smoother and quieter than the original RSAs but they seem to be wearing at a slightly higher rate.

 

not to get off track here but hurricane rita is gonna hit us late tonight or tomorrow but mostly the keys. stock contis are quiet but not sure how long they will last as i changed at about 3k to 20's

 

25k is all I can expect to get out of these? Bummer. I was kinda hoping to find someone with an SL that would trade me their 17's for my 18's and I would use those in the winter and my chrome in the summer. I was going to go with one of the Continental contact series tires. If I don't trade I may just get them in 18's anyway.

 

Michelins by far. The best rubber you can put on your car. Unreal grip in the rain!

 

I just put RSA's on my car, they were too stiff at first (because the guy pressured everything up to 40 psi). I backed them down to 33 psi on all corners, it gives a nice ride with good grip. These are new though, and I'll keep an eye out for the cracking sidewalls ( I found out about this too late). I don't plan to drive my car in the snow so I think I'll be OK. Drove in the rain for a few mins and they seem ok.

 

I just changed mine out to Pirelli Nero M+S. I have to go with all season in the northeast. They are running great and grip better then the RSA's. The Rsa did get very noisy at the end. I Still have a good tired tread left but the noise got to annoying. 3 of my tires did have cracks in them at 42000 miles. I do 90% highways driving to. so not alot of stop and go.

 

Do you think the salt has something to do with the rubber drying out and cracking?

 

I had cracks on 3 of my RSAs that I found at 32,000 miles, but only on the inside side-wall. They were not very large, and there's no telling how long they were there. I did not want to trust driving with these cracks in the heat of the summer (actually saw 106 degrees), so I replaced my RSAs at about 33 K miles last May. Without these problems may have gotten 40 K miles on those tires.

My RSAs had noise for most of their life because of an out-of-allignment problem when the car was very new. This problem resulted in very slight cups in the tread that would rumble at certain speeds and that always made some noise.

I love my Michelin Pilot Sports and watch the wheel allignment much more carefully (you do expect a new car to have proper wheel allignment -- mine didn't).

 

i used those contiextreme contacts on my 2002 se, and they are sick, the handling is awesome both in dry and wet weather, during snow its exceptional for a car with no tracking control which i had. I would def get them, **** if i got the chance to get rid of my rsa for $400 i would do it in a split second.