I'm getting close to needing new rubber on my '98 GLE. Normally I'd just slap on whatever matches the current tire size. But since I've got the opportunity, I figure I might as well check and see what the general consensus is on tire size. Should I stick with the stock size, go wider, narrower, etc?

I live in MN so driving in snow should be taken into consideration. Also, the car is little more than a family truckster. So I'm not looking for all out street performance. I'm more concerned with ride quality and road noise.

So what do you think? What size of tire should I buy?

Hmmnnnn...tough set of criteria. Tough because I can sense whet you might want to go wider but...wide tires are actually not good for snow....snow needs tires that 'crunch down' a bit into the snow pack -which wide tires dont do.

I would stay with stock size -which I believe is a 215/55/16, yes? but substantially upgrade tire quality, you cant go wrong with the Continental Touring Contact Extreme or the Bridgestone Turanza LS-H's.

I have the Turanza LS-Vs and they are awesome in the wet and handle snow very well indeed.

actually, they're 205/65 15s. I've priced out the BF Goodrich Traction T/A tire and it comes in at about $380 installed with road hazzard.

I though I had heard that about going wider and driving in the snow. I just thought I'd better double check.

I'll look into the tires that you mentioned, too.

all I know is that the tires on the car now are horrible in the rain and snow and I'm glad that they're worn out!

Thanks for your reply!

Well, if they are 15-inchers, that opens two highly-rated (per TireRack) possibilities, the first being the Firestone Indy 500's.....excellent tire, I recommended those to a friend who has a Neon like my daughter's and was looking for a cheaper alternative to the LH30s I installed on her card he is ecstatic about them....

The other option is the Firestone LH30s which I know first-hand since I installed them on my daughter's Neon....they are unbelievable -an amazing tire for the price. And no, I dont work for Firestone, quite simpply, it seems their alliance with Bridgestone has allowed them to make some really fabulous touring -not ultra-performance, but touring and Grand Touring- tires...

Good luck!

Just stick w/ OEM size

Hi luttersj,

Did you buy the tires ? My criteria are almost exactly like yours ... i'm in chicago area and want decent traction in snow/rain with less road noise and more comfortable ride. I have Goodyear Eagle HP on my I30 right now, they make good road noise which I don't like, even the wet traction is quite bad with them ... the wheels just spin sometimes after launching from stop signs.

no, I haven't purchased them yet. I'm still waiting on a quote from a shop. I hope to get them on by this weekend though. Everything I read about the BFG T/A tires seems to be good, so that's what I'm going to go with. In the stock size.