Given
57%
while driving a
Hyundai ix35
(215/70 R16)
on
a combination of roads
for 44,000
average miles
Family member owns this car so I feel like reviewing it as these were OEM tires. As we all know Hyundai ix35 is one of the most dullard cars to drive with dynamics of a pig however these tires surprise me with their price considering it really isn't worth such a premium with such boring performance, you're paying for the brand on this instance. I drive all the cars spirited so I should provide a comprehensive report of how they handle and feel.
- Dry and Wet handling: Even on a car that's also FWD as a Hyundai ix35 it performs fairly well considering this is an All Season tire and to be frank I never recommend them but it took me by surprise. You can definitely extract some of the dry grip while having comfort from this tire if this is what you care for, it won't disappoint as it has predictable balance of safe understeer, you won't need to guess when you start skidding. It's no UHP tire as I have PS4 on my Audi A6 C6 coupled with AWD and new Bilstein B6 dampers with Eibach springs; left a review before here so I seek sportiness but if I had to compromise it wouldn't be terrible but not my cup of tea. Wet grip is ghastly however. Numpty as it can be, already a car with understeer tendencies and this tire is exacerbating it. No balance whatsoever in the wet, managed to lose grip before in the car almost ending up in the ditch, can't fathom how a high profile tire struggled to communicate loss of grip especially. Below 3 mm tread it is absolutely scary, at 90 kmh on a non-sharp bend in the wet it felt like the wheels were sinking in wanting to aquaplane. Not recommended in the wet. It was as ghastly as it can be, worst tire I have tried in terms of wet grip. How vastly different are PS4 or even Turanza T001 compared to these, insanity, it's not worth the premium. Tire pressures won't help as it isn't sensitive to tire pressures, I attempted to mix pressures + front - back/- front + back to get the car handle better but to no avail. It only denotes that this is not a performance tire.
- Snow and Ice handling: usually my family member switches these to winter tires however this tire has seen snow and ice before. Surprisingly adequate. Wasn't half bad in light snow, can push the car and it will grip, somehow the car was neutral rather than veer into understeer. Deeper snow provided massive struggle but in cold and damp roads it was pretty safe. Ice was also surprisingly better than my Continental WinterContact TS860 tires. These did not struggle and bit the road surface with patches of ice without an issue. On full ice it proved to be marginally faster than my car even with AWD. I guess it's due to compound of the tire and tire block flex that dictates the car's balance with these tires.
- Feedback: look far away from these tires if you care about road feedback. There is none at all, only communication you'll get is from the chassis and if it isn't communicative as well you're in for trouble. Ultimately a car equipped with electric power steering robs feel and feedback making the steering as light as feather transmuting a dull and uninspiring drive. Tire gives no resistance on the steering wheel, no positive feel or feedback. Mentioned previously how I almost caused a car accident due to lackluster feel; on a high profile tire progressiveness is the main aspect and I couldn't even feel it. Truly horrid and lackluster unless you really want to isolate your driving that much - you won't feel bump-steer, vibrations or heft with these tires so go ahead if you want a disconnected experience.
- Comfort: slightly firmer car and underdamped suspension was no issue for it. These tires are of topic I'd include comfort. Its main highlight is that it absorbs bumps, irregularities and vibrations effortlessly. On such a dull chassis it managed to make a ride supple, helped a lot with roads that were in bad condition as well as gravel roads, it floated like a carpet! This is the result of a tire being overly high profile with soft sidewalls. My TS860 is slightly softer I would say but this is still 10/10 in that category unlike PS4 where if encountered gravel roads I'd feel like my teeth are being smashed even at 10 kmh but all round absorbed irregularities in the roads supremely and handled like it was on rails.
- Wear: hard wearing tire, it lasted quite a while and vastly impressed by that. Most of my tires are in 10k-15k range sometimes 20k range so I rate this blissfully perfect.
Overall: if you want a boring, "safe", uninspiring ride then this all season tire is for you. I really think there's better competition than this and for a cheaper price, it's only comfort and wear that's superb on them but I had WinterContact TS860 which was super comfy and it had superb handling capabilties maybe even more exciting as they liked to oversteer a bit in snow and it was a winter tire at that. If they weren't so high wearing these tires maybe would provide handling capabilities. These tires have good heat resistance so it's safe to use them if you don't push them and drive sensibly at or under speed limit with some marginals for over the limit.
