New tires?

Question

I have a 2000 Toyota Avalon with about 85,000 miles on it; tires have never been changed. Winter's coming up (I moved to Denver 2 years ago from LA...winters are bad here) and I admit I'm not knowligable when it comes to cars, but I just did the penny check on them. The 2 back tires are fine, but the front tires are bald... so when I get my tires changed, do I just change the front two or all four? Also, how long does the process take, and about how much can I expect to pay?

Answer 1

OK, how about a real answer for a change?

I live in Minnesota, so I understand your climate needs and I work in the tire industry so unlike the other people who have responded so far, I have some idea what I'm talking about.

I find it shocking that you would still be riding on the original hoops after 80k miles and 7 years. When new these cars came equipped with either Bridgestone Potenza RE92 tires (15-inch) or Michelin MXV4+ (16-inch), neither of which has a reputation for lasting much longer than 40k miles and the Bridgestone's are horrendous in snow even when new. If you still had those you would have got rid of them at the first snowflake. As I alluded to, your 2000 Avalon will have one of two tire sizes fitted: P205/65R15 92H or P205/60R16 91H. I'm not sure which size is fitted to your particular vehicle so I'll make suggestions for both. I have personal experience with all of the tires I will talk about in heat, rain and snow and ice conditions either in the real world, on the test track, or both.

Ignore the guy who said you need "all-terrain" tires. That is too ridiculous for a response.

Ignore rick and his advice about "traction ratings" too. The UTQG ratings that are given to all passenger tires in the U.S. are about as useful as t-ts on a bull. They don't tell you anything about how a tire is going to perform in the real world.

In either P205/65R15 92H or P205/60R16 91H I can recommend the BF Goodrich Traction T/A H as a competent al-season performer at an attractive price point. 60k mileage warranty on that one.

A better but more expensive choice would be the Bridgestone Turanza Serenity which is really a marvel of tire engineering. Fantastic in every way. 70k mileage warranty to boot

Michelin's Primacy MXV4 is the replacement for the MXV4+ that has been a popular Original Equipment fit tire for many years. The Primacy promises longer wear and better traction and probably has the lowest rolling resistance of the bunch (for good gas mileage). I have not driven this tire in snow yet. It has only been out for a few months so I just have not had a chance, but they should be decent enough. for the money though if it were my own car I would chose the Bridgestone's.

The Goodyear Assurance Tripletread (make sure it is the Tripletread, not the Comfortread) gets great reviews for rain and snow traction and has a very long 80k mileage warranty to boot but I think there are some supply issues with these right now. If you can find them this would be my #2 choice behind the Bridgestones. Someone else mentioned the Goodyear Eagle ResponsEdge. I would not recommend this tire to someone living in Denver. That tire is a "hihg-performance" tire for people who like to play Mario Andretti around the cloverleafs. You don't strike me as the type. The Tripletreads will be orders-of-magnitude better for the way you use your car.

If it were me and I lived in Denver I would actually invest in 2 sets of wheels and tires - one for summer and one for winter, the latter fitted with tires dedicated specifically for winter use such as the Bridgestone Blizzak WS-60. I live in Minnesota and this is what I do on my personal vehicle. A dedicated winter tire like that is just so much better in very cold temperatures, snow and ice than so-called "all-season" tires that you can not even compare them. Remember, if you read the fine print "all-season" tires are only useful in "light snow". Also all-season tires tread rubber loses elasticity (traction) at temperatures below 45-deg F so that even on a cold day without any snow or ice a winter tire will work better than an all-season tire.

The Tirerack.com is a great place to get wheels and winter tires because they are extremely price competitive and will mount and balance the tires at no charge when you buy the wheels at the same time. You can buy just tires from them too and while their tire pricing is very cheap, once you add shipping and the cost to have them mounted on your wheels locally, your nieghborhood tire shop can often beat them on price.

If you are unwilling to make the investment in two sets of tires to optimize your tires performance all year round but care about not dying in a horrible fiery crash in the next blizzard there is an alternative:

The Nokian WR.

These tires are made in Finland (the Finn's know snow and cold) and are regarded as "all-weather" tires, not "all-season". Basically they are a winter tire, complete with the severe winter service rating on the sidewall but because they don't wear out as quickly as other winter tires you can use them all-year round. I have these tires on my wife's car and they are amazing in the winter - they blow away any all-season tire - and quite good in the summer as well. After 30k miles they are only half-worn which is fantastic given how aggressive they are. Nokian tires should not be hard to find in Denver.

Irregardless of which tire you chose, I always recommend replacing all four so that you have the same traction on all four corners of the car and you can maintain a proper tire rotation schedule which will yield the best wear.

PS

The "penny check" is no good. It's a relic from the days when the big concern about tread depth was warranty claims for treadwear, not traction. The penny test shows a tire worn to 2/32" remaining tread (the legal minimum in most states) but traction begins to fall off dramatically in tires once they wear below 4/32" remaining tread depth. You need a quarter for that test, not a penny. As apoint of fact, there was a news story just today that Consumer Reports is now recommending tires be replaced at 4/32" remaining tread, not that I put much faith in their opinions most of the time, but they are right on this one.

Answer 2

If your car has ABS brakes, it's always best to get all 4 tires replaced. But the fact that your front tires are bald and the two rears are OK tell us that you don't rotate your tires as you are supposed to.

If your car has all wheel drive, you're always supposed to replace all four tires.

But to answer your question, if you don't have all wheel drive, you can get away with replacing only two front tires. That will fly even if you have ABS brakes. But you may notice some uneven braking during a skid.

Go to tirerack.com and read the tire reviews for the tires available for your vehicle. You want a tire with an "A" traction rating. (rated A-C). Temperature ranges are also rated A-C. But it's hard to find a tire with A traction and A temperature rating. A traction has an aggressive tread and that creates more heat. The last number is the treadwear life rating. It starts at 100 and goes up from there. A tire with a rating of 400 will wear 4x longer than a 100 tire. You can find tires rated all the way up to 800, but that long tread wear life comes at a cost. They use harder rubber to get that long life. Hard rubber isn't as effective on ice and snow. So it's a trade off.

Again, read the ratings and reviews from customer on the tirerack website.

Bridgestone, Michelin, and Goodyear Triple Tread are three top rated tires.

You can expect to pay about $100 each for good tires. If you spend less than $70, you're not getting a good tire.

Rick

I'm a retired ASE Master/L-1 Technician. I still keep current with the latest automotive technology. Visit my blog for cool articles and TSB's: http://free-auto-repair-advice.blogspot.com

Answer 3

all four would be best. since your front tires give your your traction ans most of your braking and steering, these first if you have to make a choice. The back ones will help prevent spinouts if they were fresh. Get either good all-season tires if you don't drive a lot or long distances, if you have to rely on your car or drive a lot, then get tires that are M&S (mud and snow) or winter radials. (They don't make "all-terrain" tires for Avalons) Price shouldn't be more than $100 per tire (installed) expect it to take an hour to remove the old and install the new. Also, a good idea to get an allignment to protect your new tire investment. Some garages will offer a discount if you get the tires there too.

Answer 4

I would buy Four new ones because you will be able to get the best traction. It takes the tire place an average of 90-120 minutes to change the tires on a car. To know how much it will cost, you need to know if you are getting expensive or cheep tires. The cheap on will maybe only last you about 40000 miles while the expensive ones may get you to 90000 miles. In my opinion, I would go for the more expensive ones. cheap tires cost around $60 a tire while the expensive cost around $90. I bought Goodyear Eagle Response Edge tire for $120 a year ago and they have been great. Buy tires that are discontinued or are last years model because you can get them cheaper and they work just as well. Avoid Kelly tires all together because I have a friend that had a severe blow-out with one when it was 2-months old, he contacted Kelly Tires and sent them the tire, they said it was bad rubber.

Answer 5

How okay are the back tires? It is your call. You can either save money and risk it, or buy the tires, and have piece of mind. The more tread you have on your tires, the more control you will have on the road, but who knows if you even need the extra traction.

If you're not low on cash, then I suggest buying 4 new tires because 85,000 miles on 1 set of tires is crazy! haha, usually tires wear out around 40,000. You must be one safe driver. On the other hand, if you are on a budget, it is completely fine to just buy 2 tires.

The process takes 30 minutes if there's no wait.

You can expect to pay $50 up to $200 for each tire, plus mounting, tire disposal, valve stem and warrenty if there is any.

Answer 6

Well the rules have changed last year as well, but the the answer is fair competition. Goodyear and NASCAR made a deal a few back to provide so many tire per race and Goodyear has been able to deliver. On a side note the teams no longer purchase the tires from Goodyear. They actually lease the tires from NASCAR during the race weekend. After the race they have to return all tires, and will be fined and loose points if they don't.

Answer 7

Ohh baby, a winter novice! If you work around someone who could tell you the average winter snowfall right where your "sittin" There are plenty of choices. If you had some winter experiance you could get away with a pair of Yokohama TRZ - 205 - 65 -15's from tirerack.com for $79.00 ea. You enter your zipcode to them and they'll advise you of local installers. If you were my little girl (I have two your age) I'd want you on 4 snows all winter and kick-em off in the spring. They (tirerack and any Toyota dealer in your area) will tell you the same thing: Its pretty dangerous to drive around with a ton of front traction with tires on ther rear which can lead to an un-balanced grip condition. This may lead to a loose rear end or a spin out when you least expect it.

Answer 8

Change all! Looks like it will be a cold wet winter, if not you still have the comfort of having new. You will want good tires, probably 75-125 each, 1-2hr at most, if you are good at a little bit of research do that then hit Sam's club, watch some of the tire stores they may hit you for other repairs while doing the tires.

Answer 9

Generally, on tire changing, it takes between 15-25 minutes per tire, depending on the profile and rim design, thats also including balancing. Since you have never changed the tires on the vehicle, I would suggest changing all 4 tires as with age the rubber dries out and starts to crack and is more likly to blow out (although very rare on weather cracked tires). Going into winter its always good to have good tires on your car. Since you are probably inexperianced in driving in icy/snowy conditions I would recomend snow tires (they do not act like an all season or summer tire on dry road, but they will be a lot better then an all season or summer tire (summer tires in ice and snow is suicide)). For a good quality tire, I would be guessing starting at about $100 for a decent quality tire, plue installation, (at my shop about $20/tire). If your rim size is an odd or uncommon size, tire prices can go up to starting at $300+. I would expect to pay between $120-$180/tire with installation for a good quality brand name tire. Assuming its a relativly common size.

I have seen some tires starting at $60, in a brand name tire, but leading into the $200 - $300 range for the same tire in a different odd ball size.

Answer 10

Never been changed? I'd suggest all four and get all terrain tires since you live in Denver. They are a lot better on snow and ice.

Depending on the qrade, brand, quality of tires you get you'll be paying anywhere from around 265.00 to 500.00 for four new tires. That includes mounting them and balancing them.

Expect to spend anywhere from a hour up depending on how busy they are.
I usually try to hit them first thing in the morning before they get busy so I can get in and get out fast.