Any suggestions on tires for a 1998 Riviera?

[Dominic_Martinelli]

I have owned this car for a year now and the tires on the car are Kelly-Springfield Navigator Golds. I hate these tires. The treadwear is excellent but they seem to be way too soft, only emphasising the already soft suspension and worst of all, they vibrate at highway speeds (60-70 MPH). I've had a road force variation balance test done to it and it made the vibration somewhat better, but the condition still exists. I believe that Goodyear GAs were original equipment on the car. I have done some reaseach on tirerack.com and nobody really has anything nice to say about the Goodyear GAs or Goodyear LSs (the LS is standard equipment on the Regal GS and Park Avenue Ultra now). Does anybody out there have any recommendations on what tires would work well with my Riv? I live in PA where roads are not the greatest any time of year and I want a good quality tire (Domestic brands are preferred). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[NTX5467]

The Eagle GAs were a pretty strong OEM level tire in the early '90s when they came out. Their main claim to fame was a much quieter ride (from lack of tread noise). They were OEM spec for all of the Chrysler LH cars, many Lexus cars, and many GM full size cars too. They are still used on several GM cars (i.e., 3.8L V-6 Impalas but not the base 3.4L V-6 Impala, which gets Uniroyal Tiger Paws) and Dodge Intrepids so there is still some viability to that particular tire. By observations, reasonable care of the Eagle GA will result in pretty good tread life and the many LH cars I've rented (with those tires) leads me to believe they are a decent handling tire too, but not to the same level as a performance oriented tire.

By the number of sizes of the Eagle GA, which are less than they used to be, that tire will probably be phased out over the next couple of years. As you can note, it's also an expensive tire to buy (especially from Goodyear!). The Eagle LS has a much wider size range so it'll probably be around a good deal longer. But as long as the Eagle GA is used for OEM production applications, those particular sizes will be around longer.

The Eagle LS came out with the current generation Park Avenue. An upgrade from the Eagle GA and generally a little more performance oriented. At the Park Avenue consumer Ride & Drive I went to, I questioned the Product Specialist as to the technical details of the LS and he mentioned they had a lower rolling resistance than previous tires of that type. As you mentioned, the LS is still used on many GM cars with performance orientations. They were also used on many Chrysler 300M and LHS cars also, although later model 300Ms come with Michelins. You can also note from the Goodyear website specs that tread depth of the LS is about 10/32" instead of the formerly more common 11/32", but then some Michelins are that way too.

TireRack.com also has a cummulative survey area where they put all of the survey results together for the particular tire performance groups. That is a good tool to use to see where things settle out. As you will notice, no OEM level tire will typically rate very highly in those surveys. Also consider that many of their customers are performance oriented so that can affect the OEM level tire ratings too. The information in there can be a very good shopping tool, though, and probably aid in your purchase decision.

It might be good to shop their online website and then see how close you can get to their pricing at your local tire stores (who could provide local services that TireRack can't, if needed). Buying the tires mail order and then expecting a local dealer for the same tire can have its rocky aspects should there be some warranty issues.

In one respect, you could do a whole lot worse than the OEM level tires, but then there are many other options which might work better for less money (as the survey chart will indicate).

Otherwise, the Goodyear Aquatread 3 looks to be a pretty good tire and probably is in the size you need. The Regatta 2 is similar in concept to the Eagle LS, but is a "replacement" tire. If white side walls will be a consideration, it might limit things a little, but there are still some choices with those too.

Hope this helps a little,

NTX5467

[geno]

I replaced the tires on our 95 Ultra with Micheln X-1's back in November of 2002.

Pretty pleased with them so far. Improve the mushy ride somewhat. I have not been happy with the self sealing tire that come on a lot of Buicks.

[86 2dr.ltd]

The Good Year Regattas on our LSS have been great. Only 15,000 on it so far but their holding up well. The cars got 7?,000 miles so I dont know if their original but if they are there really good.

I put Michelins ? on our 89 Chrysler and they were OK but not worth the price tag.They wore faster then the tires below.

I put a full set of BFG Excentia A/S on our LeSabre and got 70,000 out of them and the ones that spent most of the time on the rear or off in place of snows are still great. Not performance tires but its not a race car either. I like BFG's and have always done well with them. I'll never pay Michelins price for tires again.

I've never had any luck with those Kellys or other cheap brands. I think there all seconds or made on octagon shaped forms. Just finally got two wore out on my Dakota. They were never in balance and not worth the $15.00 saved.

BTW I went through the tire racks feedback on tires once also and I noticed nearly every tire had people complain about them, check it out. Its almost always performance oriented and if they want ultra performance they need to spend much more and get some of those F1's and I'm sure theyed complain about them also. Alot of those people sounded like kids on their first set of wheels that know all there to know. Or maybe people that think their FWD car should go like a 4WD in the first wet snow and cry like crazy because snows slippery, imagine that. About snow - the Regattas on the LSS are still on there and its the first car I havent put snows on in the winter, just economics I guess it would do better with snows but their 16's and I just havent gotten any or spare wheels which I have for our other 14 & 15" cars/trucks.

Good Years or BF Goodrich

[our51super]

Hi,

I would highly recommend Michelin tires. Our '95 Aurora had a really sensitive steering and it would shimmy quite noticeably if the front tires were not absolutely perfect. We went through hell trying to get that resolved. I can't remember how many Good Year tires we went through but when we shitched to Michelin the problem went away instantly. I have used nothing but Michelins since (except on our '72 Cad - it has Firestone 721 because of the 1.5" white walls) and have been extremely satisfied. I know they cost more but I feel we got more.

Good luck!

[Guest]

I like BFGoodrich. They are priced far below Michelins and they offer equal traction in my opinion. BFGoodrich's have a soft tire compound, that why all the street racers use them. The are only lacking in tread wear cornering ability on the lower end tires.