Any consensus on tires?

Webbie1

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Apr 29, 2019
Location
Rockford, IL
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2015 Passat TDI SE Manual
I'm going to roll on the stock Hankooks with just over 40k miles on them, hopefully until Fall. Then I'd like to get some new all-seasons that will do ok in the snow. Of course, I'd also like quiet and good mileage. I just want everything. Haha. I've had mixed results with Michelins on other cars (LOVE them on the motorcycles). What are some of the common tires people are putting on the Passats that fit all or most of these requirements?

Thanks in advance,

Warner
 

BKmetz

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Illinois
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2015 Passat, titanium beige, 6MT
Some back-story: My wife & I both have SE models that came with 17" wheels and the junk Hankook tires. We were both lucky enough to meet up with SEL owners who had installed premium touring tires just before dieselgate broke out and decided to sell their cars back to VW. So we swapped wheels/tires and two SELs went back to VW with 17" wheels and crap Hankooks, and we now have 18" wheels with seriously upgraded tires. I mention the wheel/tire swap so everyone knows that my comments are for the 18" wheel/tires.

Some generalizations: a 17" wheel/tire should ride a bit smoother than an 18" wheel tire because of the taller sidewall. And an 18" wheel/tire should handle better than a 17" wheel/tire. My observations agree with that. It's not a hard rule because of the difference in tire brands and type of tires used. Any premium touring tire in 17" will out perform the VW supplied 18" Hankooks. OK, any good top tier tire brand is going to be better than the Chinese made stuff. We should all be able to agree on that.

On my car I've had Michelins, the Primacy MXM4 and the Premier A/S. On the wife's car she has Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus. The Michelin Premier A/S and the Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus are dead even. Both are quieter and smoother riding than the Michelin MXM4 as that is a more high performance type tire. To me they all handle the same but the MXM4 should handle better. I don't push my cars that hard around corners so I'll never know.

Tire wear out mileage: Michelin MXM4 50k, Michelin Premier A/S 60k, Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus 70K. I would say all those numbers are correct with how my tires are wearing. When my Michelins wear out, I'm going to replace them with the Pirelli Cinturato as they cost less and last longer.

Winter tire performance. I have dedicated winter tires, Michelin X-ICE XI3 on 16" wheels. A dedicated winter tire blows away the performance of an all season tire every time. I have some Passat Wolfsburg 16" alloys for winter. For cheap wheels look for some Passat S model 16" steel wheels. The Michelin Premier A/S and Pirelli Cinturanto P7 are both all season tires and they both out-perform the Michelin MXM4 in snow, as they should. Depending on how far your daily commute is, dedicated winter tires are a good investment.

I hope this helps you sort out your tire needs.

:)
 
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Webbie1

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Location
Rockford, IL
TDI
2015 Passat TDI SE Manual
Some back-story: My wife & I both have SE models that came with 17" wheels and the junk Hankook tires. We were both lucky enough to meet up with SEL owners who had installed premium touring tires just before dieselgate broke out and decided to sell their cars back to VW. So we swapped wheels/tires and two SELs went back to VW with 17" wheels and crap Hankooks, and we now have 18" wheels with seriously upgraded tires. I mention the wheel/tire swap so everyone knows that my comments are for the 18" wheel/tires.

Some generalizations: a 17" wheel/tire should ride a bit smoother than an 18" wheel tire because of the taller sidewall. And an 18" wheel/tire should handle better than a 17" wheel/tire. My observations agree with that. It's not a hard rule because of the difference in tire brands and type of tires used. Any premium touring tire in 17" will out perform the VW supplied 18" Hankooks. OK, any good top tier tire brand is going to be better than the Chinese stuff. We should all be able to agree on that.

On my car I've had Michelins, the Primacy MXM4 and the Premier A/S. On the wife's car she has Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus. The Michelin Premier A/S and the Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus are dead even. Both are quieter and smoother riding than the Michelin MXM4 as that is a more high performance type tire. To me they all handle the same but the MXM4 should handle better. I don't push my cars that hard around corners so I'll never know.

Tire wear out mileage: Michelin MXM4 50k, Michelin Premier A/S 60k, Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus 70K. I would say all those numbers are correct with how my tires are wearing. When my Michelins wear out, I'm going to replace them with the Pirelli Cinturato as they cost less and last longer.

Winter tire performance. I have dedicated winter tires, Michelin X-ICE XI3 on 16" wheels. A dedicated winter tire blows away the performance of an all season tire every time. I have some Passat Wolfsburg 16" alloys for winter. For cheap wheels look for some Passat S model 16" steel wheels. The Michelin Premier A/S and Pirelli Cinturanto P7 are both all season tires and they both out-perform the Michelin MXM4 in snow, as they should. Depending on how far your daily commute is, dedicated winter tires are a good investment.

I hope this helps you sort out your tire needs.

:)
Awesome feedback. Thank you so much for you review! I have driven with winter tires on a car before, and you're right....night and day! I prefer the General Altimax Arctics though. Unbelievable traction on snow and even ice. Tire Rack has some very good videos comparing different snow tires to all seasons, and to each other. For budgetary reasons, I think I'm going to have to skip the snow tires, at least for the next season. But based off of your feedback, I'm going to take a look at the Pirelli Cinturanto P7 tires. Thanks again!

Warner
 

tdiatlast

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Location
Fort Worth, Texas
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2009 Sportwagen (boughtback); 2014 Passat TDI SEL (boughtback)
BKMetz: THANK YOU for your side-by-side comparison of the Michelin Premier A/S and the Pirelli Cinturanto P7 tires. The comparison should be made a sticky, as these 2 tires are the top 2 tires frequently compared here and over at the ToyotaNation forum.

I'm at about 45k miles on a pair of Premier A/S, and really like them (Michelin claims the sipes get bigger with mileage...all I can say is, the sipes are clearly visible). Other Avalon owners prefer the Pirelli Cinturanto P7. Tread is around 4/32, so I'm looking to replace. It's the usual debate time, whether or not to replace on MY schedule prior to a long road trip (5k miles, July heat), or try to get the maximum mileage out of the tires, and risk an inconvenient failure on the road.

I agree that the VW OEM Hancook tires were/are dreadful. However, to clarify, Hankook is a Korean brand, manufactured in plants around the world. From Wikipedia: "The company has its headquarters in South Korea and has manufacturing facilities in South Korea, the People's Republic of China, Hungary, Indonesia, and the United States" Unless you're looking directly at the sidewall of any tire, it's impossible to tell WHERE it's manufactured. QC with most manufacturers can be all over the place, but the 2012-2015 VW OEM Hankooks were notoriously bad.

Webbie1: When comparing tire ratings, carefully note the size of the tires being compared, and the region where the tire lives. There can be huge differences of opinion re: traction, road noise (LOTS of exposed aggregate concrete where I live, DFW, which makes ANY tire sound noisy).

As usual, YMMV!
 
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Webbie1

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Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Location
Rockford, IL
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2015 Passat TDI SE Manual
BKMetz: THANK YOU for your side-by-side comparison of the Michelin Premier A/S and the Pirelli Cinturanto P7 tires. The comparison should be made a sticky, as these 2 tires are the top 2 tires frequently compared here and over at the ToyotaNation forum.

I'm at about 45k miles on a pair of Premier A/S, and really like them (Michelin claims the sipes get bigger with mileage...all I can say is, the sipes are clearly visible). Other Avalon owners prefer the Pirelli Cinturanto P7. Tread is around 4/32, so I'm looking to replace. It's the usual debate time, whether or not to replace on MY schedule prior to a long road trip (5k miles, July heat), or try to get the maximum mileage out of the tires, and risk an inconvenient failure on the road.

I agree that the VW OEM Hancook tires were/are dreadful. However, to clarify, Hankook is a Korean brand, manufactured in plants around the world. From Wikipedia: "The company has its headquarters in South Korea and has manufacturing facilities in South Korea, the People's Republic of China, Hungary, Indonesia, and the United States" Unless you're looking directly at the sidewall of any tire, it's impossible to tell WHERE it's manufactured. QC with most manufacturers can be all over the place, but the 2012-2015 VW OEM Hankooks were notoriously bad.

Webbie1: When comparing tire ratings, carefully note the size of the tires being compared, and the region where the tire lives. There can be huge differences of opinion re: traction, road noise (LOTS of exposed aggregate concrete where I live, DFW, which makes ANY tire sound noisy).

As usual, YMMV!
Thanks. I'm doing like 95% highway. My commute is 58 miles one way, with about 53 of them highway. It's 70mph speed limit the whole way. I'm driving in the right lane, going between 65-70 to squeeze out the most mileage. I've only filled my tank once since getting the car, but it was to a calculated 52mph. So fuel mileage is important to me. On weekend, I drive my old pickup because the dog likes to go with me and I'm not letting her in the Passat. Based on the other feedback, I'm leaning towards the Pirelli's....not to mention I think Michelin is overpriced. Very good tires, but overpriced. I'm in the Chicago area, so ALL types of weather are encountered here. Mine has the 17" wheels on it. I'm a ways off from replacing them, but doing my homework ahead of time.

Thanks again,

Warner
 
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BKmetz

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Illinois
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2015 Passat, titanium beige, 6MT
I prefer the General Altimax Arctics though. Unbelievable traction on snow and even ice. Warner
I only went with the Michelins because that's what was on sale at Costco.

BKMetz: THANK YOU for your side-by-side comparison of the Michelin Premier A/S and the Pirelli Cinturanto P7 tires. The comparison should be made a sticky, as these 2 tires are the top 2 tires frequently compared here and over at the ToyotaNation forum.
It really helps when you own two identical handling cars so you can make easy side-by-side comparisons.

I agree that the VW OEM Hancook tires were/are dreadful. However, to clarify, Hankook is a Korean brand, manufactured in plants around the world. From Wikipedia: "The company has its headquarters in South Korea and has manufacturing facilities in South Korea, the People's Republic of China, Hungary, Indonesia, and the United States" Unless you're looking directly at the sidewall of any tire, it's impossible to tell WHERE it's manufactured. QC with most manufacturers can be all over the place, but the 2012-2015 VW OEM Hankooks were notoriously bad.
HAH! I never paid any attention to Hankooks until VW starting using them. Every Hankook sidewall I ever saw said 'Made In China.'

:)
 

Webbie1

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Apr 29, 2019
Location
Rockford, IL
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2015 Passat TDI SE Manual
I only went with the Michelins because that's what was on sale at Costco.


It really helps when you own two identical handling cars so you can make easy side-by-side comparisons.


HAH! I never paid any attention to Hankooks until VW starting using them. Every Hankook sidewall I ever saw said 'Made In China.'

:)
I hear you on the "what's on sale" part. Looks like we have the same car, 2015 manual Passat. Thanks again for your feedback.

Warner
 

thundershorts

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2015 passat tdi sel premium 2015 golf s tdi gls tdi b5.5, 2002 eurovan,Peugeot 505 td,Citroen cx25 prestige
As far as an a/s tire, mich pilots a/s3+ are about as good as it gets both wet and dry from a drivers perspective.
 

tdiatlast

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HAH! I never paid any attention to Hankooks until VW starting using them. Every Hankook sidewall I ever saw said 'Made In China.'

:)
Same here. After dumping the Hankooks, at an indie shop, I saw a Hankook tire, practically new tread, flat on the ground, with a used engine block on top of it. Also saw a nearly new pair of Hankooks being used as boat pier bumpers! Excellent re-purposing!
 

soot1

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Currently none. Formerly: 2010 VW Jetta TDI 6M, 1993 Dodge Ram W250 Cummins 5M 4WD, 1990 VW Jetta Diesel 5M, 1986 VW Jetta Diesel 5M, 1980 VW Uabbit Diesel 4M. Currently driving 2018 Toyota 4Runner SR5 4WD.
The OEM-supplied Continentals on my 2010 Jetta (made in Portugal) were a complete pile of junk. Rotated every 5,000 miles, but still began showing first signs of cupping at around 10k. I had the alignment checked at that time, but everything was well within limits. I even had them re-balanced, but they continued to wear unevenly and started producing a lot of noise that was caused by the uneven wear. At 25k, the noise got so bad I decided to dump them even though they still had more than 50% of the thread left. I replaced them with a set of Bridgestone Runguards, which are all-season RFT tires. Just as the Contis, these were 225/45R17, but had the extra benefit of being run-flats, but most importantly, were Made in Japan. Call me crazy, but I firmly believe the country of manufacture makes a huge difference and it is one of the most important things I look at. I rotated the Bridgestones at the same 5k intervals, kept them at the same inflation pressure as the Contis, but the Bridgestones never showed any signs of uneven wear and produced no wear-related noise during the entire 35k I put on them before I sold the car back to VW last July. They also never required any re-balancing. I highly recommend these if you are looking for a great year-round tire.
 

oilhammer

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outside St Louis, MO
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There are just too many to list....
Those Hankooks should have been recalled. They split apart on the sidewall, ironically right through where the "MADE IN CHINA" is. I've seen so many of those fail. Tread wears like iron, which isn't "good" either.

We had a fleet of Sportwagons we serviced, most of which had those, and we were constantly fighting with the management bean counters sitting somewhere at a desk calling the shots. They were intent on just using tread depth as the only metric by which to judge tires. We kept telling them these tires were junk, splitting apart. Then, somewhere else, one DID come apart and the driver crashed and was seriously hurt. For the next month, we were swapping every set of Hankooks on every single one of their cars that came through the shop.

FWIW, the sidewall split often happens on the INSIDE, not the outside, so you cannot readily see them. They are a dangerous tire, and VAG should have hung their heads in shame for equipping any of their cars with them.
 

soot1

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Unless you're looking directly at the sidewall of any tire, it's impossible to tell WHERE it's manufactured.
One of the cool features of Tire Rack is that they do list country of origin for every tire and every tire size, so yes, it is possible to tell where any specific tire is manufactured. Granted, every now and then, you will see more than one possible country of origin listed for a given tire size, but those are exceptions. The country of origin is listed under the "SPECS" tab.
 

Webbie1

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Rockford, IL
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2015 Passat TDI SE Manual
Looks like Sam's club has the Pirelli CINTURATO P7's at $80 off a set of 4 tires. With installation, the tires would be just under $600 for 4 of them, installed, with taxes and all fees. I don't know how long the sale is, but you guys have been wondering about the Hankook's with 42k miles on them now.....

Warner
 

Graham Line

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I'm reasonably happy with the P7s that replaced the OE Continentals on my '12 Golf TDi. The sidewalls are stiffer, and they seem to be wearing well. In the little bit of snow we had here last winter, they were fine with the TC and ABS working. For deep snow I get out the '93 4x4. Price was well below Michelins.
 

thundershorts

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When my 2013 passat sel was ready for buyback, it had 56k. tires conti's measured between 5-6. Probably because I had set toe, both front and back to zero and rear camber to -1. I never rotated as wear pattern remained even across tread. total toe and steer ahead zero. When I purchased my 2015, I avoided several with Hankooks, knowing they were crap. I really can't knock the conti's in my experience in both wet and dry and tracking.
 

Smashed Ixnay

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Auburndale, FL
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2015 Passat TDI SEL
My car I bought that was a buy back had 34.5k miles on it when I got it. I almost put another 20k miles on it when the tires decided to go. The car had roughly 52k miles on them. The tires were Continental ProContacts. I believe they were near the end of life, but they were still safe to drive on. I want to say they were 4-5/32 for the most part on all 4 tires. For some reason one decided to get super hot and started to come apart on the highway going 70mph. Luckily I noticed it before they exploded and cause bad damage, but the tread was coming off!

I ended up going with Michelin Premier A/S tires. I have always wanted these! At first I was skeptical, because I took a huge hit on mpg. I lost about 5mpg driving the same way I always did. I ended up hating the tires for this, but then again, they were new tires. 20k miles later at 73,500 miles I am loving these tires! They are super quiet, have excellent wet traction with all the rain we get in FL, and the mpg has improved some. The MPG isn't the same as the Continentals, but I feel much safer with these tires. No idea how long they will last, but hopefully I'll get at least 50k miles out of these. I will probably get these again, because with two little girls in my life, I rather be a little safer on the roads opposed to getting an extra few miles out of my tank. I still make 650-700 miles on a tank without having to refill, so I can't complain there. The only negative I can think of is that these tires cost me a little over $1,000. That's pricey, as I will be replacing them every 2 years at max.

I have had Pirelli P7's on our 2010 Jetta TDI, but I wasn't a fan of them. They lasted I believe 53k miles before they were 4/32 or less tread. The ride was decent, quietness not as good as the Michelin's, but on par as the Continentals. The wet traction was horrible, IMO. I spun out easy in these tires, even when not putting my foot down hard. Unless I can find these on sale for a ridiculously awesome price, I'll pass on these.
 

Webbie1

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Apr 29, 2019
Location
Rockford, IL
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2015 Passat TDI SE Manual
My car I bought that was a buy back had 34.5k miles on it when I got it. I almost put another 20k miles on it when the tires decided to go. The car had roughly 52k miles on them. The tires were Continental ProContacts. I believe they were near the end of life, but they were still safe to drive on. I want to say they were 4-5/32 for the most part on all 4 tires. For some reason one decided to get super hot and started to come apart on the highway going 70mph. Luckily I noticed it before they exploded and cause bad damage, but the tread was coming off!

I ended up going with Michelin Premier A/S tires. I have always wanted these! At first I was skeptical, because I took a huge hit on mpg. I lost about 5mpg driving the same way I always did. I ended up hating the tires for this, but then again, they were new tires. 20k miles later at 73,500 miles I am loving these tires! They are super quiet, have excellent wet traction with all the rain we get in FL, and the mpg has improved some. The MPG isn't the same as the Continentals, but I feel much safer with these tires. No idea how long they will last, but hopefully I'll get at least 50k miles out of these. I will probably get these again, because with two little girls in my life, I rather be a little safer on the roads opposed to getting an extra few miles out of my tank. I still make 650-700 miles on a tank without having to refill, so I can't complain there. The only negative I can think of is that these tires cost me a little over $1,000. That's pricey, as I will be replacing them every 2 years at max.

I have had Pirelli P7's on our 2010 Jetta TDI, but I wasn't a fan of them. They lasted I believe 53k miles before they were 4/32 or less tread. The ride was decent, quietness not as good as the Michelin's, but on par as the Continentals. The wet traction was horrible, IMO. I spun out easy in these tires, even when not putting my foot down hard. Unless I can find these on sale for a ridiculously awesome price, I'll pass on these.
Thanks for all of your feedback. Much appreciated!

Warner
 

740GLE

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I'm partial to grand touring style tires, something with long tread life and great highway characteristics. I just don't have the stomach to price out Michelin Primacy tires, so we went with Nokan enTyre 2.0, on our '12 Passat and they held up well for the 30K we had them on the car. Currently our '15 Passat has some sort of bridgestones that we're also happy with about 20K worth of wear on them now, and we shouldn't need to replace them in the next 2-3 years at the current wear rate.

Will probably source them for our Alltrack, hopefully these falkens that are on it will hold up until next summer.
 

compu_85

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... None :S
Those Hankooks should have been recalled. They split apart on the sidewall, ironically right through where the "MADE IN CHINA" is. I've seen so many of those fail. Tread wears like iron, which isn't "good" either.
2x. I will never, ever consider Hankook tires after living through the garbage ones that came on our Passat. By 40k cords were popping out of the inside sidewall.

-J
 

740GLE

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2x. I will never, ever consider Hankook tires after living through the garbage ones that came on our Passat. By 40k cords were popping out of the inside sidewall.
-J

Obviously you're not familiar with new advancements in wear indicators, wear bars in the tread is so 2000's :D
 

compu_85

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I know what wear bars are ;) They still had acceptable tread left when we dumped them. That's among the big problems with those tires, the sidewalls start coming apart before the tread is worn off.
 

740GLE

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NH
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ah see that's the new design feature hankook tires are implementing these days
 
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