QuestionI have an 08 Nissan Sentra SER Spec V which I bought new in March 09. I have 19,000 miles on the car and I already need new tires. The tires have been rotated every other oil change. I need tires that will last longer than a year and 19,000 miles. Everywhere I've looked the price range is from $500-900 a set. One place said I need high performance z rated tires. I want to know what kind of tires to get and what's a good buy for the least amount of money. I simply cannot afford to pay $900 for a set of tires that may or may not last more than 20,000 miles or one year, yet I don't want to pay $500 for a set and they only last a year also. Any help you could give me would be appreciated.
AnswerCynthia,
Your car was designed to be a high performance sports sedan - and one of the ways it gets the high levels of performance is through its tires. The tires original spec'd for this vehicle are designed to provide large amounts of grip, while at the same time providing some fuel economy. The tires do that by sacrificing wear.
You are unhappy with the wear, but you have not indicated whether the fuel economy and the grip can be sacrificed. You should be aware that anything you do to improve the wear characteristics is also going adversely affect the fuel economy and/or the grip. Without some indication of what you are willing to sacrifice, no one is going to be able to help you select a tire.
Once you have decided what it is you are willing to sacrifice - and how much - how do you determine what is available that fits your desires. UTQG (Uniformity Tire Quality Grade)can help here.
Each passenger car tires has a UTQG rating. You can read up about them here:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=48
Short version:
1) Treadwear is graded by a number - the higher the number, the better the wear.
2) Grip is graded by a letter. The lower the letter, the better the grip. The grades are C, B, A, AA - with AA being the best. Please note this is a "Wet Grip" grade.
3) The last grade is called "Temperature", but that is a misnomer as it is really similar to "Speed Rating"
4) Unfortunately, fuel economy is not yet part of the grading structure. That will be remedied sometime in the next couple of years. However, Tire Rack has indicated the MANUFACTURER's assessment of rolling resistance by noting "LRR" (Low Rolling Resistance) as part of their description. Please note that the manufacturer may or may not say this. Tire Rack is doing this on their own as a guide for consumers and they are basing this on what they are being told by the manufacturer. Tire Rack is NOT measuring these tires, so a bit of caution should be exercised.
If you spend some time on Tire Rack's web site, you ought to be able to sort out what will work for you. In particular, look up the UTQG ratings of the tires you have now and select tires based on those ratings
One last comment: Because there is some legal liability regarding replacing tires, many tire shops will not sell or install tires with a lower speed rating than came originally on your car. You should be aware that going down in speed rating is also directionally towards going down in both grip (which you can see through the UTQG rating) and in steering crispness. In other words, the vehicle will be less quick to react to steering input with lower speed rated tires (generally).
BTW, Tire Rack lists 144 tires when I input your vehicle. Some of these are quite affordable and certainly there is something that will meet your needs.
