magikone69

im lookin at some tires for a 19 inch rim and my god are they pricey lol...ive been searching for some deals. My friend brought me to a local tire shop where they get a nice assortment of used performance tires from continental, to BF, to watever you can think of and have decent tread life...only thing is its hard to get a set of 4 of the same model.

anyway i managed to piece a set of some bridgestone craptenzas tires for 400 bux wit about <70% tread all around.

2x 235/35/19 and
2x 275/30/19 has a lil less tread and one has been patched up.

well to my question, i can get these for 400 mounted and ballanced or for 500 bux i can get the same size tires for a set of Nexen 3000's

problem is i never heard of it and u usually get what you pay for (wanli???)

But after reading on them alot of people seem to be happy with them, and they are on fairly decent cars like wrx's and stangs and such. For the price they say they grip fairly well and have god wet traction. If i had a wrx id be convinced to buy it but id like to hear an opinion from an 8 owner.

Im lookin for #1 Cheap, #2 Good wear, and #3 good performance...obviously i cant have all 3 so ill sacrifice to have an all around good set. i dont care about road noise and such since the car is loud with my midpipe.

i currently have jic coilovers, F and R sways so i do want to keep some of my great handling but id need a few months before i can lay down 8-900 bux on a set of nice tires.

fbdevil

I put a set of N3000 on my 8 about a 8 months ago. They handle very good, almost as good as the OEM bridgestones, in spite of going with the non OEM size of 245/40/18. They are very quiet, unlike the bridgestones, although I only have 10K on them. Great traction in the rain.

magikone69

thanks for responding..i think jus about every tire has pretty good handling between the 1000-8000 mile mark...then some tires seem to harden up and loose that "sticky handling" feel. have you noticed a severe loss in handling as the miles tacked on or is it the usual minimal loss. like i said i want great tires but i know on my budget i dont have alot of options lol.

how is the wear on the tires? i personally dont like tires with that "zig zag" tread pattern cause with the ones ive had in the apst they seem to wear out faster than tread that is primarily straight lines, (prob since 98% of my driving is in a straight line?)

ive had several pairs of craptenzas all different models and i never seem to really enjoy them, they are always loud, and have poor life so i dont wana drop 400 bux on some used ones which will prob only get me through the end of the year. Id atleast like to get 2 years of good performance before my next set of tires.

shaunv74

PM Kristopher_d. He's on his second set of Nexen 3000's and he's been very happy with them.

RWatters

iTrader: (5)

I've heard the sidewall on them is pretty soft, but that they work great for DD tires.

I ordered a set as well through a local vendor and I'll be having them mounted up next weekend (this weekend is looking crappy for weather and I don't want to risk the drive there on semi-bald summer tires).

magikone69

please let me know how it goes, i jus got my rims but prob gonna wait till end of april to get the tires and mount them just to see if i can come accross a set of beter tires at a affordable price. let me kno how they ride once you get them.

magikone69

well i got a call from the shop who has the nexens and they offered to knock off the cost to mount and ballance and this brought the price of the tires down to 425+tax, i had no choice but to get them today.

initial reaction was "hey i got some new tires lol" i cant say i was blown away by them i cant say i was disapointed...my feeling is neutral lol...its only been about 50 miles so i cant say too much about them....

they look good, i inspected each tire thuroughly looking for cracks or any problems, seem pretty solid built. tread was nice and crisp.

road noise seems unchanged..i really dont notice things like that with music and talking so...it def isnt worse than my old worn tires so thats saying somethin.

i havent pushed them and will wait about 500+ miles before takin some twisties..

i will periodically try to post to this thread (and encourage other owners to do so as well since it was pretty hard finding info on these tires)

RWatters

iTrader: (5)

I've had a little over two weeks on mine and they're not a bad tire for the price. They're by no means a track tire (the sidewall is definitely pretty soft) but for just driving the car around they're great. The ride isn't harsh, there isn't a lot of noise, and there is still enough response that you can still have fun in the car.

For the price you can't beat them, IMO, but if you're wanting a performance tire you'll need to look elsewhere and spend a lot more money.

kristopher_d

As Shaun said, I'm on my second set of N3000s. For the price, I love them. That doesn't mean I wouldn't run something else if I spent less on gas (I drive a lot, and hard). The wet weather performance is aboslutely wonderful. Dry is better than those POS bridgestones the car came with. They put up with the cold better, and don't overheat as easily. I did find that one day last summer when it was around 100F out (that's rather hot around here) they did get a bit greasy after a full day of playing. In the Seattle area road quality is pretty terrible, and having a softer sidewall seems to be an advantage. I'm planning on getting some wider rims and stickier tires for Summer, and keeping the Nexen's on the stock wheels for the wet season.

magikone69

Well its been close to 1000 miles on these so far and i can say they trully are a set of good tires for the money. Ive encountered the typical S FL. weather and ive been satisfied with all aspects.

Dry weather...Car feels planted...Straight line driving feels normal, no awkward vibrations or noise. They are actually kind of quiet imo, ive def heard worse. High speed dry traction feels safe and secure. Ive taken them for an trip up to 115mph and they held nicely (i was worried that after 90mph id start to feel loose and unstable) but they held nicely.

Wet weather seemed good. Ive been in wet conditions from damp roads to basicly driving on 2 inches of standing water on the hwy and i felt safe and firmly planted on the ground. For mild damp roads i was able to have a little fun and could easily control the oversteer. I didnt push it to far but i was able to have a lil fun while still being in controll. On the heavily saturated roads i could safely do 60+ on the hwy on standing water and was able to switch lanes with no worries, i could feel the road contact where as with other tires i felt like i was floating on the water.

After breaking the tires in i decided to have some fun so i went out on a nice road which has a few turns in it and did a lil driving. Entering a turn is not as sharp as my old tires, i can pull in at a nice speed but i feel like my old tires had better grip going into a turn (possibly because i am now on staggered wheels)...road holding while in a turn feels great, i usually hold this particular turn doing 55 on a soft long turn on my old tires...now with the new ones i hold the same turn doing almost 65mph and can honestly feel llike i can go faster. exiting the turn my understeer is very bad. Before i could exit the turn in the inside lane and slide a lil to mek it into the middle lane....now when i exit out of the inner lane, by the time i straigten the car out im half way into the outside lane...its pretty bad which im assuming i can thank the staggered setup for. I have coilovers and adjustable swaybars and im going to try to play with the settings to see if i can overcome the understeer a lil, or maybe try to steer with the gas pedal more lol.

Overall im pleased with the tires for the price i paid. tread seems to be looking good. once i get rid of the oem wheels ill buy another set of 18's or maybe 17's so i can start tracking this car.