[droskie]

I just noticed that my new IS I picked up last week had Dunlop Sport 9000 tires (215/45ZR17). Being a car retard, how does this compare to the Bridgestones or Goodyears in handling/ride comfort?

[ April 22, 2001: Message edited by: droskie ]

 

[Daniel]

Handling wise, I would said the tire is pretty good compare to the other two during first half of its tread life. I had SP9000 before on my Eclipse, and after several thousand miles, the tire starts to loose its grip. I would say the same with the Bridgestone RE040 as well, that's why I switch to S02 Pole Position.
Ride comfort wise, I would say they would be all the same, maybe the SP9000 would be a bit softer I think.

 

[ckolsen]

I had SP9s on my GSR sedan, and they were good, 10 times better than stock Michelins, but probably no better or worse than the other tires on new IS300s.

Originally posted by droskie:
I just noticed that my new IS I picked up last week had Dunlop Sport 9000 tires (215/45ZR17). Being a car retard, how does this compare to the Bridgestones or Goodyears in handling/ride comfort?

[ April 22, 2001: Message edited by: droskie ]

 

[TEG]

That is interesting - I didn't know the factory was using that tire. Did your car by chance have non stock (e.g. "Chromed" wheels)? Perhaps the dealer made the swap...

 

[Altezza]

I had Dunlop SP9000s too. Its wet grip was superb. Dry grip was good, but like other performance tires, it did kind of wear out fast.

Now I have Michelin Virage. Wet grip is not as nice as the Dunlop, but the dry grip is awesome.

 

[droskie]

Originally posted by TEG:
That is interesting - I didn't know the factory was using that tire. Did your car by chance have non stock (e.g. "Chromed" wheels)? Perhaps the dealer made the swap...

I simply had the regular wheels. I doubt that they changed the tires since I was waiting over a week for them to bring the car from the port. I expected bridgestone tires since every car in their lot (including the one I test drove) had those on. Are these tires of less quality? I'm headed towards the dealership cause the car vibrates a bit more than I remember when taking the test drive. Could the tires be the culprit?

 

[TEG]

Those Dunlops are more or less in the same category with the Goodyear and Bridgestone tires which have been the most common to date. I wouldn't get to bent out of shape over that change. Besides we are all going to be needing new tires around 10-20k miles anyways...

 

[gxe10uk]

i have found that dunlop sp9000's are a better tyre when comes to lasting on the is200,the bridgestones are a good tyre,but are a softer compound.
regards matt