Cooper Zenon RS3-A or Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric Tires?

[jaywish]

My trip to Ohio yielded an 08 Town Car with 73K miles. It is the Base Retail Consumer Signature Limited plus two options. Hid Headlights and the White Wall Michelin tires.

I like the HID's but the Michelins got to go.

After a lot of consideration I decided not to get snows and to go with All Season tires. There are numerous choices in the stock 225/60-17 size. But I spent too much time reading ratings in Consumer reports and Tire Rack. I was trying to find the best combo of Winter, Wet and Dry performance. BTW it really sucks that Tire Rack does not sell Cooper any more.

What I found was that I believe I could find a better combo of those features in 235/55-17 tires. The Coopers and the Goodyears (pretty much the only USA companies left) in the heading seem to be very good.

What I don't know is how these performance tires will run on the mushy Town Car. Will they beat the suspension? Will the car ride like Crapola? Ride is important to me but not the most important thing, I just don't want the Town car riding harsh or acting weird.

Anyway, Anybody run these particular tires??
Cooper Zenon RS3-A or Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric Tires

Thanks,
Jay

[P72Ford]

Never used either of these tires, but I will say this. In 2011 I bought a set of Cooper Zeon LTZs (275 60 20) for my '04 Ram. I always talked shit about the wear life until I realized I got about 55K out of them. Given the way I drove it, and how much tread was left, that was incredible. They required additional weight to balance, which may or may not have been due to the size, but they rode great, awesome traction, and awesome wear life.

I have had good and bad experiences with Goodyear; always poor treadwear with their light truck tires.

[tjc78]

What's wrong with the Michelins other than the white walls?? I've always found that on our cars Michelins were almost always the best choice. You could have them remounted with the white wall on the inside.

[DerekTheGreat]

I like the Michelins on my Townie but they're from the 90's..... I like the sidewall with it's whitewall stripe and I like the tread pattern. Have a lot of meat on them still. Was eyeing these for my townie:

https://www.cokertire.com/tires/styles/radial-tires/bf-goodrich-silvertown-radial-narrow-whitewall.html

Or even these:

https://www.cokertire.com/tires/styles/radial-tires/american-classic-radial-narrow-whitewall.html

Jury is still out and it's not quite time yet for new meats..

[jaywish]

They are old and the sidewall is peeling back from the "white wall" part of the side wall and they never were a performance tire. They are long lasting and comfortable but I am willing to trade the long lasting pert of the equation for better performance.

Oddly I try to by USA products and though a TC is not a Marauder I will probably test the limits of whatever tires go on it so I want those limits to be a bit better then the average. I know purpose built, Summer tires for summer and Winter tires for winter are generally the best but in this case I am trying to find the best compromise all season.

[DerekTheGreat]

I was pissed to learn the Blizzaks I bought are made in Japan. Disappointing.

[gadget73]

I know Dereck (the English one) hates Michelin tires. He posted some pics of a set that had badly split apart. I've never owned a set.

I'm entirely unimpressed with the Goodyear Eagle RS-A's on the Mark VII. Lousy tread life, bad in the rain, and its absolutely undrivable in the winter. Throw 2 snowflakes on the ground and you may as well forget about going anywhere. Maybe other models are better, but those particular ones bite the bag.

[jaywish]

Yes the rs-a's are not so hot by today's standards. they were cool in the early 90's

[GM_Guy]

Michelins are good tires IF you drive a lot of miles in a year. After a couple years they harden up and become slippery bastards on par with Badyear RSAs, soon after that they will start cracking all over.

Don't discount Firestone tires. They make tires all over, so check tire rack for CoO. Take a look at the Indy 500. I like their summer handling, they do good when new in the snow, but I run snow tires, so can't speak to their all-winter capabilities. Speaking of snow, I have some serious doubts about the Goodyears capabilities for that, even if an "all-season".

Alex.

[DerekTheGreat]

I was thinking of looking into Firestone's meself..

[jaywish]

The down hill driveway was a bit wet this morning. I couldn't back the car out, just did one-wheel peel. The Michelins have reached that stage in their life.

I tend to agree about them, great if you high mile all the time. They wear like iron but after some years they adhere to the road like iron and they crack. The OEM Michelin tires, with 35K miles, on the wife's 2012 Escape are cracking between the treads.

In all fairness many tires get slippery with the age of the rubber, that is why given my low annual usage I don't usually consider treadlife to be a major factor in tire buying.

[jaywish]

I have decided to go with the Coopers. We will see how the wider heavier duty tires work out on a TC.

[DerekTheGreat]

I liked my cooper cobras on my ranger. Handled like it was on rails compared to the junk they replaced

[Lincolnmania]

i would go with coopers, never been a fan of goodyear tires.

save me one of those michelins, my lr is full of cracks.

[jaywish]

No problem, I will pick the best two for you.