I currently have new General Altimax Arctic winter tires on my 1994 Alfa Romeo 164. The 164 is notorious for eating through front tires and I don't want to wear out the Generals with a lot of summer driving. I have lines on some 16" and 17" wheels that will fit the goofy 5x98 bolt pattern, but so far I'm not sure what tire to get. Here's what I'm looking for:
-High tread life.
-Good dry handling characteristics.
-High hydroplaning resistance.
-Low to moderate road noise.
I know some of these criteria are conflicting, but I don't need R-comp levels of grip since the Alfa will mostly do highway cruising. I have the 'Stang for high speed handling shenanigans. However, I do want the tires to be competent at bombing backroads. They don't need to be all-season either since I have the Generals for winter, but if there's an all-season that fits the bill that's fine by me.
As an example, a coworker suggested the Toyo Proxes 4 Plus all-season as having the criteria I am looking for. Any other suggestions?
I have heard good things about the new Federal summer tires as far as good rubber on the cheap.
Bfg g force comp 2 or supersport a/s, i can recommend both. It just depends on how much grip vs tread life you want.
I usually start by searching Craigs in the size I need and go fromt here.
It's interesting that you originally got the car as a winter beater, and now you want good tires for it... 
In our decade, we did two sets of tires- one winter and one summer. The rims you have are perfect for winter tires, since you can get narrower ones.
In terms of the summers- I recall us trying a few- Pirellis (it's italian...), Dunlops, and Yokos. All of them were just fine, but we wore them out with age vs. wear. So... I don't recall any of them being all that magical, but then again, it was hard to turn a 3500lb FWD car into a 2400lb RWD classic.
Anyway, the point is more keep the wheels you have to have a set of winter tires. And get the second set for something you like.
(oh, side note- with the new wheels- make sure the wheel bolts you have will work- we needed a second set, so we had a long and a short set of bolts.)
Any of the H/V rated high performance all season/grand touring or whatever they're called now will probably work well. I had a pair of French made General Altimax HPs that wore like iron on the front of an old sunfire that could never hold an alignment for more than a month. Though I'm not quite as impressed with the Mexican set I got for its replacement.
alfadriver wrote:
It's interesting that you originally got the car as a winter beater, and now you want good tires for it...
In our decade, we did two sets of tires- one winter and one summer. The rims you have are perfect for winter tires, since you can get narrower ones.
In terms of the summers- I recall us trying a few- Pirellis (it's italian...), Dunlops, and Yokos. All of them were just fine, but we wore them out with age vs. wear. So... I don't recall any of them being all that magical, but then again, it was hard to turn a 3500lb FWD car into a 2400lb RWD classic.
Anyway, the point is more keep the wheels you have to have a set of winter tires. And get the second set for something you like.
(oh, side note- with the new wheels- make sure the wheel bolts you have will work- we needed a second set, so we had a long and a short set of bolts.)
Funny how an Alfa Romeo will do that to a person. I've had a couple folks tell me I'm nuts for putting my 164 on the road in winter because it's in such good shape for its age and mileage. It's certainly in FAR better shape than my old Eclipse. Thanks for the advice on the wheel bolts, I've never owned a car with them till now and would not have thought of that.
I already have General Altimax Arctics mounted up on the stock wheels. The past two winters have been nasty in Mass. and I simply don't trust all-seasons in anything more than a light coating of snow, esp. in a hilly town like mine. I've had the Generals on my old Mazdaspeed3 and that car was a snowmobile with them equipped.
