Just curious, is the tire noise louder than your music or radio in the car? Road noise is definitely there but so many other things are much louder like other vehicles, wind, and even just conversations in the car.
I think it's almost impossible to answer your question. I just got new tires and read pretty much every thread on this site and looked at multiple tire reviews on tirerack.com and still came away feeling like it was a crapshoot for road noise. There is little to no actual decibel comparison for tires. I think it would be too hard based on different sizes, cars, road surfaces, etc. On another thread someone said they thought the new LLI P ZERO AS PLUS ELECT tires were quieter than the MXM4s. They're supposedly designed for heavier electric vehicles where road noise and faster wear are issues.
Yes, different road surfaces make different noise levels. However, comma, tire noise on any surface is a constant, so first you start with the quietest tire, then work on noise transmission to the cabin. It's never complete, but one does what one can.
General Altimax 365AW are definitely the quietest tires I've ever experienced in a Model 3. They're substantially quieter than the 18" MXM4s, the 19" Conti RX, or the 20" PS4s or Pirelli PZ4 that come stock on various Model 3s. They also ride better than any of the above and are excellent for an all season on snow and ice. For handling in the dry and wet, they're pretty close to the MXM4s, but that's definitely a notch behind the Conti RX, and well behind the factory 20" options. Range is tougher to say. I think they were about the same as the Conti RXs, which seemed to give up a few miles to the MXM4s. Again, the 20" options have the shortest range.
While this sounds fairly good, I have a ten foot pole (and two five foot Lithuanians as backup) for not touching General tires. The Ford Tauruses I inherited came with General tires, and at least four of them shredded on the road (at highway speed) at about 25,000 miles. Their stability on curves and in wet weather was just plain awful.
I think most tire manufacturers have put out some bad tires at one time or another, although I think it's much less common today than in the past. I've had bad Firestones and Goodyears, and I've had other models of tires from both manufacturers that have been excellent. That said, Michelin does seem to be the gold standard for putting out a quality tire, although the performance of some like the MXM4s that come stock on the Model 3 are so so.
Did you inherit the cars from someone who had them for a while without driving them much? I.e. were those tires that failed at 25,000 miles 15 years old or some such?
Today there are cheap off-brand Chinese tires, and occasionally counterfeit versions of legitimate tires, to take the "bad tire" prizes. For instance, this Consumer Reports article describes problems with cheap Chinese tires; and here's an article about counterfeit tires. That said, the references I found were from several years ago (2014 and 2015 for the two I've cited), so maybe these problems have become less common today. The discussions I've seen on this forum all focus on well-known and well-respected brands. I doubt if many people would spend $40K or more on a Tesla and then try to save a few hundred bucks on cut-rate tires.
Note that one of the cheap tires mentioned in that CR article was apparently an "unauthorized" one.
They were no more than a couple of years old. The cars were in town daily drivers. It wasn't a question of sun rot. Frankly, I don't remember ever hearing much good about General tires over the last 40 years. They had a tire called the "Tiger Paw" for a few yeas. The two folks I knew who bougth them said they were terrible, in re road handling.
Oh? You would be amazed at the number of people that buy expensive cars and then cheap out on all sorts of things.
"Tiger Paws" were made by Uniroyal. Absolute crap. You can still buy them today.
General is a sub-brand of Continental (since 1987), seemingly focused on the less expensive part of the market.
Doggone, you are right! Now I remember. Also, remember the three spokesmen, Uni, Roy and Al?
