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Those “cheap tires” review

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Tires are literally the most important thing you buy for the car. They are a bigger safety feature than even your brakes.

Don't understand why you would want to try to save money there.
because maybe there is a lot of hype over performance tires that is simply marketing fluff designed to get you to pay twice or three times as much? tire rack and other sites have performance reviews on stopping distance, traction etc and the tires themselves are rated independantly on the sidewall. informed consumers are smart consumers
 
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21" wheels - My factory tires, chords showing after 17,000 miles. Cost, over $2,000 from Tesla. Not sure what they are now as I've never bought factory tires since. Been in Tesla's since 2013. Cheap set of Falken tires. Cost, less than $500 mounted and balanced. 31,000 miles, another $500.
Over 60,000 miles, factory tires - over $6,000. Falken tires - $1,000. Knock on wood, no accidents. No problems in the rain. Cheap tires lasted nearly twice as long, so less inconvenienced too. Everyone has to do what they feel comfortable with. I've been more than happy with my personal choice for me. Not to mention, I liked the sportier look of the tread pattern on the Falkens.
 
21" wheels - My factory tires, chords showing after 17,000 miles. Cost, over $2,000 from Tesla. Not sure what they are now as I've never bought factory tires since. Been in Tesla's since 2013. Cheap set of Falken tires. Cost, less than $500 mounted and balanced. 31,000 miles, another $500.
Over 60,000 miles, factory tires - over $6,000. Falken tires - $1,000. Knock on wood, no accidents. No problems in the rain. Cheap tires lasted nearly twice as long, so less inconvenienced too. Everyone has to do what they feel comfortable with. I've been more than happy with my personal choice for me. Not to mention, I liked the sportier look of the tread pattern on the Falkens.

21 inch for $500 mounted and balanced? Where did you find those?
 
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Falken-a...hguid=2b148ed8-bcb-16cf085f146372&athena=true

Price appears to have gone up just a little, but still pretty close.

A little pricier option below....

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tire...&tireModel=Azenis+FK510&partnum=435YR8FK510XL

Don't know about this company, but found these options at under $500 for the set of 245/35/21

Catalog

Another under $500 option from Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Lexani-LX-TW...res+245+35+21&qid=1567403759&s=gateway&sr=8-2

Aside from these, just do an internet search for 245/35/21 tires and see what comes up. Plenty of options for tires under $600 and quite few for tires under $500
 
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Hankook tires have been a popular tire choice by many Tesla owners. Appears 21" tires for the Tesla are in the $190 range. Still a good option and well reviewed for a Tesla.

If you have custom wheels, can check and see of Ohtsu has any tires that fit your size. They're owned by Falken and their FP7000 tire is basically the idential tread pattern of the Hankook tires. They're usually priced at about 60% of the Hankook tires.

On one of my cars, I went with 275's instead of 245's, but down to 30 sidewall instead of 35. Same circumference, but kept the wheels from sticking out from the tire edge. For my taste, looks better, provides some protection against curb rash and gives you a little more tire patch on the road. I've never been a fan of stretched sidewalls that Tesla does (sidewalls stretched wider than the tread to fit the wheel). Amazed by how many Tesla's I see advertised with curb rash, that's part of the reason since the wheels stick out further than the tire, even the slightest rub on a curb damages the wheels. With wider tire, you have a little bit of a cushion to prevent it.
 
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I picked up "GT Radials" from Discount for $520 installed with warranty on 19" tires, tires themselves were $85. Guy said he'd never mounted tires like that on a Tesla and he was worried about the comfort and noise. Told him I didn't care, after running fleets of vehicles I've come to find that you pay an exponential price for convenience features and little difference in performance.
 
21 inch for $500 mounted and balanced? Where did you find those?

Interested in 500 dollar tires too!


If you scroll down it has some cheap ones now for 800.
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSearchResults.jsp?tireIndex=0&autoMake=Tesla&autoYear=2018&autoModel=Model+S+With+Staggered+Tires&autoModClar=P100D&frontWidth=245/&frontRatio=35&frontDiameter=21&frontSortCode=61030&rearWidth=265/&rearRatio=35&rearDiameter=21&rearSortCode=61027

Balance and Mounting will cost extra.
Falken are decient tires, but i honestly dont think i can not buy michelin SS's, as i really love those tires more then anything.
 
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Tires are literally the most important thing you buy for the car. They are a bigger safety feature than even your brakes.

Don't understand why you would want to try to save money there.

I'm in a different boat. I agree about wanting not to skimp but I need an all-season option, and this is all I'm finding for the 245/35/21 range. What would you or someone else recommend if not these?
 
all-season option, and this is all I'm finding for the 245/35/21 range.

245/35/21 are all performance tires period. The 35 part especially makes it so.

I have only even seen 1 snow tire for this size, and it just popped out recently.

Also it may end up being better overall to just downgrade to 19's and get all season tires for it then having to find all seasons for your 21's.
 
I picked up "GT Radials" from Discount for $520 installed with warranty on 19" tires, tires themselves were $85. Guy said he'd never mounted tires like that on a Tesla and he was worried about the comfort and noise. Told him I didn't care, after running fleets of vehicles I've come to find that you pay an exponential price for convenience features and little difference in performance.

How are these GT radials working out? I have had dunlops, hankook, and continental, never having a set last longer than 25k miles so the $90 per tire GT radial seems like it's worth trying.
 
How are these GT radials working out? I have had dunlops, hankook, and continental, never having a set last longer than 25k miles so the $90 per tire GT radial seems like it's worth trying.
Complete *sugar*. I got like 9K out of the rears before they were at like 1 or 2/32. I never rotated them, actually didn't realize how bad they were until I brought them in for rotation and the guy just looked at me. Told me the problem was I never rotated, when I explained 9K isn't acceptable being rotated or not he said well it's a rear wheel drive, I told him it's AWD. Then he accused me of racing. Like WTF ever man, they didn't even make it 1/4 of the rated life nothing you say is gonna work so let's just fix it.

They were warrantied for 40k so I got the prorated amount. I thought about going to the Nankang from this thread he's had great luck with but instead I installed the Kumho Crugen KL33. They have a warranty of 60K miles and the cost per warranty mile was cheaper than the Nankang. So we'll see how they work out.

Aside from the mileage/ wear issue I never had a problem, I noticed some reduced range in the first 2K miles or so but after that same range as the OEM tires. They held up to my aggressive driving and never once left me asking for more grip going around a corner or flooring it in the rain. Never had a true emergency braking situation but they did fine in some aggressive and oh-*sugar* moments.

I've also tried keeping the car in chill mode so I'm not flooring it all the time. So comparing these new ones won't be a true apples to apple but I still floor it in chill mode so it'll be close enough for me.
 
Complete *sugar*. I got like 9K out of the rears before they were at like 1 or 2/32. I never rotated them, actually didn't realize how bad they were until I brought them in for rotation and the guy just looked at me. Told me the problem was I never rotated, when I explained 9K isn't acceptable being rotated or not he said well it's a rear wheel drive, I told him it's AWD. Then he accused me of racing. Like WTF ever man, they didn't even make it 1/4 of the rated life nothing you say is gonna work so let's just fix it.

They were warrantied for 40k so I got the prorated amount. I thought about going to the Nankang from this thread he's had great luck with but instead I installed the Kumho Crugen KL33. They have a warranty of 60K miles and the cost per warranty mile was cheaper than the Nankang. So we'll see how they work out.

Aside from the mileage/ wear issue I never had a problem, I noticed some reduced range in the first 2K miles or so but after that same range as the OEM tires. They held up to my aggressive driving and never once left me asking for more grip going around a corner or flooring it in the rain. Never had a true emergency braking situation but they did fine in some aggressive and oh-*sugar* moments.

I've also tried keeping the car in chill mode so I'm not flooring it all the time. So comparing these new ones won't be a true apples to apple but I still floor it in chill mode so it'll be close enough for

Thanks for this. I wound up getting the Gt Radial Champiros since they were less than half price and i've gone through so many tires already. Figured if they don't last, i'm not out much since discount tire will prorate them. Only a handful of miles but they seem OK--might be a little noisier but not terrible--i don't really notice the ride being rougher, but that could be because the $600 in my back pocket is a nice cushion. :)