[theclarkfam]

I had to break down and buy a new set of tires after 30k since my wife didn't rotate the tires while I was gone on deployment. The bad part about having the 18 inch rim is find a tire that is not OEM and isn't outageously expensive. After 2 days of searching for tires I found three all season tires for the 18's.
The first is the OEM goodyears which are way over priced. The second are the hankook ventus tires which doesn't have very great reviews and the third is the cooper CS4's which is also the ones that I went with. I couldn't find a bad review about them so I thought that they must be good. So good in fact that Motortrends did an article about them. I started to call around to find them and to get prices for the tires. The prices were ranging from $186.00 to $230.00 before mounting and balance.
Since discount tires prices matches on or off line prices I went back the search but since this tire size just became available from cooper is was hard to dealers on-line with prices. Thanks to nanohead :notworthy: :rock: on the acadia side, he was able to find them for $129 at mavistire.com in New York.
With my mavis quote in hand I was then able to get them ordered then two day later mounted, balanced and out the door for $645.17
On first ride these tires are nothing short of amazing. The road noise is all but gone and they stick through the corners without chirping or squealing. There is very little tire to road friction so if you touch the gas you will accelerate quicker than the OEM's and coast longer so there should be some increase in fuel economy and I will have to post an update when I can about this. No problems in the rain or at highway speeds so far and I am just hoping that it will snow this year so that I can try them out in that kind of weather. These tires come with a 6 year 80k warranty plus a 45 day trial so if you don’t like them then you take them back for a full refund through Cooper. The tires that I just got are 2 months old so very fresh rubber.
I will update again when these tires get some mileage.

Happy Driving, Will
:cheers:

 

[Bruce_Lee]

HI,
Thanks for the information. That's definitely an option to the Goodyear's.


But, I've been wanting to not only change the OEM, but also the size of the tires. I also have 18' rims with the stock tires. I want something smaller. What do you guys think?

 

[BigTallV]

HI,
Thanks for the information. That's definitely an option to the Goodyear's.


But, I've been wanting to not only change the OEM, but also the size of the tires. I also have 18' rims with the stock tires. I want something smaller. What do you guys think?

You may want to consider that your vehicle's speedometer is calibrated for your OEM rim/tire size. Likewise for the suspension, the components have been selected/tuned to the 18" diameter rim and tire combination. You may end up needing to head into the dealer to have the speedo recalibrated (reflash the computer/module). As for the suspension, well, you'd just have to ensure there isn't any fit or interference issues and live with the ride handling differences that accompany rim/tire size changes.

That said, certainly you can go to 19" or 20" as those sizes were offered on Acadia/Outlook/Enclave as factory options. Unless you're looking to lower your ride height and slam it down into the weeds, then a smaller rim size may be in order - but wasn't offered on the Lambda platform, so you may have to go through some trial and error.

Regards,
/BTV

 

[6Sixathome]

I think that he might be wanting to make it a low-rider with hydrolics so he is probably looking for some 14" wheels

 

[thedears]

I had to break down and buy a new set of tires after 30k since my wife didn't rotate the tires while I was gone on deployment. The bad part about having the 18 inch rim is find a tire that is not OEM and isn't outageously expensive. After 2 days of searching for tires I found three all season tires for the 18's.
The first is the OEM goodyears which are way over priced. The second are the hankook ventus tires which doesn't have very great reviews and the third is the cooper CS4's which is also the ones that I went with. I couldn't find a bad review about them so I thought that they must be good. So good in fact that Motortrends did an article about them. I started to call around to find them and to get prices for the tires. The prices were ranging from $186.00 to $230.00 before mounting and balance.
Since discount tires prices matches on or off line prices I went back the search but since this tire size just became available from cooper is was hard to dealers on-line with prices. Thanks to nanohead :notworthy: :rock: on the acadia side, he was able to find them for $129 at mavistire.com in New York.
With my mavis quote in hand I was then able to get them ordered then two day later mounted, balanced and out the door for $645.17
On first ride these tires are nothing short of amazing. The road noise is all but gone and they stick through the corners without chirping or squealing. There is very little tire to road friction so if you touch the gas you will accelerate quicker than the OEM's and coast longer so there should be some increase in fuel economy and I will have to post an update when I can about this. No problems in the rain or at highway speeds so far and I am just hoping that it will snow this year so that I can try them out in that kind of weather. These tires come with a 6 year 80k warranty plus a 45 day trial so if you don’t like them then you take them back for a full refund through Cooper. The tires that I just got are 2 months old so very fresh rubber.
I will update again when these tires get some mileage.

Happy Driving, Will
:cheers:

I am looking at getting new tires as well. Are these the Cooper Tires you purchased?

Cooper CS4 Touring
Front & Rear: 255/65-18
Speed Rating: S Load Range: SL

$138 at mavistire.com

Thanks, thedears

 

[theclarkfam]

yes these are the tires that I bought and they are a great buy.

 

[Bigcity733]

Very good choice...Cooper is an American made tire and I've always had good luck with the 4 sets I've own.javascript:void(0);

 

[BigTallV]

When I did my research for replacement tires on my '05 Pontiac Pursuit (cousin to the Saturn ION), I found that manufacturers had tires coming from a variety of countries, even within a tire model, size or speed rating.

 

[The Plainsman]

Very good choice...Cooper is an American made tire and I've always had good luck with the 4 sets I've own.javascript:void(0);

Personally, I don't trust Coopers. I've had 'em for a different vehicle and they could not stand up to hard driving. I kept taking 'em in for replacement. I'll never buy 'em again.

 

[6Sixathome]

When I did my research for replacement tires on my '05 Pontiac Pursuit (cousin to the Saturn ION), I found that manufacturers had tires coming from a variety of countries, even within a tire model, size or speed rating.

So you could possibly get a set of 4 tires from 4 different countries ???

 

[BigTallV]

So you could possibly get a set of 4 tires from 4 different countries ???

No, not what I meant. But allow me to clarify... take for example my Pontiac Pursuit, comes OE with P195/60R15. The specified size tire in a Pirelli P4 Four Seasons, the 87T rated tire is from Brazil... but the exact same brand/model tire but this time in "H" speed rated tire is from China. Go figure, I'd have thought they'd all be from the same country (i.e. produced in the same factory).

My statement was not to be weary of ordering 4 tires for getting 1 from this country and the rest from elsewhere... I was more of making a point that Bigcity733 had stated that Cooper was an "American" make. My findings when shopping for tires was that even a different speed rating within a tire product line can mean that the tire comes from a different country.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[theclarkfam]

Re: New tires (update)

I just completed the first road trip with the cooper cs4 tires racking up over 4000 miles during the trip. The tires did amazingly well at speeds in excess of 85 MPH with the air temp being around 100 through Nevada, Utah, and Idaho.
There were some things that we did on the trip that these tires are not really made to handle. We had to take the Outlook onto a gravel country road 15 miles deep into the wilderness of Idaho for personal reasons. Unlike the Midwest where your country roads have semi soft dirt and pebble roads these roads in Idaho were covered in 2 to 3 inch sharp edged rocks.
By the time we got back down to normal pavement the tires had taken there beating but came out good with some very minor razor cuts to the leading edge of the front tire tread but no damage to the sidewalls and only some good dings to the undercarriage.
All and all these tires did great and I will more than recommend them to anyone wanting a good pocket friendly tire.


:beer: :cheers:

Will