Hey guys, just so happens to be time for me to get some new tires for my 850ci. Unfortunately, tires are one of my major blind spots and I'm a little helpless, so I was hoping you guys could give me some recommendations. I'm running the 18" m-parallels. I don't need anything too crazy, I'm just looking for something reasonably priced. I live in San Diego, where our worst weather is drizzle a couple times a year. So, what kind of tires should I be looking at?

Thanks, and sorry if this is a dumb question. :)

I run KUHMO ECSTA ASX on both my 750iL and 850Ci (18" M-parallels on the 7 and 17" BBS 2-piece on the 8). They are quite reasonable all-season tires. Road noise minimal, expect about 30,000-35,000 miles out of a set.
Best deal on these are at Discount Tire. About $600 out the door for the set.

Lots of Discount tires in San Diego, I go to Shelter Pointe once or twice a year, Great place.

Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S 245/40 & 275/35. Great tires. Great fit with M-Par.

Cheers

I purchased some Pirelli 245 45HR 17s for my 850 from Cherniss in Chula Vista. Randy, the owner, seemed very knowledgeable about tires and was more interested in what my requirements were as opposed to trying to get me to buy something way more than I needed. About 30K - 35K is what he felt would be my mileage.
About $800.00 including balancing, alignment, and rotation for the life of the tires. They are pretty quiet on the road which was my main concern. I don't anticipate that I'll be driving too agressively with the car.
LouM...
P.S. Checked my records. The price included a 4 wheel aligment not 2.

Toyo proxes tr1 (IIRC) are an amazing performing tire(wet and dry)......but a little spendy

Michelin Pilot Sport PS2's the best tires I have ever owned, but there not cheap.

For a very good all-season tire, consider the GY Eagle F1 A/S - great grip in dry and very good in rain. Could also consider Falken Ziex 912's - put these on my E36 'vert and very pleased so far (only a few hundred miles, tho) - seems to be a very good value for performance A/S tire. Fwiw, I replaced the P zero nero M+S's w/ the Falkens as the pirelli's came down w/ sever dry rot after only 14k miles (not pleased at all). One last all-season tire to consider is Hankook Ventus V4 ES - another very good value in performance A/S tire - have these on an S4 avant and use as my "cold weather/winter" tire - very pleased.

For a good value in a summer tire, consider Sumitomo HTR ZIII's - really good "bang for buck" factor. Good luck.

For a good value in a summer tire, consider Sumitomo HTR ZIII's - really good "bang for buck" factor. Good luck.[/quote]

+1 for the Sumitomo HTR Z III. Have a set on my chrome MK's. 245/40/18 up front and 285/35/18 on the rear. Very please with the quality and preformance. Great on dry or wet. A good all around tire. Got mine through Tire Rack. Good luck on your choice. Regards, Carter

Thanks for all the answers. I called Cherniss, and he recommended some "Nexen" tires. Anybody know anything about them?

Nexen 3000's are an inexpensive (cheap) Korean (I think) tire. Decent tread pattern and available very inexpensively on Ebay. I paid $390 including shipping for a set of staggered 245/45 17 and 275/40 17's a while back. Havent used them much.
Have a set of Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta's en route in 245/40ZR18 and 275/35ZR18 sizes for Frankenbimmers MK wheels. Very funky tread pattern.

I have a set of nexens also no problems yet BUT when looking for a set of tires look for the tredwear rating and the tempature rating the higher the wear rating longer the tire will last.
tred wear 300
tempeture AA, A
Also if you want to dysect a lil more look at the listing of the compound
95H
or something like that i looked at the expensive tires and matched the specs the best i could to some michelins.
TADAH!!! simple i know....lol

Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S 245/40 & 275/35. Great tires. Great fit with M-Par.

Cheers

great tires.

I run Michelin PS-2s as well, amazing tires, especially for living in an area that gets <6in of rain per year (SD). You'll have no trouble running a summer tire with a decent tread pattern for light rain

one thing to keep in mind when comparing tires is that the treadwear numbers are not standardized. You can only accurately compare numbers from tires made by the same company. Each company has varying treadwear ratings for the same wear characteristics