Pothole got me and my new Mirage, took out my factory stock Bridgestone

[Mark]

Mark, you are in WI, you are close to Canada I think. It's summer, but I want a set of snow tires for my Mirage. I want Full blown snow tires, mileage be darned. We dont get snow like you guys get up north but its enough to scare us and possibly kill us.

Tire dealers don't sell or offer Mirage snow tires down here. Can you give me a website name for stock snow tires on a Mirage?

Take note of members stating something like this today -

At any rate, I'll have some nice parts that need a home so I'll be posting those up most likely next week. Have surgery this Friday and will be recovering from that over the weekend. So if you want some G4 SE heated front seats, an 17-20 SE gauge cluster (which DOES work fine with the 14-15 models), a 17 Apple CarPlay/Android auto headunit with all the harness and stuff to go with it to make it work, factory 14-15 nav system with it's proper bezel and antenna, 15 inch G4 SE alloy wheels, 14 inch 14-15 alloy wheels, and who knows what else I have around here... let me know!

These could be your winter snow tire rims some day!

https://mirageforum.com/forum/showth...sed-car-prices

Private message Dodge & go from there. Maybe you could meet each other half way? I have a pair of steel rims on my Mirage that are from Dirk's G4. When he bought his wife new alloy wheels, I asked to purchase a pair of his factory steel wheels.

[foama]

What a terrible story! You live in Absurdistan?

[Mark]

Mark, you are just the guy I'm looking for. Actually, I'm going to have to ask to take this conversation down to a simpler level because I really don't know nothing but I know what I want in tires.

All the tire sizes around the car say 175/55-R15.

Mark, you are in WI, you are close to Canada I think. It's summer, but I want a set of snow tires for my Mirage. I want Full blown snow tires, mileage be darned. We dont get snow like you guys get up north but its enough to scare us and possibly kill us.

Tire dealers don't sell or offer Mirage snow tires down here. Can you give me a website name for stock snow tires on a Mirage?

There's nothing better than discussing snow tires in July!

I didn't realize all G4 trim levels come with 175/55r15 tires these days (except the ES has 165/65r14 tires with steel rims/wheel covers). I didn't even realize the G4 came in four different trim levels.

This is what I found when I searched for 175/55r15 tires today -

walmart.com
Walmart offers 11 tire options today. None of them are snow tires. That may change in a couple months, however.

tirerack.com
Tire Rack offers 7 tire options today. One is a snow tire option -
Vredestein Quatrac = $95.59
This may be the tire you just bought? It's an all-season tire with a good snow rating. Unlike the asymmetrical Quactrac 5, the Quatrac is a directional tire. I don't care for direction tires, because they limit how you can rotate your tires. Most snow tires these days, however, are directional. I own a pair of them (165/65r14 Nokian Nordman 7).

simpletire.com
Simple Tire offers 8 tire options today. One of them is a snow tire.
Continental ContiWinterContact TS800 = $127.66
I'm sure they are good ones, but they are a bit on the expensive side for snow tires.

tires-easy.com
Tires Easy offers 4 tire options today. None of them are snow tires.

Of the 4 tire sites that I check out at times, only two 175/55r15 snow tires are offered, & only one of those is a truly dedicated snow tire. Overall, 175/55r15 is not a common tire size for the States. It competes with 165/65r15 size for having the fewest options.

There may be other 175/55r15 snow tire options out there, but they are not jumping out at me.

I would personally consider using a quality all-season tire year round in your area, & use two different sets of them. Use your newer set during the winter months & use up the older set during the summer months.

I may end up doing that myself some day. I haven't tried them yet, but I may end up doing something like that with the Vredestein Quatrac 5 all-weather tires some day. I would use a new set during the winter months & use up the older set during the summer months.

In my case, however, I have an AWD Forester with snow tires parked in my garage. I live on a ridge. There are days when my Mirage is not going to get me very far. I go down & climb hills every time I leave home. Snow tires help my Mirage, but there's no comparison to the Forester with snow tires.

I don't know which 175/55r15 all-season tires may be best for this, but your Quatrac could be one of them? A tire like the Continental ContiProContact (simpletire.com) may be a good pick, too? It's a bit more expensive tire, but they are also a 80,000 mile tire. I would explore (reviews) a tire like these at least.

Let's say the Continental ContiProContact may be OK for some snow. You set up a set of them for your Mirage. You use your current tires during the summer months, and test out the Continental tires during the winter months. If you're happy with them, you replace your original set of tires with them when they are worn out. If you're not happy with them, you replace your original tires with something else. No harm is done. You can still use your Continental tires for the future summer months. If the Continental tires last anywhere near 80,000 miles, you will get your money out of them regardless.

If you're disappointed in experimenting with a quality all-season tire, you can alway go with a snow tire later on.

I take care of tire rotation when I change out tire sets in the spring & fall. That's easy to do, too!

You may want to consider a slightly larger 185/55r15 (23"/only 1.8% variance in diameter) tire some day, because it opens up options (70 different tires @ walmart.com today). I personally prefer narrow snow tires over wider ones. That's why I search for 165/65r14 snow tires for my Mirage. If I didn't have 165/65r14 snow tire options, I would have to start looking at 175/65r14 option instead.

Since you have 15" tires, I would stick with 15" tires. 175/55r15 (factory size) & 185/55r15 are the two most logical tire sizes to search for.

[KevMcKenzie]

I recently just purchased the Vredestein Quatrac tires for mine and love them. They have less road noise, take bumps alot more cushioned and with less bang, do great in the rain and I know will have good snow traction as I have previously owned the Vredestein Quatrac 5 and Quatrac Pro tires on our 16 Outlander Sport GT, 2017 Mirage G4 SE and 2019 Eclipse Cross SEL Touring. They are great tires and the new V tread patter design on the new Quatrac is the best rated one yet and beats the Quatrac 5 and Quatrac Pro for rain, snow, ice, and so on.

Arggggg!
I was cruising up a hill on a Kentucky highway the other day. The dual uphill lanes were merging into a single lane at the top of the hill and as I was merging left (looking all around me, not another car in sight) BOOM! I hit the biggest pothole I've ever felt in my life in the middle of the road as the lanes merged. TPMS warning lights flashed immediately and I was in major flat tire trouble and it freaked me out. Maybe more than a little bit.

I got the spare donut put on and limped my Mirage home just a few miles away.

Wow! That hurt... I purchased this new Mirage less than one month ago and I'm already hitting potholes.

Long story short... I was way to ashamed to drive on a donut or tow it back to the dealer more than 80 miles away and ask for road hazard protection coverage, so I bought a couple of tires off of TireRack.com. Vredestein Quattracs. I had my local 'Po Boys' business mount the two Quattracs tires on the front. At least the front tires and back tires would match brands.

So far I can't complain. I kept my passenger side tire that that is perfectly fine and I'm thinking about buying a rim/wheel so that I can have a full size spare handy.

When things settled down I went back and looked at that pothole in the middle of the road on the highway. Its deep, kind of elongated, but really narrow. I imagine other vehicles and trucks drive right over it with no problem at all. That pothole sucked in my narrow tire and trashed it (like I was trying to drive a bicycle through it). The county mainenance department still hasn't filled that pothole in yet. I guess every other car owner drives on wide tires and just rolls right over it.

When forum posters ask about putting on wider tires, it captures my attention. I'm just asking....

[Wil B]

Just went through the same thing with my 2018 hatchback. 2 Vredestein on the front from Tire Rack, installed by Pep Boys. I used to have a backup Federal in the basement, but used it for a pothole incident (bulge in the sidewall.) I don't see Federals listed anywhere right now and will give these Vredesteins a try!

[Mark]

Just went through the same thing with my 2018 hatchback. 2 Vredestein on the front from Tire Rack, installed by Pep Boys. I used to have a backup Federal in the basement, but used it for a pothole incident (bulge in the sidewall.) I don't see Federals listed anywhere right now and will give these Vredesteins a try!

If I were buying 165/65r14 tires today, the better known options are

*Federal SS657 (420AA/40,000 mile warranty)
*Kumho Solus TA31 (500AA/60,000 mile warranty)
*Nexen N'Priz AH5 (460AA/50,000 mile warranty)

*Vredestein Quatrac 5 (400AA/40,000 mile warranty)

*Nokian Nordman 7 (snow tires aren’t rated) - studded/non-studded option
*Dunlop Winter Maxx 2 (snow tires aren’t rated)

Falken Sincera SN250A A/S (320BB/no warranty)
Bridgestone Potenza (260AB/40,000 mile warranty)
Dunlop Enasave (340AB/no warranty)

* Tires I would most likely buy if the price was right.

Federal SS657 have disappeared lately. I agree with that. Kumho seems to run cheaper than the Nexen all-season tires most of the time. I have a pair on Nexen tires on my Mirage, but they were $50/tires when I bought them last summer. Lately they have been $75+/tire.

I like hearing good things about the Vredestein Quatrac 5 tires. They are probably the closest thing to a 165/65r14 all-weather tire option for us. Prices for the Quatrac 5 tires @ tirerack.com don't change much, which is good!

Snow tires aren't given UTQG ratings.

I tend to compare prices @ walmart.com, simpletire.com, tires-easy.com, & tirerack.com.

I bought Federal tires from simpletire.com. My Nokian Nordman 7 tires came from tires-easy.com, & I have a new pair of Kumho tires mounted on rims that I got from Walmart this summer.

[foama]

In this forum there are numerous reports about pothole damage in the USA with LRR tyres.
LRR tyres are usually a bit less robust than normal sort!

I haven't seen a pothole in years! Pothole damage is extremely rare here in Europe, with the exception of maybe the developing countries Romania and Bulgaria.

I replaced my Continental EcoContact tyres with a set of Dunlop Enasave LRR tyres I got almost for nothing. There is a big noticeable difference. Next time I shall get a set of Continental EcoContact again. That said, keeping the air pressure on the high side does give you a bit of better security margin in places where there are potholes.