since those badboys are set to wear fast and all, i am thinking there will be someone out there, somewhere, who'll need some new ones in the summer. they going to be available? only in the stock evo sizes?

if they end up being nice, it'd be nice if yokohama brought'em out in some other sizes...

i guess to generalize my question, when a tire makes its US debut with a car, how quickly are they available for purchase separately?

-K

 

If people really like those tires and demand for them, i'm certain yokohama would sell the a046 tires separately as soon as possible.

 

They will be available at dealers for the bargain price of $250 each.
Mounting and balancing will be $150 on top of that.
You'll have to drop your car off for the whole day too.

 

Are you joking me? $250 for a freaking piece of rubber that'll wear down in 10K miles. Plus $150 for the setup, that is upsurd!

 

Yeah, I was joking; but, I don't think it'll be much different than what I said.

 

$250 per tire is pretty steep...

Also, I really hope mounting and balancing 4 wheels/tires would not take all day. It takes 1 hour ... tops. 1.5 hours if you leave for a beer and return.

 

Just to shed some light on the subject. Depending on the tire compound I can easily see these tires being around $198 - $250 a tire. I had 18" rims on my Supra and performance tires for those were raping me at almost $300 a tire. I'm guessing for the stock 17's they will be right around the $200 a tire margin. Possibly a little lower. Performance tires are NOT cheap everybody. They don't last nearly as long as cost 4x as much =) Great logic isn't it. If you follow regular maintenance and rotate every 5K I imagine these tires could last anywhere between 15K - 20K per set. Depending on your driving habits of course.

 

limit them track days (to like...zero. hah) and i'm sure, like evil said, you'll be able to get well over 10k.

i think you're spot on about the $200ish figure, as well.

-K

 

If you drive like an old woman, you might get 15k out of them

Expect to change the tires every 10,000 miles. Track days will shorten this significantly! $175-200/tire should be a good ball park figure. If they're more than $200, don't buy them - there are other tires out there that are as good, if not better, for less. Tire Rack will probably carry them shortly. They carry OEM replacement tires for a lot of sports cars (Boxster, S2000, et al). Shipping is about $30-50 from TR, M&B is $50-75. So you're looking at $800-900 per trip for tires.

Save your pennies

 

$180 or so would be a fair price, since a similarly-sized 235/45-17 hi-po tire such as the Yoko AVS Sports are ~$138.

A good comparable tire might be the Falken Azenis, although they don't carry 235/45-17...

 

Kumho Ecsta V700, Yoko A032R, Michelin Pilot Sport*, or Falken Azeni for semi-slick tires (Great for you SoCal types who never see rain).

BFG g-Force T/A KD, Bridgestone S03PP*, Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3, Michelin Pilot Sport*, or Yoko AVS Sport* if rain is a consideration.

235/45R17 isn't a really common size. If you want to maintain your static rolling diameter, you'd need to go to a 215/50 or 265/40 - both of which will have some potentially nasty side effects. A * above denotes 235/45R17 is available...

 

I would forget the michelins and the bridgstones.

 

Are bridgestones that bad? My SO2's on my M3 were awesome? SO3's should be better?

 

I agree my S02's were great as well. Made it much harder to break my tires loose in 3rd gear with those on.

 

I've used Pirelli P7000 ss on my M3 "the tires sucked" not much traction but ran the fastest 1/4 with winter rims and tires due to the weight i'm guessing. What i do know is that the P7000 tires are lighter than SO2's. Maybe i should pick up a set for the winter even though they are all seasons? Special for $101 at tirerack. Pretty cheap.