Now my tire thread... Laufenn G Fit AS

[K Frame]

Seeing that Ben's tire thread was resurrected, thought I'd try the hive mind.

I'm looking for new tires for the Forester.

I've got a set of Kumhos that were on it when I bought it. That's been almost 5 years now, and I have no clue when they were put on (maybe when it was taken in for trade?)

I really thought I was going to fail inspection yesterday based on the tire tread, which is looking quite thin, but it was just enough to get me through.

As expected, tires are all over the map on price, type, blah blah blah.

I'm looking at all season radials, so that cuts out a lot of stuff.

I'm also looking at the fact that I don't drive much at all, so I'm invoking serious price point, as well.

In the 4.5 years I've had the Forester, I've put about 30,000 miles on it.

So, anywho, I'm looking at a set of Laufenn G Fit AS all season radials. The price is $138.21 a tire (I remember the days when I freaked out over Goodyears at $67.70 a tire!)

They've got a 45,000 mile tread warranty. They get decent marks at Tire Rack's review service.

I'm getting to the point where I don't much care about snow performance, but they have a decent rating for light snow and an OK rating for heavy snow.

Laufenns are a Hankook sub brand and are made in Indonesia.


I know it's a long shot, but anyone running the Laufenn G Fit AS?

[K Frame]

And the hive mind has suffered hive collapse.

[grampster]

See what Sam's Club has for price, since you're not a big mileage guy and not much worried about weather.

[K Frame]

No Sam's Clubs near me.

[dogmush]

What year is your Forester?

As far as the tires, I have no experience with that brand, but generally Hankook's are OK. 

I just had to put tires on the beater Outback, and I went with Tire Kingdom's "Pro Series"*  wherein they pick the brand and you get what you get.  Saved me some money though, and they seem to be doing OK.

*They also have an "Entry Series", where I assume they pick from crappier brands.

[K Frame]

It's a 2015.

I've read a bunch of reviews on the Laufenns, and they seem as if they should be a decent choice.

[Kingcreek]

I know nothing of them, never heard of them until now.
But generally and historically speaking, I have never been happy with budget tires.
My driving conditions and mileage are also very different from yours.

[dogmush]

You got the 18" wheels?  That seems to match the price on Tire Rack.

If so, Tire Rack has some Nitto NT421's on closeout for 129.94

No shade on the Laufenn's, but for less money I'd take the Nitto's every time.  I've had great success with Nitto's on a variety of vehicles.

[zxcvbob]

And the hive mind has suffered hive collapse.

I know nothing about Laufenn tires.  But I can highly recommend the Nokian "EnTyre" series for an all-season car and SUV tire.  I can't remember if they have the 3-peak mountain snowflake symbol or not.   For truck tires, Cooper HT3s -- it's a highway tire and reasonably quiet, but when I had them on my 2WD truck they did just fine in the winter on icy roads and snow.

[K Frame]

No, 17s are standard on the 2015 Forester.

I considered ordering from Tire Rack and having them installed at one of their partner shops near me, but literally none of those shops have a very good reputation. If it were just new tires, that's one thing. Pretty hard to really screw up a tire installation. But, I also need an alignment, and that CAN be screwed up, especially on an all wheel drive like my Forester.

I've been going to an independent tire company for 30 or so years. Always had good success with them. But they don't work Saturday hours, which is a huge pain.

The dealer at least does Saturday hours and I'm comfortable with them and the work they do, even if they are a bit more expensive overall. Plus, they have a very comfy lounge where I can wait. The independent dealer I've been going to? Their lounge is more like rocks and cactus plants strewn on a surface covered with acid. OK, not that bad, but not where I want to spend a couple of hours waiting for my car to be serviced.


That said, I've heard a lot of good things about Nittos, too.

On my previous cars (many years ago) I tended to go with Coopers. I was always happy with them, but I know a couple of Suby drivers over the years who have not been happy with Coopers on their vehicles.

[dogmush]

The Nitto's are a deal if you had the bigger wheels from the higher trim.  Cest la vie, as they say.

FWIW, assuming you have the stock 225-60/17's a 2015 Forester 2.5i is speced for, they are overcharging you for those tires. 

https://www.amazon.com/LAUFENN-All-Season-Radial-Tire-225-60R17/dp/B07W15RRG6

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Laufenn-G-FIT-AS-LH41-All-Season-225-60R17-99T-Passenger-Tire/624361610

They are pretty easily had for under $100 a piece.  Your point with the trusted install, alignment, and comfy lounge is well taken, I just thought I'd offer a datapoint on how much extra they are hitting you for.

I'd probably give that brand a try for the under $100 price, but at the dang near $140 a piece price there's a lot of more established brands/tires in play, and I'm not sure I'd go with the relatively unknown Laufenn's.  Tire Rack shows Cooper Endeavour Plus, those Nittos's again, Sumitomo HTR's, Hankook Kinergy ST's, Khumo Solus, Toyo Extensas, and Falken Sinceras all between $130-$145 a piece, and all are probably better tires than the budget Laufenns.

Nothing wrong with budget tires in your application, but I hate to pay mid tier prices for budget stuff.  That's what my node of the hive mind says, post collapse. 

Maybe see if your prefered installer will price match, or has that same 140ish deal on a better tire.

[zxcvbob]

I have had generally good luck buying tires from Walmart*, and they have almost as big a selection as TireRack if you order from walmart.com and have them delivered to the store for installation.  And at least both my local Walmarts do a good job of installation.  I don't know if they do alignments; I might take that to a dealer.

My 2010 Ford Focus is falling apart from rust and it needed new tires so I put some off-brand Walmart tires on it.  I think they are Blackhawks but not sure.  They are surprisingly good tires.

*the last time I bought tires there, they lost one tire and had to reorder it.  While waiting for the 4th tire to get there, the other 3 timed out and they tried to cancel the order.  Eventually if got mostly straightened out; I ended up getting 1 tire for free that I wasn't entitled to, but it wasn't worth the hassle.  All other tire purchases have gone perfectly.

[K Frame]

It's the dealer pricing. I know they're overcharging. I mean, it's the dealer.

But yeah, that's quite the bump.

Laufenn tires are a Hankook sub brand, so I'm not too worried there.

"Maybe see if your prefered installer will price match, or has that same 140ish deal on a better tire."

I don't know if they will price match, but as I said, the Laufenns seem to get pretty good reviews, including from Tire Rack. Not the best, but not the worst.

And wow, I just did another look see at the Tire Rack installation partners, and there's a very well rated shop that works with Tire Rack about 4 miles from my house that will also do alignments. Hum... Now this is something to look at.

AND they have weekend hours!



"That's what my node of the hive mind says, post collapse."

The last gasp of a dying system...

[K Frame]

"I have had generally good luck buying tires from Walmart"

I know a number of people who have purchased tires from Walmart and have been happy.

The only problem is... location location location. As in, no location convenient to me. At all.

[K Frame]

You know, there are few things more frustrating to try to figure out what's best than tires.

There are so damned many brands and sub brands and variations on the brands and the like, and then there are the different classes inside the brands, and every one is the best thing ever made AND ALSO the worst thing ever made...

One of the worst sets of tires I ever had was a set of Goodyear Eagles on my 1991 Plymouth Sundance. They were OEM. They were *expletive deleted*it on wet roads, worst than *expletive deleted*it on snow, and had the tread been made from crepe paper they probably would have lasted longer.

One of the best sets of tires I've ever had were PEP Boy store brand tires that I put on my 1997 Subaru Outback. Those things were FANTASTIC.

I've had a couple of sets of Coopers that were generally good, a set of Bridgestones that were OK, and a set of Michelins that were... meh. But those were likely bottom of the class because those were the ones the dealer put on it when I bought the car. I worked out a deal with them because the tires that were on it were dry rotting.

[JTHunter]

K Frame - are these Laufenn tires classed as "car" tires or "light truck" tires? And is your Forester (and its weight) considered a car or truck?

[K Frame]

It's a compact crossover SUV built on a car chassis. OEM tires are in the passenger car class, not the pick up/larger SUV class.

[zxcvbob]

It's a compact crossover SUV built on a car chassis.

We have one of those (Honda CR-V) and Wife insisted she wanted Michelins when it was time for new tires.  Well, the Michelins in that size are "P" tires rather than LTs, but they are basically a truck tire without the extra plies.  (I think they were called Defender LTX)  She hated them because they rode rough, and once the tread was worn down a bit they were noisy.  I replaced them with Nokians and she was happy for a while.  (now looking for some other excuse to ditch the CR-V and get a new one)

[K Frame]

Just spent a bunch more time on Tire Rack. Reading reviews, looking at different tires, looking at their ratings...

Good lord lots of information.

Right now I'm looking at the Grand Touring and Crossover/Touring All Weather classes and I've come up with some likely candidates...

Sumitomo HTR Enhance LX2
General Atlimax RT45
Cooper Endeavor Plus

All of them have good ratings and reviews.

Any of them appear to be a good value for the money. The General and Cooper tires are US made, the Sumitomos are made in Thailand.

Given my experience with the brand, though, I'm now thinking that the Coopers are the front runners.

[Calumus]

I’m a little late to the party; but I’ll second the Nokians. Best tire brand that nobody’s heard of. I put a set of their all weather (not all season. They swear there’s a difference) tires on the Kia Soul my wife had when i met her, and was quite happy with them. We only kept it for about 6 more months; but they rode nice, were quiet,and were very good in the snow. I also put a set of their summer only high performance tires on my old VW R32 and loved them. They easily competed with Michelins and Continentals.