I am trying to buy new tires for my car. The tires that I have are pretty expensive so I ask if there is a cheaper alternative. The answer usually is a directional tire. are these tires an worse that the regular tires or is it just because they are an off brand? The tire that I am looking at getting right now is a cooper cs4 tire is that any good of a tire?
Directional tires may be considered slightly better than conventional tires because of the way they shed water on wet roads. Cooper is a respectable brand. There’s no reason to shy away from this purchase.
i sugest non directional… yes the directional give you more performance but the tires wear out unevenly and have pull to the… what the mean is the car goes easier toward where the road goes, or when you hit a grove in the road
Directional tires come in all levels of quality from the $100 Hankooks to the $2000 ea special Michelin on the Bugatti Veyron.
I’ve had both on the same car.
The OEM tires were non-directional Z rated (150+mph sustained) They tracked and handled great and had marginal winter performance.
The replacements were $112/ea (mounted + balanced) directional tires. They tracked okay and wet weather performance was good. Cornering was great. Winter weather was slightly better than the OEM tires.
I now have a thread that’s directional, but has many of the key characteristics of a non-directional. They have annular main treads with wide reliefs and blocks, but the blocks are angled for better dispersion if properly mounted.
Bottm line: if you’re going after great dry handling at high speeds, directional treads tend to be better. If you need year around performance in all seasons, it’s really going to depend on the tire itself. If you live in Alaska or Minnesota, get non-directional winter tires.
And, the new issue of Consumer TReports has tire ratings, as does the Tirerack.com website and the 1010tires website. Visit them all. They may help.
Directional tires can only be rotated front to back, not side to side. They offer little or no advantage on a normal passenger car. If you have a high performance car they might be worth it.
I put directional tires on my car last time, but I will try to find non-directional tires next time.
Don’t get directional tires. There seems to be some hassle at the tire place if one has a blowout. More complications can’t be better. If that Cooper is expensive, try something else. I don’t like the cooper tires I have had.
Directional tires are no better or worse than a non-directional typically. Its completely and utterly tire model specific. I would not even consider it a factor in purchase. The only real difference which is mentioned is that they are rotated front to back and never crossed. I have owned both types typicall in high performance all-seasons and only can say I found the directional ones better in the rain mostly. I believe the intention of directional is to channel water.
Cooper makes some decent tires however like any tire brand from premium Michelin to budget Kumho they make a few stand outs and rest average to below average. A tire is a compromise, really a combination of compromises. So what appeals to one person may not to another. Unfortunately you don’t know till you own a set for a while.
Why would there be a hassle? A directional tire just has to be mounted with the proper side out (huge arrows show direction of rotation) that is all.