Check your Touring Tires?

Macleod52 said:

I really don't see why you're bitching. Should I be bitching at Dunlop because I only got 17,000 miles out of a tire with a treadwear rating greater han my GoodYear RSA's which got 30,000 miles? According to the goodyear store not all tires are made equal, and the treadwear is not an industry standard, it's standard against said manufacturer's own product line..

My point is that Firestone may say their tire is a "All Season" and GM may say it's a touring tire. Maybe GM doesn't want to have to classify each and every tire that they put on a car and just to make people who are as anal retentive as yourself happy. For all we know GM has 3 classifications Touring (cheap, low-end/low-performance), Sport (mid price, mid range/mid performance) and High Performance (expensive, high-end/high-performance).

I'm sorry but at this point, you're just looking for every little thing you can bitch about on your car.

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Sorry that I've bruised your ego. Tires would not have even come up if I had not found them lacking compared to others I've owned. Manufacturers should not put cheap tires on cars. Many times I've said, "Brakes don't mean crap if the tires are not up to the job." That is only one aspect of tire quality but it at least implies that tires are the most important part of a vehicle, especially safety. Air bags and that are fine, but I certainly hope I never need them. Tires would be a big factor toward that.
As to your Dumlops, if the wear was the only complaint then you should be happy. Many really great tires do wear out early.

Perhaps you'd fit better in one of those forums where all have seduced themselves into believing everything about the car is perfect and the most important thing they can do is add as much bling as possible.

E_Net_Rider said:

Sorry that I've bruised your ego. Tires would not have even come up if I had not found them lacking compared to others I've owned. Manufacturers should not put cheap tires on cars. Many times I've said, "Brakes don't mean crap if the tires are not up to the job." That is only one aspect of tire quality but it at least implies that tires are the most important part of a vehicle, especially safety. Air bags and that are fine, but I certainly hope I never need them. Tires would be a big factor toward that.
As to your Dumlops, if the wear was the only complaint then you should be happy. Many really great tires do wear out early.

Perhaps you'd fit better in one of those forums where all have seduced themselves into believing everything about the car is perfect and the most important thing they can do is add as much bling as possible.

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No hurt ego here. I just find you to be very irrational. You're expecting a mid-priced car to have top of the line tires from the factory. As someone else has already pointed out, that almost never happens from a car company. You also fail to realize that opinions are subjective and not based on fact. Just because you believe a tire is crap and unsafe doesn't mean that is true. I'm pretty sure GM, and all other companies, do real world tests to determine whether a tire is satisfactory (per government standards and other regulations). If said tires were truely unsafe, they would be pulled from the market. Do you expect All car companies to consult E Net Rider before making any choices? Because that surely is how you are acting.

As for your last comment, I do not think my car is perfect, however I'm not an anal prick who thinks my car should compete with a $40k+ high performance luxury car. I take my car for what it is a mid-range family sedan.

Oh, and I just checked out Tirerack. You say your window sticker states "Touring Tire." Is your car supposed to come with Standard Touring All-Seasons or Grand Touring All-Seasons? How are you to tell? The plot thickens...

Macleod52 said:

Poor tire may be a bad choice of words. More appropriate wording would be adequeate or avereage. Again it's all subjective. I'm pretty sure your tires handle just fine in dry weather, rain, and maybe even light snow. That's what a typical tire does. Some are better than others. You push your car to the limit and take corners too fast then you're going outside the boundaries of a tire on a family sedan. They are not claiming this to be a performance car, or even a sporty car, yet that's what you're wanting them to do. I am willing to bet for everyday normal situations your tire meet or excel what they're meant for. If you start pushing them, I will say that they probably will not perform like a sportier tire.

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You are starting to catch on to my point. OK, maybe poor is not correct term in general, but still poor for this car.
I do have an unusual condition for demand because of the amount of rain that accumulates on the road and that should have been met with a good Touring Tire.
Also the slight vibration that comes with very good road is very annoying and frequently painful because of a medical condition. I did not expect the Malibu to have some finely tuned suspension or lots of isolation between components, but it would have been nice. Such would include better isolation for the steering shaft and column from the body. Also the struts or shocks from the subframe. Pretty much every path of vibration and noise between the wheels and passenger compartment. That is what I'd expect in a high end luxury vehicle for starts.
My gripe is that if you read the advantages of touring tires over regular passenger tires, much of what annoys me would have been handled at the tire. And when looking at the vehicles and saw that it said Touring Tires my thought would have been, OK, one less area of concern.

bballr4567 said:

What I find funny is that you PREFER the ride of an Impala over the Malibu. A car that rides on suspension that was designed over 20 yrs ago. Yes, Ive driven an 09 Impala as well when our car was in for service and its a complete night and day difference. If you dont like the ride of the Malibu on its new Epsilon platform then I highly doubt tires will change your mind.

Regardless, if you want better tires, go purchase them. LS2 is called a "grand touring tire" and sells for $99 on tirerack. There is nothing grand or touring about it. lol You can bet that I can find WAY better tires for that price if I shopped around myself.

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You need to look again. Tire Rack calls them a "Luxury Sport" Grand Touring.
Goodyear says they are a "sport performance", nothing about touring.

And my feeling of them is perhaps a bit toward the sporty side if you like to feel and hear every imperfection of road. Not Touring though.
Bigger, heavier cars do tend to right smoother if properly tuned. The one I drove had 3.9L and think that the LS2 "might" be a proper fitment for the still heavier SS with its huge engine and beefier tranny and different suspension.

There are a lot of complaints of clunks developing in Malibu sometime past 5,000. It sounds if the rubber isolators in suspension parts start to loose resiliency and become hard. So those parts could be of poor rubber and a harder tire could be accelerating that development. Real Touring or Gand Touring might have prevented or delayed that development because age and working the rubber tends to make it harder and loose resiliency.

I'm currently working on something that will get me out of car. I picked up at dealer yesterday afternoon. It still had looseness on interstate and worse on country road. It was drizzling on the way home and the handling was worse. And crossing the iron grating of a bridge I've crossed many times, even with this car, was near devastating.
I've had vehicles that give just the feeling of the grating, some that give a mild squirm but maintain direction, and some that require a minor correction. It was good that I was very alert when returning home last night. If I had not jerked the wheel left, it would have thrown me into the bridge railing at my right side.
Any ideas what that was about?
If you've seen other threads of mine, the play in the EPS has been a major concern.

E_Net_Rider said:

You need to look again. Tire Rack calls them a "Luxury Sport" Grand Touring.
Goodyear says they are a "sport performance", nothing about touring.

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http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...utoYear=2009&autoModel=Malibu&autoModClar=LTZ

Really?? Seems it says Grand Touring All season there.

And my feeling of them is perhaps a bit toward the sporty side if you like to feel and hear every imperfection of road. Not Touring though.
Bigger, heavier cars do tend to right smoother if properly tuned. The one I drove had 3.9L and think that the LS2 "might" be a proper fitment for the still heavier SS with its huge engine and beefier tranny and different suspension.

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There is very minimal weight difference between the Malibu and Impala. The W body platform is over 20 years old and has very little update in those years. Its known as a marshmallow platform for a reason.

There are a lot of complaints of clunks developing in Malibu sometime past 5,000. It sounds if the rubber isolators in suspension parts start to loose resiliency and become hard. So those parts could be of poor rubber and a harder tire could be accelerating that development. Real Touring or Gand Touring might have prevented or delayed that development because age and working the rubber tends to make it harder and loose resiliency.

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What? A tire does not make suspension components wear faster. The clunks that people here are pretty normal actually. The majority say that they go away when the car gets warm and in the warmer months they never noticed it. When cold rubber is moved it makes noises. It even happens on BMWs, Audi's and other high end cars.

I'm currently working on something that will get me out of car. I picked up at dealer yesterday afternoon. It still had looseness on interstate and worse on country road. It was drizzling on the way home and the handling was worse. And crossing the iron grating of a bridge I've crossed many times, even with this car, was near devastating.
I've had vehicles that give just the feeling of the grating, some that give a mild squirm but maintain direction, and some that require a minor correction. It was good that I was very alert when returning home last night. If I had not jerked the wheel left, it would have thrown me into the bridge railing at my right side.
Any ideas what that was about?
If you've seen other threads of mine, the play in the EPS has been a major concern.

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Again, another weird driving encounter youve had. I just dont understand why you have such insane happenings when behind the wheel.

If you are THAT concerned about the safety of the car, communicate it to someone.

I also highly suggest you take an evasive driving course. They are cheapish and will teach you things you have no clue a car could do. It honestly seems like you need it.

bballr4567 said:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...utoYear=2009&autoModel=Malibu&autoModClar=LTZ

Really?? Seems it says Grand Touring All season there.


There is very minimal weight difference between the Malibu and Impala. The W body platform is over 20 years old and has very little update in those years. Its known as a marshmallow platform for a reason.

What? A tire does not make suspension components wear faster. The clunks that people here are pretty normal actually. The majority say that they go away when the car gets warm and in the warmer months they never noticed it. When cold rubber is moved it makes noises. It even happens on BMWs, Audi's and other high end cars.

Again, another weird driving encounter youve had. I just dont understand why you have such insane happenings when behind the wheel.

If you are THAT concerned about the safety of the car, communicate it to someone.

I also highly suggest you take an evasive driving course. They are cheapish and will teach you things you have no clue a car could do. It honestly seems like you need it.

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just who would you trust at rating the tire? Goodyear or a general retailer of all brands?

Marshmallow? Would you say that of the SS as well? I definitely could not deal with MPG of that one. Daughter-in-law has an 07 and the best they get running it 70 MPH is 20MPG.
I would think the clunking would be either because the rubber component had some play or maybe it is hard and not really absorbing impacts or noise. As to loose, what you say about it happening when cold defies that since rubber and plastic expands when colder so they should be tighter if anything. That sort of narrows the situation to resiliency.

As to the things happening, I agree that it seems insane and thus creating worry. The whole thing about has me on pins and needles wondering what next? Since that last crossing of iron grating on bridge, I'm actually a bit scared, way beyond upset.

It is looking a lot like a lemon since dealer can not figure it out. Manager told me he is requesting someone from GM and if they can't figure out they will persue buy back.