Firestone Firehawk SH30

Price Paid:  $55.00 from Tire Rack

Year / Model Reviewed:
 Firestone Firehawk SH30 195/65HR14

Strengths:
Wet traction, appearance of tread design.

Weaknesses:
Noise as they aged, treadwear

Summary:
Good tire for the price. Excellent wet traction, adequate dry traction. Treadwear is another story. Rotated every 6000 miles, still only got 33,209 miles before being into the wear bars. Got progressively noisy with mileage. Cupping on front even with spot on alignment. Significantly better in most respects than Eagle RSA's that were OEM on my '98 Neon R/T. In all fairness, I was not gentle with them at all.

Similar Products Used:
Goodyear Eagle RSA 185/65HR14

Price Paid:  $250.00 from Avelenos

Year / Model Reviewed:
 1997 Accord

Strengths:
good wet and dry, in this car I never found their limit

Weaknesses:
tread wear was rather fast and they are not the quietest thing on the road, my Gislavid Frost snow tires make about the same amount of noise

Summary:
I used the 195/60 series tires rather than the 185/65 OEM size. I found the tires were great and offered far more performance than the car really needed. The handling was as good as can be expected from a family sedan, even a abeit competant one. I had no service problems with the tires, the store did not balance the properly but a quick trip to my regular mechnic fixed that. The tires have lasted their warrented 50,00 miles and do need replacement now. All in all I am satisfied with them

Similar Products Used:
just the OEM michalins which slid all over the place in the rain-VERY bad

Price Paid:  $70.00 from Firestone

Year / Model Reviewed:
 91 celica

Strengths:
Handling was great until I got through 70% of the treadwear. Then the problems with hydroplaning etc kicked in resulting in an accident

Weaknesses:
Treadwear was horrible. I got 25K of 50K rated tire. The Firestone dealer in Texas stated that all of the sh30's they sold came in short on treadwear. Must be something in the heat in Texas that the tires can't handle. He sold me a set of Potenza Re950's at significant discount to make up for the problem. That's when I noticed the noise difference. I thought I was having bearing problems in the rear but it turns out it was SH30's all along.

Summary:
Great handling,Poor treadware, noise

Price Paid:  $74.00 from Southern Indiana Tir

Year / Model Reviewed:
 1995 Lexus

Strengths:
Good traction. Quiet at first.

Weaknesses:
Tread life is horrible. I had a slow leak in one of them, so I took them to the place where I bought them thinking that it was only a nail. There were HOLES in the two front tires after less than 30,000 miles! They said it was from being out of alignment, but my car was was not pulling at all and seemed to be handling fine.

Summary:
Initially I was happy with these tires. They were quiet at first and the handling on wet and dry pavement was good. The more miles I put on them, the noiser they got. This is the second set I''ve had and I will not buy them again!

Price Paid:  $60.00 from tirerack

Year / Model Reviewed:
 1998

Strengths:
Wet handing, long wearing. After 52,000 miles wet handling is still quite good. OK for small amounts of snow. If I done a better job rotating them I would have easily passed my next inspection and 60,000 miles.

Weaknesses:
They were quiet, then they got noisey. I would recommend rotating them front to back only, I believe crossing them and making them spin in the opposite direction is not something they do without protest. Some cupping of the tread. The first 500 miles - oh my GOD! they were so squirley I had a full time job making the car go straight. But then they settled down nicely. They cost too much at Firestone stores.

Summary:
Very good value, for my car suitable sizes as standard replacement,+0, and +1 applications. Much better than my OEM Bridgestone RE92''s.

Similar Products Used:
Bridgetsone RE92''s, average performance with way too much noise.