I need a new set of tires for my stock 17x8 rims and I saw an ad for Pepboys selling Hankook Ventus V4 ES 245/45ZR17 for $103 each and buy 3 get one free (mail in rebate). I called them up and all 4 tires with mount and balance will be about $345 after the rebate. Anyone know if these tires are any good? TireRack.com doesn't sell this model so I can't find any reviews. I was about to buy Sumitomo HTR Z III tires from TireRack but with shipping and mounting I would be paying about $520. Are these tires $200 better than the Hankooks?
Just make sure you check the date codes on the tires first. A lot of "tire deals" result when a place has a certain tire sitting around for a while and needs to move them. Tires older than 6 years are recommended be replaced, so you don't want to put 3-4 year old tires on a car. I made the mistake of doing this once. A tire that was normally $250 was discounted to $95 each. I said sure why not. After the fact, i checked the date codes and they were from 2002 meaning they were 4-5 years old at the time. They were dry-rotted and wearing odd within a year. Next set of tires i got i made sure were less than 6 months old when they went on the car
