The new tires are fitted and I've done a few days and ~120 miles of driving on them. First impressions are that they are
much quieter than the last tires I had, the ride is just about the same if not a slightly better, and the handling seems to be a bit less crisp, especially on turn-in (although I haven't messed with tire pressures yet so that may be part of it). I now know just how loud the previous tires were...it never really occurred to me that almost ALL of the road noise was from tires. I figured it was a balanced mixture of wind/tire/engine noise, but now it could be considered almost 'quiet' in my car at 75mph, instead of what I estimate was 80-85dB before. The other interesting change is the steering is a good deal lighter now, which I do not like. I always wondered why the steering was rather heavy, which seemed very uncharacteristic of a Toyota, but this explains it some. Its still not as bad as more modern Toyotas, which I think have disgustingly over-boosted steering.
Anyways, I still haven't had a chance to really test out the handling, but the trade-off in reduced noise is worth a small reduction in ultimate handling (which sounds like heresy I know
). After all this is a daily driver and not a sports-car to begin with...
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