Goodyear Exhilarates. Yay or Nay?

[norsairius]

I’m tempted to try these. I just got my GTI and despise the Bridgestone RE97AS tires that came with it and plan to replace them before the winter anyway, but I’m concerned about the winter performance of the Exhilarates. I can generally stay off the roads if needed, especially with the pandemic, so I’m not too concerned about getting winter tires this year. I’ve NEVER had a good experience with any Bridgestone tires that have come on any of my cars.

I’ve found only a couple people online who have commented on winter performance for these, one in a Mazda 6 forum and another in a Volvo forum and they said they did good, but I was hoping for more than that.

It would be a shame to miss out on all the savings/rebates if it turns out these would work at least as well as the other UHP all seasons in the winter too.

 

[Jshinz24]

I’m tempted to try these. I just got my GTI and despise the Bridgestone RE97AS tires and plan to replace them before the winter anyway, but I’m concerned about the winter performance of the Exhilarates. I can generally stay off the roads if needed, especially with the pandemic, so I’m not too concerned about getting winter tires this year.

I’ve found only a couple people online who have commented on winter performance for these, one in a Mazda 6 forum and another in a Volvo forum and they said they did good, but I was hoping for more than that.

It would be a shame to miss out on all the savings/rebates if it turns out these would work at least as well as the other UHP all seasons in the winter too.

I’m not sure on the winter performance yet but I’m sure I will find out soon enough here. I haven‘t really heard much about the winter performance anywhere either. I’m not too worried as I’ve drove some pretty crappy tires in the snow around here an managed lol. But I’m sure these tires will get me where I need to go safely if don’t drive like a complete savage

 

[norsairius]

I’m not sure on the winter performance yet but I’m sure I will find out soon enough here. I haven‘t really heard much about the winter performance anywhere either. I’m not too worried as I’ve drove some pretty crappy tires in the snow around here an managed lol. But I’m sure these tires will get me where I need to go safely if don’t drive like a complete savage

Yeah, I’ve driven in the winter on some pretty bad tires too. I agree with you in that some common sense goes a long way.

I’ve even done long distance interstate drives through snow storms on tires that have been rated mediocre in the snow on Tire Rack. I guess another way to look at it is the Exhilarates can’t be any worse than the Potenza RE97AS tires on my GTI now...

 

[Jshinz24]

Yeah, I’ve driven in the winter on some pretty bad tires too. I agree with you in that some common sense goes a long way.

I’ve even done long distance interstate drives through snow storms on tires that have been rated mediocre in the snow on Tire Rack. I guess another way to look at it is the Exhilarates can’t be any worse than the Potenza RE97AS tires on my GTI now...

I completely understand. I drove in some very light snow with the stock tires on my GTI and it wasn’t so bad if I remember correctly. However, when it gets icy all bets are off

 

[ianisme1]

Ah, I was confused because there’s no Y in TIRES here in the United States of America lol

Dual citizen, live in Texas and I can't help it if you can't spell the Queen's English

 

[Desslok]

Goodyear is "Woke", so I'll stick to Firestone.

It seems crazy for a business to promote any political ideology. Alienating customers seems to be all the rage these days.

 

[norsairius]

Found another test results article at Tire Rack: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=241

These results appear to be from May 2019 though. The other test that was linked earlier in this thread is from July 2020. The May 2019 results though have snow/ice performance data. According to Tire Rack, it looks like the Exhilarates aren't as good as the Continental DWS06 or the Michelin AS3+, but they still hold their own.

Winter test numbers, specifically: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartDisplayWinter.jsp?ttid=241

The acceleration/stopping numbers actually seem to compare very well against the DWS06. I'm not sure how the Exhilarates rated lower, but maybe it's related to general feel or lateral control that isn't conveyed in the measurements.

All that said, seems the Exhilarates should be all right in the winter if you must drive with them. Some people talk about the DWS06 as being the greatest all season tires you can get for winter driving, so if Tire Rack's numbers have the Exhilarates coming close in their objective testing, I'd have to assume they'll be okay in the winter.

Consumer Reports otherwise rates all of these as "Good" ("Fair" for the Bridgestone RE980AS) with snow traction but the Exhilarates actually got a "Very Good" for ice braking. The rest got "Fair" for ice braking except the Bridgestones actually received a "Good" rating there.

I just wish there were more customer reviews/insights on the winter performance for the Exhilarates. The others have much more consumer feedback supporting their performance. I've also developed a bit of a preference for Continental tires in recent years. The Continental TerrainContact H/T tires I put on my Mazda CX-9 to replace the wildly unsafe Bridgestone Ecopia tires were crazy good in the winter.

 

[Jshinz24]

Found another test results article at Tire Rack: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=241

These results appear to be from May 2019 though. The other test that was linked earlier in this thread is from July 2020. The May 2019 results though have snow/ice performance data. According to Tire Rack, it looks like the Exhilarates aren't as good as the Continental DWS06 or the Michelin AS3+, but they still hold their own.

Winter test numbers, specifically: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartDisplayWinter.jsp?ttid=241

The acceleration/stopping numbers actually seem to compare very well against the DWS06. I'm not sure how the Exhilarates rated lower, but maybe it's related to general feel or lateral control that isn't conveyed in the measurements.

All that said, seems the Exhilarates should be all right in the winter if you must drive with them. Some people talk about the DWS06 as being the greatest all season tires you can get for winter driving, so if Tire Rack's numbers have the Exhilarates coming close in their objective testing, I'd have to assume they'll be okay in the winter.

Consumer Reports otherwise rates all of these as "Good" ("Fair" for the Bridgestone RE980AS) with snow traction but the Exhilarates actually got a "Very Good" for ice braking. The rest got "Fair" for ice braking except the Bridgestones actually received a "Good" rating there.

I just wish there were more customer reviews/insights on the winter performance for the Exhilarates. The others have much more consumer feedback supporting their performance. I've also developed a bit of a preference for Continental tires in recent years. The Continental TerrainContact H/T tires I put on my Mazda CX-9 to replace the wildly unsafe Bridgestone Ecopia tires were crazy good in the winter.

If I had a store close to me that could have ordered the DWS06s I would have picked them up. That was my first choice but then saw the discount and how easy it would be to scoop the exhilarates up here in my little town lol. I’m getting mildly pumped about driving with these tires in the snow this winter now . As long as its not too bad out it should be fun. My worst enemy is snow that melted and refrozen overnight on the road to create an ’ice trace’ of sorts. I hate that with a passion. Might as well be riding directly on the rims

 

[Jshinz24]

*‘Ice track’ my iPad hates spelling the words l use

 

[norsairius]

If I had a store close to me that could have ordered the DWS06s I would have picked them up. That was my first choice but then saw the discount and how easy it would be to scoop the exhilarates up here in my little town lol. I’m getting mildly pumped about driving with these tires in the snow this winter now . As long as its not too bad out it should be fun. My worst enemy is snow that melted and refrozen overnight on the road to create an ’ice trace’ of sorts. I hate that with a passion. Might as well be riding directly on the rims

Yeah, I'm sure you'll be fine. The few reviews I've seen that discuss experiences with the Exhilarates in the snow say that they're pretty good.

I wish I wasn't so indecisive, haha. There was a time where I would've just gone ahead and gotten the Exhilarates already, but I've been too traumatized by bad tires thanks to the Bridgestone Ecopias that came with my Mazda so I'm super paranoid about tire performance now.

Rather than bump this thread again I thought I'd just add to it via edit:
I decided to just go ahead and get the Goodyear Eagle Exhilarates from DiscountTire. The tests from TireRack and Consumer Reports along with the relatively few owner reviews I could find in various car forums gave me just enough confidence, along with the rebates/discounts, to take a bit of a leap of faith on these tires.

As I mentioned in another post I made in this thread, they can't be any worse than the Bridgestone RE97AS tires that came with my GTI and nothing will be a worse all season tire than the Bridgestone Ecopias that came with my Mazda CX-9 and I even made it through a pretty harsh winter with those rolling (and not very good at stopping) liabilities.

I'll be sure to post some initial thoughts on the Exhilarates after I've had them on the car for a bit and I'll post some winter driving impressions for the relatively little winter driving I'll be doing once we get around to that time of the year.

 

[chillax]

Found another test results article at Tire Rack: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=241

These results appear to be from May 2019 though. The other test that was linked earlier in this thread is from July 2020. The May 2019 results though have snow/ice performance data. According to Tire Rack, it looks like the Exhilarates aren't as good as the Continental DWS06 or the Michelin AS3+, but they still hold their own.

Winter test numbers, specifically: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartDisplayWinter.jsp?ttid=241

The acceleration/stopping numbers actually seem to compare very well against the DWS06. I'm not sure how the Exhilarates rated lower, but maybe it's related to general feel or lateral control that isn't conveyed in the measurements.

All that said, seems the Exhilarates should be all right in the winter if you must drive with them. Some people talk about the DWS06 as being the greatest all season tires you can get for winter driving, so if Tire Rack's numbers have the Exhilarates coming close in their objective testing, I'd have to assume they'll be okay in the winter.

Consumer Reports otherwise rates all of these as "Good" ("Fair" for the Bridgestone RE980AS) with snow traction but the Exhilarates actually got a "Very Good" for ice braking. The rest got "Fair" for ice braking except the Bridgestones actually received a "Good" rating there.

I just wish there were more customer reviews/insights on the winter performance for the Exhilarates. The others have much more consumer feedback supporting their performance. I've also developed a bit of a preference for Continental tires in recent years. The Continental TerrainContact H/T tires I put on my Mazda CX-9 to replace the wildly unsafe Bridgestone Ecopia tires were crazy good in the winter.

The thing that makes me question these results is that as you said "Some people talk about the DWS06 as being the greatest all season tires you can get for winter driving," but according to Tire Rack the AS3+ should be even better. I drove the AS3+ last winter and they were terrible. The snow/ice traction performance aside they just did not feel safe below freezing at highway speeds. The compound they are made of becomes much too hard.

 

[Jshinz24]

The thing that makes me question these results is that as you said "Some people talk about the DWS06 as being the greatest all season tires you can get for winter driving," but according to Tire Rack the AS3+ should be even better. I drove the AS3+ last winter and they were terrible. The snow/ice traction performance aside they just did not feel safe below freezing at highway speeds. The compound they are made of becomes much too hard.

I’m hoping that doesn’t happen with these Exhilarates. You would think the AS3+ would have been better considering it’s all-season status. If they suck that bad this winter I suppose I could throw on the old stock wheel setup I have in the garage but I hope it doesn’t come to that I have had good luck so far with these tires, though. I guess at the end of the day I can leave a well-worded review on Tire Rack to help out those looking to get the exhilarates

 

[KevinC]

It seems crazy for a business to promote any political ideology. Alienating customers seems to be all the rage these days.

https://babylonbee.com/news/goodyear-announces-it-will-only-sell-tires-for-left-side-of-car/

 

[norsairius]

The thing that makes me question these results is that as you said "Some people talk about the DWS06 as being the greatest all season tires you can get for winter driving," but according to Tire Rack the AS3+ should be even better. I drove the AS3+ last winter and they were terrible. The snow/ice traction performance aside they just did not feel safe below freezing at highway speeds. The compound they are made of becomes much too hard.

Yeah, that's why I was hoping to find more consumer reviews of the tire. I'm pretty sure I could get through this winter with summer tires on the GTI if I had to because of how bad the Bridgestone Ecopias were on my CX-9 (I'm exaggerating here of course... a bit), so I'm not particularly worried about the Exhilarates. That said, I'm optimistic considering the reviews/data I found on them for winter driving.

Anyway, the Exhilarates arrived at my local DiscountTire earlier than I expected and I had them put on this afternoon. From the bit I drove on the tires to get home, they're quieter and offer a better ride than the Bridgestone RE97AS tires (though those set the bar pretty low). They're not whisper quiet by any means, but that's something that the grand touring all seasons I had on my Mazda CX-9 probably spoiled me with. Grip also seems better so far, but I didn't really have an opportunity to push them.

All's good so far though, so we'll see how they hold up as the miles add up and as times goes on (especially with the upcoming winter).

 

[Desslok]

Babylon Bee has some great satire. Get it - saTIRE?
I'll be here all week, folks!