Best Tires for the Alfa Romeo MiTo

Well, well, well,
Finally, I decided to change out my 7-year-old T005s. As you probably have read, I had previously fitted the T005 in many, many, many vehicles, sizes, and dimensions, as well as the T6s in 18inches.

I've driven the PC7s for around 160km now, and I can give you my initial impressions.
Dry and wet grip is supreme. Sadly, I can't compare them to brand new T005s, but I can tell you they are T6 level and above.

The tires are very, very much touring optimized, meaning that off-center response, the first 10 or so degrees of wheel input, is very soft. Meaning that center weighting of the steering wheel is low, and the tires feel very progressive.

Even more progressive than the arguably softer sidewalled T005s.
The same type of progressivity also applies when loaded mid-corner, and you ask for more load, the front end loads up progressively, while the T005s load a bit more regressively, or let's say linearly.

In fact, although the softer T005 sidewall led to lower steering accuracy, the changes in steering input were consistently damped. The PC7 is null -> null -> load up and turn.

This is something I don't really like as it causes a snake-like behavior between the front and rear end of the vehicle, although when highly loaded up, they do feel sharper than the T005, but in transient average load conditions, they feel much more progressive.

They seem like tires that like higher pressures; my 30/26 psi F/R, which was the sweet spot for my T005s, seems to exacerbate their super progressive behavior.

Noise-wise, they are less noisy than the T005s when rolling. Comfort-wise, they are a bit firmer than new T005s but surely much more comfortable than end-of-life T005s.

All in all, I need more time with them after completely breaking in to assess their subjective qualities, fuel consumption, final comfort, and noise.
I will come back

Well, an end-of-life review for an NLA tire.
The T005 shines still to this day in one attribute, longevity.
Oh yeah, they do.

35.000km later and 7 years later, they still produce a safe combination. Although absolute grip is diminished, the way they provide the little grip left is safe and progressive. This is what I like and continue to like with T005, they have such a wide operating window, really in other vehicles without ABS they are the only tires that let you threshold brake without locking up, as they provide a wide plateau of grip and underotation. This progressive nature extends to all driving attributes, and even so many years down the line.

They were kings of comfort; even now, they still retain comfort, even though the sidewall has started collapsing and squishing down. Their prime is long gone, and they are a very, very deprecated model, especially in 16"+ offerings. having been superseded by many many better designs.

The next pair, which is rather soon going to be replaced, will be either the premium contact 7 or the primacy 5.
Based only on comfort and suspension component protection, and believe me, they have very big shoes to fill.

So for 16"+ DO NOT buy them, not cause they aren't good, but because there are better options out there, but for 15" or 14" (if you can find 14" T005) they are the only premium touring tire still available...

I 'm not disapointed with the good performe of those V12 evo2 tires. I come from a set of Pirelli's Pzero Nero, mounted by Alfa Romeo when a new car, I'm trying those Hankook, and in dry conditions they are not far from Pirelli's. On wet conditions they are a little bit worse, also in handling corners... I'll miss my Pirelli's, but the excelent price/performance relation of the V12's made my choice for this tire. The changes of grip with time it's under experimentation, naturally.

This is a short update to my initial review (submitted on April 4, 2025). I only submitted a wet grip score this time. Had a few more commutes and a roundtrip to Germany of well over 1,000 kms. On the wet grip, drove on an absolutely flooded German Autobahn (windshield wipers struggled to keep up), and it was steady as you'd like. Lost grip for the first time taking a wet round-about at a irresponsibly high speed (no-one around to hurt but the car). Even then, I was impressed on how long it took to lose grip.

Overall, I have driven on these tires over 2,000 kilometers by now. Very impressed with them. Maybe not the most sport-biased tire available (steering feel, “soft” & silent), but very grippy in both dry & wet, and they inspire loads of confidence. Can recommend to anyone as an everyday ‘sportier’ tire.

My initial impressions of the Hankook Ventus EVO are very positive. At the time of writing, this tire has just launched. Its launch coincided with the previous summer tires (Dunlop Sport Maxx RT2) on my Alfa Romeo Mito QV warranting replacement due to some cracking on the sidewall (Dunlops were coming up on 6 years of age but still would’ve had tread for 1 or 2 summers more). The above, combined with getting a good deal on them, meant I chose to give these Hankooks a try.

The size is a bit of an unusual one, and therefore the price of this set, compared to a set of 225-section width A-brand tires, is quite a bit higher. Of the A-tier brands that offer their latest tire model in the 215-section width tires (not all brands do…), Hankook was by far the best deal for me.

I’ve mounted the tires after work and immediately went for a little evening (cooler temps around 10 °C) back-road blast. The amount of grip these tires have impressed me right away. Compared to the Dunlops I’ve had on before, the Hankook’s compound feels softer and construction a touch more compliant. Therefore, the grip, both directionally and laterally, feels much more impressive. The tire is quieter, and the ride is more comfortable. Braking feels very strong, as well as giving good feedback. If I may nit-pick, the steering response, I do experience as a touch slower. If one drives (close to) the speed limit, I’d doubt this would be of any bother at all.

Although I’ve tried many tires in my life before, I do not have the data bank of Jonathan. I hope he gets to try them soon and share his experiences. Personally, I’d imagine that these tires are amongst some of the best available. I know they’ve really impressed me personally.

Note: these are my initial impressions after just two days commuting and two back-road blasts (ca. 400 kms total). I will monitor the wear, performance in different conditions and update my review where possible.

Really good value for this price category. Good handling in wet and also in dry roads. Maybe a bit more noisy..

About to fit my second set. Dry grip, comfort, handling and long tire life are particular strengths. Wet grip is good enough, especially on one occasion a while back when an elderly motorist pulled out of a local garden center without looking, and I to drop the anchors fast! Thoroughly recommend.

Only traveled 200 kilometers so far but at this stage they are a fantastic tire, replace all 4 for Kuhmo ps71, very quite , nice ride definitely improved over worn conti 5 on the front and Bridgestone on the rear, grip is great in the hot weather so far weve had, will update in a few months with some more ks on them

Not had these for long but so far they're great for budget priced tires. Didn't want to spend a fortune as I'm replacing my alloys soon. For the mileage I do they do the job.

We bought these tires for our Alfa Romeo MiTo QV in 2017, it lasted 40.000 kms, and I think it's not bad for an 170 hp FWD car, however we had to rotate between front amd rear. Grip was good, but not too special. Only sometimes did the tires have an extra grip. But there wasn't any serious problems with handling, the car handled very stable every time. Tires were a bit hard to our crapp Hungarian roads, on bad surfaces it shaked the car. I'm looking for buy the new tires form another brand, that's why I'm here.