Best Tires for the Subaru Forester 2.5xt

Had the tires for about 6000km, although, I bought them as I bought the new car (Forester XT), so I couldn't compare it with the platform I already knew. Anyway, I've done about 3000km is some bad weather, snow, mountain passes, ice, and I couldn't believe how good the tires were! Yes, there is a new 4x4 beneath me, but even on slopes in deep snow when I tried to accelerate harder (playing to find the grip) the car just goes, didn't stop. On roundabouts cars in front of me were sliding (icy rain that night) but XT stayed planted (low speed of course). With nicer/hotter weather the rain came, and i was expecting a few (uphill) slips here and there (there are quite a few patches that are really steep and slippery concrete here) and the car was planted (I even stopped and continued at the middle of the slope to see how it would've coped, and it was like I was on level ground, not even TC kicked in, nothing). When I got the feel for the car I tried to push it couple of times just to try to see what's it like on the limit, and it's so hard to get any of the systems to activate (ABS, TC, a bit of slip). One time, since I come from 20 years of driving hot hatches, I did enter more aggressive into a long right hand turn during rain, and the back end stepped out but nicely, it wasn't snappy, totally controllable (I know it's not too much of a useful info for this type of car/application, but still). Either way, it can't all be down to the car, tires made the connection with the surface, and the smile on my face (surprise) was the same when I tried Super Sports fro the first time on my JCW more then 10 years ago. Anyway, now I'm thinking of buying Cinturatos for the summer!

Main drawback is the price, overall the tires perform phenomenally on any terrain in the winter. Wet performance is amazing, you don't even feel the wheel loose any grip up to a certain puddle depth when driving over it. Off-road performance is very good too, absolutely no issues here. In reality I can not think of anything that could be better considering its not a soft compound and not studded. Control while doing "spirited driving" on snow is very good, even on ice with 4WD I have plenty of grip to control the car, but they are not magical, ice is still ice whithout studs. I didn't notice any noise on dry roads and performance on the dry, I would think is on par with some summer tires. In conclusion amazing tire if you can afford it, but for me the tire was overkill considering how much it costs. Living in rural area i would choose a cheaper studded tire.

Maxxis really blew me away with this tire. Not only did it outgrip my old potenza re003’s which I previously used as a benchmark, it also lasted longer. Only in one or two very rare occasions did I find myself struggling with grip and usually that was due to suspension components at their limit. I felt very comfortable driving with these tires and would definitely buy again

Replaced Bridgestone Duellers at 37000kms on Subaru Forester. Scorpians have very good grip wet and dry are quieter and give better fuel economy. Subaru also handles better, feeling steadier while cornering fast. So far I would buy again

Excellent on wet track! I've traveled more than 40,000 km and are still very good. Attention to the correct calibration (use 33lbs).

These Falkens replaced a set of barely worn Fuldas, while no complaints about grip in any weather the road noise and ride quality became unbearable. Decided to try this set after my daughter's good experience with Falkens on her Honda Civic, they were really well priced too. Only been on a couple of thousand miles but am impressed, especially considering how cheap they were to buy, reasonably quiet and the ride quality is much improved, dry grip is good enough, wet grip is superb, though a Forester is forgiving anyway the car feels extremely stable on the road, i've tried to unstick it on some quiet wet surfaces today, nope won't have it. Can't comment on wear rate obviously, but daughter's Honda is driven rapidly, scratch that, it's thrashed mercilessly and the wear rate has been impressive, seeing as they only come with about 7mm of new tread it's just as well they wear ok. Will definately buy Falkens again if they continue in this manner. Regards Lew

These were fitted to the Forester XT 2.5 turbo when we bought it used.
I cannot fault them for grip wet or dry, never once did the traction control light flash up, never once did the car feel light no matter how hard it was pushed or how fast one might pull away on a roundabout or junction wet or dry.
They were not used during winter because we have a full set of winter tires on wheels.
However i have removed and replaced them, barely worn, and the reason is the hard ride and the road noise, but they were probably 6 years old as the car does very little mileage, even now it's only covered 33,000.

If you don't mind road noise and ride quality then these are really very good.

Just out of interest they have been replaced with Falken ZE914 (not yet driven on the road as it's January so still on the winter set) , purely because they have proved to have good grip in normal wet or dry conditions and are wearing well on my daughter's hard driven Civic.

I put these tires on my Subaru Forester XT just before the first snow storm of the winter. It hit pretty hard wit a lot of ice and very very slippery snow, quite deep at some places. I drive through one of the hardest mountain passes where i live almost on a weekly basis and a good tire is crucial. The Dunlop WinterSport 5 preformed much better than i expected initially in acceleration, corner grip and braking in dry and uncleaned snow. We had some heavy rain since and the tire preformed very well in the wet as well. Very little aqua planning in some big puddles but all well controlled. In short - The tire is predictable with high levels of grip. I dunno about noise - i drive a subaru - everything is noisy on a subaru.

I bought geolandar SUV (G055) on 7/2015 for my MY 2006 Subaru forester xt ( 230 ps) with the expectation to be the closest equivalent to factory fitted GEOLANDARS.
The absolut dissapointment...
Fyi the country used is Greece. 70% road usage, 15% snow usage for skiing and 15% semi off road for hunting or vacations. To make the long story short.
Cornering and braking in wet road is simply impossible. Snow behavior was simply ok , noise level was quite noticeable especially at speeds above 120 kph. The only remarkable point with these is the extreme duration they present. After 70k klm in 2 years they seem to have life for 15-20k klm more... But No thanks ... time to try Crossclimates +

Best regards
George

Really good tires, plenty of grip in the dry or wet, great for road noise.