Preparing for a recent ski trip I decided I needed to replace my OEM Contitouring tires. I wanted an improvement in ride comfort and noise from the Contis without sacrificing the wet and dry handling of the OEMs which I felt was quite adequate. At the top of my list was the Dunlop SP5000 but I couldn't find any locally for less than $120 (no mail order tires thank you, I got an out-of-round one once!). The Tire Rack owner survey had the BF Goodrich Touring T/A VR4 tire listed in the top three of their standard touring tire comparison and my local wholesale warehouse had them in stock for $89. Goodrich calls their VR4 tire an "ultra high performance" touring tire so I assumed that would be closer to Grand Touring than Standard Touring mainly because it is a V rated tire. Note: The H and T rated versions of this tire apparently really suck.

My ski trip consisted of a 600 mile round trip from the eastern seaboard into the mountains of West Virginia. The drive was a 50/50 split of freeway and backcountry/mountain twisties. I got the whole gamut of weather too including sun, rain, fog, mist, sleet, freezing rain and 8 inches of fresh powder (woo hoo!). The Touring T/A VR4 handled it all quite well. I definitely got the improvement in ride and noise I was looking for and didn't notice any diminished wet/dry handling. The steering response was noticably less "darty" than the original Contis and tracked very true. I also had no problems whatsoever in the ice, mud and snow (non quattro).

I would recommend these tires to anyone wanting an improvement from stock tires at a reasonable price. It is not a full bore performance tire but, then again, I'm a middle aged guy in a station wagon and the $120 I saved on the Dunlops bought my lift tickets for the whole trip.