When you wonder what the difference is in tires the old expression you get what you pay for is HIGHLY considered!
I had Hanooks on all 4 of the rims I bought about 3 years ago and wore 2 of them till they ran flat (i know bad bad bad)
so when the front 2 went before the rears, I took my car into Abbsry for some replacements. I heard they were the best priced, so thought I'd see what they had to offer.
I bought 2 Lexani N3000's (205/40r17) for $300; mounted/balanced/taxes in and came out feeling pretty damn happy, thinking high proformance low profile tires were double that
Then nearly 2 years later, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and replace the old Hanooks, which I now swapped to the front, as they were getting pretty bald and winter was approaching. Checked out the "new" Lexani's I bought and noticed... WTF? They're damn near bald too!
Not being able to afford 4 new ones, and being outright pisses at Abbsry for selling me such fast wearing stuff, I went into Country Tire who also specialized in affordable tires, and bought some Pyramids (205/40r17), and swapped everything so the new Pyramids were the back so my ass end wouldn't swing out if I take a corner faster than I should. Paid about $250 this time, as I got the "work neighbour" discount from these guys
SWEET! Cheaper than before
on the drive home that night... ... what a difference in body roll because of crappy sidewall construction on the Pyramids compared to the bald Hanooks
Now I've got 2 crappy tires with good tread left and 2 tires that I've had for 2 years and are ready for replacement again...

Just a lesson learned to pay the extra because you really do get what you pay for with tires

I just replaced the tires on the wifes car (225/45/17) with Achillis ATR and it's not always about price. If you look at the specs on a tire it gives you tread wear, speed rating, load rate etc etc etc. These factors together define how stiff a sidewall will be and how long the tire will last. Not necessarily the price.

cheap tires will be shit, and they wont last. nexen/lexani n2000 and n3000 are shit, a lot of the time you can get them cheaper than you paid. not only that, but the life of a z rated tire is around 40k km (if you want a performance tire its gotta be softer to grip better, and it will wear faster).

imo, you do get what you pay for in tires. the ratings on the sidewall will give you an estimate of how it will perform, the best way is to go online and find what people say about them, its the only good way to compare tires. i spent a lot of time online before i bought tires for my cobalt, ended up with bf goodrich gforce kdw's. they are a pricey tire (around $250 each for 225/40zr18) but they work great, and im not disapointed. for a low profile 17" or larger tire, your going to have to spend $180+ to get anything decent.

General Altimax... cheaper than most high end brands, but won't wear like the cheap shit you've been buying.

So you've bought a total of eight tires that are the wrong size?

Anyways, I've been very happy with every Hankook and Falken tire I've bought and they can be had for not much more than the cheap crap.

...wtf...

Anyway...
so what side wall markers should I be looking for? All I've known is that A is a good traction rating, but how do I tell how stiff the sidewall will be?

What he means is that 205/40/17 is a tad bit of a small tire for the Cavy. It's more suited to a Civic. A 215/45/17 is the closest to the stock size with 225/45/17 being slightly over sized. even a 205/45 would be better. The 40 series looks cool but aren't going to last long.

ya the next set im gettin is 225/40/18, which would tell me that 205/40 is damn small haha

Tires don't rate sidewalls for stiffness. The only ways you'll get a gauranted side wall is to get a higher then needed load rating or a run flat. The Big down side to that option is that you will increase the tires wieght be five or more pounds no problem.
Rotational mass = bad

You drunk again??

Stupid iPhone

I think you got hit by the LOLerskater!!

Cork, you know that summer tires wear much faster then all season generally..2 years is too fast, I've had lexani N3000's for 3 seasons (Feb to Oct) and while tread is low on one pair, they are not bald yet...probably your alignment problems killed the tires prematurely...or you ran the tires year round, in which case 2 years would be about right. For the price, the lexani n3000's are not bad, I think they can be had for $120 a tire, they were better when Nexen made them I think... I've had Falkan ziex 520m which were good too, but the lexani had better wet traction.

Good call on the allignment... didn't think of that

Alroight!
so if i'm looking to buy tires and want a stiff sidewall... for my 17x7 rims... should I get
225/40r17 lexani's again?
God forbid... i'm NOT buying pyramid, but idk how stiff the sidewalls are on my lexanis >.<
I noticed the main difference when I put on the pyramids, so...
basically... are the lexani a stiff sidewall, or...?

depends... if go with a higher end BFG if i was u... ive never really had any good feedback from people with lexanis

lexani/nexen tires are for people who buy expensive rims and cant afford the proper tires to go on them (seriously, why else would lexani have a cheap crappy tire).

do some more research, 101tires.com, tirerack.com are both good sites to look at, tire rack has good user reviews. look at quality brands, falken, goodyear, bf goodrich, michilen, ect. a half decent 225/40zr17 is gonna cost you $180 minimum.

Ditto.....the Azenis are about $140 on a tire and are fairly sticky. (225/50/16)

I wouldn't call them crappy, they have decent traction and wet performance for a low price...I can drive pretty hard and they hold up well, and perform better then more expensive tires I've had

All of these are goin to have an A rating for traction, no?
I'm more concerned on sidewall flex

toyo t1r, they are a stiff sidewall. when i bought tires for my cobalt it was between bfg kdw and toyo t1r, i ultimatly took the kdw as people said they did have better forward traction, but the tradeoff was the t1r had a very stiff sidewall were the kdw is kinda soft.

When you are looking at any Performance Tire,Look for a XL Rating on the Side wall,The XL stands for Extra Load,Which will give you a Stiffer Side wall..The old lexains were good,The newer ones have a higher tread wear which makes the tire last longer but you will loose some over all performance..