I would definitely go with Vreds. They are a phenomenal tire, especially for the price. An alignment doesn't necessarily need to be done at a dealer, but whomever does the work and replaces the tires just needs to understand how careful they need to be to not damage the wheels. That includes mounting the tires, balancing them, and how they attach the alignment heads to the wheels.

Nick

 

+1

At the risk of infuriating ECS again, my opinion is that any competent shop can handle a tire change and alignment. As with any type of business, there are good shops and bad. Just make sure you take it to a pro.

 

I ordered my last set of rears from TireRack and had their suggested installer do the job.
Worked perfectly, the mechanics fawn over the car and take their time.

There are lots of threads on this.

 

I'll throw in my own two cents. I've been to the mass market places and to the good places (though back in my porsche, not the maserati yet). The mass market places are crap for alignment. They are willing to put in about an hours work, that includes getting the machine ready, finding your car in the database, putting the car on the rack, attaching the reflectors and finding the bits that need to be changed.

They will then start to adjust, but make one pass through adjusting each wheel to spec and calling it done.

This does NOT work and you will end up with suboptimal setup. Left will be different from right, by a large margin in every case for me.

You only need an alignment every couple years or when you want to change the behavior of the car (or you hit a couple of potholes). Spend the extra 200-300 or so on a good setup, talk to them about what you want. It should be a weighted setup and they should give the car a couple hours to "settle" after doing the adjustments to verify. The place I used to take my porsche to did their alignments in the afternoon, drove 5-10 miles, let them settle over night and verified in the morning. Then adjusted if required to make it PERFECT.

Mass market places said they could only get -.35 camber on the fronts (one was -.35 the other was .05 and that was considered good!), the specialist got -1.05 on both wheels, exact same toe. Rear was a similar game.

The rest is pretty simple though, and anyone with the right equipment should be able to do it all. If you are in the VA area, I highly recommend tire van for the tires and balancing. They come to you! It is fantastic and do a great job.

 

Will the warranty be voided if the alignment is done at an independent rather than a maserati dealership?

 

No, they can't do that.

Nick

 

I have not tried the vreds yet but I do like my Hankooks they handle both in the wet and dry, quiet, and low tire wear.

 

Which Hankook did you go with?

 

Do you recommend doing an alignment at the same time, is it necessary just for a change of tires?

I asked this same question when I got my alignment done last fall, since I was considering putting snow tires on the car shortly thereafter and didn't want to screw the work up.

The short answer was that you align the wheels, not the tires. Good enough for me.

 

Definitely go look at some videos of how alignment is done on cars. It will answer most of the questions about when and why pretty quickly. It is something that rarely has to be done, but when done MUST be done right.

If you find that you have to keep getting alignments done, then either the shop is bad or something is very wrong with your car.

 

Thank you for the posts.

I never had an alignment done while owning the car as it drives well. But some people said that I should take the opportunity to do one when I change all my tires, to make sure that everything is still correct.

The warranty or CPO is not voided if the alignment is done by an independent garage. However, I would not want to go to a mass market garage as scot said. If I do one (just to check that everything is good), I am thinking of bringing QP to her official FM dealer as they have the right tools and knowledge to do it. It may cost $400 or $500 instead of $150 let's say at an independent garage but I guess it is money well spent (Maseratis are sensitive...).

If one of you know a great independent place in South Florida for the change of tires and alignment, let me know. Otherwise, I'll go to the dealer. By the way, I am strongly thinking of getting the Vreds as the new tires.

 

I've had a Volvo dealer swap out my last two tires and they did a great job (inexpensive, too). Doesn't need to be a Mas dealer, but I wouldn't trust just anyone either.

 

I caught a big nail a few days ago in my rear/right tire. As the rear tires are starting to go bald, I am going to change them (and might do the front ones at the same time, although they still have a few thousand miles left).

Getting in touch with Jeff for the Vredesteins as almost everybody on the forum swears by them (245-40 ZR 19 and 285-35 ZR 19).

Prices from FM dealer for replacement and alignment (+ tax):

tire replacement, about $250
Alignment: about $300

What do you think of these prices?

 

I have a 2006 Exec Gt. I usually do at least one trip a year on Continental Europe which usually involves some high speed driving. I always get the wheels electronically tracked and balanced before I go. All of the top brand dealers in Cardiff charge about £190-£250 for this and then put the work out to an independent tyre firm who charge £50. So find out who has the kit to do it properly and then shop around

Paul

 

This is the machine Bentley Boy is speaking of. I can attest to the capabilities and difference this wheel balancer will provide for low profile, high-performance wheels. It is made by Hunter, and it is called a GSP9700, or more simply, a road force balancer. You can locate a shop that has one and is trained to use it by following this link.

Hunter GSP9700 Wheel vibration Control System solves wheel vibration and tire pull problems that balancers and aligners can't fix

Nick

 

Thanks Nick and Paul.

It seems that there are no 285-35 ZR 19 tires from Vredestein (waiting for an anwser from Jeff at FD). What other brand would you recommend? Or the 295 from Vred? I live in South Florida, so it's only dry roads or rain. And I would like tires that last longer than the Pirellis.

Front: 245-40 ZR 19
Rear: 285-35 ZR 19

The alignment from FD dealers seems expensive (about $300). But they know what they are doing too.

 

Continental Extreme Contact DW are getting some use and plaudits from owners.
I had the DWS on a QP (needed light snow protection) and thought they were very good.

 

Continental Extreme Contact DW are getting some use and plaudits from owners. I had the DWS on a QP (needed light snow protection) and thought they were very good.

Thanks. Having a look at these tires too. No Pirellis, too soft and they go too quickly. Waiting to hear from Jeff for the Vreds.

Would you put the Vreds 295 on the car instead of the 285? What would be the difference (driving) and would they last as long?

 

Sunshine - I think you can but check with Jeff. I don't think a wider tire will affect the life much differently.
Because I wanted all-season tire on the QP I could not get Vreds.
The bigger question may be, do I have to run staggered sizes on the QP?
Michelin offers some great tires with a decent mileage warranty, the problem is you must rotate tires to keep the warranty valid but staggered sizes can't be rotated. Catch-22?

 

Thanks Veloce49 for the information. I am currently checking the various models (Vreds, Continental).

Will look at Michelin too now that I read your message.

I read in some threads on the forum that run-flat tires were not recommended because of the driving/performance. I drive my car fast-enough (with strong accelerations as often as I can) but not driving crazy and not tracking: still not a good idea to buy such tires because it would diminish the performances and the miles?

 

Not to stray too far but...
I too heard run-flats didn't last. They were original equipment on my Cadillac roadster (XLR first year of production). They were OEM because there is not trunk space for spare. While not in Maserati league, it's 8-cylinder, 320 HP. the Michelin run-flats were on for about 45,000. This was my daily drier for a few years and still my principal driver. Point being that I think tire experience is similar to clutch experience, answers are all over the place.

I would be interested in hearing some comments on the staggered width tires on "gentlemanly driven" luxury sport sedans aka Quattroporte.

 

Jeff contacted me with great information about the different choices.

I am going to change all of them at the same time (front = 245).

QUESTION about the rear size:

Vredestein does not make 285-40-19 tires. So, I can go 2 ways:

. 275-35 ZR19

. 295-30 ZR19

More of a sporty look with the 295 and the car would be lower compared with the 275. What about comfort as this is an important aspect for me: difference in comfort between my current 285-40 and the 295-30? Also, after cheching various cars, the 295-30 would be lower than the tires on the Ferrari 458 for example. It might be too much for a sedan.

What do you think? Any driving experience with both of them?

Thanks.

 

Sunshine -

Which size rear Vreds did Jeff from FD recommend when he contacted you?
275-35 ZR19 or 295-30 ZR19

Also, has anyone ever bought Vreds on Ebay? Any issues?

285/45/19Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta New Tires ZR 107W | eBay

 

Jeff said that both would work. Others on the forum say that I should stick with the right size. Never bought on ebay.

 

Update:

. Deciding and ordering 4 tires (Vreds, or Continental extreme contact DW as they have the right size) before the end of the week. The Bridgestone do not seem as well liked as the Vreds or Continental.

. I decided that the change of tires and the complete alignment will be done by the official FM dealer. More expensive than chains or independents (about $500) but this is worth it in my book as I would rather have the right tools/equipments and specialists working on my QP.

 

I have the Continental Conti Extreme Contact DWS and love them. I ordered them from Discount Tire Direct and had them mounted at Town Fair Tire. Town Fair Tire has a promo where when the mount 4 tires on your car, you can get a 4 wheel alignment for $49.95.

No problems!!

 

I bought the Continental Extreme Contact DW (245 front, 285 rear). The dealer strongly suggested that it would be better to keep the right manufacturer's size on all the tires (so, the Vreds were out, as they do not have 285s).

The FM dealer is doing the alignment too (I trust that they have better technicians and equipments for Maseratis compared to independent tire stores).

I am happy with the total price, in line with what various tire stores were asking.

 

The FM dealer is doing the alignment too (I trust that they have better technicians and equipments for Maseratis compared to independent tire stores).

Curious what your dealer charges for alignment? It's $600 at the FM dealer here.

 

that was 275 fully done and weighted. For an expert on these cars alignment is simple and fast, probably less than an hour of total work. For a non-expert alignment can take some back and forth time, but still, even with all the bells and whistles maybe 2hrs of work and a test drive or two.

Not 600 dollars worth of work by a long shot.

 

Just had alignment at my local Maserati dealer for $200. Had 4 new tires installed for $155 for the change of tire fee.

Got Hankook Ventus V12 and am very happy with these tires.....especially for the price.

Previous tires were Michelin A/S on front and Michelin PS2 rears (don't know why all 4 tires were not the same, bought car preowned and these were what it came with).

Was gonna go with VReds but decided against since they do not make the proper rear size for the QP 19 in wheels.