I have a friend who just bought an Alfa Romeo 4door something-or-other. He is using it as a family car. He needs new tires but was told he MUST use V-series performance tires or the car's electronics will all be thrown out of whack. He would prefer not to spend $700 or $800 for a set of tires that should cost $300.

Does anyone out there know if he was being fed a line? How could the car possibly sense V-series tires from any other series of the same diameter?

Was he at Cosco? I got fed the same line there, only it was a safety issue, they would sell me only the man. spec tires. A few words later, I went to Sears, got the tires of my choice, which were the same size as the ones I took off, 40,000 accident free miles later. He needs a second opinion, I would have to think if he kept it under 140 mph it won't be a problem.

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sounds like bulls**t to me,!!!!try calling an alfa romeo dealer or a good tire shop. also check the owners manual it should tell you what tires are ok to use good luck.

the V-tread is just a speed rating. As long as the tires are physically the same size it won't matter.

JB

Wow i heard some bull before but thats crazy, i dont think that electrics is Alfa's strong point anyway. But never fear whatever tires he goes for will last a long time, cos them things spend more time off the road than on!

Thanks guys. You confirm what I believed. He would call the dealer except they don't sell Alfas in US any more!

Sam's club takes the same position. They will not put tires on a car below the original speed rating - I guess they are afraid of law suits....Don

I ran into a situation kinda like this way back in 1972 at Sears. I had a new Pontiac GranPrix with belted tires that were worn out for some unknown reason at a very low milage(things like this happened frequently to my tires when I was in my teen and post teen years)I went to Sears and wanted to buy two new radial tires,(that was all I could afford at one time) balanced,front end aligned and new tires mounted on the front of the car. They wouldn't sell me two radials and mount them on the front of the car, said the radials were so much better handling tires than the factory bias ply tires, they would tend to make me over steer, and could cause an accident. I agreed with them, told them I couldn't afford to buy more than two tires, so they sold me a whole set on Sears Credit....that was 30 years ago...I wonder if I ever got that set of tires paid for???

Easy solution, pull the tires and rims and take them in for replacement. When they ask what it's for say "it's for a trailer" and purchase the tires you want. Might be best to put the rims and tires on yourself anyway since these places tend to put the rim bolts on with a 1/2 impact cranked to the max and you either end up unable to remove the bolts on the side of the road or you warp the rotors or drums from the excess torque. I don't let anyone near my rims without a torque wrench anymore. <img src="graemlins/nono.gif" border="0" alt="[nono]" />