Firestone Destination ST

[viva la Reagan]

haven't seen a write up on these tires yet, so i thought i'd share my experiences with this tire.

first of all, i have an '07 4.8 with 255/55/18 oem run flats, from which i was able to get 32k miles. HATED these tires and they only got worse as the miles accrued.

did a lot of research over the past month, including this site. really wanted the contis but they are still on backorder with no end in sight. second choice was down to the dunlop sp sports or the yoko envigors. called tirerack to get their input on these two tires so i could pull the trigger. surprisingly, after chatting with a very knowledgable rep for 15-20 mins, he talked me into the firestone destination st. i was shocked he was recommending a firestone for the x5 and it took a while to convince me (don't know why, i had never purchased a firestone product before and was hesitant). the rep was adamant that the st is a great tire and well suited for the x5. for $168 per tire, i decided to give them a try.

had the destination st's installed today and first impressions are very solid. the tire looks good on the car but seems a bit shorter than the run flats. probably just an optical illusion or the shocks hadn't completely settled after being on the lift for a couple of hours. tread pattern is very interesting with a wide, dedicated rain channel that runs the full circumference of the tire. no rain today, we'll she how they handle in precipitation.

as soon as I left the shop, i noticed a few major differences immediately. firstly, steering is noticeably lighter. check that: significantly lighter. i prefer the heavy steering feel, so i'll hold judgement until i've driven on the st's for a bit longer. secondly, the car "feels" more nimble and seems to have less rolling resistance. definitely like this feel over the run flats as the car seems to be more athletic/quicker. it does seem to get of the line more quickly as if the x had shed a few pounds. finally, the harshness of the run flats is completely gone. driving home, bumps and ruts in the road that were extremely harsh in the run flats were barely noticeable on the st's. this is exactly what I was hoping for when dumping the run flats. the x seems to have sacrificed nothing performance-wise but has improved materially in the comfort factor. it is still well planted in hard cornering, maintaining its balance and traction. so far, i haven't experienced the dsc kicking in like others on this board have described.

granted, this is an early review but i will check back in over the next few weeks and update as i put more miles on these tires.