Cooper Lifeliner Touring SLE

[deacon523]

I just bought a used 2006 300C with 18k on it from Carmax. The tires the car came with were fairly new looking Cooper Lifeliner Touring SLEs. I know these are neither the old OEM ContiSeals nor the new OEM Goodyears, so my suspicion is these were placed on the car by the dealer for resell.

Does anyone here have any experience with these tires? I know the consensus from these forums seems to lean toward the Goodyear Assurance ComforTreds, and I will likely get them if these Coopers aren't any good... however if the Coopers are halfway decent then no sense rushing out to replace them. For the record I haven't noticed any problems yet but I have only had the car a few days.

This will be a daily commuter, so I am looking for an all-season radial with good wet and snow performance - cornering and noise are a plus but not as important as safety.

thanks!

Deacon

[E55 KEV]

I'd buy them is money was an object. Cooper is really a very old US tire line. I would keep them and wear them out. By the time you really need a set there will be something else even better than the Goodyear Assurance. You may be the first on this board with them.

Nice Web site - www.coopertire.com

[deacon523]

Thanks, E55 KEV. As I mentioned, I have not had any complaints about the Coopers so far. Most of my driving is on the DC beltway, ride seems smooth and quiet, although I may be a bad judge with regards to noise because I am used to either the Michelin Pilot Sport AS on my old 99 mustang GT or the Goodyear MTRs on my Jeep Wranger, both of which were fairly noisy at highway speeds. We've only had one real day of rain since the weekend, and the car felt pretty good on wet pavement, but not sure how much of that was the tire and how much was due to the ESP. I'll post a more comprehensive review once I log more driving time.

Of course, I am still interested if anyone here has had any experience with them - better to find out now than the hard way!

Deacon
2006 300c, bone stock (except for the aforementioned Cooper Lifeliners Touring SLE tires)

[DarkFury]

Originally Posted by E55 KEV

You may be the first on this board with them.

Nice Web site - www.coopertire.com

I wouldn't go that far...

I have Cooper Zeon XSTs on mine. Maybe the first with that particular Cooper series tire (the Lifeliner SLE)

[bruno]

deacon523,
I don't know a thing about Cooper tires but would like to welcome you to the 300c forums. Congratulations on the purchase of your 300c!

bruno

[Jaffa]

Hi DarkFury
I'm considering Cooper Zeon XSTs for next set. Would like to hear your impressions of the tire. What size wheels you running?

Coopers have been in AUS some years but they are aiming mostly at 4WD market and have limited car tire range here.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers

[ram65]

Cooper would be my choice, not only for price , but wearability. Congratulations on your purchase of your 300C.

[StealthAuto]

Congrats on the purchase!!! I would look at tirerack.com and check out the many tire reviews... Also check out the reviews on Amazon.

[II kings 9:20]

Cooper is an interesting brand, I wonder if they are still made in the great Buckeye Nation? No one seems to buy them (except DF), how are they still in business? I think they are a good brand and would consider them, Paul Harvey use to advertise them and he made them sound so good it made me want to go out and eat one.

[deacon523]

Well, I've had the 300c for a little over a month now and I love it. I finally got the chance to drive in some serious weather, so here are my impressions of the Cooper Lifeliners Touring SLE tires.

This past weekend we drove down to Williamsburg, VA - on Saturday, the entire region experienced some very heavy rainfall - enough so that Colonial Parkway between Yorktown and Williamsburg had much standing water, and was completely flooded out in parts.

The Cooper Lifeliners Touring SLE handled very well in those conditions - the car was very responsive, and never even hinted at hydroplaning, even when hitting large puddles at reasonable speeds (like 35 mph, some of those spots came up too quick to slow down significanty). Breaking also was never an issue (although at no point did I have to panic stop, thankfully, and didn't want to risk it for science with a baby in the back seat). Some of the cars stability in these otherwise hazardess conditions may be attributed to the ESP, but I swear I never even saw the ESP light come on, nor felt the ABS kick in - I have to attribute that to the quality of the rubber. Overall, the experience was confidence building with regards to the 300c's abilities in wet weather - much better than my old mustang GT or Jeep Rubicon (which prefered to float on big puddles - those big Goodyear MTR tires were great for crawling rocks at slow speeds but turned into pontoons in wet highway conditions).

As I may have mentioned before, the Cooper Lifeliners Touring SLE are all season radials, and not performance tires - their dry pavement performance can't match the Z or W-rated radials I used to run on the mustang (Goodyear Eagle F1s and Michelin Pilot Sport AWS respectively). I would not recommend the Cooper Lifeliners Touring SLE for drag racing - but for everyday driving on rainy highways, I would say the Coopers outperformed either one of those tires. I should note that I am running with the stock 18" wheels for the time being, with the recommended stock tire size. If I ever switch to 20 or 22 inch rims, I'll likely go with a performance Z rated tire to match, but for now I'm happy to say I've had no problems with the Coopers.

The next big test will be how well the Cooper Lifeliners Touring SLE tires perform in the snow and ice. I'll post back later this winter if we get any serious snowfall in the DC area (usually once or twice a season).

Deacon
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2006 Cool Vanilla 300C