Nissan Altima is everything a family sedan should be. Its superb fuel economy ensures you aren’t punished at the pump. A roomy cabin has ample space for the entire family. And its plush ride quality will help the kids fall asleep quickly, letting you enjoy long drives in silence.
Having said that, there are a few areas where the Altima struggles. Its CVT transmission makes the engine drone and won’t help you win any races. Aside from that, the SR model suffers from ride quality issues, especially if you choose to drive with its plus-sized 19-inch wheels.
Luckily for you, the best tires for Nissan Altima can take care of all these problems. That’s because none of these issues are related to the Altima’s build. Instead, all of them are ride-related. So, with a set of premium tires, you can help this sedan perform at its best.
In this article, we’ll review and rate 11 such premium tires. If the word ‘premium’ has you thinking that these tires might blow your budget, you aren’t entirely wrong. Some of the below-mentioned tires are indeed pricey. But the others are available at competitive prices.
#1. Bridgestone Turanza QuietTrack – Best Overall
The Bridgestone Turanza QuietTrack is our top pick for Nissan Altima. Mainly because this tire reinforces the strong points that distinguish this sedan from its rivals. But also because the Turanza QuietTrack addresses all the issues that plague this car’s performance.
This tire offers 20% higher traction on wet roads and snow than the Turanza Serenity Plus, its predecessor and competitor. These numbers cannot be played down as the Serenity Plus is an absolute beast on the highway, capable of giving any all-season tire a run for its money.
Four circumferential and multiple lateral grooves help with water evacuation. The result is reduced risk of hydroplaning in wet conditions. Aside from that, Bridgestone’s Comfort Control Technology will further reinforce your Altima’s already admirable ride quality.
The QuietTrack Technology does what its name implies, keeping road noise at a minimum even when you have the windows rolled all the way down. The partnership of the Comfort Control and Quiet Track technologies is the major reason why this tire is super-comfortable.
An 80,000-mile treadlife warranty further distinguishes this tire from its rivals. Plus, it’s available in multiple sizes, ranging from 15 inches to 20 inches. Such a wide size range means that this tire will be compatible with most trims of Nissan Altima.
Pros
- 80,000-mile treadlife warranty
- Excellent dry and wet performance
- Exceptional ride quality and minimal road noise
Cons
- Might blow your budget
#2. Michelin Premier A/S – Best All-Season
Anyone who knows anything about tires must have heard of the Michelin brand. The French tire manufacturer is associated with models featuring the latest technologies. Its tires are incredibly durable and have excellent road manners. Michelin Premier A/S is no exception.
A sunflower oil and silica tread compound helps this model offer year-round performance. Sunflower oil gives the tread the rigidity needed to thrive in the summer. Silica, meanwhile, ensures that the tread compound remains flexible to withstand punishing winter conditions.
Michelin’s EverGrip Technology helps enhance the tire’s wet traction. This technology sees to it that the tire’s rain groove start expanding as soon as the rubber comes into contact with water. Underneath the rain grooves, the hidden circumferential grooves evacuate water.
The credit for this tire’s hushed highway ride goes to Comfort Control Technology which relies on the computer optimized tread design to deflect road noise. It is due to this technology that most drivers are satisfied with this tire’s smoothness during high-speed driving.
Yet, like all Michelin tires, the only downside of this model is its not-so-pocket friendly price tag. It is only this tire’s exorbitant price that might make you think twice before going for it. Also, this model’s warranty is 20,000-miles lower than our top tire pick for Altima.
Pros
- Comfortable and quiet ride
- Excellent traction on wet surfaces
- Has all the traits to outlast its treadlife warranty
Cons
- Relatively small treadwear warranty (60,000 miles)
#3. Continental TrueContact Tour – Best All-Weather
Excellent fuel economy, plush ride quality and affordable price tag – these are some of the features the TrueContact Tour and 2022 Nissan Altima have in common. So, if you want a tire that complements this sedan’s plus points, look no further.
Start with the fuel economy. Continental’s EcoPlus Technology lowers this tire’s gas consumption by reducing its rolling resistance. This gives an extra benefit to Altima owners – for lower rolling resistance means less pressure on this sedan’s already overburdened engine.
This will ensure that the Altima’s already lackluster acceleration gets a little less lackluster. So that this sedan can at least compete if not beat its rivals on the highway.
An all-season tread compound has been molded into an asymmetric tread design. The result? Consistent road contact regardless of speed or road conditions. This means improved wet traction and an improvement in the Altima’s notoriously high steering response time.
Continental conducted a few tests to estimate this tire’s treadlife. The results showed that the TrueContact Tour has a 27% longer treadlife than its predecessor. Throw into the mix this tire’s low price tag, and it means you’ll save money in the short- and long-term.
Pros
- 80,000-mile treadwear warranty on some models
- 27% longer treadlife than its predecessor
- Enhanced steering response and handling
Cons
- Braking distances aren’t short on icy roads
#4.Cooper CS5 Ultra Touring – Best All-Weather
Just as the Nissan Altima isn’t your average sedan, the CS5 Ultra Touring isn’t your average touring tire. The coming together of latest tire technologies, quality construction materials and excellent treadwear warranties helps this tire rank near the top of any list of premium touring tires.
Cooper’s exclusive StabiliEdge Performance Technology enhances the tire’s responsiveness by interlocking tread elements. This technology is also to credit for the CS5 Ultra Touring’s superb high-speed stability. Plus, it has also enhanced this model’s cornering performance.
An M+S rating shows that this tire will keep you safe in snow and mud. Wet performance isn’t bad either. A combination of inboard shoulders and outboard shoulder blocks has blessed this model with some of the shortest braking distances you’ll get on any touring tire.
Furthermore, with the CS5 Ultra Touring, you won’t have to guess how much treadlife is remaining. A mere glance at wear square indicators – narrow rubber bars that only become visible once the tread depth hits dangerous levels – will be enough.
Having said that, it would take a few years for the wear square indicators to come to sight. Why? Some sizes of this tire come with an extensive 70,000-mile treadwear warranty. This number would have been much lower if this model’s treadlife was on the shorter side.
Pros
- Affordably priced
- Extremely quiet and comfortable
- Above-average dry and wet handling
Cons
- Small treadwear warranty (50,000 miles) for V- and H-rated tires
#5. Bridgestone Potenza RE980 AS – Best Wet Performance
The Bridgestone Potenza RE980 AS isn’t the most affordable tire on the market. Neither is it the most long-lasting. Provided you don’t let these two flaws convince you from opting against this all-season tire, you won’t have any complaints about this model’s performance.
Unlike the majority of all-season tires, this model’s high-speed stability is exquisite, almost as if you are driving a high-performance tire. Similar is the case with its steering responsiveness. There are drivers who say that this model can compete with summer performance tires.
The pair of circumferential and lateral grooves keeps hydroplaning at bay. It also keeps the contact patch dry, resulting in excellent wet weather traction. That is precisely the reason why the Potenza is one of the best tires for wet and slippery roads.
Braking performance is another area where this tire shines. The interlocking 3D deep suction slots and chamfered openings help this tire come to a halt in milli-seconds.
Yet this tire has its fair share of flaws. Don’t expect the Potenza RE 980AS to wear evenly if you’re found of aggressive cornering and hard braking. This flaw might not be so big a deal if this tire’s asking price wasn’t as eye-watering as it actually is.
Pros
- Extremely short braking distances
- Has top-notch responsiveness and dry handling
- Less noisy than high-performance tires
Cons
- Wears quickly
#6. Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady – Best Wet Performance
Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise – the Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady is one of the best mid-priced tires for Nissan Altima. It’s true that this tire’s price is higher than your average mid-range tire. But it’s still someway short of that of premium tires we saw above.
Goodyear’s Evolving Traction grooves help this tire wear evenly. How? These grooves start to widen, or some would say evolve, as the tire begins to wear. This allows them to replace this model’s built-in grooves once the latter are past their expiry date.
Weather Reactive and 3D TredLock technologies help this tire offer long-lasting dry and wet traction. The Three Peak Snowflake Mountain (3PMSF) emblem does the same for snow performance. You could thus expect this tire to perform adequately in most weather conditions.
Unfortunately, while this tire has something good (3PMSF emblem) most touring tires don’t, it also suffers from a flaw (noise) most touring tires don’t require you to deal with. However, as it turns out, the noise isn’t that loud. You can easily block it by rolling up the windows.
Lastly, now that you have seen tires coming with bigger warranties, this model’s 60,000 miles/6 years might seem a bit underwhelming. It shouldn’t. The figure is more than respectable for a tire that can handle as many weather patterns as the Assurance WeatherReady.
Pros
- Excellent treadwear warranty for an all-weather tire
- Great winter traction
- Supreme wet performance
Cons
- Makes a fair bit of noise
#7. General Altimax RT43 – Best Pocket-Friendly
Most of the tires you saw above will cost any middle-class person their few-days salary. The General Altimax RT43 is different. This tire weighs light on the pocket. At the same time, it hasn’t cut any corners to keep the price tag low. Here’s why we’re so sure.
A double-layer tread compound isn’t something you regularly see in affordable tires. The compound’s lower layer is soft to soak vibrations and keep the ride comfortable. Its upper layer is firm to help with steering response and save the tire from premature deformation.
Sound Wave Suppression technology also belies this model’s meager price tag. This technology’s intentions – reducing road noise – are clear by its name.
Multiple maintenance indicators are also on offer. The first, Visual Alignment Indicators or VAIs for short, let you check if your wheels are aligned without visiting a tire shop. The second, Replacement Tire Monitor, enables you to inspect the remaining tread depth.
A 75,000-mile treadwear warranty serves as an icing on the cake. The warranty is same for all the different speed ratings this tire is available in. Which is a huge plus point once you consider that the Altimax RT43 comes in 79 sizes from the 13-inch to 20-inch range.
Pros
- Comes with two highly useful tire indicators
- Has Sound Wave Suppression technology
- Twin cushion silica tread compound absorbs road vibrations
Cons
- Lackluster performance on snow and ice
#8. Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus – Best Wet Performance
What is the ceiling for all-season touring tires? If you have ever asked this question, the Cinturato P7 All Season Plus has the answer. This tire’s ride comfort, fuel savings and wet performance highlights the ceiling for all-season touring tires.
While announcing its release, Pirelli announced that this tire has 20% less rolling resistance that your standard touring tire. This is great news, given that rolling resistance impacts a tire’s fuel consumption as well as how much pressure it would put on the car’s engine.
If every other thing is kept constant, a 20% less rolling resistance means the Cinturato P7 will need your Altima’s engine to expend 20% less power to keep it rolling. We could therefore visualize this tire solving the Altima’s pesky acceleration problem.
A computer-optimized tread pattern works together with pitch sequencing to minimize road noise. Wide shoulder blocks improve the tire’s cornering grip and traction, with four wide circumferential grooves minimizing the risk of aquaplaning.
As expected, there are areas where this tire could have done better. Like the Potenza RE980 AS we saw above, this model too wears quickly, especially if you have a habit of attacking corners. This means that it won’t wear as quickly if only used for everyday driving.
Pros
- Available in a budget price point
- Backed with an excellent 70,000-mile treadlife warranty
- Offers excellent fuel economy
Cons
- Wears pretty quickly
#9. Goodyear Eagle Sport – Best High-Performance
The Goodyear Eagle Sport isn’t the most famous member of the Eagle family. Other tires like the Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6, Eagle LS-2 and Eagle F1 SuperCar 3 are much more popular. Yet, as any veteran driver can tell you, lack of fame doesn’t always means lack of performance.
The fact that this high-performance tire comes with an all-season tread compound might seem an anomaly. But there’s a method to this madness. For, were it not for the A/S compound, this model might not have performed as superbly as it now does in wet and snowy conditions.
A 50,000-mile treadwear warranty is also the blessing of the A/S tread compound. There’s an excellent chance that if this model has gone for the same route as other HP tires – opting for an HP tread compound – its treadwear warranty column would have been blank.
That isn’t to say that it compromises on high-speed performance. The trio of asymmetric tread pattern, outboard shoulder blocks and notched center ribs sees to it that this model can compete, nay, beat, most performance tires you see on the market.
Still, there are a few areas where this model bares its high-performance colors. Its winter traction is poor for a tire coming with an A/S tread compound. And the high road noise should remove any doubts you may have in mind about this model’s HP credentials.
Pros
- Excellent (50,000-mile) treadwear warranty for a high-performance tire
- Comes with industry-standard treadwear indicators
- Offers excellent steering responsiveness and high-speed handling
Cons
- High road noise
#10. Yokohama Avid Ascend GT
Why is Yokohama one of the largest tire manufacturers in the world? Tires like the Avid Ascend GT gives plenty of reasons why. This model offers decent dry and wet performance and resists hydroplaning with a vengeance. Yet it is available in the under $100 price tag.
An asymmetric tread pattern does what it is supposed to do – increase this tire’s traction in dry and wet conditions. It is supported in this by this model’s grooves, which keep aquaplaning at bay and the contact patch dry for surefooted driving in demanding weather.
Yokohama’s TriBlend Technology helps this model tick all the right boxes. Featuring a mixture of low-Tg polymer and high-grade silica, the technology helps this tire offer unrivaled grip on dry and wet roads. Having said that, we won’t count on it for snow driving.
Next comes the BluEarth Technology. This technology has managed to strike the perfect balance between increased wet traction and reduced emissions. At the same time, it doesn’t let this tire’s fuel consumption is low, preventing the Ascent GT from punishing you at the pump.
A treadwear warranty of 65,000 miles indicates that this tire would remain useful for quite some time. While the warranty is nowhere near the longest, it is decent when juxtaposed with this model’s incredibly affordable price point.
Pros
- Much cheaper than its premium counterparts
- Reduced emissions and fuel consumption
- Comes with treadwear indicator bars
- Surprisingly comfortable for a budget tire
Cons
- Not the most responsive grand touring tire
#11. Bridgestone Blizzak WS90 – Best Winter Tire
The Bridgestone Blizzak WS90 is our top pick winter for various sedans.
Primarily because this tire isn’t studdable yet delivers the same reliable performance in harsh wintry conditions. A flexible tread compound gives you all the assurance you need to count on this tire to safely carry you from point A to point B on snow and ice.
MultiCell Technology is another reason why this tire performs so well on snow. This technology tinkers this model’s design to help it retain snow while expel water. The snow between the tread area comes into contact with the snow on the road to improve traction.
The EdgePerformance Technology Package further enhances this model’s snow performance. Featuring an asymmetric tread pattern, this package widens the WS90’s contact patch. This gives the tire all the surface area it needs for reliably gripping the road.
If you still have any doubts about this tire’s winter performance, the presence of the A 3-Peak Mountain Snowflake (3PMS) emblem on its tread area should erase them. Only those tires come with this logo which meet the rater’s strict criteria for adequate snow performance.
Pros
- 3-Peak Mountain Snowflake rating
- Offer excellent traction on snow and ice
- Comes with tread wear indicators and winter wear bars
Cons
- Doesn’t come with a treadwear warranty
Best Tires for Nissan Altima
Touring and Grand Touring
Touring and grand touring tires offer various benefits to Altima drivers. These tires keep a lid on fuel consumption, while enhancing ride quality and comfort. Aside from that, they are backed with generous treadwear warranties. Check out our top tire picks for proof.
Furthermore, unless your touring tires belong to the Big Three – Michelin, Bridgestone, Continental – chances are their price tag won’t break the bank. But even if it does, and you have to pay over the odds, rest assured that you’ll get good returns on your investment.
And what about performance? Well, as long as you aren’t an enthusiast driver, touring tires will be good enough for you. Plus, it’s not for high-speed driving that most drivers prefer touring tires. It is these tires reliability and safety regardless of conditions that have made them popular.
High-Performance
If you want enhanced high-speed stability or you have a habit of attacking corners with a vengeance, don’t waste your money on ‘normal’ touring tires. Anyone with a similar driving style might want to check high-performance tires, provided they can afford paying these tires high asking prices.
A softer tread compound and stiff sidewall helps these tires give extreme performance. It also makes them incredibly responsive and takes your driving experience to the next level. Plus, these tires have some of the shortest braking distances of any tire on the market.
Bear in mind, though, that HP tires want you to make a few compromises. These tires last less than half than touring tires and are therefore backed with shorter treadwear warranties. This is a major shortcoming because these tires are more expensive to purchase in the first place.
Winter Tires
Unless you live in an area with harsh winters, an all-season tire would suit you just fine. A/S tires’ tread compounds are flexible enough to handle mild wintry conditions. It is therefore recommended not to splurge on a dedicated winter tire if your area doesn’t receive snow.
However, if shoveling snow from car is the first thing you do in the mornings of winter months, then you might want to consider dedicated winter tires. These tires come with a flexible tread compound and lot of siping to plough through scattered snow and ice.
Check out our comprehensive guide on best tires for snow plowing if you need more options than what we have presented in this article.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best tires for Nissan Altima?
Bridgestone Turanza QuietTrack, Michelin Premier A/S and Continental TrueContact Tour are three of the best tires for Nissan Altima on the market. All three come with long treadwear warranties, have excellent road manners and keep fuel consumption to a minimum.
What tires does Nissan Altima Use?
The Nissan Altima uses three different tire sizes. These include P215/60HR16, P215/55VR17, and P235/40VR19. Check out your Altima’s owner manual to see which tires come standard on your trim.
Can I put bigger tires on my Nissan Altima?
Putting bigger tires on your Nissan Altima will lead to higher fuel consumption, lackluster acceleration, and better road grip. Wider tires also put more burden on the engine, making it work harder to keep the tires rolling.
How long do Nissan Altima tires last?
Touring and grand-touring tires should last 50,000 to 60,000 miles on Nissan Altima. This translates to approximately 3 to 5 years of usage.
Conclusion
Now that you know everything about the best tires for Nissan Altima, the onus is on you to define your requirements and pick tires that meet them. Make sure to keep the weather conditions in your area in mind while picking tires for this sedan.
