Best Tires for the Nissan Altima

No matter how gently you drive your trusted Nissan Altima, sooner or later you’re going to need a new set of tires. Your tires are the one connection between your car and the road, and all of your car’s road-holding abilities are down to the palm-sized patch of contact between the rubber and the road surface. We’ve focused on recommending tires for the latest model of Altima, which includes versions with all-wheel drive. Here is a summary of Car Talk's recommendations.

Have an older Nissan Altima? See tire sizes for previous years.

Best 16-inch Tires for the Nissan Altima (S)

• Yokohama Avid Ascend GT - Best budget tire
• Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady - Best mid-priced tire
• Michelin CrossClimate2 - Best superior tire

Best 17-inch Tires for the Nissan Altima (SV, SL)

• Cooper CS5 Ultra Touring - Best budget tire
• Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady - Best mid-priced tire
• Michelin CrossClimate2 - Best superior tire

Best 19-inch Tires for the Nissan Altima (SR, VC Turbo)

• Cooper CS5 Ultra Touring - Best budget tire
• Goodyear Eagle Touring - Best mid-priced tire
• Dunlop SP Sport Maxx 050 - Best superior tire

What Tires Are on My Altima?

The 2020 Altima comes in seven different trims: S, SR, SV, SR VC Turbo, SL, Platinum, and Platinum VC Turbo. Depending on the trim, your Altima could have one of three different wheel and tire sizes:

• The Altima S comes with 16-inch wheels and either Continental ProContact TX or Hankook Kinergy GT 215/60R16 all-season tires
• The Altima SR and Platinum come with 19-inch wheels and Hankook Kinergy GT 235/40R19 all-season tires
• The Altima SV and SL come with Continental ProContact TX 17-inch wheels and 215/55 R17 all-season tires

Top Tire Replacement Brands for Your Nissan Altima

You probably weren’t thinking of tires when you picked out your shiny new Nissan Altima, but after a few years of ownership, the time has come for some new rubber on your car.

For each stock wheel size, we’ll provide a recommendation for a Budget, a Moderately-Priced and a Cost-No-Object replacement tire. Whether you're on the “penny-pinching cheapskate” end of the spectrum or you were voted “Most Likely to Get a Golden Parachute,” we think you’ll find something that works for you on this list.

Nissan Altima S (16-inch tires)

The Altima S has a relatively small 16-inch wheel, and there are several tire choices available in that range.

• Budget: Yokohama Avid Ascend GT - The Avid Ascend GTs are highly rated tires, with an excellent reputation for durability, and come in at around the same price as the original equipment tires.
• Moderately Priced: Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady - The Assurance WeatherReady tires are recognized for their wet performance, and should provide you year-round service as long as you’re not plowing through deep snow regularly.
• Cost-No-Object: Michelin CrossClimate2 - Though they land near the top of the price heap at around $190, the Michelin CrossClimate2 tire offers a superior wear and load rating with great all-weather traction. Bonus points to this tire for earning a severe snow duty stamp.

Nissan Altima SV and SL (17-inch tires)

As the middle children of Altimas, the SV and SL trims have 17-inch wheels, with a large selection of tire types and tread patterns.

• Budget: Cooper CS5 Ultra Touring - Like the SR, the SV and SL can benefit from an ultra touring tire like the Cooper CS5. They hold the road well and should provide better tread life than stock.
• Moderately Priced: Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady - These have a near-perfect rating from buyers, a good tread life rating, and confident all-weather traction, along with a decent price.
• Cost-No-Object: Michelin CrossClimate2 - Same recommendation from the base model S, but in a 17-inch size. These tires aren’t cheap, but they’re an excellent choice, providing better traction, tread life and road-holding performance than stock.

Nissan Altima SR and VC Turbo (19-inch tires)

• Budget: Cooper CS5 Ultra Touring - The Cooper CS5 is a long-wearing, well-regarded touring tire that provides great traction in the wet. Consumers have praised it for how quiet and comfortable the ride is.
• Moderately Priced: Goodyear Eagle Touring - Right in the middle of the price range, the Goodyear Eagle Touring all-season tire is a solid choice that brings good wet and cold weather traction with a long treadwear rating and decent price.
• Cost-No-Object: Michelin CrossClimate2 - Same recommendation from the base model S, but in a 17-inch size. These tires aren’t cheap, but they’re an excellent choice, providing better traction, treadlife and road-holding performance than stock.

When Should You Replace the Tires on Your Nissan Altima?

Two major factors should be a consideration when deciding to replace tires on any vehicle, not just the Altima., time and mileage.

If you’re like most drivers, you travel somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 miles per year, so your tires are much more likely to pass their useful life in mileage before any time-based expiration date rolls around. The life of your tire can be somewhat predicted by its UTQG (Uniform Tire Quality Grade) rating. Tire manufacturers apply their own grades to tires for treadwear, traction, and temperature. When you’re researching tires online, a UTQG will come up next to the tire name in three digits and a number (ex. 500 A A).

You can glean a bit of info from the tires by reading this rating:

• 500 - The durability rating of a tire, compared to a control tire with a tread life of 100. To obtain a grade, tires run on a 640-kilometer course for 11,520 km. Every 1,280 km, the tread depth is measured, to provide a projected tread life. The higher the number, the longer the predicted tread life.
• A - This is the Traction rating of a tire, which indicates how well a tire stops in wet conditions. The highest letter grade is AA, followed by A, B, and C.
• A - The second letter in the UTQG is the Temperature rating, which indicates how well a tire holds up to extreme heat. A is the highest, followed by B and C.

The other consideration is time. Each tire has a raised date code on the sidewall. The number begins with the letters “DOT” followed by 12 digits in three four-digit groups. The date code is the third group of four digits. To decipher the date of your tires, the first two digits represent the WEEK the tire was produced, and the second two digits represent the YEAR.

For example, if your tire’s date code is 3217, that indicates the tire was manufactured in the 37th week of 2017, or sometime between September 11 and 17th that year.

Once tires go beyond five years old, it’s time to replace them. Tires are made up not just of rubber and steel or kevlar belts, but chemicals that help the tires resist UV rays, temperature changes and a lot of other environmental hazards. Those chemicals start to break down after five years or so, and the tires aren’t doing the job that they need to do.

Why Not Replace with Original Nissan Equipment Tires?

There’s no harm in replacing your tires with the shoes it came with from the factory. However, depending on what kind of driver you are, there are significant reasons to purchase something different.

You only need to purchase ONE set of tires for your car every four years or so, depending on how much you drive. When an auto manufacturer purchases tires, they buy them by the hundreds of thousands. For the manufacturer, the decision to choose a supplier one brand or another comes down to a price point.

For you, your consideration may be completely different. If you could get a tire that stopped 20 feet shorter for an additional $50 per tire over the original equipment, you’d probably do it. (If you don’t have the extra $200 for the upgrade, call your mom. She loves you and wants to hear from you. Plus, she’d probably be willing to invest a few bucks in keeping you safe.) Similarly, if there was a tire that provided less road noise or longer tread life for a minimal investment overstock, chances are, you’d probably decide on the slightly more expensive tire.

Changing Nissan Altima Tire Sizes

It’s easy to move up or down in wheel size, but the overall diameter of when and tire together should stay the same. This means that moving up from a 16-inch wheel to a 17-inch wheel is fine, but the tire sidewall size has to decrease to compensate. The same is true in reverse. Whatever you pick, we do not recommend changing wheel shape. Wheels have to be round, otherwise they don’t work (trust us we're professionals).Downsizing wheels has its advantages. Benefits include:

• Better ride quality – A fatter sidewall means more cushion for poor road conditions.
• Cost reduction – Large wheel sizes mean that tires are more expensive, so moving to a smaller wheel size will mean less costly tire purchases.
• Seasonal changes – Winter and snow tires are available for a larger selection of smaller wheel sizes, and the narrower footprint will provide better traction.
• Off-road – Many people choose to downsize wheels for off-road use to increase the vehicle’s shock absorption capabilities and bump traction on loose surfaces.

On the other side of the coin, going up in wheel size has its benefits:

• Better handling – Slimmer profile tires make for less rubber to move around.
• Better looks – This one’s subjective, but many people feel that larger wheels look better than smaller wheels with more rubber.
• Better braking – Larger, wider wheels provide a bigger patch of rubber on the ground to slow the vehicle, reducing braking distance.

How to Read Tire Sizes

When reading tire sizes, it’s important to understand what the numbers mean. The Nissan Altima SV’s 17-inch wheels come with 215/55 R17 all-season tires:

• 215 - indicates the width of the tire from one sidewall to the other in millimeters. This tire is 215 millimeters wide.
• 55 - indicates the aspect ratio, or sidewall height, as a percentage of the tire’s width. In this case, it’s 55 percent or 118.25 millimeters tall.
• R - means radial tires. Radials are the most common type of automotive tire and have fabric woven in at various angles with a tread that is strengthened with additional layers of rubber.
• 17 - indicates the wheel diameter.

Now that you know what comes on the new Altima and how to read the size numbers, let’s look at the different types of tires available to you. Depending on the type of driving you’re doing, where you live, and the weather, you have a variety of choices for tire types:

• Touring and All-season - tires provide a smooth ride, good wet and dry traction, decent winter traction, and longer tread life. These tires are acceptable for winter use but can’t be expected to provide the traction and stopping power that a dedicated winter tire can.
• Performance tires - are focused on providing confident handling, better wet and dry traction, and a sporty feel. Their higher grip and speed ratings come with a tradeoff of shortened tread life and reduced ride quality.
• All-terrain tires - are built to maximize off-road traction and provide good durability overall. Their construction means more noise and less comfort on the road, but winter traction and tread wear are acceptable.
• Winter and snow tires - are made with special rubber compounds that maintain grip and pliability when temperatures drop. They are also built with special tread patterns to maximize the vehicle’s ability to start and stop on very slippery roads.

Tire Sizes By Year

Read more on the Best Tire Deals available here

See our overall recommendations for Best Tires

See our recommendations for the 10 Best Tire Brands for 2024