Here at SimpleTire, our team has gone through the catalog and put together some of the best tire choices for your Fiat 124 Spider, including all-season, ultra-high-performance (UHP), and winter tires, then ranked them in best/great/good order. We used our SimpleScore system to assign a numerical score to each one in the categories of traction, handling, and longevity. Ready? Let’s get started:
1. Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus: Best UHP All-Season tire
First on our lineup is a tire that excels in the UHP performance game along with the year-round traction that you depend on – the Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 PLUS. The ExtremeContact DWS06 PLUS gives you the ease and versatility of an all-season tire with surefooted, confident traction in wet, dry, or light wintry weather. That is, of course, with the kind of road manners, cornering, braking, steering response, and overall handling that you’d expect with a UHP tire. That’s a real plus when you bear in mind that UHP tires have to be dismounted and exchanged for all-season tires in colder weather as the softer tread compound hardens in the cold and loses traction. The ExtremeContact DWS06 PLUS builds on the proven success of the popular ExtremeContact DWS06 in just about every category, with cornering ability, braking, and steering response that all get a boost from the tire’s reinforced 2-ply sidewalls and macroblocks in the tread. After reviewing and taking all the data points into account, the ExtremeContact DWS06 PLUS gets a very solid SimpleScore of 9.9 for handling. Long life and great wet-weather traction are also real strengths for the ExtremeContact DWS06 PLUS, thanks to its silica-infused rubber compound, sweeping lateral grooves, circumferential grooves, and X-sipes for rainy roads or light wintry conditions for a traction score of 9.8. With a 9.2 SimpleScore, longevity is first-rate, and the Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus is covered by a 60,000 mile warranty.
2. Bridgestone Turanza EL400-02: Best All-Season tire
Next up is our pick for the best all-season tire for the Fiat 124 Spider is the Turanza EL400-02 from Bridgestone. This is a tire that checks all the desired boxes for long wear, a quiet, forgiving ride, year-round traction, and precise handling. The Turanza EL400-02 is constructed with Bridgestone’s UNI-T (Ultimate Network of Intelligent Tire Technology) design package, which includes features like the Turanza EL400-02’s O-Bead, a rounder bead structure with a reduced number of overlapping joints for improved ride and stability, and Long Link Carbon rubber compound for enhanced traction and wear properties. That’s enough for a SimpleScore of 7.9 for longevity. Where the rubber meets the road, the Bridgestone Turanza EL400-02 merits a SimpleScore of 9.4 for traction. That’s all thanks to its symmetric all-season tread pattern with deep circumferential grooves to resist hydroplaning, angled grooves, and a network of sipes. The Turanza EL400-02’s tread features, rubber compound, and internal design are all part of its great cornering and steering response, for a SimpleScore of 9.6 for handling.
3. Firestone Winterforce 2: Best Winter tire
Next up is our pick for the best winter tire for the Fiat 124 Spider – the Firestone Winterforce 2, which is the kind of tire that you can rely on for the kind of weather where there’s a good chance no other tire can safely get you from point A to point B and back. The Winterforce 2’s winter tread pattern is designed with sweeping directional grooves, wide circumferential grooves, and a dense sipe pattern to clear away water and chew through ice, snow, and slush. The Firestone Winterforce 2 is also compatible with studs and is pre-drilled for easy installation, warranting a SimpleScore of 8.3 for traction, and the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake rating. The Winterforce 2 isn’t balky or sluggish at all; its semi-solid center rib and wide shoulder blocks boost confidence with precise cornering, steering response, and braking, for a SimpleScore of 8.1 for handling. The longevity score is 8.3, but it’s important to be mindful that winter tires are designed specifically for cold weather only. Tire manufacturers advise against using them if temperatures are above 45 degrees F, as the softer, more pliable tread compound will wear prematurely in warmer weather.
While these are the best Fiat 124 Spider tires on the road today, there are plenty of other options out there. Check out these tires if you’re looking for a more affordable set of tires for your Fiat 124 Spider:
4. Yokohama Avid Ascend GT: Great All-Season tire
If you’re looking for great handling properties, a refined ride, and year-round grip, the Yokohama Avid Ascend GT is another great choice. Yokohama’s Tri-Blend Compound Technology is designed around a low-tG polymer and high silica content for excellent wear characteristics and wet-weather traction. With its 65,000 mile tread life warranty, we decided on a SimpleScore of 8.5 for longevity. The Yokohama Avid Ascend GT gets a SimpleScore of 8.6 for traction, with an asymmetric tread pattern with notched tread blocks, 3D sipes, and a stable contact patch. Steering response, road manners, and cornering are all immediate and precise, with a stiff shoulder and tread area that resists deformation and tread squirm, for a SimpleScore of 8.7 for handling. The Avid Ascend GT also is part of Yokohama’s BluEarth family of tires, which means the tire is designed around environmentally sustainable principles and processes.
5. Westlake RP18: Good All-Season tire
We’re going to wrap up this roundup with the Westlake RP18, a great value in an all-season tire that punches far above its weight class in performance and overall bang for the buck. Westlake backs the RP18 with a 45,000 mile manufacturer’s treadwear warranty, meaning wear properties are excellent and we give this tire a SimpleScore of 8.2 for longevity. We’re also impressed with the dependable year-round traction of the RP18, thanks to its all-season tread pattern of circumferential grooves, angled/lateral grooves, and a dense network of sipes. With that all in mind, we give the RP18 a SimpleScore of 8.1 for traction. Steering response, cornering, braking, and road manners are all composed and predictable thanks to that tread design, along with a notched shoulder and a contact patch that’s optimized to keep the most rubber in contact with the road at all times, allowing us to award the tire a handling score of 8.3.
Order Fiat 124 Spider Tires Online
Buying tires online can be a stressful process, but it really doesn't need to be. SimpleTire offers a simple approach to finding the tires that are best for you and your Fiat 124 Spider. Select your Fiat 124 Spider below, then tell us a few more things such as year and trim level to determine your tire size. From there, we'll show you tires that fit your vehicle and are the best match based on performance characteristics, but you can also look for the best value tires, tires that are on sale or part of a promo, have the longest tread life, and much more