Best tires for the Scion tC
Top picks across four categories for the Scion tC, anchored to the current-generation OEM size 225/45R18. Every recommendation is selected from our 22,000-tire catalog by ranking on UTQG treadwear, mileage warranty, cabin-noise rating, and season class; no commission-weighted reordering.
Daily driver
Best all-season touring
Long warranty, low noise, balanced ride. The one-tire compromise that works for 80% of owners.
Bridgestone
Turanza QuietTrack
UTQG 800 with a 80,000-mile warranty; long-wear all-season compound built for the daily-driver mileage profile typical for Scion tC owners.
Goodyear
Assurance MaxLife
UTQG 820 with a 85,000-mile warranty; long-wear all-season compound built for the daily-driver mileage profile typical for Scion tC owners.
Michelin
CrossClimate 2
UTQG 640 with a 60,000-mile warranty; long-wear all-season compound built for the daily-driver mileage profile typical for Scion tC owners.
Cooper
CS5 ultra touring
UTQG 800 with a 80,000-mile warranty; long-wear all-season compound built for the daily-driver mileage profile typical for Scion tC owners.
Lowest cost per mile
Best budget
Best price-per-warranty-mile in this size. Trade-off is shorter warranty vs premium options, not safety.
Goodyear
Assurance MaxLife
820 UTQG with a 85,000-mile warranty works out to roughly 0.00¢ per 100 miles before install. Best price-per-mile in this size; no premium-brand markup.
Bridgestone
Turanza QuietTrack
800 UTQG with a 80,000-mile warranty works out to roughly 0.00¢ per 100 miles before install. Best price-per-mile in this size; no premium-brand markup.
Cooper
CS5 ultra touring
800 UTQG with a 80,000-mile warranty works out to roughly 0.00¢ per 100 miles before install. Best price-per-mile in this size; no premium-brand markup.
Hankook
Kinergy PT
800 UTQG with a 90,000-mile warranty works out to roughly 0.00¢ per 100 miles before install. Best price-per-mile in this size; no premium-brand markup.
Lowest cabin noise
Best quiet
Tread patterns engineered to break up the harmonic peaks that cause highway droning. Pick this if you commute long highway distances daily.
Bridgestone
Turanza QuietTrack
68 dB cabin-noise rating per the EU tire label; library-quiet. Tread pattern engineered to break up the harmonic peaks that cause highway droning.
Goodyear
Assurance MaxLife
70 dB cabin-noise rating per the EU tire label; library-quiet. Tread pattern engineered to break up the harmonic peaks that cause highway droning.
Cooper
CS5 ultra touring
70 dB cabin-noise rating per the EU tire label; library-quiet. Tread pattern engineered to break up the harmonic peaks that cause highway droning.
Hankook
Kinergy PT
70 dB cabin-noise rating per the EU tire label; library-quiet. Tread pattern engineered to break up the harmonic peaks that cause highway droning.
Cold-weather grip
Best winter
Dedicated winter or all-weather compounds that stay pliable below 7 °C. Necessary for >5 snow days a year.
Bridgestone
Blizzak WS90
Dedicated winter tire compound; stays pliable below 7 °C where summer/all-season rubber hardens. Recommended for Scion tC drivers in cold or snowy regions.
Michelin
X-Ice snow
Dedicated winter tire compound; stays pliable below 7 °C where summer/all-season rubber hardens. Recommended for Scion tC drivers in cold or snowy regions.
Side-by-side
Pick the trade-off that matches your driving
| All-season Bridgestone Turanza QuietTrack | Best budget Goodyear Assurance MaxLife | Best winter Bridgestone Blizzak WS90 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| UTQG treadwear | 800 | 820 | - |
| Mileage warranty | 80,000 mi | 85,000 mi | - |
| Cabin noise | 68 dB | 70 dB | 71 dB |
| Season class | all-season | all-season | winter |
| Type | touring | touring | passenger |
OEM tire sizes by year
What size does the scion tC use?
Recommendations on this page are anchored to the latest model-year's OEM size. Confirm yours against the driver-door placard before purchase.
| Year | OEM size | |
|---|---|---|
| 2005–2006 | 215/45R17 | Year-specific fitment → |
| 2007–2008 | 205/55R16 | Year-specific fitment → |
| 2009–2010 | 215/45R17 | Year-specific fitment → |
| 2011–2016 | 225/45R18 | Year-specific fitment → |
How we ranked these tires for the scion tC
We started with the latest model-year's OEM tire size; 225/45R18; and filtered our catalog of 22,000+ tires to those offered in that exact size. From there, four parallel rankings:
- Best all-season ranks on a weighted score: tire type matches passenger car segment, season is "all-season", premium brand bonus (Michelin / Continental / Bridgestone / Pirelli / Goodyear / Nokian).
- Best budget ranks on cost-per-warranty-mile; the lower the better. Premium brands get no bonus here.
- Best quiet ranks on the EU tire-label dB rating; lower is quieter.
- Best winter filters to tires marked 3PMSF severe-snow rated or all-weather class, with a small premium-brand bonus because winter-compound R&D is capital-intensive.
For sedans and compacts, the all-season touring tire below is the best default; long warranty, low cabin noise, reasonable cost per mile. Switch to the quiet pick if highway droning is a deal-breaker; switch to the winter pick if you see significant snow each year. Use the side-by-side comparison above to weigh the trade-offs against your specific driving; highway-heavy, winter-state, performance-oriented, or budget-constrained.
NHTSA-reported issues for scion tC
Top issue category: Tires (General)
Most reported: Tires (General) (22) · TPMS (3) · Bead (1) · Sidewall (1) · Tread / Belt (1)
Reported across: 2005 – 2011 (7 years)
What owners described
Sidewall failure appears in 26% of these reports; about 1.7× as often as across all tire complaints. Percentages are shares of the 27 reports covering every model year of the Scion tC that include a written account; a single report can describe more than one problem, so they do not total 100%.
| Reported problem | This subject | All tire complaints | Relative |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sidewall failure | 26% | 15% | 1.7× |
| Blowout or sudden deflation | 22% | 20% | 1.1× |
| Pressure-monitoring (TPMS) fault | 19% | 2% | 7.7× |
| Loss of control, rollover or collision | 15% | 8% | 1.8× |
| Bubble or bulge in the tire | 11% | 6% | 1.9× |
| Cracking or dry rot | 11% | 9% | 1.2× |
Mileage at failure
18 of these reports state an odometer reading. The middle report is at 27,950 miles, with 8 in 10 falling between 1,700 and 64,395 miles.
In owners' own words
Verbatim excerpts from complaints filed with NHTSA about Scion tC. Reports are published by NHTSA as filed and are lightly cleaned here only to remove intake codes.
2007 SCION TC BOUGHT USED 2-18-14 TOYOTA DEALER HAD PUT 4 BRAND NEW 215/45/ZR17 91W ON CAR AND LESS THAN 100 MILES HAD 2 BLOWOUTS, NOT FLAT TIRES BLOWOUTS. 1ST ON 2-27-14 GOING 55 MPH ON HWY. 169 MN. RIGHT FRONT TIRE BLEW OUT FOR NO REASON 2ND ON 3-1-14 GOING 55 MPH. ON HWY. 100 AT HWY. 55 IN MINNESOTA TIRE BLEW HAD STAKE IN CENTER OF TREAD, TIRE BEADS STAYED SEALED IN PLACE ON RIM BUT THE BALANCE OF TIRE CAME OFF AND ENDED ON OTHER SIDE OF ROAD ABOUT 50 FEET BACK. NO REASON FOR TIRE TO COME OFF THAT WAY. CAR HAD BEEN ON ROAD FOR 20 MILES AND OUTSIDE TEMPERATURE WAS 5 DEG. ABOVE 0 MN HWY. PATROL WAS CALLED BECAUSE CAR WAS ON LEFT SIDE OF ROAD BUT SPARE WAS PUT ON BEFORE THEY ARRIVED SO CALLED AN ADVISED THEM CAR WAS OFF OF THE ROAD.
I TOOK THE CAR IN FOR AIR PRESSURE CHECK.THEY TIRE SHOP SAID TIRES WERE EXTREMELY UNSAFE. BOTH FRONT TIRES HAD SIGNS OF DAMAGE. THEY WERE PURCHASED AT THE SAME TIME AND ARE 1 YEAR OLD NOT WORN DOWN. WERE THE TREAD AND SIDEWALL MEET, THE TREAD LOOKS LIKE ITS GOING TO PEEL OFF TOOK TIRE TO ANOTHER DEALER AND AND THEY SAID I HAVE NEVER SEEN A TIRE FAIL LIKE THIS. NO SIGN OF HEAT DAMAGE. I KEPT THE TIRES FOR FUTURE INSPECTION
Just entered the interstate and was 2 miles from home when the car started shaking cause the car to make a sudden hard right across multiple lanes of traffic going down an embankment and hitting trees. Witness who saw the accident while traveling behind the car saw smoke coming from driver rear tire, then car began to shake and car abruptly went to the right and off the road. Highway patrol stated based on witness and driver accounts, the driver rear tire failed. The collision center states the interior portion of the driver read tire separated and failed. The entire tire separated clean.
2008 SCION TC TIRE MONITORING SYSTEM DOES NOT CALIBRATE CORRECTLY. PURCHASED CAR ON MAY 10, 2008 AND TIRE PRESSURE MONITORING SYSTEM WAS ACTIVE. DEALER RESET AND STATED LIGHT WOULD GO OUT. ON MAY 12 TOOK BACK TO DEALER, PARTS WERE NOT AVAILABLE, SENSORS IN RIMS. WENT BACK ON MAY 16 FOR A TWO HOUR REPAIR THAT TOOK OVER 14 HOURS TO GET THE TIRE MONITORING SYSTEM TO CALIBRATE WITH THE SENSOR IN THE WHEELS. I HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT SCION KNEW THAT THE TIRE PRESSURE MONITORING SYSTEM HAS NOT BEEN PERFECTED.
Complaints are voluntarily submitted to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation and are not verified by NHTSA; they represent owner-reported problems, not proven defects. Counts can be useful as a relative quality signal across comparable tires or vehicles.
Tire recalls & safety complaints for the Scion tC →
FAQ
What's the best all-season tire for the Scion tC?
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Can I run a different tire size on my Scion tC?
Where can I buy these tires?
Last verified 2026-10-07.