New tires for the daily driver

I need to get some new tires for my Mazda 3. After about 40k miles on the stock Yokohama Avid S03's, they are just about corded. Yesterday, while shopping online, I found these:

Cooper Zeon RS3-A

I need something that's a decent all-season tire that has good tread wear. I run winter tires in the winter months, but I need something that has the high tread wear because I drive so much (80-100 miles a day). The car spends most of it's time on the highway. Sticky summer-only tires are out of the equation, I'll save those for my other cars.

I've had Cooper tires in the past, and I wasn't too impressed. I know that as of late, their light truck tires have been great, but I haven't heard anything about the car tires. These are on sale and will be nearly $200 less than some of the other tires I was looking at after rebates.

Anyone run these?

No advice on the Coopers.

I have over 40K miles of daily/driving on the venerable Continental Extreme Contact DWS, tread depths Tuesday of last week: 7/32 rear and 8/32 front. I was religiously rotating them every 5K miles until this past fall I let them go about 15K in the same spot, then went and got a rotate/balance done. I'm going to try and be better.

Ours are 205/55/16 and were $114 a tire from Tirerack. Looks like your size is $132 a tire, more money than the Coopers, but I think it's worth it.

• Lee

Not sure if they are available in your size, but I really liked the Goodyear Eagle GT's on my MS3.

I like the General Altimax HP's. Very happy with them on the MPV. The only set of Coopers I ever had wore out in less than 15k miles. Other than that, they weren't bad.

bigdaddylee82 wrote: No advice on the Coopers. I have over 40K miles of daily/driving on the venerable Continental Extreme Contact DWS, tread depths Tuesday of last week: 7/32 rear and 8/32 front. I was religiously rotating them every 5K miles until this past fall I let them go about 15K in the same spot, then went and got a rotate/balance done. I'm going to try and be better. Ours are 205/55/16 and were $114 a tire from Tirerack. Looks like your size is $132 a tire, more money than the Coopers, but I think it's worth it. - Lee

I will second this. The ones I had were long lasting and quiet, great tire.

I had the Conti ExtremeContact DWS's on my last WRX and had them on year-round. They were great tires. I got a great deal on them with rebates when I got them last time. Looks like they have a $70 rebate again. I was looking for something a little cheaper this time.

1988RedT2 wrote: I like the General Altimax HP's. Very happy with them on the MPV.

I'm glad to hear this. I just bought a 'parts car' with an almost new set of these on it. Woot.

What about these Generals? My wife used to have a set of the Altimax HP's on her old Elantra, and frankly, that was the only good thing about that car.

General G-MAX AS-03

Also, another thing: anyone run a wider than stock tire on their stock 17x7 Mazda 3 wheels? My 2009 WRX came from the factory with 225/45/17's on a 17x7, so I figure I may be able to get something wider on there. Then again, wider tires = hit in fuel economy, and with all the driving I do, that may not be a good idea. Thoughts?

EDIT: it's actually CHEAPER to get the 225/45/17 over the factory 205/50/17 size. How about that!

For my wife's Mazda5, I bought Kuhmo Platinums through www.tirebuyer.com in the same size. 60k tire, like $120, mounted, all in after tax.

My last set of Kumhos didn't hold up so well. I had a set of ASX's on that 2009 WRX. At first, they were awesome. By 10k miles, they were extremely noisy (sounded like a lifted XJ on 33's on the highway) and by 25k they were completely bald. And that's with religious rotation. Their summer and competition tires are great, but I'm weary of their all-season offerings.

I didn't like the Kumho ASX's but I'm very impressed with the new PA31 all season tires.

After, 3,000 miles I have zero complaints. Keep in mind that I will use them for late fall/winter/early spring only. I have plans for dedicated summer track tires.

Looks like they have some new rebates coming out April 1st. (I have no affiliation with them)

http://www.kumhotireusa.com/news/index/260

We have the Kumho 4X on the Mini. Used to have summer tires on it previously. We are liking the 4X quite a bit. Definitely recommend. Never had a problem with the noise you mentioned.

I put GoodYear Assurance ComforTred on my wife's XC-90..decent but not outstanding grip compared to the Conti DWS on my GTI (well it's an SUV so...) but the GoodYear has long lasting tread and very quiet even after about 30k plus miles. My Conti DWS on the other hand, great grip in all kinds of weather but it's starting to get quite noisy after about 15k miles. I rotate my tire once a year which equates to about 7,500miles on the GTI and about 10k miles on the Volvo.

Bump...

I'm thinking of giving Kumhos a second chance, mainly because they have a $60 rebate right now. They were recently tested on Tire Rack's website and won the comparison test. People seem to like them.

Now, should I go for a 205/50/17 or a "+1 size" 225/45/17? My car has 17x7's on it. It will not see any track or autox time, and is basically just an appliance car.

My commute is 90+ miles a day

I had a set of Hankook Ventus V2 Concept H437's that I got a Solid 50k miles out of. Still several thousand miles of tread left on them actually, still behaving well in wet weather and all that. Liked them enough I put a set on my wifes car when it needed tires.

I was going to go for set #3 on my car but then got a really great rebate deal on a set of General GMax AS03's. ($200 for 4 tires basically) Only 10k miles on them right now. Great in the rain. So far just as good a tire as the Hankooks, maybe a little better in the wet. I dont think you can judge a tire till you really put a lot of miles on it though and see how it holds up over time.

My oem tires were kumhos. granted they were probably about the most terrible kumhos money could buy (Solus KH16) but they didnt even get me to 30k miles. and towards the end of their life at least 3 of them had damaged belts (they did this all on their own) that were causing very irregular wear and vibration. Use at your own risk but Im done buying kumho's

I had a set of Cooper CS-4s on our RAV4. We got about 75K out of them (treadwear warranty was for 80k), but my rotation intervals were not anything to emulate (25K). As a result, one pair had about 4/32 and the other had closer to 2/32 left. Given that I got 75k out of them, I wasn't going to complain

In addition to being long-wearing, I was very happy with them. The performed well in all weather conditions. Based on my experience, I definitely would consider another set of Coopers.

In reply to failboat:

I know those tires. My wife's old Hyundai came with a set, and they made it to about 25k before they were replaced... by a set of Generals.

These tires are going on my "summer" wheels; I have a set of steelies with Blizzaks that go on the car from December to March. My stock tires (Yokohama Avid S03'S) are also terrible. They are practically corded, and have maybe 35-40k on them, which is great for an OE tire. I'd get dedicated summer tires, but I drive so much that I need something with a higher tread wear rating, and all-seasons meet that criteria.

SilverFleet wrote: Bump... I'm thinking of giving Kumhos a second chance, mainly because they have a $60 rebate right now. They were recently tested on Tire Rack's website and won the comparison test. People seem to like them. Now, should I go for a 205/50/17 or a "+1 size" 225/45/17? My car has 17x7's on it. It will not see any track or autox time, and is basically just an appliance car.

For DD, I'd go 205s since you won't make use of the extra grip and gain nothing except weight and rolling resistance with the larger size. Plus the car really doesn't have enough power to warrant the 225 section width.

amg_rx7 wrote:

SilverFleet wrote: Bump... I'm thinking of giving Kumhos a second chance, mainly because they have a $60 rebate right now. They were recently tested on Tire Rack's website and won the comparison test. People seem to like them. Now, should I go for a 205/50/17 or a "+1 size" 225/45/17? My car has 17x7's on it. It will not see any track or autox time, and is basically just an appliance car.

For DD, I'd go 205s since you won't make use of the extra grip and gain nothing except weight and rolling resistance with the larger size. Plus the car really doesn't have enough power to warrant the 225 section width.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking at this point. I'll just stick with the stock size. It's an appliance... a nice appliance, but an appliance nonetheless.