Tires for The Wife's Mazda 3

A bad time of year in Ohio to need tires, but apparently the factory tires only lasting about 20k isn't uncommon for the Mazda 3s.

So...this weekend we get to re-shoe the wife's DD. I've cruised some Mazda 3 forums and see what they all favor, but wanted to run it by the members here as you just can't have too much information (most times) even if it's in the form of opinions.

She has an '08 Mazda 3 hatch/automatic with 17" wheels.

thanks, Stan

Whats OEM tire size?

I say get the black and round ones, but that's just me...... :)

Stan, you're going to have to bite the bullet. Mazda3s, for all of their good points, are horrible in slush and snow. Do like I did. I bought a set of nice wheels off the Mazda3 forum($175 shipped!) for our three season driving and used the stock steelies for a set of dedicated winter tires. We bought a set of four Blizzaks for under $350, mounted and balanced, from an unlikely source-Monroe Muffler! They made all the difference in the world.Other dedicated winters come to mind, ie.Graspics, Dunlop SPs, Pirelli 210s, Hankook W-409, Yokohama IG20s, just to name a few.

Not sure what size exactly just large. My POS winter beater with it's tiny 80 series 13 inch jobs work fine with it's larger PSI. I'm thinking maybe a new set of good all season tires and buying some steelies over the summer to be dedicated to some Blizzaks. We have about 4-5 weeks yet of winter weather possibilities.

How bad is it on a dedicated tire like the Blizzaks to run on dry pavement? The weather here flip-flops a lot (last week -snow, today -dry and sunny, tomorrow-rain) and it must be hard on those types of tires.

Regarding winter tires and Ohio Winters... My Hankook i-Pikes are on their third season and are holding up great. I run them late November through mid-March plus about a weeks worth of summer driving to and from rallycross events.

I would avoid Blizzaks though as they have a special sauce outer compound that doesn't cope well with heat. I interviewed at Bridgestone and they were talking about high speed testing blizzaks in Florida in the summer and how the tires were throwing rubber gumballs

I had blown apart my RS-A Failyears less than two years into owning the car. IT was not in the budget for me at the time to own two sets of tires... so I had to buy an all season. Yokohama Yk520's did well for me. Otherwise, do what other people have said, run two sets. I've got Potenzas on the summer wheels, direzza star specs going on the other summer wheels, and Goodyear GW3 snow meats.

This is our second winter on our Blizzaks and they are still as new. Like cghstang, I put them on late Nov./early Dec. and they come off the end of March. Today the roads here are dry, I just took the goldwing for a ride! Unless you plan to park the car when it 's snowing, get a second set of tires. As far as Blizzaks throwing gumballs,give me a break! Summer-in Florida-high speed testing? Put down the crack pipe and step away from the car!That's like saying the D.O.T. Kumho Ecsta V710 are E-36 autocross tires because a guy used them in a snow storm and he couldn't even get enough traction to get rolling. Apples to apples.....

To clarify my statement on the blizzaks: I personally would avoid them because you get awesome cold traction for the first half of tread life thanks to the compound and mediocre thereafter. I've only driven on older designs (ws-50) in rallycross situations, so I can't comment on their real-world performance.

The story of running them in Florida heat was first-hand from Bridgestone development engineers. They also made it clear that it was a redonkulous test scenario to put them through.

According to the Tire Rack, the stock tire size on the '08 Mazda3s hatch is 205/50-17.

My Mazdaspeed3 is currently on 205/60-16 General Altimax Arctic snow tires and 16x6.5" steelies. Dry grip is reduced quite a bit from the stock Potenza summer tires, but they are excellent on snow and ice. They're on their third season (I bought them used) and so far look to be wearing quite well, despite the MS3's tendency to vaporize front tires. I can probably get one or two more seasons out of them at this rate. They're pretty cheap to boot. Highly recommended for a snow setup.

If you can only swing one set of tires for the car, some of the all-seasons I've seen recommended for all-year-round use for the Mazda3/MS3 include the Dunlop SP Sport Signatures, Nokian Hakkapelitas, and Pirelli PZero Nero.

We have close to 80k on our Mazda 3... first set were the awful Goodyears... fast wear without any traction. Then we got some Kumho Ecsta performance allseasons from Tirerack. They had about the same wear, but much better traction in the dry. However, for the wet NW, they really weren't suitable... wet traction was lacking.

This last time I went with some Michelin Pilot Sport AS's (from Discount tire)... MUCH better... great dry and wet traction. A little noisy at times on the highway, but nothing terrible. A nice surprise was that they actually stuck reasonably well in the snow... which is nice as chains don't fit on the 3. Now.. remember that the NW only gets about an inch or two of snow .. and it shuts the city down.

Good luck! Marc