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I'm very happy with my 225/50/16 Kumho ASX All-seasons. They have a 420 treadwear rating, and a W speed rating. They were $73 per tire from tirerack. Cost was the primary issue here. If I bought them even just for the economical value (really good tread life, really low price), I'd be totally satisfied, but these things perform good too. I can't really compare it to many other tires, but I know they blow away my previous tires in every area I can think of. Now I'm just wondering how they'll do in the 6 months of winter here.

They grip really good in the dry and wet, the road noise was a night and day difference from my old tires (in a good way), the sidewall isn't super stiff but stiff enough to make the car feel much more sporty then with my old tires, and they look pretty cool. I'm thoroughly satisfied with them.
 
mavisky said:
My buddy's KDW's on his daily driven Hundai Elantra GT are almost bald after 9000 miles and 1 autocross. Meanwhile my 5000 miles on my Falken's are nowhere near that worn and are much stickier and cheaper. I'm going to be trying the new Hankook Ventus RS2's after these Falken's die.
Your buddy must have beat the living crap out of his tires if they wore down that fast. Either that or was very improperly aligned. I am at 10k miles and the KDWs have barely showed signs of wear, with the tread still deep and they still handle like a dream. My brother said that compared to his ES100s these tires are much more predictable throughout the corner and give great feedback. Which I noticed as well after driving each tire back to back.

And the wet handling on the KDWs continues to amaze me. The KDWs in the rain out handle my old HTRs in the dry on the very curvy mountain road I live on. Most of all I have been able to carry more entry speed into the corner and maintain it.
 
talon96tsi said:
kumho ecsta 712 far outride any tires i have ever driven on, or riden on. including pzero neros, gforce kdw's.
If you're talking about a smooth comfy ride I'm sure they're better as the stiffer sidewalls on the other tires would make them stiffer and more harsh. When it comes to actual performance though, the 712's will get their asses handed to them by both tires you listed.
 
I recently replaced my Kumho Ecsta 712 (225-45-17) with same size Avon Tech M500 summer only tires from Tire Rack. These tires are a big improvement over the Khumos. Less tread squirm, better wet handling, less tramlining (the tramlining is still bad, but better than the Kumho). I did the suspension at the same time as the tires, so there was a dramatic improvement in dry handling as well. There is even good rim protection built in to the bead of the tire. You can't beat the price either, $105 each.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Avon&tireModel=Tech+M500

The only caveat is this tire is the heaviest of the bunch at 27 lbs each. The Kumho MX, for comparison, is 23 lbs. All the other brands fall in between.

Bill
 
mavisky said:
If you're talking about a smooth comfy ride I'm sure they're better as the stiffer sidewalls on the other tires would make them stiffer and more harsh. When it comes to actual performance though, the 712's will get their asses handed to them by both tires you listed.
the bfg's yes, but as a matter of fact, my friends turbo neon hooked up better on kumho's then the nero's.
 
talon96tsi said:
the bfg's yes, but as a matter of fact, my friends turbo neon hooked up better on kumho's then the nero's.

I assume you're talking straight line as opposed to cornering, the nero's are much better in cornering than the 712's. Straight line traction on an unprepared or even a prepared surface would probably bet better on the 712's. The stiff sidewall sucks in a straight line, for instance even my super-soft Azenis's don't hook well in a straight line since the sidewall has no flex. Last time I went to the track I didn't touch them since they looked fine by looking at the sidewall, but my 60's were at best a 2.2 (fwd remember). I got home afterwards and was trying to figure it out before the autox came up, checked the tires before the autox to find out they were at 22psi cold, 10psi under what I normall run but the super stiff sidewalls didn't show any flex at all. I'd basically made my 13.3 pass on the inside and outside edge of the tire and the center of it flexed and flopped around due to low pressure. This is at least 1/2 the reason the car wheelhopped so bad that night.
 
Any tire made in America such as Goodyear. Why are they the best??? Because those tires help other Americans support their families and help the American economy, which in-turn benifits us all.
 
knewblewkorvett said:
Any tire made in America such as Goodyear. Why are they the best??? Because those tires help other Americans support their families and help the American economy, which in-turn benifits us all.
Too bad I can get equal performance for half the money, as much as I love america, sometimes the dollar speaks louder.

Also, even Goodyear makes tires out of country.

http://www.goodyear.com/corporate/about/about_facilities.html

It's near impossible to buy anything at all in the world that's "made in the USA" only.
 
You know, this thread has too much love for the BFG's..........not to dawg them but seriously......

MY experience is that my Potenza S0-3's have lasted the longest and performed the best of any regular street tire I've ever had.

I've had:
Toyo Proxies
BFG g-Forces
Goodyear Eagle F1's
Bridgestone Potenzas

By far the Potenzas are the best OVERALL. Now listen to my explanation before I tell you the best street tire PERIOD.

If my proxies would have made it past three hot days of autox or two hot days of drag racing without tread wear becoming an issue, I would have kept them. But, I was in need of new wheels so I swapped them for a new set of wheels and tires, the new tires being Eagle F1's.
I loved the F1's because of their resiliance, peformance in drag racing was great but they always seemed to slide around in autox during cooler days. Everything was fine UNTILL I tries driving in the rain. To put it simply, never had I struggled as much before in the rain with an AWD car like that before, I might as well have been driving a RWD car with slicks........my car slid off the road going 35MPH around a 40MPH turn, enough said.....
So I then decided, with the upcomming winter fast approaching (it's unpredictable here in Cincinnati) I decided to save money and get the MUCH talked about BFGoodrich g-Force tires. I paid Tirerack for a nice discounted set and put them on myself, I sold the Eagle F1's to some WRX guy, even though I doubt they were the right size.
Ok, now the BFG's I enjoyed a TON throughout the winter. I felt bad because I put them through a winter before experiencing the tires during summer drag and autox events as they were brand new, so I made it a point to not beat on them, and I didn't. Since they were summer ultra performance tires, I didn't expect to move around like a snow mobile, but I made it around just fine by driving carefully and avoiding driving during bad conditions. The car sat on those tires in the garage for much of the winter and only saw a few days of snowy/rainy weather.

Ok, now to my rant on BFG's, which isn't exactly objective DUE to the fact that the car sat on them for three months. However, that should not be an excuse due to the fact that these tires have one of the highest rated tread wears of all performance tires on Tirerack.com. I began driving the car daily during the Spring and the tires did just fine. I made it to the first early events of autox in the area and the tires proved to perform up to par, but nothing special. I drag raced and pulled by best-to-date 60' with them at that time, and was VERY impressed. Then hell broke loose.
I was street racing on these tires that summer, but I found out that anywhere above 100MPH (mind you these are Z rated) the tires began to wobble and throw my alignment off. I went through ALL my suspension to make sure I didn't have a bad control arm or ball joint etc. for the next MONTH and even took the car to Performance Alignment to get it inspected and realigned, and even a new set of coilovers put on the car. The problem still persisted.
Then I blew TWO flats driving through a contruction zone, both passenger side tires. I had them replaced with BRAND NEW BFG's with the help of a friend at Tire Discounters who hooked me up with a killer deal. I had the tires rotaed, the old ones on the back, new ones on the front.
I was drag racing the next week when I started noticing the SAME PROBLEM while reaching my trap speeds above 100MPH at the track. I tested this later that night on a low-traffic highway, making 100-135MPH runs, all resulting in scaring the shit out of me with the shaking. This was when I first thought it was the tires.

I took the car the next day to Tire Discounters and my friend who is a manager HOOKED ME UP again with 4 Potenza S-03's for my tires and a new alignment (the wobbling made my alignment bad again)

I've NEVER had the problem again. And that's incentive enough for me to stick with the Potenza's (which I broke my previous 60' record with, with a slipping clutch).
The Potenza's do better in autox as well, and I've had the SAME SET for over a year now and the tread wear is MINIMAL.

SO, MY Consensus =
Potenza > g-Force



NOW, for my conclusion of the BEST performance tire to get?
*drum roll*
......
....
...
..
Mickey Thompson ET Streets
 
Gomer_GSX said:
I just purchased BFGoodrich G-Force KDW-2s a few days ago in 245/40/17. These tires improved my car's handling 10 fold in every department over the Sumitomo HTR (225/45) tires that came on the car when I bought it.
-Brady
Brady I'm just curious, what size rim and offset you running to get those 245s to fit without rubbing?
 
mavisky said:
Too bad I can get equal performance for half the money, as much as I love america, sometimes the dollar speaks louder.

Also, even Goodyear makes tires out of country.

http://www.goodyear.com/corporate/about/about_facilities.html

It's near impossible to buy anything at all in the world that's "made in the USA" only.
True, Goodyear makes tires out of the USA. Most of those tires are also sold out of the USA. Also, most of those countries we have fair (equal) trade with which is good. Most tires mentioned in this thread are made in the Far East which we have a huge trade deficit with. Soon to hit America....cars made over in China. Prices, $3,500 to $12,500 :confused: If we continue to buy products that we have a trade deficit with, our young adults and children will have a hard time finding a well paying industrial job. Don't believe it? Do some research on how 90% of American's steel workers lost their jobs because of China. You can also thank China and India for your high gas prices. Their consuption has gone up 10 fold in the past 4 years, why, because of their increasing prodution plants.
This I know, the Goodyears that came on my Vette were made in the USA. The 92 TsiAWD car's Goodyears were also made in the USA. The Goodyears on my Jimmy 4X4 were made in the USA. The Michelins on my Vette currently are made in the USA though it they are a French company (I hate the French too because of their views on America's policies :mad: ). I also have Bridgestone S-02s on my 91 TsiAWD though, my bad, I don't know exactly where they were made.

Sorry for getting a little off topic, I just have very strong feelings on supporting your fellow Americans. "Everyone" supports our Soldiers overseas (thank you, I was on of those) so why would not everyone also support every American.

Back to subject. I have 245/45/17s on both TsiAWDs, absolutly no clearance problems. I also second CuriousGeorge on the S-02s (his S-03s) on being a great preformance tire.
 
I am new to the forum and I am looking for a new set of tires. This forum has already provided me with more usable information, than I have been able to find in 20 min, than what I have been able to find on the web for about 2 months.

thanks keep up the good work.
 
Who the hell really cares where the tires were made? I mean cmon. I'm not going to spend more $$ on a tire that isn't built as well just because it's made in the states. Goodyears suck ass as far as wear is concerned, period. I loved my Potenza's and I now love my Yoko's. I would never ever buy Goodyears again as long as I live. We export just as many tires as we import so it evens out in the end. Free commerce and free trade makes the world go around and keeps everybody prosperous in the end. If it wasn't for the Japanese, we wouldn't even have DSM's. Think about that for awhile before you rip on importing.
 
Falken's Rubber IS probably one of the Softest Rubbers out there for street tires.

Yokohama Advans are pretty Trick for handling AND Straght line performance.

Cum Ho's Blow IMO...they look nice...but are just crap. The Avon's are Def a nice upgrade...But BFG DR's are always a Stout Tire.

I work for goodyear...and have MANY firends running Performance tires.

I'd say stick with yoko's
 
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