Bridgestone Dueler h/l ecopia 422 & experiences on CX-5

Well, this was a mistake. These tires are terrible. The sharp handling and tight feel of the Mazda is gone, replaced by a saggy feel that makes the car feel like junk. This car now feels like the CR-V I traded in to get the CX-5. Very disappointed.

Its probably too late but I wanted to tell you that we replaced our CX5 with Pirelli scorpion verde plus and the sport feel is there and maybe a little more and more quiet than the OEM's. Just my 2 cents. If you got them at discount tire I think you have 30 days to swap them out.
 
Scorpion verde 19s or 17s? I had the xl 235/55-19s on and couldn't get them off soon enough...then in contrast the P7 had that saggy handling similar to what was found on the ecopia (wife's highlander came w/these OE- and they're ok- not a great handling tire but ride is pretty good and they're quiet) but 40psi cold on P7s has thankfully set things right, still plenty safe and worth a try on these. We run her 245/60-18s close to spec 35 up to about 37 after that ride does get a bit harsh.
 
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I too will be looking to replace my oem 19" Toyo A23's this coming summer/fall. If it wasn't for their outrageously high cost I would consider going with them again. They may not wear as well as some would like or be as quiet as some would like BUT they are well suited to the CX-5. Now, I buy all my tires from COSTCO so I have been in to see them regarding options. Their 3 options are(in no particular order):
1) 235/55/19 Michelin Premier LTX (V rated)
2) 225/55/19 Bridgestone Dueler (V rated)
3) 225/55/19 Pirelli P7 Cinturato AS+ (H rated)

Here is my dilemma. Some on the CX-5 threads have said to stay away from 235 tires as they are heavier, cause lower gas mileage and are noisy. Pity, as I really like Michelins. As some others have said in this post the Duelers just do not preform as well as they were told/read that they would. Now, I have read a lot of good reports about the Pirelli's, BUT, since they are only H rated, and Mazda recommends V rated tires ( as in the oem Toyo's), COSTCO will not warranty them. Go figure. The even odder thing here is that I went in to my local Mazda dealer and was told that the Pirelli was one on the tires they could get in for me with no warranty problems. Go figure!! The only issue is that they are asking more than COSTCO for the same tires.
 
I want to try the 17 H rated version of the P7 plus. What seems to generate confusion is the same tire name with multiple versions with different speed ratings. Gotta pay attention to the details before swiping the card / handing over the cabbage. Such a blessing to have this forum it is!
 
I want to try the 17 H rated version of the P7 plus. What seems to generate confusion is the same tire name with multiple versions with different speed ratings. Gotta pay attention to the details before swiping the card / handing over the cabbage. Such a blessing to have this forum it is!

Fortunately you have the benefit of having 17" oem tires with way more tire brands and models to choose from. Those of us with 19" oem's are stuck between a rock and a hard place for choice. Even a 17" brand model can have different riding characteristics and qualities compared to the same model in 19". Since I have no intention of switching down to 17" for my all season's I guess I will wait until I can get more of a consensus as to which brand and model to go with from those currently trying/using non Toyo oem's.
 
I actually had 17 OEMs wheels with the tires delivered the same day I went to pick up my CX-5. I still have the 19s in my garage with only 200 miles on them. The dealer bought the car I wanted from a dealership in Columbus. It was the only way I could get the Grand Touring with 17s and the dealer is warrantying everything as if the 17s came on the car.
 
I actually had 17 OEMs wheels with the tires delivered the same day I went to pick up my CX-5. I still have the 19s in my garage with only 200 miles on them. The dealer bought the car I wanted from a dealership in Columbus. It was the only way I could get the Grand Touring with 17s and the dealer is warrantying everything as if the 17s came on the car.

If it wasn't for the 1100 mile road trip I'd offer to buy your 19" tires from you and pick them up!! But from Eastern Canada to Ohio is just a tad to far. (canada)
 
Now here's a potential real shocker.... I was in to a local tire dealer this morning enquiring about what brands and models they had in 225/55/19. Toyo is one brand they carry so I mentioned the concern that several CX-5 owners had regarding poor tread wear with the A23 and here is the summary of his response:

[I]One thing that very few people know is that what many manufactures do is supply oem tires to the car manufactures that have less tread depth than the same tire that you would replace it with from a tire dealer. So I asked him if I bought a replacement A23 set of tires from him would the tread depth be greater than what I had on my car when it come off the assembly line and he said YES.[/I]

WTF!!! Does anyone know anything about this??
 
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Now here's a potential real shocker.... I was in to a local tire dealer this morning enquiring about what brands and models they had in 225/55/19. Toyo is one brand they carry so I mentioned the concern that several CX-5 owners had regarding poor tread wear with the A23 and here is the summary of his response:

[I]One thing that very few people know is that what many manufactures do is supply oem tires to the car manufactures that have less tread depth than the same tire that you would replace it with from a tire dealer. So I asked him if I bought a replacement A23 set of tires from him would the tread depth be greater than what I had on my car when it come off the assembly line and he said YES.[/I]

WTF!!! Does anyone know anything about this??

Sounds plausible. Probably not true with all OEM (or even most OEM) tires but there is a lot of incentive to do this.

1) Better reviews for handling/steering response. Deep tread might last longer but it causes squirm.
2) Lower cost. Less rubber = lower cost.
3) Lighter weight. Less tread = quicker 0-60 times and slightly better MPG.

The first two reasons are more compelling. I can't confirm or deny if this is the case with OEM tires on the CX-5. I'm a little doubtful just based on the visual appearance of my Geolanders when new. Toyo's? I don't know. Maybe a new purchaser would take a tread depth gauge to them when they have less than a couple hundred miles.
 
Tire Rack lists the Toyos as having 9.8/32" tread depth new. At 13,000 miles, mine had 8/32". If I'd kept them and they'd worn at the same rate as for the first 13,000 mi, they'd have lasted ~ 55,000 miles to the 2/32" depth that is the legal limit here. From this If the Toyos had the proper 9.8/32" tread depth, 23% of the tread was used in 13,000 miles, so I think the full tread depth when new is quite likely.

I replaced the Toyos with Continental TrueContacts because I didn't like the Toyos. The improvement in driving characteristics was quite striking, with the Conti's feeling much more nimble than the Toyos. The Contis are great in the wet and dry. We had one evening of snow last winter. About 2" were on the road for a couple of hours, providing zero insight into the Conti's snow or ice performance.
 
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Now here's a potential real shocker.... I was in to a local tire dealer this morning enquiring about what brands and models they had in 225/55/19. Toyo is one brand they carry so I mentioned the concern that several CX-5 owners had regarding poor tread wear with the A23 and here is the summary of his response:

[I]One thing that very few people know is that what many manufactures do is supply oem tires to the car manufactures that have less tread depth than the same tire that you would replace it with from a tire dealer. So I asked him if I bought a replacement A23 set of tires from him would the tread depth be greater than what I had on my car when it come off the assembly line and he said YES.[/I]

WTF!!! Does anyone know anything about this??

OK, this story gets better/more interesting. I went to another tire dealer with this story and he said that he wasn't aware of lower tread depth on new oem tires BUT he said that he was aware that there are many name brand oem tires that have lesser quality composition/construction when on new vehicles compared to the same tire he could sell me that is of better quality that wasn't designated for the CX-5 assembly line. He went on to say that many of these name brand manufacturers put a tiny "oe" on the tire which is hard to see. I must have a look on my oem tires that came on the car.

Anyone hear of this crafty little money grabbing trick?? Might this be another reason why our oem original tires wear out so fast and/or appear noisy or less comfortable as MikeK eludes to in the post #29 above? H-m-m-m-m!!
 
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One of the tire dealers says car manufactures will do whatever they can, as you suggest MikeM, to save a buck, so will contract a tire manufacturer to give them just enough favorable characteristics to make the vehicle oem tires feel really good when driven off the lot, but as the tire just starts to wear may really start to degrade and feel/sound crappy. It would seem that the key characteristic that Mazda wanted for the CX-5( at least the 19" Toyo A23) was just enough stiffness to give it that wonderful sporty handling feeling that we all love, but not make the tires very quiet or long wearing, compared to a new Toyo A23 I can buy from a tire dealer.

I have read in some posts that there are CX-5 owners who replace the original tires when brand new. Maybe these people already know something that I don't about oem tire quality off the assembly line.

I must go back to my Mazda dealer and measure the tread depth of a CX-5 on their lot and compare that to Rarebit's specs listed in his post above.
 
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That an OEM tire has less tread than the same brand replacement sounds wrong to me. If I get poor mileage service on my new car tires why in the heck would I go back to that manufacture? Ed
 
OK, this story gets better/more interesting. I went to another tire dealer with this story and he said that he wasn't aware of lower tread depth on new oem tires BUT he said that he was aware that there are many name brand oem tires that have lesser quality composition/construction when on new vehicles compared to the same tire he could sell me that is of better quality that wasn't designated for the CX-5 assembly line. He went on to say that many of these name brand manufacturers put a tiny "oe" on the tire which is hard to see. I must have a look on my oem tires that came on the car.

Anyone hear of this crafty little money grabbing trick?? Might this be another reason why our oem original tires wear out so fast and/or appear noisy or less comfortable as MikeK eludes to in the post #29 above? H-m-m-m-m!!

I'm not buying this for a couple of reasons. I have a friend/co-worker that had previously worked for Goodyear in Akron, OH. We were talking about replacement tires one time and he told me this. The tire manufacturer has a spec. for a tire (roundness, balance, etc.) but the car manufacturer usually has a tighter spec. So the tires that meet the tighter spec go to the new car assembly line and the tires out of that tighter spec. but within overall spec. go to replacement market. So he says the best tires (in that particular tire line) will come from the car manufacturer. His advice for a replacement tire was to find a good tire that wasn't used as an OEM tire. This was 15 years ago and Goodyear, not Toyo but still I'm doubtful.

As far as tread depth goes, to try and save some rubber but incur the cost of a mold/production line change, scheduling and additional inventory seems unlikely to me.

The car dealers and tire manufactures are trying to make a buck but so is the replacement tire dealer. I think there's enough bs to go around for all of them. It's fun trying to figure out who has the biggest shovel.

As far as tread life goes, I'm not a fan of Toyo. My wife's '10 Nissan cube came with A20's (same UTQG of 300 A A) and barely got 38,000 miles out of them. Many guys on a Nissan forum complained about noise and some needed replaced as early as 20,000 miles. I love my CX-5 but tire choice is one area I don't see eye to eye with Mazda.

Just my $0.02.
 
OK, I've done a bit more sleuthing on this issue. I was in to Costco this morning to speak to the head of their tire dept (whom I know and trust) to get his take on oem specs compared to after market specs for the same tire. I questioned him about the tread depth difference which he said he had not heard of, BUT, agreed that tire manufactures commonly change the specs of their oem tires(composition, side wall thickness, etc) to get a price point that the car manufacturers can live with to get the particular kind of performance they want the vehicle to have off the assembly line.

As erhayes suggests above why would you go back to the after market tire (Toyo A23 for example) if you hated it when you first got the vehicle, even if you were told it might be better in it's after market version.

Or as brillo54 says above, find a good replacement tire that wasn't used as an oem tire. This is my dilemma... I'm moving on from Toyo A23's, regardless of how good their aftermarket version might be, mainly because of it's outrageous cost, but can't decide on the best (not perfect) replacement. I keep reading on the CX-5 forums about a version of Continental, Pirelli and Bridgestone but there is no consensus on which is best, based on those who have tried different non-oem aftermarket tires.

Even resolving the speed rating issue is ticking me off as well. Tire rack tells me that Mazda USA told them that anything above an S rating is ok, but Mazda Canada told me that I must stick with a minimum of a V rating as in the oem 19" Toyo's. Yes, I know I will NEVER be going 130mph(H rating) or certainly not 149(V rating), but as one dealer asked me, who do you sue if the less expensive H rated tire you decided to buy blows up and the tire manufacturer chooses not to replace it because your model of CX-5 calls for a V rated tire. WHAT TO DO? UGH!!!!!
 
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I believe this opening statement from the following forum sums up and confirms my suspicions about oem v.s. aftermarket tires.

"Having worked for or with all three of the "big three" in my former career, I can tell you that the OEM tires are indeed different than what you buy aftermarket." This is from post #8 in the following link:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/128033-OEM-TIRES-vs-STORE-BOUGHT-tires

He goes on to explain the kinds of differences and why they exist.
 
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What about the new Toyo Versado CUV 225/55R19 99V ? It's V-rated. UTOG 440AA 50,000 mile warranty and goes for about $185 US. Not an OEM, but it looks pretty nice to me.

http://www.tiresdirect.net/TOYO-Versado-CUV-P22555R19-99V-P6914.aspx

https://www.toyotires.com/tire/pattern/versado-cuv-crossover-suv-touring-all-season-tires

These might actually be a replacement for the A23 as the Toyo website no longer lists the A23.

I did discover this tire yesterday at a local dealer who told me it is a relatively new model. If it is an improvement on the oem Toyo A23 I think it could prove to be a good option, BUT, for me here in Canada it's $243/tire price that I was quoted is more than I want to spend, no matter how good it might be. Now it is cheaper than the $268 I was quoted for the A23!!

If it is indeed a replacement for the A23 (which I vaguely remember still seeing on the TireRack website) I hope Mazda starts using it on the CX-5 as a 19" replacement. I'd like to see some reviews from any CX-5 owners who have tried the 19" Versado CUV.
 
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I believe this opening statement from the following forum sums up and confirms my suspicions about oem v.s. aftermarket tires.

"Having worked for or with all three of the "big three" in my former career, I can tell you that the OEM tires are indeed different than what you buy aftermarket." This is from post #8 in the following link:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...E-BOUGHT-tires

He goes on to explain the kinds of differences and why they exist.

That link isn't working for me.
 
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