I nursed my 2009 Mazda5 GT's original Toyo tires to 33,000m before finally replacing them today. All of them had some cupping, causing them to be pretty noisy over the last 10k miles. They were rotated three times, the last time they were also balanced and none needed much weight.
The shop I took them to is excellent, we've used them for years. When I brought the car in to get tires today, the service manager (and a couple of the mechanics) had some advice which has me a little worried. Bottom line is they steered me to a set of decent, but mostly cheap, Hankook tires. Based on their experience, they believe the Mazda5 has a flaw that causes it to be exceptionally hard on tires. This is regardless of alignment, balancing, or general tire care (rotation, inflation).
Over the past few years, they have picked up on a pattern with 17" wheel Mazda5 owners coming in for tires every 1~2 years or so with worn out tires. Doesn't matter what the quality of tire they have beyond the original Toyo's, (Yokohama, Michelin, Continental, etc) they have all come back chewed up after 25~30k miles.
I'm hoping, really hoping, that either this shop (whom I trust) either has too small a sample set of Mazda5's, or this perhaps was a problem with some pre-2009 17" wheeled M5's. Searching a bit, I certainly found no love for the Toyo model that comes with the 5, but not exactly conclusive evidence (though there is some) that the 5 is a tire monster.
Can anyone shed some light on this?
The shop I took them to is excellent, we've used them for years. When I brought the car in to get tires today, the service manager (and a couple of the mechanics) had some advice which has me a little worried. Bottom line is they steered me to a set of decent, but mostly cheap, Hankook tires. Based on their experience, they believe the Mazda5 has a flaw that causes it to be exceptionally hard on tires. This is regardless of alignment, balancing, or general tire care (rotation, inflation).
Over the past few years, they have picked up on a pattern with 17" wheel Mazda5 owners coming in for tires every 1~2 years or so with worn out tires. Doesn't matter what the quality of tire they have beyond the original Toyo's, (Yokohama, Michelin, Continental, etc) they have all come back chewed up after 25~30k miles.
I'm hoping, really hoping, that either this shop (whom I trust) either has too small a sample set of Mazda5's, or this perhaps was a problem with some pre-2009 17" wheeled M5's. Searching a bit, I certainly found no love for the Toyo model that comes with the 5, but not exactly conclusive evidence (though there is some) that the 5 is a tire monster.
Can anyone shed some light on this?