New tires, and a lesson learned...

[70]

Today I replaced my worn out Dunlop Sp 9000s with the Kumho ECTSA Supra 712. I like the tire better so far, it seems stiffer than the Dunlop, and feels planted.

Despite my drewl over possibly getting some 225/40/17 Nitto's, my pocket book smakced and I stuck with the stock size of 205/45/17 in the Kuhmo...

Now for my lesson learned...Sometimes, going to the big guy (Discount Tire) isn't all its cracked up to be. I started at Discount, they told me five to seven days to get the tires into the store. No one had any in the state. No one had anything in a 215/40/17 nor a 225/40/17...Nothing, I was going to have to wait five to seven days for anything i wanted, regardless of size and make.

I drive down the road to a local tire warehouse, store thingy. They didn't have the Kuhmos in store. But got them in an hour. In store they had anything else I wanted in a 205/45/17, a 215/40/17 and even a 225/40/17. IN STOCK!! They had about 12 million tires all over the place. And they were doing steady business for a Thursday afternoon. I can only imagine what that store does on a weekend.

What did I learn? Go to the tire place that is locally owned. Sure I paid a couple dollars more than the big guy, but I also could have had anything I wanted right there.

 

[APEXistud]

Don't let Mazdamp_18 hear you talk about Discount Tire. He'll go ape s***. hehe

 

[firefly]

You actually made a good choice with the Kumhos. Not even one tire in the entire Nitto catalogue impress me. The 555 is one of their slightly better tire but at that price there're lots of better choice out there.

But if aggressive tread pattern is all you're looking for then Nitto might suit your need.

 

[mazdadan]

I've got about 5,000 miles on my new Kumho 712's and love them. The tires seem to have a slight edge in performance over my Dunlop SP5000's on dry pavement, but on wet pavement is where they shine. I can launch harder than ever on wet roads without slippage and the car stays planted in wet corners.

 

[dmitrik4]

have you used the 712's in any sort of cold/bad weather? are they all-season rated?

 

[mazdadan]

The 712's say that they are for summer use only, but I don't plan on buying winter tires, since the winters here in MD aren't too bad. If the tires end up being terrible, then I guess I will have to get some winter tires and steelies. I was always able to drive my old RX7 in light snow on Dunlops with hardly any trouble. A friend of mine said the Kumho 712's are OK in light snow, but I haven't had them long enough to be able to tell.

 

[70]

I thought about getting snow tires as well, but since snow doesn't stay on the roads here that long, or hit that often, I didn't feel that spending $400 on snow tires would be a worth while venture.

And I don't hate Discount Tire, I just found it odd that the "big boy" in the tire market didn't have reasonable access to tires like the "small guy" did. Five dyas v one hour...Go figure.

 

[redwagon02]

I got the the 712's (215/40/17) on my protege5 and feel they are a great tire however very noisy. I just replaced the tires on my miata with Yokohama's new AVS es100 and am in love. They stick a little better and are quiet to boot. These will be the next set of tires on the protege5 once it's time to replace the kumho's.

TireRack's the way to go.

 

[BondoBob]

I think the small guy is looking to make the sale. I try to support locally owned & operated businesses...although I ended up buying 2 Dunlops from Tirerack.com (because they had them).

 

[70]

I think the small guy is looking to make the sale. I try to support locally owned & operated businesses...although I ended up buying 2 Dunlops from Tirerack.com (because they had them).

The more I shop for things the more I notice I don't care if its the big guy or the local guy, its who has it when I want it. Although, I must say that I will return to the tire shop that I got these at...The service and knowledge of the guy I dealt was great.

It was kind of funny though, I threw him off when I said it was for a Protege.