Tires are a problem?!!

[spayne99]

Last week the wife and I and our 2 kids were driving to the airport, headed away for a week of vacation. My wife was driving her 5, and hit a pothole hard. Blew out the front tire and left a fat bulge in the rear tire. When we got back from vaca, we took the car to our local Mazda dealer where it sat for 5 days with tires on order. Finally got the car back yesterday and everything is fine.

But what I'm worried about is how these tires are going to hold up! I'm sure I'll cringe every time we hit a pothole on the road, not to mention being wary whenever we take a long road trip.

What gives with these low profile tires? I'm not sure they belong on what is supposed to be a family car.

Anyone have any advice for how to improve this situation?

 

[jandree22]

Well, a family car it may be, but it's also a Mazda. If you want a cushy ride, there's plenty minivans out there that'll be soft... at the cost of being boring. If you want to make your ride better, buy some smaller wheels and put chunkier tires on there and that'll soften it up... or trade the Mazda in for another wagon/minivan... unfortunately both are expensive options

HOWEVER, I do know exactly what you mean. I commute the streets of bankrupt Harrisburg and their roads are literally minefields right now with potholes. I've hammered some REALLY bad and have not had a problem so far... I think you just ran into some bad luck.

Regardless, I'm truly sorry to hear of your situation... and I can understand your aggravation. Just please realize that there is a positive side to having thin tires and a firm ride. Zoom-Zoom afterall

Good luck!

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

It all depends how you hit the pot hole

Last week the wife and I and our 2 kids were driving to the airport, headed away for a week of vacation. My wife was driving her 5, and hit a pothole hard. Blew out the front tire and left a fat bulge in the rear tire. When we got back from vaca, we took the car to our local Mazda dealer where it sat for 5 days with tires on order. Finally got the car back yesterday and everything is fine.

But what I'm worried about is how these tires are going to hold up! I'm sure I'll cringe every time we hit a pothole on the road, not to mention being wary whenever we take a long road trip.

What gives with these low profile tires? I'm not sure they belong on what is supposed to be a family car.

Anyone have any advice for how to improve this situation?

A lot of things factory into how resilient a tire is to potholes. Keeping tires inflated properly can help a lot, while resisting the urge to "brake" when you "hit". Allowing the car to ride through the pot hole puts less stress on the suspension, brakes, drivetrain and tire. It's hard though since it's natural to go for the brake when you see a pot hole (too late). Hitting the pothole square opposed to off angle can help too. It also depnds on the profile of the pothole (deep, shallow, narrow etc.).

I've also found that the quality of tire matters. More expensive tires usually have better quality sidewalls, while cheaper tires have weaker/softer sidewalls. I used to run Dunlops on my cars. Now I run Michelins. The Michaelins are more expensive but they are a helluva lot more durable. I doubt the standard Toyos are as bullet-proof as the Michaelin Pilot A/S's I run.

Of course this is just my opinion and experience talking. I know that I've hit some pretty bad potholes in my 5 and 3 (the type that send a shudder thoruhg the entire chassis and make you believe that half the car is gone (argh) )and have yet to bend a factory rim or blow a tire. Could be luck. But I do run the same Michelin's on both cars. The Michaelins also have a rim guard that protects the rim from curb rash.

FWIW

 

[opus]

Trust me, the 5 would look totally different with thicker tires. It would go from sporty little thingamajig to bland odd looking thingamajig. Just go to tire rack.com and put some of the 14 and 15 inch rims on the five and see what it looks like. Then you also would have the same handling my dad has with his Olds Silhouette, in other words, BORING!!! You also would not be guranteed that the rim would have made it through even with the thicker tire, because as DiMarco said there is a world of difference from one tire to the other in the way they react to hitting the pothole. Over all, I love the rims we have, would like a little better OEM tire, but not totally set off by those either. Trust me, there are a lot of cars out there with even worse tires.