New OEM tires.....

[tommy36]

Had a slight problem driving on the highway the other morning when it was raining hard. Apparently these P.O.S. goodyears are shot already on the back after 18,500 miles. The back end was all over the road. I can\'t believe how quick they wore out. Well, anyways i know this is just the beginning of the fall/winter weather, so i ordered new tires. After searching for hours and looking at so many overpriced tires, seeing that i have a tight budget i decided to go with the Falken Ziex ze512\'s. They got excellent reviews as a high performance all-season tire, and i was able to pick four of them up for $306.00 to my door. I hate 17 inch wheels, but i love the way they look. Did anyone else have to buy new 17 inch tires yet?, and if so what did you choose? I am very dissapointed in mazda, why did they have to use a 17 inch wheel that is only 6.5 inches wide?, tires are hard to come by in 205/50/17. After researching for hours i found that 215/50/17\'s would fit, but would be a little taller, wider, and 1 mile an hour slower on the speedo. So this was my only other option, mainly because Falken doesn\'t carry 205/50/17 ze512\'s. Had anyone else looked into these tires?

[majic]

first of all for those canucks who\'ll drool over the price, tommy is a yankie :) so that\'s in USD :p

secondly PSIVIC (http://torontomazda3.com/forum/read.php?TID=1890) had them on a turboed civic and liked them.. they also have received pretty good reviews and are a good bang for the buck tire (tirerack.com, 1010tires.com, tiretrends.com - i forget if all of them stock them..) seems like u made a good choice but i still would get dedicated winters (if you don\'t already) since B-lo gets pretty much the same snow dump as TO.

[mwaters]

The RSAs are garbage. Don\'t feel bad, we\'ve all the same problem. Read some of the user comments on Tirerack for the RSAs, I think they\'re in the 4 out of 10 range.

I switched my RSAs the day I bought the car at a local shop. They did a return back to Goodyear which gave me a big credit to work with. Goodyear must make a fortune on people who get the dealer to replace their RSAs, they\'re OEM on so many cars.

I\'ve never had Falkens but have read good reviews. I\'m sure they\'re a big step up from the RSAs!

[TheProfessor]

As Majic has already stated I had those exact Falken\'s and loved them. A little bit noisy for my liking but they were an all around great tire. Are you planning on running them through winter? I\'m not sure how they\'d do in snow, but my guess would be not too good. That price you got is amazing by the way.

[tommy36]

Thanks guys, just got them today UPS. Man they look awesome. Getting put on on Wednesday. Anyways, yes I am putting them on during the winter. According to 1010 they got an overall 3.5 out of 5 in the snow, and that was what i was going on. I definitely wanted an all season because i dont have the cash for winter wheels. We\'ll see how they work in REAL snow conditions like Buffalo. Yeah the price was amazing, that was the best part, it took a while of searching, but it was worth it.:)

[TheProfessor]

You\'re gonna really like the tires. I\'m sure they\'ll be at least as good (or bad) as the stock RS-A\'s, if not better. Let us know how it turns out, I\'d be curious to see how they perform in that type of weather.

[chaser]

I\'ve put about 10,000km on my set of ZE512 215/45/17 since May. I\'ve no complain to them (no tire noise as some review stated, yet). I\'m sure they grip better than the RS-As but I haven\'t really pushed the tires (and the car) to find out their limit/ability. If I could do it again, I\'d go for 224/45/17 instead, for a little more grip and closer match to OEM tire height.

Overall, not a bad choice for high performance all-season.

[tommy36]

Well i\'ve had a couple of weeks to try them out and i have to say i am very impressed. They are fastastic in wet weather, and very decent in the dry. They are not noisy at all in my opinion, i haven\'t noticed any unusually louder noise. I\'ll tell you even in heavy rain and puddles the car stays straight and true. The only other thing is how long they last, well have to wait and see on that.....

[bubu416]

Falken ZE-512 is a great tire recommended by many shops.
Much cheaper than other major brands. (You\'re only paying extra for their advertising.)

I\'m looking forward to put on a set next season, now that I\'ve traded in my stocks w/ winter tires.

Anyone knows whats the best size/spec for the car? I\'m thinking of using the ZR rated sizes


- bubu416