Tire shoppin’ Cooper Zeon? Ecsta PA51?

Any thoughts on either of these? I'm getting sick of paying top dollar for Pilots and having them turn useless in the rain/noisy after 5,000 miles. The Ectsas are the cheapest on Tirerack, with the Coopers not far behind.

What are they going on?

I've sold a few Coopers in my time as a service writer.  The few people that bought them were happy.  It was a weird price point, though.  Most of the time people would step up to Michelins or something similar.

Definitely not happy being used outside the advertised ranges, though

I replaced the Cooper Zeon RS3S on my Mazda5 with the Kuhmo Ecsta PA51 precisely because they wore out in 20k miles even with rotations every 5k. The Kuhmo rides a lot better and has superior wet traction. They are a bit noisy but are wearing much better.

In reply to Vigo :

2010 CTS-V. Honestly I don't drive it in anger anywhere near enough to warrant paying up for the latest, greatest dry traction tire. I want something at the bottom end of the price spectrum that has good treadwear, wet traction, and doesn't sound like I'm riding on mudders, kind of in that order.

With the staggered setup, and driving 24k miles a year, I've learned that paying up for Michelins just doesn't make much sense for me.

In reply to Javelin :

10-4. Thanks. The Kumhos are by far the cheapest option on Tirerack at $175 each. 
 

Oddly, the kid at the Tire shop said "We can't get Kumhos in that size." Not sure if that's a distributor issue or a "Holy crap, we can't make any money on these things."

In reply to poopshovel again :

Be careful. I originally ordered tires locally and got the directional PA31, which is an older and not as good tire. The PA51 is the one you want. Surprisingly crisp turn in despite the relative lack of dry traction. Fantastic in even heavy wet conditions.

Are the Firehawk 500 close in price?

sergio said:

Are the Firehawk 500 close in price?

$150 more, 340 treadwear, and look terrifying in the rain.

Ohstu FP8000 is a rebranded Falken FK452 (Ohstu is the parent company).  The are 300TW and quite good in the wet, which makes them a nice daily.  I paid $78/ea for 225/40-18 shipped. 

I would buy them again.

If you don't want the Indy 500s (which are really good), I'd vote Fallen FK510. They are strong in both dry/wet, good value and there is lots of data around validating their performance.

FSP_ZX2 said:

Ohstu FP8000 is a rebranded Falken FK452 (Ohstu is the parent company).  The are 300TW and quite good in the wet, which makes them a nice daily.  I paid $78/ea for 225/40-18 shipped. 

I would buy them again.

I'm listening! Where did you get them?

You should get some of those new super cheap tires and tell me how they are. 

They are the Cosmo MuchoMacho tires.

For as funny as the name sounds, they actually look pretty decent. 300tw with a 30,000 mile warranty. Some sizes are like $50 each shipped.

poopshovel again said:

FSP_ZX2 said:

Ohstu FP8000 is a rebranded Falken FK452 (Ohstu is the parent company).  The are 300TW and quite good in the wet, which makes them a nice daily.  I paid $78/ea for 225/40-18 shipped. 

I would buy them again.

I'm listening! Where did you get them?

bbwheelsonline.com

I have a set of Cooper Zeon RS3-G1's on my Mazda 3. They have been surprisingly great. Wet or dry, they are as grippy as an all season gets. Best part is that they were dirt cheap. I 100% recommend them.

FSP_ZX2 said:

poopshovel again said:

FSP_ZX2 said:

Ohstu FP8000 is a rebranded Falken FK452 (Ohstu is the parent company).  The are 300TW and quite good in the wet, which makes them a nice daily.  I paid $78/ea for 225/40-18 shipped. 

I would buy them again.

I'm listening! Where did you get them?

bbwheelsonline.com

Good lookin out!!! At $450 for a SET, I'm seriously considering rollin the dice!

I did westlakes for the challenge car because $200 for a set of 225/45/17. They are OK. Looks like they're going to wear like iron. Suck in the rain. Moderately sucky in the snow.

I've run lots and lots and lots of Kumho's and they'll almost always get the nod from me.

In reply to poopshovel again :

I ran the 452's when they were new on the P71 and was impressed everywhere but wet traction. They sucked in the rain! 245/45/17 and 275/40/17. 

I just installed a staggered set (225/40/18 and 245/35/18) of Federal Evoluzion ST-1 as replacements for PSS. The PS91 and PA51 were my second choices.

I paid $400 shipped and $88 for the install. With ~1200 miles on them, they are 90-95% of the PSS. The sidewalls aren't as stiff and they do "square" a bit overnight when cold. The noise level is low, but they are still new new.

The thread I started

Javelin said:

In reply to poopshovel again :

I ran the 452's when they were new on the P71 and was impressed everywhere but wet traction. They sucked in the rain! 245/45/17 and 275/40/17. 

Well. Damn. Wet handling is a big one for me. In theory, I have pretty kick-ass wet tires on the car already (Pilot Sport A/S 3+) 

In reality, the wet traction seems to go away after the first 5,000 miles or so.

I dunno. Maybe I'm hypersensitive. The worst wrecks I've been in have been in the rain.

I've had pretty good results with Ohtsus on my Versa Note. I put the FP7000s on it.

In reply to poopshovel again :

Again, the PA51 is excellent in the wet. It's winter slushy mix up here after days of torrential rain and I'm still sticking corners like glue.

PShovel I'm on my second set  of BFG G-FORCE COMP 2A/S's.....got right at 35K on the last set running a square setup (275 40R 19)......excellent wet weather tire. Had the Cooper Zeon RS3 A/S before these , but got just a little  over 25k cus I wasn't rotating as I should have.......these also shed water very well.

Diggin the Ohtsus. Had to drive through yet another 40 mile GA deluge this morning. Granted, they are brand new, but excellent wet traction so far.

Thanks for the update. My mom's had a few Ohtsus on her cars. I never had any problem with them other than wishing they lasted longer. Haven't tried any of the higher performance ones but I've been happy with all my Falken experience so I'm definitely down to run some higher performance Ohtsus.