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Comments
1- What do you think about their aquaplaning resistance (when new and now that they have begun to worn)? I'm asking this because they are wider than stock (not a good thing in theory) and, being touring tires, they don't have an aggressive thread pattern (non directional). (Snow traction is not a problem for me because I have a set of winter tires.)
2- Do you have noticed some fuel consumption increase with these wider and (probably) heavier tires?
Thanks for the info,
Pierre.
Increase in fuel consumption?
Never bothered to measure fuel consumption.
My fillup time has remained the same as previous ie ~14 days. So i figure it has not changed significantly.
http://www.thecarconnection.com/index.asp?article=5951&sid=17- - 6&n=156
Scroll down to the MX Sportif photo. Here's a bit of the text:
Click on the photo and you will get a big copy. Right-click to save it
to your hard disk. Bump it up to 200dpi and sharpen it a little, it will print nicely on an inkjet using Photo Quality paper.
"Like the larger four-door, the MX Sportif/Mazda3 is aiming at the mid to higher end of its market niche, and will offer a number of highline features, including a 160-horsepower engine, along with optional xenon headlights and leather seats."
It looks a LOT better in this photo than the Photoshop-rendered version. I would say it is more cutting-edge design than the 6.
fowler3
I see PRO's being advertised starting at $7K here in Charlotte and the 6 starting at $13.5. Rebates, zero financing, I guess sales must be in the doldrums. When I bought mine, I didn't think you could get a basic PRO for $7K. Could be a gimmick or lies...
6 for 13.5K
must be after trade-in or cash down of $3500
cheap gimmicks to grab ur attention
Right! Amati(Amanti with a 'n') was supposed to be Mazda's premium brand...
Any connections here?
I remember seeing a price like this at a Buick dealer once where they had $5,000 down. I told them why not advertise the car for say $10, and have the buyer put the rest of it down. They just muttered something about 'that was the usual trade.
I wonder if I can complain to the paper. Isn't this false advertising? I am writing a letter at the very least.
My Pro has 13,719 miles on it, it's an LX AT. Rides a little smoother than your ES. I still like it and can see a lot of the Pro in the '6, i.e. center stack has the same kind of heater/AC controls, just different plastic trim. Ditto for the instrument cluster, difference is lighting, and the brightly illuminated ODO display.
It's like the time I wanted to trade my '94 Civic for a '97 Civic. By the time I traded I was sick and tired of looking at the '97 Civic. Traded for a '97 Accord instead. Now I'm getting tired of looking at the 6, waiting for the 3.
You were talking about getting a smoother riding car. There is a very rough section of road I drive over almost every day, lots of patches and broken pavement. That's why I have been looking for something smoother. But now, the state is widening and repaving that section. It's cheaper to find another route.
fowler3
Name the top 3.
It has to be a benchmark car.
fowler3
fowler3
A very attractive zippered embossed owners manual case compared to a drab looking plastic holder with two compartments on the Camry. This one is going to fray and tear at the edges before long. The PRO's manual case(I don't know the proper word) shows pride in the product. Second the glove box on the Camry does not fit as well or close with the solid thunk of my PRO. Maybe that says something about Japanese assembly. My cam is made in Kentucky.
Autox is fun. Everyone should do it!
:P
In fact, it's so outdated the text appears in Old English. LOL!
fowler3
I know those flimsey glovebox doors, saw one on a Nissan Sentra, it fell on the floor when I opened it. You get better material in cheap 3-ring binder covers. The door on the Pro's glovebox is solid as a vault.
What I compared to the Altima, as the two sat side-by-side, is the difference between the dashes and instruement clusters. On the Pro you get a very nice, solid dash with texture. On the Altima it's huge, plain as can be, downright ugly. And having to look at the instruements through three different holes could be confusing. But mainly, the Pro's lines and perky stance make it a standout in any crowd. The 2001's, and later, have that wide air intake across the facia as if the Pro is always smiling.
When I walk up to it in a parking lot I almost expect it to wag its tail or beep the horn -- "Let's go! Let's go!".
fowler3
Fowler: I think that its my server...too many people accessing it brings it down to its knees.
Believe me, because even my 6 month pregnant wife can stand the Pro on rough roads...impossible if it were the standard poortenzas....
And the bright red color doesn't hurt either.
(Actually poorer than that since, to ensure the longevity of Zoomster's new shoes, I'll be leaving Costco in search of a decent four-wheel alignment ...)
Meade
I mean some charateristic that you did not realize when you were buying it, but you came to know about it after driving around for a while?
Meade
(2) That its trunk can swallow just about anything I need to haul
(3) That after 54,300 miles it's still very reliable
One gripe though, all the way back to 1992 ...
(1) What's Mazda's aversion to GLOVEBOX LIGHTS???
Meade
Basically, when did you start noticing that your Dunlops were starting to wear very quickly? I know that you had excellent wear on them for quite some time as you had reported back on numerous occasions. I am curious because my Dunlops are also essentially bald now, hence why i am shopping for new tires. I also finally received my money back from Dunlop as a result of my tires being out of round and essentially defective which I figured may have caused the abnormal wear. It appears that perhaps that is not the case and they just wear premature because of the compounds used.
Right now i'm leaning towards the Bridgestone RE930's that they have in Costco's. It's an older Potenza, but I can't find anything negative about them. Does anyone have any experience with these tires on their car?
Anyway, penny for your thoughts/comments.....
fowler3
When I took the car into Goodyear for a synoil change about 4,000 miles ago (somewhere around 17K on the tires), the manager guy came into the waiting area and asked me to come with him to my car on the lift. It was then that I learned that the tires were really bad -- the inside treads (which are a different pattern than the outside treads) had worn much more quickly, but even the rest of the tread was much more worn than anticipated. Two of my tires were down to the treadwear indicators all the way across the tire; the other two were nearly there but moreso on the inside.
Now, 4,000 miles later, the two that were down to the indicators are nearly bald and the other two are at the treadwear indicators. I have just over 20,000 miles on the tires. I'm told that Dunlop will probably attribute the uneven wear to an alignment problem and not honor the treadlife warranty -- but if you'll read the reviews on TireRack by the few folks who've cared enough to come back and follow-up on the tire a few thousand miles down the road, you'll see that inner-tread wear is a real problem that's in no way unique to me.
I think Dunlop got these tires to market a little prematurely, and the treadwear rating and warranty are an estimate and a joke. I don't know what silicon/rubber/chewing gum & honey compound these tires are made of, but what looks like a lot of tread new wears down way too quickly.
And those amazingly quiet tires (when new) are so loud now I feel like Fred Flintstone with his SP Sandstone A2s. Not only do I zoom; I ROAR down the road!!!
Meade
You are correct that Dunlop will try and go down the alignment path with you if all you had was premature wear. They tried that with me also regarding my out of round condition, the tires, not my physical shape... In the end, i won the argument and got my money back in full. They offered a new set of 4 Sport A2's tires which although tempting, I passed on and excepted the rebate.
All in all, I got about 25,OOO km out of these tires and had vibration for a good 15,000km of that driving. I only kept the tires on the vehicle when I was assured by my Mazda tech and a few mechanic friends that I was not doing any harm to the suspension of the car as the vibration was minimal at best, albeit highly noticeable to me.
Anyway, loved the "silicon/rubber/chewing gum & honey" comment and good luck with the BFG's. The only BFG's they have in Costco's up here are the Premier's and i do not want those bland touring tires on my wife's baby.
P.S.- When i took the car to Mazda originally, the service rep whom i dealt with mentioned that they get a lot of customers with the Dunlops on their Protege's who have out of round and premature wear problems. Apparently the OEM Dunlop 5000's that they switched too also encounter premature wear. She stated pretty plainly that Dunlop do not make good tires and that i should get myself a good set of BFG's or Michelin's.
Hmmm. Can't say I was pleasantly SURPRISED by anything in my Protege. I researched and tested each candidate pretty thoroughly, so I pretty much knew it inside and out before I bought it.
I will say that I have gotten spoiled by the keyless entry remote. Saves wear and tear on the lock mechanism (as my wife pointed out, it's cheaper to replace the battery in the remote than the lock cylinder in the door).
I was unpleasantly surprised at how poorly the stock Firestone FR680 tires gripped (or not) wet roads. I should've test-driven the cars on wet roads, but I never felt like it when it was raining.
When I've searched on-line, Enterprise lists "Mazda 323 or similar" at several aiport locations, but what they usually mean is "similar" (Corolla, Cavalier, Focus, Saturn). Got a Lancer from National at Newark once.
My suggestion: call the actual rental counters at the airport in Indy (could probably get all the numbers at once by doing a search at Orbitz.com) and ask them what they really have on their lots.
Good luck.
Ford Focus: "This tire worked great for the first 15000 miles. Then the road vibration noise began and the tread wore down horribly fast. The car is not out of alignment and was machine aligned when the tires were purchased and put on the car. If you want to pay $70 bucks per tire and have great handling for only a year, buy this tire. If you need more miles out of a tire, dont buy this one."
Mazda Millenia: "These tires only have 14,000 miles on them. They were rotated every 5K miles. However, they are nearly worn out. In addition, I have had a small vibration in the car since I got them. My mechanic just called to say that I have a 'run-out' in the two front tires where there is a kink in the radial belts causing a slight wobble in the tires. These tires handle well on dry surfaces. They are exceptional in wet conditions. Living in Florida, we get our share of gullywashers from thunderboomers. They hold the asphalt like a dream. However, they are too expensive to keep replacing after such a short run. Compounded with the belt problems, I wont get Dunlops again."
Oldsmobile Intrigue: "With 14K miles on these tires, they are very noisy. I have had them looked at by 2 different garages and they both say the tires are cupped badly. I had an alignment done just prior to putting the tires on the car, and I have rotated them every 7K miles. Tire pressure is checked weekly. My mechanic recommends I buy new tires, because there isnt much tread left either. I thought I would get 40-50K miles out of them, but it looks like I will be lucky to make it to 20K. Im going to try to file a warranty claim for the abnormal tread wear, so hopefully I can get some of my money back. I would not recommend these tires."
Notice any similarities???
Meade
Why in the world is Dunlop selling so-called "Super tires" at such a low price?
There is always a catch. Nothing is for free. Especially not Formula1-handling at discount tire prices.
"Dumflop!!!"
Meade
P.S. Well, no buyer of the SP Sports ever expected exquisite handling. The tire's only H-rated, after all. And I will admit, for the first 15,000 miles or so the car performed like it was on rails.
But good pencil erasers wear down fast too ...
My 2001 ES came with the SP Sport 5000's on it and they have been really excellent tires, in my opinion. I have over 40,000 miles on them and just now have reached the point to where I need to replace them. They provided excellent dry traction (and wet when they still had a deep tread) without any squealing at all through sharp turns. I never had any problem with vibration and the treadwear accumulated evenly across the tire. Before I actually hit the treadwear indicators, they were reasonable quiet cruisers.
The only reason I am not going with another set of SP Sport 5000's is because I found another V-rated tire in the same tire size that actually carries a 65,000 mile warranty and is about the same price ($95/tire). I'm referring to the Toyo Proxes TPT.
I just don't want people scared away from the Dunlops after I had such a favorable experience with them.
Regarding the Tire Rack reviews. The thing I don't like about the review section is most reviews don't list the tire size or speed rating of the tire being reviewed. This could make a huge difference in the mileage, handling, noise level, etc. that one can expect from the tire.
Also, I'm pretty sure I can dig up negative reviews on any product in the world, including tires made by BFG and Michelin.
Oh goody! Now I get to use one of those cool Internet abbreviations I've seen but never had a chance to use: YMMV!
Is that mostly highway?
I'm by no means a crazy driver, but my driving is mostly around town. I'll be lucky to see 25k, most likely it will be 20k.
Personally, I think 30-35k miles is perfectly acceptable for a good grippy tire. Sure you can get 50k mile tires, but they have terrible grip because the rubber is such a hard compound.
I'm not sure why there is so much discrepancy between tire life.
before u praise ur tires for this, i would like you to give the credit where it is due.
The non-squealing of tires on a Protege is mainly due to the excellent suspension geometry design and control of the elements in real life handling.
Even with such a hard ride, no normal user of the Protege has had to go for a steering alignment, unless he/she abused it.
That speaks volumes about the construction of the supporting members.
Personally, I have had to go for alignment only twice. Once after I was rear-ended, I did it just to be safe and another time when I realized that the technician screwed up the alignment that I had got done(too much caster). But never did I experience tires squealing either with the poortenzas nor with the BFG V4.
Interesting tire squealing explanation, I actually had no idea it has to do with the suspension of the car, I just assumed if it was coming from the tires, it must be due to the tires. It's good to know that it won't matter what type of tires I put on my car, I won't have to deal with squealing tires.
Neither have I had to have a tire alignment since I haven't had any vibration problems.
Regarding the higher mileage Toyo TPT tires, I am a little concerned about having less sticky tires, but the tradeoff of being able to travel further without incurring the extra expense of new tires is worth it for a high mileage highway driver like me.
http://www.autonews.com/news.cms?newsId=5154
Fowler: Yes the PRO is a good looking car. I like the dash but I don't care for the brushed aluminium accent (or whatever it's called) for the HVAC/radio controls. I would have liked something less glitzy. I also don't like the carryover of this to the Mazda6.
Has anyone out there bought Weatherflectors from Weathertech for the PRO and found them to be worth the money????.
Although they aren't specifically listed on the Toyo website, the store assured me that they can get the Toyo TPT in 195-50-16 tire size with a V-rating. In fact, I actually just ordered them today.
BTW, for anyone who needs brake work done, I recommend checking with a tire dealer when comparing prices. The same dealer who is selling me the Toyo's undercut Brake Specialists and a Firestone garage by $100 to replace the pads and resurface the rotors on all 4 wheels. $200 vs. $300.
Yes, I bought the set of 4 for an 02 Pro LX. I really like them. They install in the window channel and are removable. Much better than the taped on ones. I had a problem with the front passenger side whistling, but removing and re-installing it fixed it. They really help to keep my car much cooler here in Florida, cuts way down on heat build up. I can post some pictures tomorrow if you want.
Hey ... now that it's springtime, maybe we need to switch from brake and tire debates and get back on the annual seasonal topic ... car polishing!!!
Meguiar's Gold Class, here we come. I can't believe that after this harsh winter and associated chemicals and salts, the Meguiar's still beads up nicely. It's been at LEAST six months since I had the chance to wax it last.
Meade