Ecsta 711s or Ziex 512 for Ronals?

[euroshark]

No Kumho is worth putting on a car you value, spend a little extra money and get the Falkens or the Hankooks.

[Mystikal]

No Kumho is worth putting on a car you value, spend a little extra money and get the Falkens or the Hankooks.

What?

Kumho makes a bunch of awesome tires. SPT, MX (when it was new), V700/V710, etc. Don't generalize tires by their brand name.

[sweetride01]

Just for the record: they will work with Ronals without spacers (9.2" section width).

The RS2 you mean? Maybe I'll try them next time. It's not like my car is likely to get all that much use over the next couple of years.
Just out of interest, what's the section width on the comparable Ziex 512?

[Mystikal]

Yeah, the R-S2s. The ZE-512 is a mere 8.9" (although still an excellent tire).

[REVHARD05]

of course the 711 suck they are a $25 dollar what can you expect

[euroshark]

I generalized by brand name (Kumho) because I know, I worked with tires for the last 3.5 years, personally seeing what kind of stuff happens to them in every day driving. Kumkos, with the exception of the all season Power Star, all suck. That's my professional opinion. I have no experience with their R compound tires, but everything they offer for the street is mediocre at best. I had a set of 712s on my 6 series at one point and they were the noisiest, slipperiest pieces of shit I have ever experienced. 245/45/17s started slipping and sliding at way lower speeds than the 225/50/16 Goodyear shit that they replaced!!! Their build quality isn't great, we used to get out of round tires all the time... impact separations, blow outs. The only manufacturer that I saw had more impact separation and quality control problems than Kumho was Goodyear, and that's why I'd never put Goodyears on a car that I valued either!

I'll continue generalizing until they prove me wrong. Michelin and Bridgestone build the best tires you can buy. Other than those two brands, I'd buy Yokohama or Falken. They are both very affordable, and Yokohama has excellent quality control. The AVS ES100 is one of the best economical high performance tires you can buy, they ride decent but have stiff sidewalls, they aren't too loud, and they grip damn well on the street. All of the Falken tires I have had (only 1.5 sets, I had some on the front of my 5 for a while and I had a set on my 6) were great too. I didn't have incredibly high hopes for them, but they performed very well and lasted a long time.

[Mystikal]

So, you have never actually driven on any of the tires I mentioned, correct?

Quality cannot be decided by anecdotal evidence, which is your experience.

[sweetride01]

Quality cannot be decided by anecdotal evidence, which is your experience.

Yes and no. If you see a lot of one brand of tire having failures, then this is concerning. Of course, there are facts that can throw evidence off... like total # of tires a brand sells... so we are more concerned with % failure.
I work at Fram UK... I can say nothing good of their quality. However, working in the lab, I see a lot of failures. Again, I probably see more % of failure than there actually is... because I see more the numbers than the percentages.
In any case, if there is a high % of failure on a product such as a tire, then this is a safety concern. Even if the tire is grippy, if there is a 5% failure rate, then I'd rather go with another alternative, even if it is more expensive...

[mrl325i]

I have Kumho ASX tires on both my e46 and e30 and I am quite happy with them.

[Mystikal]

Yes and no. If you see a lot of one brand of tire having failures, then this is concerning. Of course, there are facts that can throw evidence off... like total # of tires a brand sells... so we are more concerned with % failure.
I work at Fram UK... I can say nothing good of their quality. However, working in the lab, I see a lot of failures. Again, I probably see more % of failure than there actually is... because I see more the numbers than the percentages.
In any case, if there is a high % of failure on a product such as a tire, then this is a safety concern. Even if the tire is grippy, if there is a 5% failure rate, then I'd rather go with another alternative, even if it is more expensive...

See, you're on the same page as me here. We don't have statistical failure rates, only the experience of this member (who has likely seen a mere fraction of a fraction of the Kumho tires produced in total). I'm all for using real data, but his experience really can't be extrapolated to anything meaningful in this discussion.

[euroshark]

Mystikal, in my last post I mentioned that I had 712s on my 6 series, I don't know if you saw that but those tires were SHIT!

Based on those alone, I would never consider the 711s which aren't even as high performance as the 712s... I have had Falkens on more than one car, and they were great for the price. I'm not basing everything on just what I have seen while working in the tire industry, but it is still pretty useful information.

I'm all for using real data, but his experience really can't be extrapolated to anything meaningful in this discussion.

I'm not speaking for everyone in the world who has used Kumho tires, I'm just saying that they have a bad track record in my experience working on them. Tons of replacements under warranty and tons of manufacturer defects, in addition to weird wear patterns that are the result of iffy design and build quality ie over stressed belts and under stressed belts... Just cheap tire issues that we see with other brands too like General (The Exclaim UHP... omfglol), Nankang... etc.