Mazda & Tyres
 

OK, OK, another tyre thread! I was reading a couple of reviews about the new Mazda 3. Basically extremely positive, except for tyre noise intrusion. Little change over the previous model, they said. Guess what it was shod with? Bridgestone Potenza's of course. Nothing wrong with tyre gripwise, etc., but as all of us can testify, quiet they are not. You would think that if you were bringing a new mass-market vehicle on the market, you would really take pains to get that sorted out before the first journos got behind the wheel. Potenzas seems to be an obsession with Mazda. Perhaps the CEO's of Mazda and Bridgestone are golf buddies.

Which model of Bridgestone Potenza's are of importance to note. Surely they are not putting the same tires on the M3 and the RX8.

Plus you have to keep in mind the Mazda3 is a budget car and will tend to have less sound deadening material used.


And on most cars a lowest bid system is used to determine who gets the contract - as is the case in much of any industry. There was probably/possibly 1 contract offered up for the entire Mazda line and Bridgestone won it?

I agree, every mazda I and my parents have bought have had Bridgestones ... this is since the 80s!

On the topic of how they won the bid, Japanese aren't Americans ... they would go with who is worthy of their business not who has the the best deal. Honour and respect are very important in their culture, far more than money from what I gather.

Mazda for a while used Yokohama's on the 1975 on-wards 929 and RX-4's..
and they were a crap tyre then to try and balance.

But Bridgestone's have always been on Mazda's

Cromax san, Mazda may not be "American" but still focus on the Yen. Bridgestone are Japanese as well as!

メリークリスマス

Get real :Eyecrazy: , the Japanese code of honour and respect etc etc died with the day of the Samurai , they are now like everyone else in the world .Greed is good :lol: :lol: .

The Japanese Yakuza are in just about every aspect of Japanese Business and life

Have you forgotten how Mazda screwed you by lying about the power output of the RX8 etc .

Almost every tyre brand has some sort of issue with it.

I have no doubt the global meltdown is causing some to consider hare kare, however its the US dealerships who are doing it the toughest. The prospect of Mazda screwing us over is nothing compared to what those ASSHOLES in the New York Stock Exchange have done to us....:spank:

Trevor

Things could be a lot worse than your post in Caboolture , you could have been posted in a Gaza :Eyecrazy: :lol: :lol:



Cheers
Michael

Yes Trev,
It is astounding how 200 workers in one US City working in one 'Street' can send the rest of the World to the WALL!..

How a few hundred US Bosses at Banks and Brokers can lend 110% to a family that earns $30K a year for a house that is worth $350K with NO equity or deposit..Low Doc Loans, AGAIN, sending the worlds finacial markets and currency into a tail spin.

How a few GREEDY Bastards can speculate on the price of Crude and F**K the rest of the Automotive World, flowing onto the price of every transported or freighted item, AGAIN, causing inflationary pressure on every other countries economy.

IMO high world fuel prices has been the largest cause of the slowdown in consumer spending.

Is it any wonder the western world and it's citizens are hated.

I love Potenzas.

Nissan uses Potenza a lot too. I think Mitsu uses Yoko. Subaru... I think Potenzas..

Not sure about Suzukis... Toyota is very variable.

I want to try out the Bridgestone RE050s, I've been told they're a bit more agressive than the RE040s ...

... I'm not really happy with the Adrenalins anymore, they're more of a touring tyre.

The Series II (my car) has the RE050A's (225/45R18 91W)

Did the earlier RX-8's have RE040A's ?