Tires
 

Real close to buying mine until I read the thread where the guy said you have to special order tires for around 1300 and you need new ones around every 20K. Whats the scoop anyone? This is a serious turnoff if its true. I drove it today and love the car but thats insane.

Uh no.

The stock tires tend to last about 12-20k miles, but any 225/45/18 tires will fit the stock rims. You can buy cheap stuff if you want, or expensive tires... you get what you pay for.

The stock tires are very very soft, which is why they don't last long. You shouldn't have problems finding tires that will last 40k miles.

well depend what type of tires you're getting, the factory ones are okay but you can get better for less. I have the falken on mine and bought them for under 600 they're better than the dunlops I was running. Regardless what car tire wear at 20k is not unusual at all.

I was just concerned with the special order bit. Only other issue I had was when i test drove it I heard a pretty signficant clunk going from 3rd to 4th. But then again the dealer asked me when I got back what I got it up to so i can only imagine what the demo car has been through.

The stock Bridgestone Potenza RE040 tires are "in stock" at tirerack.com now for $211 each. Not sure where the "special order" or $1,300 came from.

The guy must have gotten ripped at his Mazda dealership. If you go onto Tire Rack there are about a dozen different offerings in the stock 225/45/18 & 245/40/18 sizes. The Bridgestone Potenza RE040 has one of the more poor treadwear ratings for tires, depending on how you drive they go from 12K to 25K mi.. If you want longer lasting tires there are definitely beter choices out there.

Just remember you may be trading decreased handling performance for increased tire life.

Curious what the benefits of going to 245/40/18 setup is... I have a noticed alot of people on this forum have gone this route. Is there a reason why this would be good on our 18 inch wheels or on an 18.5 inch wheel? Thanks in advance.

I'm sitting at 23,000 miles with the factory Bridgestones, and they are getting close to needing replacement.

It has nothing to do with diameter of the tire (18") but with width (Stock rims are 8"). The 245's will fit on the stock rim and give more lateral surface area (an extra 20 mm). This will increase grip pretty much across the board, while sacrificing very little weight difference.

msrecant,

The BF Goodrich Comp TA KD & Michelin Pilot Sport both outhandle the Bridgestone Potenza RE040's and offer better tire life. A lot has to do with tire material, and design. In this case the Michelin & BF Goodrich offer larger treadwear ratings, and are the very best of the "max performance" level tires. The RE040 is classified as an "ultra high performance" tire, one level below maximum, and the Bridgestone even has a grippier tire in their line in the S03 Pole Positions (which is a closer match to the Michelin & BF Goodrich described above). For some reason the Bridgestones offer less treadwear across the board, could be their rubber compound.

I just hit 22k on the factory bridgestones today, and unless this weekend did something to them, I'm not even close to needing new ones yet.

Agreed, that is why I said "may" in my comment.

However, what got my attention on this particular point was a recent article by Jim Mederer of Racing Beat. He said in their testing of different tires on the RX-8 (so far only 4 or 5 brands) that the factory Bridgestone RE040 showed the best balance of cornering, steering response, ride and tread life. His quote was "Be careful if you choose to change tires - you may end up going slower, not faster."

Definitely something for the less sophisticated of us to consider before making a change based on generic tire testing or (even worse) tirerack.com surveys.

Wow, that's great to hear!

All the talk about the stock tires wearing out so fast made me start looking at new tires. I measured my stocks Potenza RE-040s with a depth guage, and with 6k, they were hardly showing any wear.

rx8cited

I am on board with Elara.....I am sitting at 21k and my tires are not even close to being replaced......I rotate them on schedule......I commute regulary in 100 degree temperatures here in the desert southwest 60 miles each way......and all I see is ripped apart tires all over the interstate....serves as a reminder to rotate my tires when necessary.

20k miles??? How?
 

20k miles on factory tires? How? I got 9500 miles or so outta mine! HA! I just put on all season tires though -- Pilot Sport A/S... cost me around $1200 but man, the car can still go and will still go in the winter. I have the same set (diff size) on my G35.

The potenza's are great but I put some hard driving on them I guess.

later.

I got 17 K miles out of my back tires, but they were pretty bald at that point.

I just upgraded to 18 X 8.5 inch rims and I put Cooper Zeon 2XS 275/30 in back and 245/40 in front, about $700 for the tires. Too early for much of a report, but I have had a little rub or two over the bumps. :(

The noise level seems good, and they glide over the lane bumps much better than the stock tires. I haven't seen many reports here of these tires, so I'll upgrade my report once I get a better feel for them.

Anybody else running 275s? They look wicked, I'll post pics soon. :D

http://www.detnews.com/2004/autoscon...g03-143024.htm

I'm about to change to the Pilot Sport A/S, but read on Tirerack's rating site that noise was a problem with some onwners. Noise has developed on my Stock Potenzas at 6K. Have you had any noise problems? tks...

Another me too post (25k miles oem RE40)
 

I'm at 25k miles with the oem RE40 tires. It looks like I may have another 10k miles before they need to replaced. My driving habits is fairly quick but not showy. No drifitng through corners or chirping the tires.

I have noticed a with all of the post's in this string that the stock RE040's are getting good mileage or they have worn extremely fast. i can run through this post and point the guys that are aggressive drivers and the guys that are commuting with the car and might be driving fast but nowhere near as aggressivley. Not that aggressive driving is bad, i tend to drive very aggressively and sometimes bordering on dangerous when i can find a nice lonely stretch of road.

Keep in mind that the more agressively you drive (i.e. accelerating from a stop, coming to a stop, and cornering) the faster the tire will wear. when we tested the RE040 we went through 1 set for our real world test which is a 20 mile (actually 5 miles driven four times per driver) in town course that covered around 100 drivers driving within the legal means of the road we were on. the track testing however consumed three sets of the RE040. the track is a 1/2 mile course covered twice by every driver. The track miles are nowhere near the road course miles but we still went through three complete sets of tires.
All of this being said, just simply to prove the point that the more aggressively you drive the faster the tire will wear, no matter what brand or model of tire it is. just because you drive fast doesn't neccesarily make the tire wear faster either. it is the stop , go, and cornering that really takes it's toll.

im at 18k and i still have more than 50% of my tread..

im not a mild driver... I dont burn out at every light.. but I dont drive like an 80 year old..


I have a feeling elara does not drive mildly either :D

Yeah, the road noise went up a bit but I dont' mind it that much. If you measure it I'm sure you'll see a difference but I usually have music playing (not super loud) and I'm happy. And I Have to say that they tires to great in the winter! You'll be abit lower to the ground as well so it's fun.

later,
-r