Tire Review: Kumho ECSTA 712 P255/50ZR16

[strobhen]

Just like the title states
I have had them for about 8 months

Handling:
They seem to handle pretty darn well. I have taken them to a few autocrosses and have been satisfied with their performance.

Traction - Dry:
Its ok. Better than the GA's yes, but nothing to rant about.

Traction - Wet:
Excellent!!! 100 times better than the GA's. These tires continuously impress me with their wet performance.

Traction - Braking:
Good. Bring the car to a halt quickly and without drifting.

Wear:
Terrible. This is what is going to prevent me from purchasing these tires again in the future. I am a bit of an aggressive driver, yes, but they have not lasted me nearly as long as I had hoped. Not being directional hurts their wear perforamnce quite a bit as it does cause the outside edge to wear faster than the rest of the tire. I expect to have to replace them this summer.

Overall, I give them a good rating.

They are a good performance tire. But they are not the bargain everyone says they are. Their low treadwear rating and uni-directional design make for a short life.

[ February 20, 2003: Message edited by: strobhen ]</p>

[SuprSpdDB7]

yeah i love mine too...
except for the tread wear stuff..
my back tires are nearly bald....

and i bought them in August
grrr....
i hope to make it until next christmas ( i am rotating them this weekend)

i really really need to make it to christmas....

love them. but if they didn't wear so quick i'd buy them again... great price

[nino]

i agree, but i dont seem to have the treadwear problem as you 2. maybe cause i use my drag radials at the track and strictly drive on my kumhos? but i am not an agressive driver.
i bought 2 for the rear when i punctured a tire when my stock had 9,000 miles. my 2 front stock are now getting bald and the kumhos still have plenty of life to them- my car is now at 45,000.

[whtefbrd96]

i agree with this post 100% they are AWESOME in the rain pretty good dry but they definatley dont last...... and man do they suck major monkey testicles in the snow !! i think GA's were better in the snow than kuhmos !! now the search for a different tire !!

[Domestic Violence]

i just got my kumhos put on today. a new set of 245-50ZR/16. i think they're awesome. the GAs would ride the ridges in the pavement really bad; almost violently. these just cruise on over them without notice. it's almost like i can actually feel more resistance in the tire itself when i turn. so far i've put a whopping 50 miles on them and they are far better than those GAs.

i got 55,000 miles out of the GAs. i don't expect that out of these kumhos, but if i get around 30,000, i'll be plenty satisfied. i really like these tires. and they look good too.

[Dominic]

I just wanted to thank everyone for so many good reviews, especially about this particular / very popular / tire. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[MTMike]

I was just going to write a review about this exact same tire, but since it's already been done, and this thread will be archived, I'll add my review to it:

This is a 1 year (aprox 13,000 mile) review of the Kumho Ecsta Supra 712 255/50-ZR16. I will review each component on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest.

Dry Traction: 6
When the pavements warm, those tires coupled with my Torsen LSD allow for wonderful dry traction... Much better than the crappy-azz Futura tires that were on the car when I bought it. However, when the pavement is cold (below 50degF outside) they tend to get kinda slipry. Hard launches or excessive throttle around corners will cause them to break loose

Wet Traction: 10
I've never experienced a tire that peforms better in rain/standing water than these tires. The highwas up here in MT are pretty badly grooved and when heavy rains/large snow-meltoffs happen, the water tends to pool in some loactions on the roadway, sometimes a couple inches deep. With my old tires they pracitcally pulled me off the road, but with the Kumhos I could whisk right thru them at highway speed with only very slight feedback in the steering wheel.

Snow Traction: 1
I would put a negative if I could. I might as well have slicks. I'm lucky to get moving in the snow, let alone get up to speeds higher than 15mph. Major [img]graemlins/thumbsdown.gif[/img] on the snow traction. Keep in mind, though, they're not designed for snow.

Cornering: 9
Very stable in cornering, I'm very impressed with it's cornering performance.

Everyday Driving: 5
I'm not too impressed with how it handles on rough roads.... The above mentioned grooved highways up here will cause this tire, and in turn the car to wander all over the road, requiring constant correction... It's especially bad when braking on the grooved roads, even from low speed. On smooth roads, they're quiet and handle nice, but since very few roads up in the north are smooth, I have to give them a [img]graemlins/thumbsdown.gif[/img] on this

Wear: n/a
I have only had the tires for 1 year, and driven them moderately hard for aproximately 13,000 miles. I've rotated them once within that time. I have noticed them wearing down some, but they've still got alot of tread left. A little too early to tell.

Overall Satisfaction: 7
They're not the best tires, but they're crap either. The way they wander around on grooved, uneven and rough roads, their pathetic excuse for snow traction, and their loss of traction at cooler temps might want to make northerners think twice unless their car is a summer-queen. They're overall decent tires for those who are looking for an agressive performance tire at a budget price.

-Mike

[ February 23, 2003: Message edited by: MTMike ]</p>

[whiteshark]

I love mine, the only complaint I have is the snow traction, I don't even try. Wet traction still amazes me. As for wear mine still look nearly brand new and I've had them on since June. Then again I only drive like 7k year [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Domestic Violence]

i don't know about snow, but i've been driving around on 2 inches of solid ICE! it was slippery, but i did just fine. if i can get traction from a stop going up a hill on nothing more than ice, then i'm impressed. i passed several people who got stuck and people who spun out.

i still give them [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]