Kumho Ecsta Tires

Initial Review, 1,500 Miles on Tires
February 19, 2013

The difference in tire noise from this and all other tires I've tried is magnificent. It's like driving an entirely different car. My Conti Extreme Contact DWS I previously purchased had much stiffer and tighter control on dry and wet pavement, but were so loud they could drown out the stereo and wind noise even at highway speeds and volumes.

One drawback that I noted in other reviews of the tire was an issue with flat spots after parking the car for more than a day or two. It's noticeable, and I'm not sure whether it causes permanent wear issues with the tires, but will provide another review with more miles on them again later. The flat spots seem to go away after about 20 minutes of highway speed driving.

Initial Review, 1,000 Miles on Tires
February 12, 2013

Tires seem to have better traction (both wet and dry) and ride quality that the Kumho ASX's I had on the car previously. Seems to be a much better made tire. Hopefully I can get more than 24K miles on these, as this has been the most mileage I have gotten off of any of the ultra high performance all season tires I have had on my MazdaSpeed 6.

Initial Review, 15,000 Miles on Tires
February 18, 2013

Great tire for the money. Traction is above average and adequate for most driving styles. Tire will give up if pushed or ran hot. This tire does have some road noise though. More road noise than the OEM run flats. Wear is good. 70% tread left after 15k of 'spirited' driving.

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
January 07, 2013

I have about 10,000 miles on these tires now. I drive very aggressive and came from a set of Aurora H107's. Those were rated as all seasons but are definitely summer only with unmatched treadwear and dry cornering paired with nonexistent wet traction, hydroplaning and snow traction. The car slides around in the rain as if I was on ice. It won't even move in the snow.

I needed to trade my performance for practicality. Enter the Kuhmo ecsta4x. The dry cornering just isn't there compared to the Aurora's, but it's still good enough even for me. Hydroplaning and wet traction is excellent. Driving 80 through a downpour is stable and easily done. Snow traction is acceptable, deep snow traction is less than acceptable - but that's what I have my snow tire set for.

Treadwear is iffy. 10k on them and they're halfway done (but again very aggressive driving).

I would recommend these tires to an aggressive or average driver that wants a great balance between wet and dry traction.

Initial Review, 1,000 Miles on Tires
February 20, 2013

This is a very good tire I must say. I have used Kumho before on track cars, and I have to say for a street tire this is a very descend and affordable tire. They seem to be wearing very even and fair (with a good alignment of course). I admit, the tire is slightly noisier, but you can't really tell. I do appreciate the cornering characteristics on the car, the steering is very responsive, and even when loading the tires heavily, the tires allow for good steering control, and the tires still act the way you want them too. In one instance I had to make a quick dodge to the left, because a car decided to change lanes without looking. When loading the front tires and reacting with the steering, the car was able to maneuver quickly and safely, the interesting part is the tires allow you to control the car well, and in turn translate this reaction quickly to the road. I have tested tires in the past, when the car did not produce enough grip, and when you quickly turned the wheel to one side and back, it was almost just as the suspension reacted but the tires really didn't. these guys make sure your very movement is in fact translated to the road, and that is something I can appreciate. I think they are great all season tires, I have not had too much experience in the wet with them, but they hold themselves well during light rain. The Toyota Steering is very smooth, but also very loose, these tires seem to cope with that well, so you they give you good confidence when it comes to controlling the car. I am happy with the purchase.

Initial Review, 15,000 Miles on Tires
February 18, 2013

Great tire for the money. Traction is above average and adequate for most driving styles. Tire will give up if pushed or ran hot. This tire does have a LOT of road noise though. More road noise than the OEM run flats. Wear is good. 70% tread left after 15k of 'spirited' driving.

Initial Review, 500 Miles on Tires
February 19, 2013

So I have this tire only for 500 miles, but I am writing initial review. Later, after several thousands miles I will do follow-up.
These tires are replacing horrible Kumho Ecsta Platinum LX tires I had on VW CC since I bought a car. Those were installed by dealer, so I thought, OK I will drive them untill I wear them out. What a mistake. After 12,000 miles two tires developed flat spots, started to coup, became extremely noisy. Anyway, after some 18,000 miles, of which 6,000 were pure torture, I decided that it was enough.
I got these Pilot Super Sport because I wanted summer tires, which is appropriate for European vehicle. In Europe, from where I am coming, cars come with summer tires not all season tires, and then in winter we switch to winter tires. Here in the U.S. it seems most of the people for some reason love all season tires.
Anyway, Michellin's were drastic improvement. I could feel improvement immediately in handling and braking. Improvement in handling was drastic, but in braking was amazing. The brake pedal now feels stiff, no changes in stiffness during driving like with Kumho's. Since I got Pilot Super Sport, ABS did not activate at all for now, although I drive spirited. Hard accelerations do not result anymore in spinning for no reason, and ride, oh well, it does not seem like I am driving any more on four rolling rocks.
I will do follow-up after 5,000, 10,000 and later. So far, they live up to their reputation.
Here in Southern California there are few rainy days, so I cannot say anything yet on the wet performance, but I believe it will be equally impressive.
If you plan to buy new performance tires, do no look further then Pilot Super Sport!

Initial Review, 1,000 Miles on Tires
February 20, 2013

My BMW is rear wheel drive with traction control. I purchased 2 of these tires to test them out as my rear wheel tires. My old tires seemed like slick tires compared to these. I could never drive this car in the winter with the tries I had on it. I was extremely impressed with the no noise level and traction in light snow, slush, wet and dry conditions. I just purchased 2 new ones as my front tires. It was a smooth ride home. I am A Kumho fan.
I had to leave home quickly one morning. I was facing a rain/snow storm "2 inches of slush". I doubted the tires and my safety. These are the best tires for this type of sports car............

Initial Review, 35,000 Miles on Tires
January 08, 2013

I've been happy with this set of kumba lx platium tires since i've owned the honda.Performance on all levels of driving and all kinds of weather has been outstanding.

Initial Review, 2,000 Miles on Tires
February 12, 2013

Drove thru a blizzard with 6 inches of snow and no chains. Almost zero slippage and the tires and vehicle were performing better than other 2wd with chains as well as other 4wd with heavy traction tires.

Initial Review, 2,000 Miles on Tires
February 12, 2013

This is my 4th set of Kumho brand tires and also the 4th different kind from this brand. In all 4 tries the tires have exceeded expectation, value and longevity. I always do the research 1st and always am comfortable with my final decision because I am as thorough as possible. While I can't make 'cost no object' decisions I try not to just make price the deciding factor. Therefore I will compare premium and value equally. I have used Bridgestone, GoodYear, Toyo, Perrelli, firestone, Falkin and many others. Some have been disappointments and some have worked out well but to be honest the Kumho's have consistently returned the best value and have been pretty consistent across all the lines I have tried.

As for the KUMHO ECSTA LX PLATINUM. I have now logged 2000 miles on almost exclusively Hi-way and all in about 3 weeks. The reason for settling on this tire was that it was being compared to the upper echelon of touring to hi performance touring tires some almost twice the price. Yet it was being scored just below or in the middle of the pack of the very best. Being that we don't really know the conditions or prejudices of the judges that score some of the subjective categories high for one and low for another I use a rule of thumb that variances of miniscule amounts qualify as not discernible or not readily noticeable to the average driver. Therefore the cost/Return rule comes into play. The Platinum was also moved to the top of the list because it had high marks in two critical areas; 1) high mileage rating 2) Quiet performance. These were critical since my last set of tires on the Genesis lasted only 30K miles and made so much noise it was ridiculous.

I have 2000 miles on these tires driving the winding roads of Appalachian mtns of GA / TN, NC,SC and the back hills and mtns, curvy roads of Rockey Mtn VA, pot holes, constructn, i85, i40, i75, i81, hard Rain, snow dusting, wind, black ice you name it, these tires been champs all the way. AAA+ VALUE.

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
January 11, 2013

I love these tires! I'm in the military so these tires see alot of different types of roads. Currently I'm stationed in Italy, the roads here are made of marble so even the best tires have horrible traction which I've had. These tires are awesome through wet pavement, dry pavement, and even snowy environments they do it all. Now I can only speak for over seas roads I have driven to many countries and have been in many different environments and can say my only problem with these tires are that in very wet climates just like any other tire if going a little faster than the speed limit on a round-about they slip but gain traction very quickly. My last set of tires were the Michelin Pilot HX MXM4, and Hankook Ventus compared to these kumho's are night and day. Kumho for the WIN!

Initial Review, 45,000 Miles on Tires
February 12, 2013

These tires are great, rotate them every 5,000 miles and keep everything in alignment. Treadwear is even and excellent. Very comfortable and quiet. I mainly stay in the city and my job in as well in the city and it does real well in wet and dry conditions. handles excellent in highway speeds.

Initial Review, 3,000 Miles on Tires
February 04, 2013

Huge difference comapred to the Ecsta ASX I was driving on before. Bought these totalyy off of the ratings I saw, as I was not happy with the previous set of Ecstas I had. Put these on my MINI andthe total driving experience is better that with the original tires that came with the car over 100,000 miles ago. Waiting to see how well they wear, but a big thumbs up for these.

Initial Review, 4,000 Miles on Tires
February 04, 2013

A great all weather tire. Excellent in snow and rain

Initial Review, 12,000 Miles on Tires
January 28, 2013

I bought Kumho Ecsta 4X to replace my Kumho Escta AST tires one year ago. Both models provide extremely quiet rides and I love how my car handles dry pavement with both models. However, the Ecsta AST was AWFUL in one inch of snow for my car. My car would fishtail from a dead stop on level pavement (even starting in 2nd gear) and go no where. The Ecsta 4X lets me drive in light snow storms, but my car still fishtails on turns, & has trouble stopping without sliding in less than 5 inches of snow. It doesn't snow many days where I live and I refuse to buy special snow tires when it snows less than 5 days each winter. I am very happy with the performance of these tires in rain & dry pavement, which is the type of weather I deal with 99% of the time.