Tire Rack Consumer Reviews

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.