All-Season Tire Suggestions: Subaru 2.5TS

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My car has the OEM Brigdestone Potenzas on it, and they are not only quite bald on the front, but also chunking a bit from age. So I am looking for a new set in the stock size.

In the new set, I am looking for slightly better lateral grip. The current tires let go a little too soon in the front; yes, this is expected in a front-heavy AWD car but I'm looking for a little more balance. They need to be all seasons (OK for New England snow), and I hope to get about 15,000 miles out of them. I don't like exceptionally stiff sidewalls, because I like the tires to give me little warning before they are about to let go. Price target: $40-$60 per tire. I'd also like them to be rated for about 15 minutes of 125-130 mph use.

I have zoomed in in the Kumho ECSTA ASX


If anyone has any firsthand experiences with these tires or suggestions I'd be happy to hear them. :)
 
Going from first hand experience, I'm going to recommend the tire I currently have on my car, the Fuzion HRi. I've had no chance to test them in the snow yet, but they do excellent in tropical storm rain.

Handling is above par, and the tires have awesome straight line grip. The tires on my car won't break loose going straight at full throttle from a stop, and that's saying alot considering the amount of torque my car transfers to the ground at very low RPM's.

And they're H rated tires, so they're rated to 130mph.
 
Hmm, Ghost C, could you comment on the lateral grip? I'm not worried about straight line grip so much; even with quite bald fronts in the rain nailing it in first will only elicit a little squirm.
 
They're not bad tires at all for cornering. I have a large sidewall (215/60/16's) and there's not much flex, the outside tread blocks are designed very well for cornering stability, and my car will go through corners that some cars with extensive suspension work and more expensive tires have trouble with at the same speed.

They're not the best tires available, mind you, but for the price range and specifications, I don't know that they can be beat, although I don't have experience with the ASX, but I will tell you that the Supra 711 is one of the best tires for the money that you can buy, so it's really a tough call.

My advice would be to try and get a test drive on both tires before you buy them.
 
Either Michelin Pilot Sport A/S or Michelin Hydroedge...if they make them for your car. I have the Hydroedge tires on my Blazer and I noticed a huge improvment in traction once I got the tires, plus they are excellet at dry/wet traction along with snow traction. And they are T rated which means 118mph.
 
Unfortunately, both of those are out of my price range. ($140 and $80 on TireRack)

I have Weatherhandlers on the Civic. They were very good tires, so I like Michelins but can't afford them.
 
I'm a dumbass and definatly neglected to look at your price range. Ya when I got the tires on the Blazer it was close to 900 bucks.
 
My experiences with the Kumho Ecsta line is with the MX and the 712; which are the Max Perf. and Ultra High Perf. versions of the tire, respectively. The MX was mounted in the stock sizes on my '98 M3/4 while the 712 was mounted on my wife's '97 Miata M Edition with plus sized wheel package.

They were the best bang for the buck tires I've EVER owned. The MX in particular impressed the heck out of me. In terms of stick, the MX was close to the OE Pilot Sport, but had BETTER breakaway characteristics. On the limit handling actually improved.

I suspect the MX's gigantic treadblocks had a lot to do with how stable the tire felt.

The only downsides of the MX was that it was slightly louder than the Pilot Sport, and was somewhat heavier. This also contributed to the noise and comfort level somewhat. Again, I suspect that was the drawback of the big'ol tread blocks.

I put about 18k on the MXs before they hit the wear indicators. Not bad for a summer tire on an E36 M3. They also wore gracefully and pretty evenly. Yeah, they were harder than rocks at the end of their life cycle. But so are most tires.

As for the 712s, they were way more tire than the Miata could use. We only had them for about 10k miles on the car before we sold it. But my impressions of that one similar to the MX. Great stick. Very progressive breakaway. Quieter than the MX. Much better ride quality.

Overall, I give two thumbs up 👍 👍 to the Ecsta line.


M
 
Well 6 months later, and I will finally be getting tires in a few months time.

Thanks for the excellent review M-Spec, but unfortunately looks like I am not going to go with a Ecsta because the parentals want a tire with better snow traction.

So now I am 99% sure I will be going with a Potenza G 009.

Any comments on this decision?

Also, is $61 (tire) + $30 (mount/balance) a reasonable price? Would tire rack ship them to me mounted and balanced on stamped steel rims (or does anyone know of a wharehouse that will)?
 

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