20" Tire Options...

My 2007 Grand Touring is in need of new tires. With all my other cars, I was able to find a large number of reviews for a decent number of tire options. With the size on the CX-9, there really aren't many options (in the factory size - 245/50/20). I know there are some popular ones, but I wanted to see if anyone is using any of the other options out there.

Here's the list I have so far:
Yokohama Parada Spec-X - No Mileage Warranty

Mazdas247 Review
Mazdas247 Review Thread

Yokohama YK580 - 60K Mile Warranty

No reviews available.

Falken Ziex ZE-912 - 40K Mile Warranty

No reviews available.

Toyo Versado CUV - 50K Mile Warranty

No reviews available.

Nitto NT850+ CUV - 50K Mile Warranty

Mazdas247 Review

I'm hoping for any reviews or suggestions. I live in central Indiana where snow does fall, but we don't have to venture out in it if we don't want to.

Thanks for the help!

Paul

I've got the NT850's. They handle very well in wet or dry, but I have not tried them out in the snow yet. I'm not very optimistic about snow traction with these tires. We get about 2-3 inch snows, just enough to make the road slick. They are very quiet. I won't see anywhere close to 50k out of these. 25,000 miles tops if I'm lucky. If you look at the tread design, you can see that compared to the Parada's, the Parada's will for sure handle better in the snow, but I'm thinking the Parada's will be slightly louder than the NT850's.

You might also look at the Avid Envigor tires.

I would suggest leaning farther away from a tighter tread if you have awd, and leaning more towards a tighter tread for fwd. I personally will likely go with the Parada's next time I need tires. I love my tires now, but I don't think they are gonna do very well in the snow.

helbigtw said:

I've got the NT850's.

I love my tires now, but I don't think they are gonna do very well in the snow.

Click to expand...

Please let us know how they handle in the snow, and also how many miles you do actually get out of them if you don't mind.

I have the Parada's and they handle very well in all conditions. I have had them for about 15k now and they wear fine. I travel to Minnesota several times a year..winter and summer and have never had an issue. Last year when I was in Minn. for about a week during Christmas they had about 15 inches and the tires were great. They cold on the other hand was a little hard on the car...lol. Hopefully this helps...

I had yokohama on my last SUV that was more of a truck than a SUV. Anyways, handled snow and wet weather well and tread life was great. They were a little more expensive, but they lasted and I was hard on them. My truck, then, had full time 4 wheel drive, all wheel drive and 2 wheel dive. I did not tow, but drove to the country often enough with snow, sand, gravel and they lasted very well. As far as winter tires go, you need a good tread for snow and an understanding of driving on ice when its there. People think that in the winter, " I have all wheel drive or 4 wheel drive" that they are safe. Tires are the only thing betwen the car and the road. Get a decent tire, keep it inflated, and because you have AWD, yes you go from a stop better than someone without it, but when it comes to stopping, AWD or 4WD does nothing to help stop you when you apply the break. However, tires with a decent tread that is properly inflated can help you stop and/or avoid something.

I am also looking to get replacement tires for my CX-9. I still have the OE tires with 36k miles on them and with about 5/32" of tread left. I stopped by Discount Tire yesterday to inquire about the Parada Spec but they recommended the YK580. It is a relatively new tire and wanted to see if anyone on this forum has put them on their 9.

Thank you for all the words of wisdom. Knowing how many miles we put on the CX-9, I couldn't pick a tire without any mileage warranty. We decided to have the Yokohama YK580 tires installed. They were installed just after Thanksgiving. Upon first inspection, one tire's bead didn't seat all the way. Had Discount Tire pull it back in, remove that wheel, dismount, mount, and balance the tire. Problem solved...so I thought. The next day, I noticed it was low on pressure. Topped it off and found it low again the following day. Had to take it back to see what was going on. Quite simply, the TPMS hardware wasn't tightened to spec. So, note to others, if you continue to have low air pressure without a puncture, check your valve stem.

On to the tire review. After the Goodyear tires were removed, we were able to diagnose a bad, rear wheel bearing. The Goodyear tires were so loud that we could not determine which corner had the extra noise. I then ordered a Timken wheel hub from Rock Auto (awesome experience by the way) and managed to replace the rear hub on Christmas Eve (we were driving from Indy to St. Louis after Christmas and from Indy to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl after New Years).

On dry pavement, they performed very well. Low road noise by comparison, but definitely do not seem louder than any other car. In the rain, the CX-9 has too much torque not to slip driving away from a stop. My wife expected such a large expense to fix that traction issue, but I told her just to ease into the throttle a bit slower. We finally had some winter weather in Indy (some freezing rain and snow). On roads and parking lots not plowed, I put them to the test. The YK580s behaved with a large amount of predictability and with anticipation of slipping, the vehicle was very easy to manage. I have to mention something about traction system on the CX-9 in the winter covered roads. The 4WD system is great for accelerating in a straight line. While cornering, I wanted the back end to slide out (similar to how I could kick it out in our former Nissan Rogue), but couldn't. While I didn't have has much fun, I definitely feel better about my wife being behind the wheel in inclement weather.

In brief, both my wife and I are pleased with the YK580s and could recommend them to others in the market.

Thanks again for the help and I apologize for the delayed reply back.

- Paul

Hi, Zman15,

Why you listed YK580 as having mileage warranty while Parada Spec-X doesn't?
They seem to have the same warranty coverage based on your link?
i.e. by tread-depth and months, not by mileage.

Hey Zman, glad you have good tires and the wife is safe.

Rock Auto is a really good place to get stuff from. They have American customer service, prompt phone service and ordering/shipping. I really like them.

They had a tsb for rear wheel bearings on 07 cx-9, I guess they re-designed them after that. Interestingly, the Ford Edge had the same problem with the rear bearings in either 07 or 08 too, however, the failure rate in the Edge was much higher.

Its pretty bad when you can't hear a blown bearing over your tires. You can pretty much bet your tires are worthless in that situation. That is the situation I am in now with my company car and fleet management is refusing to replace the oem tires with 54k miles because they still have 9/32 of tread left, and they are hard as plastic and out of round like whoa. Completely dangerous. At least I can say I warned them should I wipe out.

It is time for new tires. The parada spec x look great but with out a warranty it will be hard to justify the price to my wife. May check out pirelli scorpions.

Canadianx9 said:

It is time for new tires. The parada spec x look great but with out a warranty it will be hard to justify the price to my wife. May check out pirelli scorpions.

Click to expand...

What would you want a warranty for? The only time really that a warranty comes into play is if they send you a tire that is some how defective and will not balance due to improperly placed belts or just plain out of round. This rarely rarely happens. I have never had a "bad" one myself, but have seen it once or twice over the last 6 years. This is having thousands upon thousands of cars across my plate that I have ever heard of this.

In that situation I don't think you would have a problem getting the manufacturer to send you a different tire regardless of company.

As far as tread life warranty, it's pro rated anyhow, so a pro rated warranty in my opinion is just as good as no warranty.

As far as tires somehow catastrophically failing i.e. blowing up, shredding, tread separation, bulging, etc, again, for quality tires, this just does not happen.

I have seen tread separation and bulging on 1) very old tires that obviously were in need of replacement anyhow and 2) tires that are inferior/low quality.

What are your concerns with not having a warranty?

ceric said:

Hi, Zman15,

Why you listed YK580 as having mileage warranty while Parada Spec-X doesn't?
They seem to have the same warranty coverage based on your link?
i.e. by tread-depth and months, not by mileage.

Click to expand...

Ceric,

Good observation. Here's a couple more links on Discount Tire that details the warranty a bit better:
Discount Tire - YK580
Discount Tire - Parada Spec-X

You should notice how the Parada Spec-X does not have a warranty row in the table to the right.

helbigtw said:

What would you want a warranty for? The only time really that a warranty comes into play is if they send you a tire that is some how defective and will not balance due to improperly placed belts or just plain out of round. This rarely rarely happens. I have never had a "bad" one myself, but have seen it once or twice over the last 6 years. This is having thousands upon thousands of cars across my plate that I have ever heard of this.

In that situation I don't think you would have a problem getting the manufacturer to send you a different tire regardless of company.

As far as tread life warranty, it's pro rated anyhow, so a pro rated warranty in my opinion is just as good as no warranty.

As far as tires somehow catastrophically failing i.e. blowing up, shredding, tread separation, bulging, etc, again, for quality tires, this just does not happen.

I have seen tread separation and bulging on 1) very old tires that obviously were in need of replacement anyhow and 2) tires that are inferior/low quality.

What are your concerns with not having a warranty?

Click to expand...

helbigtw,

You are absolutely correct. I have only seen more cheaper tires break a belt or go out of round compared to the higher quality tires (back in my days as a tire tech). In the past, I didn't care if it had a warranty or not because of the cars I drove and number of wheel sets I had for those cars. Plus, I always did my research and determined that I selected a quality product. Nowadays, I still do research before dropping $1,000 on some tires, but I wanted the peace of mind knowing that that the manufacturer backs up the tire for a given mileage. Perhaps you can call it paranoia, but I feel better having it.

One of the other reasons I selected the YK580 is due to the asymmetric tread pattern. Now I can cross rotate my tires in the effort to get better wear out of them.

Thanks again for the help,

- Paul

Zman15, please update us on what you think of these tires after driving with them for a while.

The Spec-X is $178 on Tirerack.com, while discountTire.com has it for $204.

I understand that Spec-X has no treadlife warranty. However, I think the reason is Spec-X is such
a good deal compared with other choices. Yoko probably is not making money selling it.
See the complete warranty info here.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSearchResults.jsp?skipOver=true&width=245/&ratio=50&diameter=20
Click on each tire's "warranty" tab under "Addition Tire Information" in gray.

I will bet that Spec-X will be discontinued soon. Since I bought mine two years ago at $154, it is now $174, and the
price keeps going up. Hard to find a tire with 8.4 rating at that price.

Falken Ziex ZE-912 I have these on my Speed Protege and really enjoy them. Quite good handling good in the rain. I live in FL so no snow reports

Big plus to rock auto. if you are shopping anything. give them the first stab. solid company and if you get them on the phone, ask for discounts.

I went with an alternative 235/55/20 Toyo Open Country H/t. I wanted an all season tire that will be adequate in the snow, these have proven good for snow performance, I have had them in up to 12 inches of snow this year and have been pleased. They are no snow tire but more than adequate for the snow. My factory tires I had siped and still didn't perform close to these on snow and ice. These do have a full depth zigzag sipe like a snow tire does.
60,000 mile warranty to boot, I have 10k on mine and see no tread wear as of yet

Kris, how is the road noise on the Toyo Open Country H/T's?

better than the factory duelers...by a ways... the ride is better as well

From the photo above, the Toyo Open Country H/t looks like a
fair all-season tire (especially snow with saw-tooth pattern). It's
dry traction could be so-so only compared to other alternatives.
Besides, watch out for seam-following on concrete pavements of highways,
thanks to the four wide center channels.