I put the Kumho Ecsta ASX on mine and was very pleased too, especially for the bargain basement price, came with a 30K treadwear warranty.

 

I'm feeling the need to moderate that comment a bit. Why? While I agree that the Goodyear Eagle RS-As that come on some Mazda3s (including mine) are absolute junk (very expensive junk when you consider that they're over $200 per tire), I have gotten very good service from some Goodyear tires, most recently two sets of Goodyear Assurance TripleTreds that I had mounted on both of our family minivans.

FWIW, I'm now nearly 26,000 miles into my set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires on my Mazda3, and they don't look to be anywhere near half gone yet.

 

I saw in this post that a few people weren't happy with the Kumho's. I have a co-worker at work that has the Kumho's on his Speed 6 and loves them, my brother-in-law also has them on a Porsche that he has, both of these people convinced me to go with the Kumho's over the Bridgestones. No complaints so far, I have put maybe 6k on them, when I go for my next oil change in another 1k or so I will have them rotated.

The only thing I noticed about the 3 is that if you don't rotate your tires often enough them get cupped on the inside and then when you go to rotate them again they vibrate. I know it is because we have a -1 degree chamber setting (which creates better handling, so I am not complaining) but you just need to be meticulous about rotating the tires every 5-7k.

 

Hmmm, I did my first rotation at 15,000 miles and I'm now 11,000 miles into my next planned 15,000 mile segment. No vibration or cupping issues on the Michelins.

 

Lucky you!

 

Yeah, I guess I was being a bit rough on GY's last week. I felt the need to vent about my tires that didn't last long. The main thing is that they were a softer tire which handled really well, but wore fast. My Hancooks are harder and last longer.

 

BF Goodrich TRAct. T/A

Khumo Ecsta ASX