Although we are long term Mazda owners, I have just joined and want to say hi. I owned a Mazda 6 from new for five years(2004-2009), which was faultless over 95,000 miles.My wife has a Mazda 3 1.6 TS which has not even required a bulb change in four years. Now my Mazda 5 which I purchased two years ago (2009 2.0 petrol Sport) is a very practical family vehicle, and handles well for an MPV. I am however getting the usual tyre problems( Dunlop 2050 sport 205/50/17 93V), but not anywhere near as bad as previous posters on here. My front tyres were gone on the inner edges at 20,000 miles and badly cracked on the inner and outer edges. Now at 28,000 miles the rears have worn evenly but are badly cracked on the inner and outer edges around the entire circumference. All the tyres had more than 5mm of tread left, which to me indicates that the tyre is moving around a lot under load, but is possibly quite a hard compound.
Has anyone found a better? tyre to try. I was thinking of trying Continental sport contact 3's, but I am very interested in your thoughts and ideas of alternatives to try.

 

welcome aboard marcus!! we have an 08 M5 here and yes, they are a very practical vehicle, especially when small children are involved. As for the tires, on the M5 and even the M3, the tires will look like they are wearing even until you get to look at them when they are off the vehicle and then you will see that they are worn more on the inner than the outer. I personally am not a big fan of Dunlop tires. Although I have not tried the Continentals, I do hear good things about them. Oxfordshire is in the U.K. I believe? A summer tire may not be your best choice as it does and will get cold and snow across the pond. A good all season tire will probably be your best bet. Here is what tire rack has to offer for all season

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSe...ting=S&tab=All

hope this helps and welcome again!!

 

Thanks for the reply inwlf. I only noticed the cracks on the rear tyres when I removed the wheels off the car. After seeing the cracks on the fronts in January, I thought I should have a close up look at the rears, and at last got round to doing it. I have winter tyres ( Pirelli sottozero's), in my garage , but have not had a chance to use them. All the tyre places here in the uk were sold out of winter tyres during our last winter ( worst for thirty years where I live), so I ordered mine from Germany. They arrived two days after the snow had melted!!. At least I am prepared. I dont mind trying a summer tyre that wears faster than the Dunlops, but I would like one that would resist the cracking more.

 

continental does make a good tire from what I hear on this forum (no experience with them myself), you will probably be satisfied with the continentals. I have sumitomo HTR P01 myself, have had no issues with them. Does continental make the sport contact 3's in our size?

 

Yes Continental do make a 205/50 R17 93W, which is the same size(slightly higher speed rating)as the original fit Dunlops.Trouble is they are £140 each ($228 USD)!!!. The Dunlops are only slightly cheaper at £136.The Continentals seem to get good reviews in most of the online tyre tests. I don't mind spending the money when safety is the issue, but hope they won't crack up like the Dunlops. I have just measured the tread on my rear tyres and they have 4mm/4.7mm/5mm/4.8mm tread depths across the width of the tyre. Both are equal. shame they have cracked so badly as the wear is good.And yes I am in Oxfordshire UK, about 25 miles from the University in Oxford.