My Experience with Kumho's

Sometimes the old adage "you get what you pay for" doesn't exactly fit.

At the end of 2001 I took a 10% paycut. At the end of 2002 I took a 14% paycut. Hopefully that will be corrected soon, but in the meantime I am living on a shoestring budget. For this reason I have economized on tires and everything else.

There are many parameters that people consider when evaluating their tires; wet traction, winter traction, noise levels, dry road grip, etc., etc. For me there are two parameters that are important and all others are totally secondary. I want tires that last a long time, and I want tires that I can make run SMOOTH.

For a tire to run smooth it must be "balancable" and it must have minimal road force variation (no stiff spots.) Road force variation is usually determined by construction method and quality. A tire that is constructed uniformly will; require very little weight to balance and will not have stiff spots.

Last year I needed two tires for the rear of my '88 Vette. For those who don't know, Vette tires are EXPENSIVE. The cheapest tires I could find were Kumho's. I bought them thinking that they would at least keep the car on the road for the rare times I drive it. I do my own mounting and balancing and I was very surprised that these tires took very little balance weight. They ran smooth at high speed (100 MPH plus,) and work well. I thought that maybe I was just lucky.

I recently started going through some tire challenges on my 300E and bought Kumho 195/65-15's in the 70,000 mile warranty version for $36 each plus $7 per tire shipping. I have been AMAZED by these tires.

When I put these tires on the balancer, they required the least amount of weight I've ever seen for a tire of this size. In the past, Michelins of all sizes seemed to require less weight than any other tire brand I've mounted. The Kumho's required even much less weight than the Michelins. The tire that required the most weight as indicated on my Coats 1001 showed 13 grams inboard and 25 grams outboard. This is less than 1 1/2 ounces total.

The tire that indicated the least weight was 5 grams inboard and 7 grams outboard. That is a total of LESS THAN A HALF OUNCE. The Coats 1001 has a standard resolution that rounds off to the nearest quarter ounce or 7 grams and a FINE mode that gives 1 gram resolution of set in GRAMS mode as is mine. I always use the FINE mode and I now wonder if I had used standard mode if this tire would have indicated zero. This tire was that close. I'm sure I could've left off the weight and would have never known the difference.

Once balanced and on the car the tires are SILK smooth and very quiet.

Even if I were to win the lottery and did not have to worry about how much tires cost, I will buy Kumho's until they prove themselves unworthy.

Just sharing this experience,