Owners most strongly agree that the Uniroyal RainSport 5 delivers standout wet-weather confidence, with nearly two-thirds praising wet grip and around one in five specifically highlighting strong aquaplaning resistance. Dry grip also gets more praise than criticism, and a sizeable minority find it comfortable and quieter than expected for such an open tread pattern. The main recurring drawback is a soft, flexible feel: around one in five complain about sidewall support and steering feedback, sometimes describing the handling as vague or floaty, particularly when pushed or at speed. Tread life is mixed, with roughly a third commenting and opinions split between surprisingly good mileage and quicker-than-hoped wear.
What owners mention most counted across 80 reviews
I am in the middle of my second season with these tires, so I have my first conclusions. The tires, despite their name, are not sports tires. They are definitely soft and comfortable tires, guaranteeing very high safety on wet surfaces and sufficient on dry surfaces. In my case, tire wear is 1 mm per 8 thousand km traveled. Depending on the mileage, it is worth answering whether this is a lot or little for us. Compared to my previous Firestone Roadhawk, comfort and noise have significantly improved at the expense of wear and handling.
Very good wet grip, good dry grip, safe understeer balance, stable at high speed (180-200 kph). Very soft sidewall, which makes them quite comfortable (going over bumps), but the handling is vague - definitely not "sporty", as the name suggests. I tried to compensate for the soft sidewall with overinflating front tires, but it helped only a bit, even though Peugeot 206 S16 weighs only 1050 kg. I don't comment on the noise, because in this car, the engine and wind noise are louder (i can hear tires only when I have semi-slics on). I would recommend these to people that need safe tires with lots of wet grip for low price and do not want "sporty" tires.
I was looking for a good handling, good feedback sporty tires with good wet grip, to use them daily and on wet track days. Unfortunately, the sidewall is way too soft for the track - it ruins suspension upgrades. I won't wait until the tread wears out, so I will sell used RainSports 5, and swap them for Kumho Ecsta HS52 or Vredestein Ultrac.
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bought these tires because they had an excelent price and this size is very expensive compared to other sizes and the tire shop i go to recommended them as very sporty tire but i was dessapointed by the feedback and the handling characteristics although the grip is very very good the way it handles is very spongy and really doesnt like to be pushed on the corners the sidewall folds way to much i have two different tires fitted on the same car previous to these the one the car came from the dealership a yokohama bluearth not sure wich one exactly it was very good tire and then switched to vredestein sportrac 5 fitted them twice in my opinion the best tire i have drove on not the grippiest but the handling and roadfeedback where top notch so in conclusion if you want the rainsport 5 because of its price and you want just a very good and safe tire to drive around sure if you are looking for something like me avoid it and maybe go for something like the falken 320 that i heard so many good words for the only reason i did not go for this myself it was the price
Terrible tire. There is no steering feedback, anything over 60mph you're constantly correcting the steering to keep it in a straight line- i went and had a 4 wheel alignment to check it wasn't out. Tires still terrible.
The grip is also equally bad in wet and dry conditions. My car is breaking traction over taking on dual carridge ways and motorways. Pulling away isnt so bad but still not great.
Removed after 650 miles and taken a loss. Would rather fit acceleras
A quality tire that sits in the mid range bracket although not as cheap as other mid range competitors. Overall a very good tire in most areas but where it excels is in its resistance to aqua planning, it will not lose grip even when faced with large pools of water on a motorway. Would highly recommend as an alternative to some of the pricier brands!
Have driven over 120,000km on multiple sets of Rainsport 5s. All done on a 4drive 2.0tdi Seat Tarraco. Fantastic in the wet as would be expected. Dry performance I can't fault for everyday driving on all roads at all speeds.
Fuel consumption seems marginally higher than previous Continental EcoContact 6.
Only major downside has to be how quickly these wear out. Only averaging ~33,000km a set over 4 sets used in the last 18 months.
However, confidence in the abundant wet conditions will find me buying these again and again.
Having had Mondeos and Passat estate cars as company cars for over 20 years, I have always sworn by Goodyear Tires. I had them on my own Mondeo MK4.5 Titanium X Estate with sports suspension, they were 215/50 R17s. I had the chance to buy some mint MK3 ST 18" alloys with some almost new Uniroyal RainSport 5, 225/40 R18 tires. I bought them and to my surprise I find the Uniroyal's amazing on the Mondeo. Handling is just as good in the dry and better in the wet as the Goodyear Efficiency Grips in my opinion and they are quieter. I will definitely be buying these again because they are approx £30 per tire less than the Goodyear. Don't get me wrong the Goodyears are great tires.
Had these on my XF Sportbrake for 16,000 miles now with still plenty of tread depth left. Not quite as good as Pilot sports, contisports and F1s for dry road performance, but not by much. Where they excel is in the wet where they are just superb with very little aqua planning at speed, just amazing! They are a nice looking tire as well with an aggressive sidewall style. They won’t give you the longevity of a Michelin or Goodyear tire but they are a very good cheaper alternative to the higher cost premium brands.
Usually used all season tires but missed the performance of a summer tire in the summer so thought these being designed with a bias for wet weather might be a bit of a half way house between a all season tire and a summer tire in the winter. They do what they say on the tin and have very good aqua planning resistance but I wouldn’t say they are any better in the wet than any other premium summer tire. Comfort is good and they don’t seem to be very noisy either.
I had always Continental sport contact in my alfa romeo 147, when Continental stopped to produce sport size 215/45/17, I chose uniroyal rainsport 5 as a fast alternative, uniroyal are good tires, beautiful, but i lost my handling, braking, the grip, always comparing to contisports, for daily and normal driving, I really enjoy uniroyal, but my next tires will be michelin pilot sport 5 or good year assymetric 6.
Great for everyday use if you are a calm driver, those tires have nothing to do with "sport". Understeer and lack of information from the road are main problems, they move around in the corners so much that you feel like the rims are about to touch the asphalt. However they are pretty good on wet surface and with over 20k kilometers of dynamic driving i only noticed less than half of tread wear. I'd not buy again.
