Best Tires for the Mazda Mazda 3, 2.3

These tires have proven to be one of the best things I ever put on my car. I've had this Mazda 3 for many years and have kept its mechanical condition as close to perfect as possible, but the tire type has changed routinely depending on where I live and how I was doing financially - from cheap tires, to standard touring tires, studless snow tires, and these Pilot All Season tires. They are not the most comfortable tires nor the quietest, I'll say that - you'll get better and FAR quieter ride quality out of many other types of tire, but they also aren't inherently uncomfortable. The biggest annoyance factor you may take into consideration is the large amount of road noise.

The handling with these tires, however, is something I can only describe as magical - this may seem quite specific, but the initial turn-in when going around a curve, especially at speed, is considerably more responsive and provides you greater confidence than any other tire I've personally experienced. This also includes Pirelli's direct competitor, the P-Zero All Season. You feel absolutely everything in the road and have no trouble whatsoever determining your car's limits in more aggressive driving. Even in wet driving, that confidence largely remains intact - something I very much did not expect in a performance all season tire despite the 'all season' moniker.

Temperature plays a huge role however - when the outside air gets colder, the tires do not grip as well. Winter time here never fully reaches below freezing temperatures, but even so the tires would begin to noticeably feel less capable in low temps. These tires love heat and if your journeys are typically shorter, slower, or in colder climates, you may not be able to heat the tires properly to experience them as they should be felt. It can even reach the point of danger as I found out, as a project car I'm working on has some cheap budget tires on it and can come to a stop very quickly even in cold temperatures as the cheap all seasons on it do not require as much heat to effectively grip - meanwhile, the Pilots almost sent me into a car that decided to suddenly cross multiple lanes of traffic at slow speeds on a 50mph road when they could not grip during cold, dry weather braking.

The tires have also noticeably worn after around 10,000 miles. This hasn't affected their driving feel, but their specifications listing around a 40k+ mile tread life are flat out not true. I expect these to wear out and need replacement within another 10,000 miles or so, and the Pilots are quite pricey compared even to other similar tire types from competing brands. These tires should be seen as a treat for you as a driver and for your car - something that you will greatly enjoy, but not something you should expect to last a long time or be kind to your wallet.

Old tire was Goodyear engle F1. Everything is great. On a budget now. Try this triangle sportex tire Half price of the Goodyear tire. Driving for more than two years on this tire no problem as yet. Open road country road. Rain or shine. It a ok tire for the price. Not bad for a chep type. I don't think it will be any cheaper for longer. The quality is getting better than or the same as the top brand tire.

They handle the way I expected them to on wet and dry roads. I have used triI angle tires too
Not bad either considering what I paid. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

So many people that have left reviews are using budget tires on
Audi and BMW and complaing about the quality or comparing budget tires with
Pirelli P zeros..... if you want your car to run the way it supposed to
then spend the money. After all you did spend the extra money on Audi and BMW.

I bought these tires instead of a full winter as I felt that an all-season better suited the UK's weather. After a few thousand miles on them I'm pretty much blown away. Certainly for my current car I can't really imagine buying anything else for the foreseeable future. These tires are competitevely-priced, acceptably quiet, offer good grip in the dry and brilliant grip in the wet (serious effort is required to unstick them). The only downside I can even think of is slightly increased rolling resistance over my previous hoops and therefore slightly higher miles per gallon but seriously....you can't have everything. Perhaps the best compliment I can give these tires is to say that since putting them on I've driven through a multitude of different road and weather conditions without even thinking about my tires. They just seem to handle everything.

I had these fitted on four wheels for my Mazda3 MPS. First time I ever have under steer on a motorway bend... Fair enough the road was damp but it shouldn't drift off at 55-60 mph. Also, because of the low profile tire(45)and the material was very firm. The car suffered horrendous road noise. I changed to Toyo Proxies and now I feel safe on the road. Anyone wanna buy my Accelera?

A very hard tire and it feels it especially at low speed bumps/ridges. The toughness means its long lasting and great at high speeds. Wet weather grip and traction on even lightly damp roads is quite disappointing- i got wheel spin at 40mph! The road noise is also excessive at low speeds. Mazda fit these as standard and the driving experience is arguably ruined because of them; continental or kumho greatly improve wet weather grip, ride and refinement even though they wear out ever so slightly quicker.

I drive a mazda 3 200km a day, have put over 30 thousand k's on these tires so far with no complaints. They have only broke loose once in wet weather but then again I was not behaving. For those having issues I suggest you look at something other than the tires to blame.

Hard to compare against any other makes as this is all i've used on the car, but they seem fine to me, this site does need another review category for "ice and snow" which is probably the only conditions where they don't grip very well, they are summer tires though.

I had to buy new front tires yesterday [late July 2010] to pass NZ's requirements [wof]. Uneven wear on the inside [which one can't really see ], I couldn't find anything online of any substantial use on the brand I was offered which is Maxxis.Therefore I am offering this info as a 1 hour user!
Mazda 3 , 2.3 has a road noise problem and apparently a 'scalloping problem' on tires. I haven't had a wheel alignment done for at least a year [my car is 2005]. Reports are Mazda 3s are hard on tires.
My previous tires were from new supplied by dealer Bridgestone Potanza [spelling may be wrong] 250 x 50 x R17. I have done 36, 000 kms mostly suburban but maybe 20% on Auckland's motorways which are a mixture of smooth and horrible cheap rough stoney chip surface. The latter surface creates a lot of road noise which I never noticed in my previous car [much beloved Honda Civic GTI].
So far I cannot report on road noise but I instantly noticed that these tires make the car so much more manoevreable - I can now get into supermarket/public car parks dead straight whereas before I was always parking on an embarrassingly amateurish angle.
The other advice I was offered is - inflate tires to around 36 psi not 32 as per the Mazda manual. Get them aligned every 6 months or so - at least once a year. Some tire suppliers offer a 6 month check for free. That way you will save a lot of money. My 2 front tires were $215 each with alignment extra. Some suppliers offer alignment free and check ups free but they had not offered Maxxis tires - Bridgestone and Toyo. If I had realized the alignment and Mazda wear and tear were such a problem the original tires would have lasted another 2 years.