Goodyear Eagle RS-A

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Oct 3, 2008
Messages
4,913
Location
Kuwait
These tires come as OE on a lot of North American-built vehicles here, such as the Galant and the Crown Victoria. I'm just wondering if these are high rated tires in the States, because they have a terrible reputation here for lasting no more than 30,000 km (19,000 miles) and causing the vehicle to lose traction when any part of the road is wet, or has traces of fine sand. Dry traction is really so-so, and its road noise galore with these tires.

I know a lot of people here like to stick to OEM tires, and there are some people who go back and buy these tires for $150 each.
shocked2.gif
That's Michelin territory.
 
I drive on Goodyear Assurance and Michelin Destiny tires, on my Nissan, both brands and model of tires are excellent. My Mustang came with the Pirelli's OEM. I was thinking, when it is time to change, to go with Michelin Pilots for the Mustang.....My opinion only....I remember when Michelin and Firestone were junk many years ago...Firestone continues the tradition of being junk in my opinion....I have had very bad experiences with both, until I bought this new set of Michelins over a year ago....So far, Goodyear and Michelins are doing well after almost 30k miles on them....
11.gif
 
funny that you mention these tires. the OEM goodyear eagle RS-A tires on my vibe are loud after I rotated them. have about 39k on them. they are $125 a piece
 
Last edited:
This tire came on all the 2004-2009 non-speed Mazda3's. About 90% of the people on the Mazda forums hate these tires. My local Mazda dealer says he gets nothing but complaints about these tires. If you go to tirerack.com and look at the reviews and ratings for this tire, they are pretty bad.

Let me give you my experience. I bought my Mazda new and the RSA's were the oem tire. I recently replaced them (with another brand) at about 45,000 miles. So I can't complain there, they lasted for a decent amount of miles. A lot of people don't get 15,000 miles out of them. These tires are made in several places around the world, and it has been suggested that the build quality varies widely between manufacturing plants.

They were loud from day 1. The sidewalls are very stiff. They do not absorb bumps at all. They handle good (in dry weather) for an all-season tire. They handle terrible in the rain. They are grossly over-priced. I would never buy them again.

What really takes the cake is that I replaced them with another brand of all-season tires for exactly half the price. The new tires have twice the treadwear rating, the same dry traction, they ride 10x better, are much quieter and handle much better in the rain.

Im not knocking Goodyear they make some great tires. The RSA's are not one of them. Im still not sure how Goodyear managed to sell these tires. People must have been drugged.
 
Last edited:
The RS-A is a 15 year old model, I know that you could order a brand new Lumina LS with a set of them as the "uplevel" tire back in 1994. It's unbelievable that GY still makes and sells this ancient design for so much money, when you can buy much better tires (even from them) for much less.

I'd avoid them, but if someone gave me a set for free, I'd put them on my car.
 
Originally Posted By: Falcon_LS
I know a lot of people here like to stick to OEM tires, and there are some people who go back and buy these tires for $150 each.
shocked2.gif

The RSA is junk and engaged in a tough competition with the other large volume OEM tires Bridgestone RE92 and Firehawk GTA for worst tire in class.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=HPAS

Ignorant consumers pay premium for these tires just because it's what originally came on the car. Reminds me of Monty Python's "Upper Class Twit of the Year" competition. They laugh all the way to the bank though, after selling cheap tires to consumers for high prices.
 
A friend bought a toyota matrix in 07, and these were the OEM tires. After about 30k miles, they still have about 1/3 tread. No complaints about traction, but lots about noise...
 
Wow, good to hear people in my neck of the woods aren't the only ones complaining.
09.gif


Originally Posted By: Mustang2008Z
I drive on Goodyear Assurance and Michelin Destiny tires, on my Nissan, both brands and model of tires are excellent. My Mustang came with the Pirelli's OEM.


I've got Pirelli Scorpion STR's on my truck and my '07 Grand Marquis came with P6 Four Seasons. I was happy with both, but the Scorpion is a much better tire...especially after reading about how poor the P6 performs under wet conditions.

Originally Posted By: stranger706
This tire came on all the 2004-2009 non-speed Mazda3's. About 90% of the people on the Mazda forums hate these tires. My local Mazda dealer says he gets nothing but complaints about these tires. If you go to tirerack.com and look at the reviews and ratings for this tire, they are pretty bad.

Let me give you my experience. I bought my Mazda new and the RSA's were the oem tire. I recently replaced them (with another brand) at about 45,000 miles. So I can't complain there, they lasted for a decent amount of miles. A lot of people don't get 15,000 miles out of them. These tires are made in several places around the world, and it has been suggested that the build quality varies widely between manufacturing plants.

They were loud from day 1. The sidewalls are very stiff. They do not absorb bumps at all. They handle good (in dry weather) for an all-season tire. They handle terrible in the rain. They are grossly over-priced. I would never buy them again.

What really takes the cake is that I replaced them with another brand of all-season tires for exactly half the price. The new tires have twice the treadwear rating, the same dry traction, they ride 10x better, are much quieter and handle much better in the rain.

Im not knocking Goodyear they make some great tires. The RSA's are not one of them. Im still not sure how Goodyear managed to sell these tires. People must have been drugged.


I'm having a hard time understanding why Mazda would continue to use this as their OE tire after so many complaints. I've just had a read through the views posted on tirerack.com and wow. Amazing how Lexus is using these on their RX...over at this end they come with Yokohamas. Maybe The RX's with Goodyears are the ones assembled in Canada, as these seem to be popular on North American manufactured vehicles. Where is your Mazda assembled?
 
I need to correct my previous post...the RSAs came on all the 04-09 Mazda3's with the 17 inch wheels.

For the new 2010 Mazda3 they don't use Goodyear anymore. Not sure what took so long. All Mazda3's are assembled in Japan.
 
these tires for the Vibe are on sale for half of what stores charge on tirerack.com
 
Last edited:
It's similar to the Galant in that case. The standard 16 inch wheels come with Yokohama Y376M tires. The optional 17 inch wheels come with Goodyear Eagle RS-A's...so much for "optional" if you know what I mean.
 
Originally Posted By: Falcon_LS
I'm having a hard time understanding why Mazda would continue to use this as their OE tire after so many complaints.


Lowest bidder gets the contract! But they do have a very light, nimble, direct feel to them, which is good for test drives, and the thin tread is probably excellent for fuel economy. They pulled .87g on C&D's first test of the Mazda3, so the dry grip isn't that bad. They were too narrow for a 6.5" rim and had poor traction on anything other than perfectly clean roads, so I wouldn't use them again even if they were one of the least expensive tires. I got 20k miles out of them.

Originally Posted By: stranger706
For the new 2010 Mazda3 they don't use Goodyear anymore. Not sure what took so long. All Mazda3's are assembled in Japan.


The RS-As on my Mazda3 were made in Japan. What tires are they using now? What did you replace your RS-As with?
 
What sized did you go with for your Mazda? I see Tire Rack doesn't carry them in the OEM size of 205/50/17. I see the 215/45's are a lot cheaper than the 215/50's. I have a Mazda3 too.
 
Originally Posted By: xxch4osxx
All the Ford Police Interceptors here have the RS-A tires from the factory, could they be all that bad if they are used on police vehicles?


Our police department replaces them by the time they hit 10,000 km or are due for their 3rd oil change...usually with Toyo Proxes 4 tires.

Over here, Ford used Michelin Symmetry tires for years on the Crown Victoria, Grand Marquis and Town Car, making the switch to Pirelli P6 Four Seasons in 2003. Now they're using these RS-A's after upgrading to 17" wheels. Only good thing about them is the W speed rating.
 
Originally Posted By: xxch4osxx
I guess the RS-A tires really are garbage then, why does Goodyear keep making something so poor quality?


For OEM applications, they build a tire that meets the manufacturers specifications.... and usually the qualities that YOU want to see in a tire are not the same qualities that a manufacturer wants to see in a tire.

The OEM tires (General Ameritrac) on my 2004 Silverado were pulled off by the dealer at 3,XXX miles. It now has a set of Michelin LTX's on it that perform exactly the way I want them to.
 
Originally Posted By: DrinkDuff77
What sized did you go with for your Mazda? I see Tire Rack doesn't carry them in the OEM size of 205/50/17. I see the 215/45's are a lot cheaper than the 215/50's. I have a Mazda3 too.


I went with 215/50/17s. They're just a little wider and a hair taller than the stock size. Seems to fit the rim better. I thought the 205s looked a little skinny. The 215s fill in the wheel well nicely. I have a 90 mile daily commute so I wanted a nice riding tire and I've been very impressed with these tires. I gave up a small amount of steering response compared to the Goodyears. They make up for it with a lot more overall grip, wet or dry.

Oh and I got them through my local Mazda dealer. Just so happens they get all their tires from tirerack too. Mount & balance for free.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top