Wow, good to hear people in my neck of the woods aren't the only ones complaining.
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?