I Need Help And Advice On Choosing Tires

[unique6]

I need help in choosing out of 3 tires for my 2003 Mazda 6i. I have narrowed my choices down to UHP All-Season tires with a UTQC rating of at least 300 in the size of 225/35/20. I know many of you may not have 20" wheels on your mazda but you may have the same tires in a smaller size. I am wrapping these tires around the lightest 20" wheels I could find, Motegi DP6, that fit our car. My choices are: Toyo Proxes 4, Pirelli Pzero Nero M + S, & Yokohama Avid W4S. These are 3 great tires but I need some actual experienced people to give me feedback on how well these tires do on the real road. Thanks for your input.

[Tire Guy]

I know many of you may not have 20" wheels on your mazda but you may have the same tires in a smaller size.[/b]

It still would be comparing apples and oranges. One owner's experience on 17 or 18 inch Proxes 4 will not compare to how 20 inch Proxes 4 will ride and handle even on the same vehicle.

Btw, prepare yourself for a lot of negative feedback on this. 20 inch on the 6 is not looked favorably upon in this forum. Fair warning.

[flarearrow]

unique6, where do you live? What weather conditons do you plan to drive in.

I had the P Zero Nero M+S in 225-45-17 for a short time, and I hated them the day it snowed (about 3 inches). I couldn't get the car out of my driveway. Snow/ice traction was non-existant.

[unique6]

unique6, where do you live? What weather conditons do you plan to drive in.

I had the P Zero Nero M+S in 225-45-17 for a short time, and I hated them the day it snowed (about 3 inches). I couldn't get the car out of my driveway. Snow/ice traction was non-existant.[/b]

I live in Georgia, so I never have to deal with the snow. It does rain down here though. As far as the first reply, I know people don't favor 20's on here but I had to put the biggest wheels that would fit on here with any modifications. These wheels are only adding 12 lbs. total to the unsprung weight which with some modifications i can make up for very quickly. So the Pirelli's are not very good on snow and ice, that's good to know. I need more experiences with these tires regardles of the size, I'm not asking for how they increase your ride, im asking how do they handle on different elements.

[FormulaLT1]

if you're not worried about snow then why are you considering all season tires? summer tires will do you worlds better.

[Tire Guy]

As far as the first reply, I know people don't favor 20's on here but I had to put the biggest wheels that would fit on here with any modifications.[/b]

Why? What is your goal? Just to have big wheels and tires? If so, that's a lousy reason.

These wheels are only adding 12 lbs. total to the unsprung weight which with some modifications i can make up for very quickly.[/b]

Only adding 12 lbs.? And that's just the wheels. Are you upgrading your brakes too? Otherwise, you'll be warping rotors in no time!

Oh, and don't forget to upgrade your shocks, as well. The additional weight will wear your shocks faster, too!

(So much for no modifications!)

Here's some info on the effects of unsprung weight:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsprung_weight

[posttosh]

if you're not worried about snow then why are you considering all season tires? summer tires will do you worlds better.[/b]

+1

On dry pavement, non-all season tires/* are better than all-season tires or winter tires.

On snow, all-season tires are better than non-all-season tires, but far from the equal of real winter tires.

On wet pavement, all-season tires are much worse than either winter tires or non-all-season tires/*.

/* exception to the rule: so-called "extreme performance" tires (e.g. Yokohama ADVAN Neova, Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R, BFGoodrich KD), which are specialty formulations biased toward running at the very high operating temperatures usually seen at the track, will be outside of their operating envelope when run in cold temperatures, whether on dry or on wet pavement.

[FormulaLT1]

actually I ran RE-01Rs last winter and they gripped just fine in freezing temps =)
and they lasted 20k miles with one and a half seasons of auto-x. best tire I've ever owned.