Ronzuki,
Wow, you had a Rubicon and then a Kizashi? You have some good taste.
How was the Rubicon? How long did you own it and did you offroad a lot in it?
New tires for the Kiz...
Bought the Rube new in Fall 2004, traded it in on the Kiz fall 2010. I prefer to drive that style of vehicle the best as I'm not really a car guy. The Jeep was a real POS however. I bought it with hopes of it becoming my next trail rig when I was finished daily driving it and after the Sami rusted off the frame. Never got the warm fuzzy of reliability w/ the Jeep. In the shop for far too many things it never should have been in for. Loved the factory lockers, D44 diffs and low range (4:1) xfer case. Main reason I unloaded it was that, unfortunately, Chrysler kept building the 4.0 long after the tooling was shot. Many motors are experiencing major cam and OPD problems that never can seem to be resolved even after multiple rebuilds, yes multiple (block machining issues IMHO). Mine was demonstrating all the classic syptoms of the catastrophic failure, which are too extensive to describe here. Considering it was out of warranty, extremely well maintained, never off-roaded or abused, I decided to cut my soon to be loses and dumped it. I still miss it, but not all the trips to the dealer. I even had dual tops for it. Bottom line, it never would have put up w/ the same abuse my sami does and still keep rolling, even if I were to put double its value in mods in to it.
Ron
2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded
)
1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top (
sold)
2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded
) 1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top (
sold)Yeah, sounds like a Jeep experience. They just don't have that reliability needed for hassle-free long term ownership. It really seems like a hit or miss with those Wranglers. I used to off road quite a bit so I was always interested in the Wranglers, but with their poor reliability, awful fuel economy, and compromised ride quality on road, I was deterred from ownership as a main car. I don't see them as actually better than a Suzuki. Sure, the Suzuki isn't as off road capable without mods, but it's far more reliable and fuel efficient. Plus, you actually don't need a lot of power for most off roading. I used to off road a lot in my old stock Suzuki Sidekick and the only thing that stopped me were the trails that required suspension lifts and additional skid plates. Otherwise, the Suzuki kept up fine with the Wranglers yet delivered good gas mileage and very good reliability. Despite all the abuse off road plus the daily driving, it never broke down and left me stranded.
Two of my friends had Samurais that were pretty fun off road.
Suzuki still sells them in other parts of the world as the Jimny. In Japan, you can get them as a kei car with a turbo 660cc engine (JDM models are usually seen with a hood scoop and a yellow license plate) in addition to a non-kei car 1.3 liter.
I would love to have a Jimny one day as a weekend off roader alongside my Kizashi. One can only dream.
Two of my friends had Samurais that were pretty fun off road.
Suzuki still sells them in other parts of the world as the Jimny. In Japan, you can get them as a kei car with a turbo 660cc engine (JDM models are usually seen with a hood scoop and a yellow license plate) in addition to a non-kei car 1.3 liter.
I would love to have a Jimny one day as a weekend off roader alongside my Kizashi. One can only dream.
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Black)
yeah well I'd been hoping they'd bring the Jimny here, but that ain't happenin' now is it? eh, some of the stuff they're doing to the newer releases of it I've been seeing....lost interest anyway. I'll spend less on an all aluminum tub for the Samurai than the mods I would have had to make to the Heep just to have it run even with the samurai. That plus Jeep could never hold a candle to Suzuki in the reliability department.
Ron
2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded )
1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top ( sold)
2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded
) 1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top (
sold)4,000 mile update...
Have had some good all-around all-weather driving experience w/ the tires now and am pleased with them. The wet weather grip is awesome, I notice no difference vs. dry really. Snow traction is at least as good as the Dunlops if not better. Haven't had any horrendous snow to gauge by, but the traction is good in the lighter stuff. Can't speak to hard braking action stopping distance, but, the car still stops on a dime when I need it to. Good enough for me and the way I drive. As I said earlier, a bit noisier than the Dunlops, but that's to be expected w/ the better foul weather grip. All in all, I'd buy them again for the cost of them.
Have had some good all-around all-weather driving experience w/ the tires now and am pleased with them. The wet weather grip is awesome, I notice no difference vs. dry really. Snow traction is at least as good as the Dunlops if not better. Haven't had any horrendous snow to gauge by, but the traction is good in the lighter stuff. Can't speak to hard braking action stopping distance, but, the car still stops on a dime when I need it to. Good enough for me and the way I drive. As I said earlier, a bit noisier than the Dunlops, but that's to be expected w/ the better foul weather grip. All in all, I'd buy them again for the cost of them.
Ron
2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded )
1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top ( sold)
2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded
) 1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top (
sold)OK, after yesterday's snowy mess, I've concluded these things suck in snow. The OE Dunlop were far better. Straight driving traction not so good (maybe the type of snow and road temp had something to do w/ it). They didn't bite at all in turns at any kind of speed. Still way better grip than the OE Dunlops in the rain however. It's tough to get an all-season tire, especially a performance based one, that's good in ALL seasons.
Ron
2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded )
1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top ( sold)
2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded
) 1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top (
sold)Yeah, All Seasons are a compromise tire. Jack of all trades, Ace of none. Most car enthusiasts opt for good summer tires and good winter tires to get the optimal traction in those seasons. All Seasons are budget-friendly but simply can't offer the traction of dedicated tires for the application. They even have worse wet traction than summer tires on wet surfaces (as long as it's not near freezing).Ronzuki wrote:OK, after yesterday's snowy mess, I've concluded these things suck in snow. The OE Dunlop were far better. Straight driving traction not so good (maybe the type of snow and road temp had something to do w/ it). They didn't bite at all in turns at any kind of speed. Still way better grip than the OE Dunlops in the rain however. It's tough to get an all-season tire, especially a performance based one, that's good in ALL seasons.
If I move back to Southern California, I'd only buy Max Performance Summer tires. I'm still on my OEM Dunlops which I think are OK, but my ESP comes on quite a bit on wet roads making me believe these tires are not that grippy in wet conditions.
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Black)
Ronzuki wrote:OK, after yesterday's snowy mess, I've concluded these things suck in snow. The OE Dunlop were far better.
There's nothing worse than getting a set of tyres that don't perform satisfactorily- you either have to live with them or flog them off cheap and take a loss.Have you tried checking the reviews on Tirerack before purchasing? I've found them useful.
David
Considering where I live, I see far more rain than snow. And the wet grip of these tires is great and as I stated better than the Dunlops. Dry driving more or less equal to Dunlop, rainy conditions much better than Dunlops, snow...well 2 outta 3 ain't bad. I still think it's a good tire (not great tire) for the money, just not great in the snow traction department. Don't get me wrong, the car goes, but it's not snow tire traction.
Ron
2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded )
1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top ( sold)
2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded
) 1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top (
sold)I rented a Jimny 4X in Costa Rica and also once in Spain, so wish they came here to the States, I'd snatch one up.Ronzuki wrote:yeah well I'd been hoping they'd bring the Jimny here, but that ain't happenin' now is it?.
Anybody have a pdf copy of that TSB for alignment? does it apply to my 13? I don't see any significant abnormal wear at 20K.
I'd love to get better handing tires down the road too.
