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A while back there was commentary on Kumho tires in a winter setting. After around 6K miles on the Kumho 716 ECSTA HP4 215/55-16 91H tires, I felt I should comment on my impressions to those who might be interested, although I have done no driving on ice or snow yet. My opinion has been, from the beginning, that they tracked and braked as well as the Michelin MXV4 tires that were OEM on our 2001 9-5 Sportwagon.
Our recent 1800 mile trip, though, has secured my good opinion of these tires. They handled the trip out, which was dry roads and moderate temperatures, as well as might be expected, given our previous driving. Downhill speeds of 85 mph in the West Virginia mountains, sometimes in sweeping curves, went without a trace of the car attempting to creep out of the line I was trying to hold.
The trip back was the real test, though, as we drove in rain for somewhere around half of the trip back, with several heavy stretches. The tires showed uniform behavior in the wet when going from asphalt to concrete and when transiting rough stretches. As on dry pavement, the feeling of stability when going around curves was absolute. For most of the time in the rain, we were able to maintain our favorite cruising speed of 70-75 mph; in fact, the trip home was shorter than the trip to the coast by a small amount.
Braking on wet pavement was as predictable as on dry, and the only loss of traction on the whole trip was in a single spot, and we didn't even feel the car start to hydroplane, only knowing it had happened when the SAAB TCS system kicked out the cruise (which it is designed to do).
The upshot of all this is that I can recommend the Kumho tires without reservation, and the better news is that they were over $200 cheaper than replacing the OEM Michelins would have been.
posted by 66.158.16...
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