kumho tyres

[mercmanuk]

just had 2 fronts fitted to the w203
Kumho KU31 225/45 R17 Y (94), Reinforced
blackcircles.com fitted £150 cheap compared to other places i called and service ,follow up calls etc the best ive ever experianced

 

[mykulmerc]

KU31 205/55 R16 91W £161 pair
KU31 225/50 R16 92W £168 pair

so sounds like you got good deal.

Thought I'd try kumho as many people here recommend them. Before that I've used Toyo and Michelins - no complaints about any, but not too sure that I really appreciate any difference.

 

[Honey Bear]

What are they like?

up to giving us a small review?

 

[mykulmerc]

Would be very happy to review, but not sure I can say much. Rears have beenI on for 4500 miles, fronts less than 1000. Certainly no complaints, but there again I was happy with the handling on the worn out tyres before.

I don't exactly drive like a librarian, but presumably I'm not pushing things enough to find out? Possibly just felt a very slight twitch at 60 or so on a slip road in the wet last night.

I'll report again with a few miles on them.

 

[mercmanuk]

small review
wheels go round in dry
wheels go round in wet
stop when i touch the brakes
do what i want them to do!!!!!!!!

 

[mykulmerc]

small review
wheels go round in dry
wheels go round in wet
stop when i touch the brakes
do what i want them to do!!!!!!!!

exactly!

 

[AANDYY]

x3

 

[Peter DLM]

small review
wheels go round in dry
wheels go round in wet
stop when i touch the brakes
do what i want them to do!!!!!!!!

Until you need the few (or lots of) percentage points at the extreme reaches of their performance, then most of the budget tyre are lacking, as demonstrated in the annual big tyre test in the weekly/monthly mags.

I guess it comes from being a life long biker, tyres are extremely important, and I guess I carried this over to the cars as well. Good quality tyres all the time for me, usually whatever the MO tyre is.

 

[Rashman]

I have Kumho's.

I had them on my 208 and I have them on my 63.

(lol... I'm just waiting for C240Sport to jump in here!..any minute now.....)


I strongly believe that Kumho's are a very underated tyre.

They are a harder wearing tyre and offer very good grip when warm.

I really do like them.

For a brief period, I had conti's on the rear (on my 63).
The conti's were/ are very sticky buggers and offer very good grip - noticably when ripping off from a standstill.

I had no complaints about the conti's at all.
But they wear pretty quickly due to their softer compound.

So I go with Kumho's.
They last longer and perform very well.
Never had a problem with them.

You may be interested to know that Mercedes will soon be offering Kumho's as standard.

You may also be interested to know that reports are showing the Conti's are having big problems with tyres splitting down the middles!

Kumho's are also alot cheaper. I like this.

To be honest, I really don't notice any real difference in grip from the conti's when I'm up and rolling.

I may break alittle more traction off the line, but I like this.
It also saves putting too much strain on the gearbox!

 

[mykulmerc]

If you drive a high performance car (55, AMG etc) use the best tyres.
If you drive an moderate car CLK C270Cdi go for a mid price tyre - you won't get the benefit of an expensive tyre
If you drive a 15 year old Micra go for a budget tyre - they'll still be worth more than the rest of the car??

What think anybody?

 

[Rashman]

If you drive a high performance car (55, AMG etc) use the best tyres.
If you drive an moderate car CLK C270Cdi go for a mid price tyre - you won't get the benefit of an expensive tyre
If you drive a 15 year old Micra go for a budget tyre - they'll still be worth more than the rest of the car??

What think anybody?

Hey bud.
yeah, I hear ya.

Thing is, we're not able to push our tyres to the limits anyway, being public roads.

So I don't really need cutting edge, maximum attack tyres, because I couldn't exercise them anyway.

Kumho's are a good compromise which offer great performance within our road limits.

I don't drive the car in the wet, so I can't comment too much there.
But I did drive my 208 in the wet and the kumho's were good, but noticably of a harder compound.
Traction was easy to overwhelm.

 

[Honey Bear]

Nice. Thanks for the input guys. I'll try to give them a go after winter tyres come off next year.

 

[mykulmerc]

Nice. Thanks for the input guys. I'll try to give them a go after winter tyres come off next year.

That's another question - to use winter tyres on not- I used Toyo winters on the W202 last year and was glad I did on a few days....but is it worth it? It might mean one or two days that I stay at home if we have 3rd bad winter on the trot.

 

[LTD]

Devon - winter tyres ?

I don't use them in Scotland and, according to some, we get polar bears up here.

 

[mykulmerc]

Devon - winter tyres ?

I don't use them in Scotland and, according to some, we get polar bears up here.

It doesn't happen often, but a very gentle hill nearly defeated the 202 on summer tyres 2 years ago. I reckon a rwd on winter tyres is better than 4wd on ordinary tyres.

Then there is always the poss of driving to Austria for skiing - being fed up with low quality airlines.

 

[Honey Bear]

Cant remember what I had put on, but they're on the steels. I'll check next time I go to the loft. I might end up putting the kumho's on my genuine MB's, rather than the replicas I currently enjoy not caring about .

 

[crockers]

I've used Contis, Goodyear F1 assymetrics, Michelin sports and Kumhos.

I have found the Kumhos very different to the others..


They cost a lot less...


.otherwise all tyres have been pretty much the same on the road. The F1's were the worse for wear rates. I expected the Michelins to be better but were no different to Contis.

 

[Deleted member 2227]

If you drive a high performance car (55, AMG etc) use the best tyres.
If you drive an moderate car CLK C270Cdi go for a mid price tyre - you won't get the benefit of an expensive tyre
If you drive a 15 year old Micra go for a budget tyre - they'll still be worth more than the rest of the car??

What think anybody?

If you search this forum you will find that many of us have tried loads of brands and between us we must have tried nearly every tyre that you can put on a Merc. I have in recent years had Conti (both assymetrical and normal tread) , Goodyear, Dunlop and Michelins. The Kumho KU31s are at least half the price of the Michelins which during the last 12months caused me to aquaplane and left me stranded twice on level roads in slippy conditions. I've just driven 1600 miles in very variable weather conditions and including mountains in Scotland and in dreadful wet motorway conditions and the KU31s were better than the Michelins I had on last time round. I'll be buying another set because they are a very good tyre.

 

[npuk]

Had KU31s put on another of our cars recently and we are happy with them. They get alot of good reviews. Also very safe tyres, and were rated excellent in the german Auto Bild tyre test.

 

[matty.13]

ive tried many differnt tyres though the years , and currently have conti's on the rear and kumhos on the front . the conti's have worn really quickly and but have inpressed me with the grip. have got to say kumho are a very good all round tyre and for the money are hard to be beaten. 2 other brands i thought were very good were hankook and uniroyal rainsport , the hankook lasted ages and wore even and gave good amounts of grip and the uniroyals are brill in the wet .