Hey guys, quick question. On the way home from school over spring break, a tire of mine blew out on the highway. I had kumho 712's that came with my wheels on there. I can't find a good price for them anywhere. (Anybody know a cheap place with these tires in 205/45/16?)

Would it be okay to order one kumho spt which i have found for a good bit cheaper? If not, would changing the two front tires to SPT's be good? it'd be around 110 for a single 712 and 75 for the spt, so replacing the two fronts doesn't sound like a terrible idea. the price jump is confusing since everyone says the spt is better.

 

I wouldn't recommend mixing and matching between the 712 and Ecsta SPT, their performance is very different and even with 2 of each, it is going to throw your balance off significantly. Is there no way you can swing 4 SPTs? If you can't I would just recommend getting another 712 even though I don't like them at all. I know money doesn't grow on trees, but I would really recommend spending as much as you can on tires as they are the only things on the car that are in contact with the ground.

Jon

 

Jon, thanks for the reply.

i'm graduating college in may. as much as i love the turbo civic, my patience for fixing problems on my own is decreasing (and my need for 100% reliable transportation is going up and hopefully my bank account will too), so i may not have the thing for very long. I am trying to spend as little on it as possible, so i guess that will mean buying one 712. i also don't like them very much, but hey they came with my wheels.

 

I know that the conventional wisdom is not to mix tires with very different performance, and I know that the SPT is a lot better than the 712. So it would be better to have four matching tires. However, I also HATE throwing away perfectly good tires (i.e. tires that aren't damaged and still have plenty of tread, and I assume your 712s are okay). So if I were scraping by for funds, here's what I would do. I would have two of the SPT, and use them with two of the 712, rotating the three 712 tires you have among the two that you are actually using, so that all three get used and wear down together. Put the 712 on the front, and the SPT on the rear. (For two reasons - understeer is better than oversteer, and this will wear down the 712 quicker.) If you drive the car hard, the car may tend to understeer (plow ahead), so don't go screaming around corners or anything. When the 712 need replacement, get more SPT tires.

The reason I suggest getting two tires (rather than one) is that at least you won't have mismatched tires on either axle.