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[dth656]

hi all,

just thought i'd post a brief review of my RFT replacement experience. i have a 2006 330i w/ sport pkg (with the 18" staggered OEM wheels). i had about 32k miles on my original RFTs, and the wear bars were showing...

i wanted an all-season tire w/ a relatively decent tread life w/o going overboard on the price. i ended up ordering a set of kumho ecsta ASX's from tirerack.com (thanks gary!), and had them shipped directly to Bavarian Professionals in berkeley, ca. they did an awesome job, and were able to answer a lot of my non-tire related questions as well.

first impressions of the tire were greatly improved ride quality: bumps that used to make me cringe in advance in SF and berkeley were now absorbed in a far more civil manner. the non RFT's really take the edge off things.

after a few hundred miles, as far as grip, the kumho's dont feel nearly as secure as the OEM bridgestones. it is probably a combination of harder compound and the all-season tread. i guess i wasn't expecting as much of a difference, but that is probably the tradeoff for having an all-season vs. summer only tire. have other people experienced this as well? any thoughts?

in the future, i think i will go w/ a summer-use only soft compound tire at the lower end of the price spectrum (so i dont feel as guilty chewing them up) and see how sticky they are