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The Ecsta LX Platinum (KU27) is Kumho’s Grand Touring All-Season tire developed to meet the needs of sporty coupe and luxury performance sedan drivers. It is designed to blend responsive handling, long wear and a quiet ride with year-round traction including in light snow.
Kumho molds their advanced all-season tread compound into the Ecsta LX Platinum radial’s asymmetric tread design where three different types of sipes are used to enhance all-season traction. Outboard shoulder and intermediate tread block sipes terminate in stress relief dimples to help the sipe openings blend straight-line snow traction with lateral grip. Straight sipes are used for the middle blocks while waffle design sipes are used on the inboard intermediate and shoulder tread blocks to blend dry-road stability with all-season traction. The internal structure of Ecsta LX Platinum tires feature twin steel belts reinforced with spirally wrapped nylon cord on top of a polyester cord casing to combine high-speed durability with ride quality.
Founder at Tiresout. Used to be working as an engineer at Bridgestone Tires Akron Technical Center. The responsibilities included but were not limited to technical computing, indoor & outdoor testing of new tires.
This is a late review for this set of tires, as it was almost 6 years ago when I first put them on. Nonetheless, according to my records, they lasted me about 49k miles and just a few months short of 3 years. I seem to recollect that they did fine for me, nothing extraordinary nor detrimental. I don’t recall noise being an issue, and the fuel economy with them was similar to my car’s lifetime average (around 44.6 mpg), and those are the two things that Prius owners seem to really care about. Considering that I drive somewhat aggressively (especially for a Prius owner), I believe they did their job admirably and were of good value. However, currently these (185/65/15) seem to be no longer available for this car.
I’ve changed from the OE Continental ContiPro that came with my Honda Accord. I am very satisfied with Kumho because these tires are A LOT quieter than the OE Continental ContiPros. I’ve driven both in city and highways as I drive a lot and the it was very smooth and quiet ride. I do not know their performance in snow as Georgia does not get have snow days often. But they have been providing excellent traction both in dry and wet condition! These are not just great tires for budget but also for quality. I am happy that I chose this tire. I would definitely buy again!
I bought these tires based off some reviews plus they were cheap. I should have known better. You get what you pay for. I had 33k miles on these tires when I replaced them just this month. 7-19-19. I rotate my tires every 5k miles. The wear warranty was advertised at 5 yrs 50k miles. I replaced them at 33k because pieces of rubber were flying off of them, plus the tread was down to almost nothing. They were rather noisy on the highway, and in town driving. Comfort was not bad but they never felt good under me. I would not recommend these tires to anyone. And I wont be buying any more Kumho tires.
These tires originally came on a used ’12 Maxima I purchased in 2015. I have a short commute to work,so i only put about 30k miles on the tires before they were showing slight signs of dry rot, and transferring road noise in the cabin. The only thing to push me to get new tires was the fact that all 4 tires had a patch of some sort, and 2 of the tires on one side had a cut in them from hitting something in the road. They had a date code of 3314 on them, so they were due either way. I had at least 40% tread and they still handled the road decently. I decided to purchase another set for the car, and am sure they will perform like the last set. Local tire shop wanted said they couldnt get this exact tire and tried to get me to buy a ‘comparable” tire, so im glad i checked online and Tire Rack had them. Hopefully they arent discontinued by the time i need another set.
This is my second set for my second car. I have nothing negative to say about these tires. I just drove 5 hours in the pouring rain on the highway and zero issues.
When I first got these tires, they felt awesome on the car. I would have rated much more highly in every applicable category (basically everything except snow – I live in FL so, no snow here).In the 18 months I’ve been driving on them now, I noticed that their performance has steadily degraded. The most noticeable differences began to appear last winter. On cooler days the tires would slip or squeal under moderate acceleration from intersections. Yes, cooler days cause this car to reach boost more quickly so it can be more touchy, but what I am talking about here is different. This is a notable change in traction versus the prior winter when the tires were first installed. Note also we are talking about a Florida winter so this is generally in temps hovering more in the 40 to 70 degree (F) range; well above freezing at all times.Now, fast forward into the spring and now summer rainy season. These tires have degraded to the point that at some intersections I have difficulty accelerating at some intersections when roads are wet, but also, braking distance and cornering are almost abysmal. Hydroplaning resistance is also degraded but not out of line for the remaining tread depth on the tires. Beyond that, the tires have become extremely noisy compared to when new. Note – My car is well maintained, wheel alignment is checked periodically and never has required any significant adjustment. Suspension is all OEM equivalent new hardware. Tire wear is even on these tires and they have been regularly rotated and balanced as well. From my perspective, I appreciate the extra tread life in the tires, but feel like it’s not useful tread life with the performance degradation I’ve seen after 25K miles. Especially with the noise they’re making now. Won’t be buying these again.