E-Spec

[majic]

got my tires from E-spec on Sunday.. it took less than a week for them to arrive (i couldn\'t pick them up right away) I got the Hankook IceBear W300 (http://www.hankooktireusa.com/products_view_info.asp?Item_ID=28&CatID=6).. 205/55/16 for $645 taxes in mounted and balanced on steelies..

one steelie is \"toyota\" brand and the other 3 aren\'t (doesn\'t say on them).. but they look the same.. should i be worried? Ed (e-spec) said he never saw them put it on and he\'d replace it if i wanted.. :D but i don\'t think it\'s that big of a deal.. what do you guys think?

i even weighed them and they were all 45lbs +/-1lb - HEAVY!! but they are steelies afterall!

all in all it was a great experience.. fast.. cheap and close to my house!! thumbs up for ED!

check out the pix here (http://torontomazda3.com/forum/read.php?TID=943)

[FLIPDADY]

Yeah my steelies are made by Toyota as well. They ran out of silver ones.

[Dr Butcher]

Nice, I like the tread pattern. That was a great deal, my 15\" snows were $638 otr just for the tires mounted on my stock alloys. I did end up with a $50 gas card though. :sarc

[hotgo]

I picked up a set of 4 KW19s from E-spec on Saturday and 2 of my rims are Toyota and the other 2 don\'t say... would have been nice to have matching rims.

Also, I just noticed that one of the steel rims is slightly bent on the lip, but it looks to be pretty minor. The tires aren\'t on the car yet but hopefully they will be fine.

[MGPWR]

I got my Kumho KW 19s earlier this week. I had no problems in getting the tires and they were ready as promised. Ed is a nice guy and very accomodating. I definitely recommend buying tires from him.

I haven\'t installed them yet but I will as soon as the snow hits the ground. This is the first time I\'ve owned winter tires so I can\'t wait to try them out!

[wtom]

E-Spec is very good! Although they are so busy because I tried to chase them for a set of extinct (at this time) KW17 on black steelies in the past week and I wanted to get them ASAP, all in all very nice transaction!

EDIT: They were nice enough to deliver to Meet#7 for me to pick up and pay them as opposed to having me drive all the way to \'Sauga... Car Club Meets are Good, mmmmkay... :)

[S.F.W.]

More awesome service from E-spec. Made my deal with ED for the KW17 with the new Steelie. I needed help with the install so Derek and someone else came to my place this evening, changed the tires for me. Great service.:)

[Illmatic]

Picked up my KW19\'s (on the silver steelies) from Derek at E-Spec yesterday evening. They were great and even met me closer to my area rather than me having to drive down to Mississauga! So far so good, I\'m hoping to get them installed later this week during my 16K service.

S.F.W, wtom you put your wheels on yet? I\'m interested to hear how they look and what the drive is like!

[wtom]

Got mine installed last night at a friend\'s house. Drive is pretty close to normal (stock 17\" rims and Goodyear RS-Ass). Haven\'t tried anything fancy yet cuz the damn snow is NOT falling... :(

[S.F.W.]

Put mine on last night. The sound is about the same as the stock good years. I find the drive to be significantly better. Wet/cold roads this morning, highway drive, great traction. As for look, with the Rav4 steelies they look a lot nicer than many cars stock tires/rims.

[Melenium]

I picked up the set of KW17 on Rav4 steelies from Ed at Meet #7. Just put them on and all seems good. They actually sound quiter than the stock RS-As, and the ride is definately a bit softer. Speed bumps aren\'t nearly as harsh. It feels like some of the crispness is gone, but its not a big deal -- I don\'t plan on slaloming around in winter and would much rather have sure-footed traction. I havent gone faster than about 80kph, yet, but so far, no vibration at all on the non-hubcentric steelies.

Just a heads up to everyone who got winter tires this year, be sure to check your air pressure: they probably weren\'t pumped all the way up at delivery.

[Illmatic]

I happy to hear only good things about the KW19\'s. I got tired of lugging them around in the back of my car so I hauled them out until I get them installed on Saturday. I can\'t believe that I\'m almost wishing it would snow and get icy so I really see how these things perform...

Melenium I can\'t believe you haven\'t gone over 80kph yet! Man, I must drive like a maniac...

[wtom]

Originally posted by Illmatic

Melenium I can\'t believe you haven\'t gone over 80kph yet! Man, I must drive like a maniac...



It was raining the night I got my snow tires put on and I immediately went 100km/h+ :) No feeling of lost control at any point in any sense. Very nice so far... damn weather reports are getting my hopes up for nothing!!!!! Said it would snow Wednesday... nadda... said it will snow today? NADDA... Damn it, Mother Nature, give us the snow!!!!!!! Then let the fun begin... :)

[hotgo]

I\'ve had my KW19\'s on for almost 2 weeks now and finally got a chance to test them at speed. I drove to Toronto last night from Waterloo and the roads were wet.

On the way to TO around 6:00, my average speed was 120km/h topping out at 140km/h on occasion. The tires felt steady (though not nearly as much as the RS-A\'s).

On the way back, there was less traffic and my average speed was closer to 135km/h topping out at 160km/h a few times. They handled just fine.

So in summary, the KW19\'s handle quite well even at highway speed. They are not nearly as stable as the RS-A\'s (I\'m one of the the few people who doesn\'t hate the OEM tires...), but they give me enough of a sense of control to feel comfortable driving the car at higher speeds.

BTW, I\'m taking donations for potential speeding tickets, and in case they take my license away, I\'m taking names of people interested in renting my while I can\'t drive... lol :)

[bubba1983]

Originally posted by hotgo


I\'ve had my KW19\'s on for almost 2 weeks now and finally got a chance to test them at speed. I drove to Toronto last night from Waterloo and the roads were wet.

On the way to TO around 6:00, my average speed was 120km/h topping out at 140km/h on occasion. The tires felt steady (though not nearly as much as the RS-A\'s).

On the way back, there was less traffic and my average speed was closer to 135km/h topping out at 160km/h a few times. They handled just fine.

So in summary, the KW19\'s handle quite well even at highway speed. They are not nearly as stable as the RS-A\'s (I\'m one of the the few people who doesn\'t hate the OEM tires...), but they give me enough of a sense of control to feel comfortable driving the car at higher speeds.

BTW, I\'m taking donations for potential speeding tickets, and in case they take my license away, I\'m taking names of people interested in renting my while I can\'t drive... lol :)

hahah, your too much...lets drive...in single line...and ponder over how to drive....fast...or slow...

[Melenium]

Originally posted by wtom



Originally posted by Illmatic

Melenium I can\'t believe you haven\'t gone over 80kph yet! Man, I must drive like a maniac...



It was raining the night I got my snow tires put on and I immediately went 100km/h+ :) No feeling of lost control at any point in any sense. Very nice so far... damn weather reports are getting my hopes up for nothing!!!!! Said it would snow Wednesday... nadda... said it will snow today? NADDA... Damn it, Mother Nature, give us the snow!!!!!!! Then let the fun begin... :)

Well, as I\'ve said in other threads, I probably do the least driving of anyone on this board. I\'ve had the car for just under 3 weeks and still only have about 420km on the odometer. Part of the reason is that they\'ve installed these nasty, nasty speed humps on my feeder street, and to get out to Bayview I need to go over at least 3 or 4 either way. They really drive me crazy. Second thing is that I\'ve had my head burried in the books with exams coming up this week. Really no time at all.

And Wtom, last Monday I looked at the weathernetwork and they were saying rain or snow all week long. So on went the tires. Murphey apparrently trumps the weather people when it comes to winter tires. So now we know for summer, if we wash the car (which guarantees rain in 24 hrs or less), throw on some winter tires :p Anyone want to volunteer to leave their sun-roof open? I\'m sure that will tease the weather enough to drop something wet :D

[Illmatic]

Tires are finally on and so far so good. I haven\'t had a chance to open it up on the highway yet though...

I have to say those silver steelies look nice! Way better then the standard black steelies. The worst part was hauling my stock 17s into the basement. They don\'t look huge on the car but when you\'re carrying of them...damn! It\'s still hard to believe some higher priced cars only come with 16s....

[bubba1983]

just put my kw19\'s on yesterday i purchased from e-spec...so far..so good....the \"squishy\" feel you get froma softer compound is kinda hilarious on teh road....will do some high speed tests soon enuff...but so far, so good...