 Sumitomo HTR Z III Tire Price: $73 & up |
Sumitomo HTR Z 111 is a low cost maximum performance summer tire. People who own this tire all have very similar comments. The main one being that dry pavement traction is very good for this tire and you can’t beat the price versus performance ratio.
One guy with a 2004 Mercedes-Benz C230 say’s the Sumitomo’s are smooth quiet and have a very low wear rate. He also felt they were more than adequate for the street but if you want a high-performance tire for the track you would need to step up to Michelin’s PS2 or something else.
I have an 05 GTO with over 420hp. Car came with Bridgestone’s that were great tire’s, but didn’t want to spend $240 a tire for OEM tires. Gave the Sumitomo’s a shot and love them. The dry and wet weather traction is awesome. They are actually better then the Bridgestone Potenza’s and a $100+ cheaper. They are a little bit noisier, but for the price it’s worth it. I will buy these tires again when it comes time.
Although another guy said maybe we should quit calling these cheap tires. He said he just replaced his Pilot PS2′s and these tires feel just as good. At first he was hesitant to buy the Sumitomo’s but says now he would definitely buy them again.
One thing to remember is don’t let the price fool you, for example, if you check the prices, Sumitomo’s HTR Z 111 against Goodyear’s EMT you’ll find that the Goodyear’s are twice as much money and the Sumitomo’s are rated in the middle of the Maximum performance summer tire category and the Goodyear’s are at the bottom of the category dead last.
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I bought a used 2006 MB S500 with these tires installed front and back. On my first out-of-town trip (6/13/10) Atlanta to Tampa the left rear (265/40 – 18) blewout 450 miles into the trip at 75 mph on a 95 degree day. There was no sign of any puncture in the tire and it had 5/32 of tread left. The sidewall did have a hole big enough to put my thumb through. I had aired all tires to 34 psi for the trip so it wasn’t low or leaking previously. I haven’t had a blowout in over 30 years and this appears to be a defective tire. Even though it was 2/3 worn out it still shouldn’t have blownout. I would think twice before putting these on my car again.
That’s pretty bizarre. Sidewall failures usually don’t happen without having help. Like a piece of metal or some other object that gets picked up on the road. Notice it was a rear tire, usually the front tire runs over and pitches the object into the rear.
When I was tire buster most of the flat repairs I did were in the rear because of this.
Another scenario is: Usually there is a belt or tread separation first and the car wobbles so bad that it get’s looked at before the dreaded blowout ever occurs. But that doesn’t sound like what happened here.
Thank you for your comment Carl, I will do more investigation about Sumitomo’s and see if there are any other reports similar to yours and I will report them on this page if I find any.