Dunlop  SP Sport 5000 Symmetrical

215 P 45 R 18 is original equipment on my Mazda 3 5-door. Very very good turning and braking on dry roads. It's amusing to see the expressions on other drivers' faces as I zip by them on the corners going up Berthoud Pass. When making quick lane changes or accelerating through on-ramps, these tires (combined with Mazda's Sky-Active steering geometry) feel very locked into the road.

I haven't been able to push them (due to traffic conditions) on the few wet days we have here in Colorado so I can't comment on wet performance. I haven't hydroplaned with them but I would be cautious about hydroplaning in any light-weight car (like the Mazda 3) with any wide tires. I wouldn't dream of using these as winter tires so I got some 16" Bridgestone Blizzacks for winter driving around here.

These tires are showing a bit of wear at 5,000 miles. Noise on paved highways is not bad. Noise on choppy concrete roads with expansion joints in noticeable with these tires but not much more than the Yokohama tires on my wife's former Honda or the Pirelli tires on her current Subaru Outback.

I will probably try another brand when these Dunlops wear out but for now I don't think they are as bad as some folks here say.

Here's why I'm reviewing this. I'm an avid autocrosser in addition to being a regular commuter. I never realized how bad these tires were until I took my Mazda3 out for a weekend at an autocross. ABS constantly kicked in while braking in a *straight line*, and there was simply no straight-line stopping power. That's bad-news-bears for street driving with kids running around the neighborhood. Since I've never had to E-Brake on the street, I never realized the low limits of this tire in the dry, and in a straight line. To be objective in my review, the cornering performance outdoes the straight line braking and I will give higher ratings for the responsiveness of the tire.

I just ordered a set of Pilot Sport All Season 4's (215/45/18) to replace these. If you are driving on these, please change them out.

tldr; The straight line braking performance is woefully inadequate.

Most of the newer Mazdas have Dunlops as OEM tires because of Dunlop's good handling qualities, including my previous 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 (SP Sport 2000) and current 2014 Mazda3 sTouring (SP Sport 5000). Dunlops in general have good dry traction and steering response, and this SP Sport5000 is one of them.

I pushed my car in plenty hilly twisty roads, the tire has good grip with plenty decent wet traction. Sidewall is a little on the soft side so the cornering limit feel is kinda mushy. But previously I came from Bridgestone RE-11 and Kumho LE Sport max performance summers in HDPE track days, so I am slightly biased.

Anyone expecting 30000+ miles out of a tire with DOT 340 treadwear is not being realistic. I replace my previous tires every 25000 so I have no problem changing them out.

With this price at $150/each I probably would seek different tire option. But overall not a shabby tire by any means.

OE on this car. Noise is intrusive, not sure how much this is the car's fault or the tire's fault until I change tires but I hope for improvement. However this tire is unacceptable in my opinion in terms of wet traction. I am surprised at how thru the life of the tire it would skid on wet pavement in unchallenging driving. Tires would spin with even easy acceleration from a stop in wet conditions and sometimes in dry ones. For that reason I do not recommend this tire at least on the mazda 3

Trash. Came OEM on my car. They were hydroplaning on the first rainy season. Wet traction is low but at least predictable and loss of traction is pretty linear. At this point, wet traction is a joke, the tires break loose just trying to leave a stoplight as other cars pull away without issue. Dry traction started out ok, but has now become unsafe. I still have a decent amount of tread left, I'd estimate at least another 10k miles before I hit the wear bars. But the tires lose traction with moderately firm braking, as would be used in an emergency - well before I would expect a tire to and much worse than previous quality tires I've owned.

I traveled for a contract a year ago and had these in light snow. Amazingly, I got stuck in about 2" of snow on a 4 lane road, with tons of other cars driving right past. Had to get a pull from a friendly Jeep owner who was amused at how pathetic my traction was. I've driven in snow before without issue on other AS tires.

The only positive is that treadwear has been decent and wear has been even. The fact that these cost more than a quality tire from Conti, BFG etc is a joke.

Tires have weather cracking after less than a year and a half and about 40,000 miles of use. This includes cracks in the tread and in the sidewall, causing pressure to leak out over time. This is entirely unacceptable for tires that are less than 2 years old. After 40,000 miles of use, all tires are down to about 3/32nds, and need to be replaced anyways. Dry traction is fine. Wet traction is not good. It's pretty easy to break the tires loose in a low-horsepower Toyota Corolla. Traction on ice is virtually non-existent. Tires are extremely loud and not particularly comfortable. The traction on these tires wasn't great when they were new and is extremely poor now. I am extremely disappointed, and I would not recommend these tires.

Oh, Mazda... What can I say? I love the vehicles you've been putting out in the past few years. So much so that I bought my first ever brand new car from you. It was January, I had the car picked out and delivered across state lines, a dark blue Mazda 3 hatch, fully loaded with the black/tan interior and a 6-speed manual. What a glorious combination. I got home, and that night we got a dusting of snow. My apartment complex at the time had a very slight hill to it, nothing that I ever even considered to be a challenge in any amount of snow. But this time, less than an inch of fresh powder was too much to handle with my measly 180-hp on brand new "all season" tires. SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN. At least I was able to enjoy new car smell while waiting for my friend to show up and push me.

What a joke these tires are. In addition to being absolutely atrocious, laughably useless in even the slightest amount of snow, they roar like the engines of a turboprop commuter plane on the highway. Rolling over expansion joints feels like I'm hitting cinder blocks. If it's even slightly chilly out, they won't even grip that well on dry pavement. Wet handling was fine, nothing remarkable, but no issues really. If I had to say something good about these circular pieces of garbage, it would be that the steering feel is very sharp and direct. But then, even my winter set-up of 16" Blizzaks feels great on this car, so maybe it has nothing to do with these tires.

After 25,000 miles (3 summers, I refused to endanger my life and the lives of others by driving these in the winter), they're sufficiently low on tread that I no longer feel bad about getting rid of these. Putting these on a new car sold anywhere north of the Rio Grande should be considered a crime.

Dry road conditions is fine, not great. Wet conditions ok, winter conditions terrible, no traction on icy roads or hard packed snow or 2 inches of wet snow. Driving in light "fluffy" snow the TSC light flashes constantly. Drive mostly county roads (secondary) which are hilly and curving and these tires are not up to the job in normal winter weather. Will be replaced ASAP with WS tires

These tires came on my 2014 Mazda 6 Touring. Fine on dry roads for first 15,000 miles then began to show wear despite regular rotations. Terrible on ice/ in snow. Just rolled 24,000 and have to replace all four. Very disappointed in this tire.

These tires don't grip as well as I'd expect, even on dry pavement in the summer heat. The right side of my car easily hydroplanes on very rainy days when I drive in the rightmost lane- I think they're simply unsafe in this situation. Winter driving their first season was acceptable enough but I will NOT do so now that they have more wear. Road noise is simply OK.

Will never consider buying these again. I'm disappointed that Mazda provides these on their new cars.

for the first 1,0000 miles on these tire i have no problems with them other then the very loud road noise level but that understandable with a 45 sidewall, so far have not problems in the rain , haven't try them in to snow yet .

Took my Mazda 6 2014 to a local dealer at 21000 for the typical oil change, tire rotation. Was advised the tires were all needing to be replaced ASAP as two were in the "red zone" and two in the "yellow zone". WHAT the car is 15 months old and needs new tires? After calling Goodyear/ Dunlop and finding this site, it was determined the following: The Dunlop tires are a soft grade of 3 - which means they don't hold up to the Florida heat zone or to the composites of the road which contain shell. This unacceptable when you put a 19 in low profile tire on a sporty car, to only get 20,000 miles out of the tread. Dunlop received my complaint and they sent me to local Goodyear dealer where they agreed to pay for 50% of the cost, so instead of $225 per tire, they contributed $117 per tire plus I had to pay the fees of installing, etc. What a huge disappointment that was to me - I won't ever buy another new car with Dunlop tires on!

These tire are OEM tires , and they are by far the worst I ever had , treads wore out after 10,000 miles , they are noisy as hack , I had to contact Goodyear who owns Dunlop and they replaced them for me , with a different tire .

WORST TIRES I HAVE EVER HAD. MAZDA NEEDS TO DO THEIR HOMEWORK BEFORE THEY PUT TIRES ON THERE VEHICLE'S. DO NOT BUY THESE TIRES THEY ARE THE HARDEST RIDING AND LOUDEST TIRE ESPECIALLY ON A NEW CAR. TIRES WERE WORN DOWN TO WEAR BARS BY 24,300 WHICH IS MOSTLY HIGHWAY WITH SOME CITY DRIVING.