Most of you are probably not too familiar with Sumitomo tires, but I’ve had some good experience with their HTR Z III’s. Sumitomo is based in Japan, but has many distributors in the United States. They’ve created a reputation as the “best bang for your buck”, and honestly, I must agree with this statement. Being a college student and working part time, being able to manage my budget is vital. Sumitomo has created an great product overall with their HTR Z III’s compared to the predecessor the HTR Z II’s.

My father’s friends are gear heads one of them is also a tire freak. He suggested that I should buy the Sumitomo HTR Z III’s for my next set of tires. So when it was time I went along with it and decided to go for a new brand because his personal experience won me over. I put them on my car the first day I picked it up from the dealership. They have about 28,000 miles on them and could probably squeeze out another 3,000.

They are summer tires but they are not directional. This is a major advantage in my case because I would be able to rotate them front to rear and side to side allowing me to get the best possible tread life. And, given my limited budget these were right up my alley of the ideal tires to pick. For the set of 4 they shipped direct from TireRack.com to my doorstep for about $400.

Time for the break down…

• Would I buy these tires again? Definitely these were a get set and budget-wise, right up in my alley for the broke college student. More pros than cons.
• Hydroplaning and wet traction: Hydroplaning, these do catch those small wet spots on the road but since they are not directional they do not pass through the water so easily. Wet traction, they are decent but if I take it hard off the line when it is wet I would probably be slipping into 2nd gear. Grips decent in the wet, but any hard driving in the wet is not recommended.
• Dry traction: These are great for the price that I paid them for. They aren’t the best at handling, not like Warren’s Yokohama Advan Neova AD08, but for 1/3 the cost these were great. They took a little while to warm up to feel the full grip but for daily driving the grip was there when I needed it.
• Cornering and steering response: Cornering, the tires held to the ground for the corners and I felt confident at taking turns even in emergency situations that the tires were able to grip when I had to dodge an obstacle on the freeway. Steering response was good, wasn’t the best, but not the worst.
• Noise comfort: These tires were great on the noise comfort and quiet on the freeway at cruising speeds but also in the city as well.
• Tread wear: I can’t stress enough on how much the tread life was higher than I expected for these tires. They were great and being asymmetrical it allowed me to rotate the tires all directions, which would enable me to get the best life out of them.

Overall I felt that these were great tires, definitely the best bang for my buck. If you’re on a small budget and need some great tires, I highly recommend the Sumitomo’s HTR Z III’s. Don’t let the name scare you away because they’re not a mainstream manufacturer. And, TireRack.com posted the rank from their consumer survey results as 10th for the Sumitomo HTR Z III’s – not too bad for the price.