Given
77%
while driving a
Mazda 3 Series
(235/40 R18 W) on
a combination of roads
for 1,000
average miles
Hi,
This is an INITIAL review of Infinity Ecomax base on 2 months & 1,000km driving, including wet roads.
I did have doubt about this model (Ecomax) especially when there are a few bad reviews of Infinity's other models, eg . INF 05. Being a Chinese made, read many bad reviews & come across people who had bad experienced , I did lots of RE-considerations & RE-read the reviews of Ecomax. I even had a plan-B just in case they were bad. I eventually took a gamble bought a pair.
Here is my reviews from running them on the FRONT wheels of my 2011 Mazda3. Note that Adelaide has mild weather: winter days are 10+ degree Celsius.
Infinity Ecomax is almost as good as the ‘premium’ brand and likely to be among a handful of Chinese made tyres that is decent. BTW in 10 years time, many of us will be driving on Chinese tyres.
I tested on BOTH dry & wet roads. In the dry, I can feel the tyres grip so much that they are putting stress on the front ends on hard cornerings. I driven these tyres to the limit of adhesion & the lost of traction is progressive. Mind you, I used 2nd gear & slowly builded up the speed until the front ends start to slide around large round-abouts, with some run-off just in case I made a mistake.
I think that for cars up to 1,600kg. They are fine, even with spirited driving.
Tread Pattern: I think they copied Michelin Pilot Sport 3 & Continental Sport Contact 3. The design is good for wet roads (3 straight & wide vertical groves) & low road noise (aren’t many horizontal & wide groves).
Structure: tyres are light (9kg) compare to a Michelin Pilot Sport 4, same size. I think that their weaker tyre-structure contributed to a VERY slight poorer performance compare to the ‘premium’ brand.
Compound: likely that they are not as good, but only slightly behind the ‘premium’ brand.
Shoulders have Less rubber: this was fixed by select a wider width (extra 10mm), which also help to protect the rims from gutter scratches.
Loudness: very quite because they are 2 months old. There aren’t many horizontal & wide groves hence unlikely to get noisy, even with age.
Wear: seems to wear well, although early days. They have 7+ mm thread height when new.
Buy again: YES. $AUD 85 each, fitted & balanced for 235 40 R18 that is almost as good as ‘premium’ brand….a bargain.
FYI, not only that there are many Chinese tyre makers, many release ‘NEW’ brand & model, but using the same tyre & tread pattern as previously made. It is a business decision to lose their past even though the same tyre had bad reviews under an earlier brand & model. It is too risk to buy without reviews. Even with those that had reviews: read widely & from many sources. Be VERY careful, when buy base solely on LOW price. Many have been caught out & many more will continue to make the same mistake.
Also, not only they have lower tread height, the poor rubber compound technology cause tyres to wear-out fast & dangerous on wet roads.
Thanks for reading.