Initial impressions - Cooper CS5 Ultra Touring

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I had the set of Cooper CS5 Ultra Touring tires in 215/55-17 94V put on this weekend right before a road trip in our other car. We drove my car around town today on the new Coopers, probably about 40 miles in all. The release compound is still wearing off, so they should get grippier as they wear in.

First impressions were:
1. This is a wide tire! Compared to the previous set of TPC-spec (GM OEM) Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max tires in the same size, these look to be an inch or so wider. Section width is reported as 7.4". The previous set's section width was reported as 6.5". There's more of a bulge in the sidewall for the Coopers than the Goodyears.

2. It's quiet. Yes, it's a new tire at full tread depth compared to a older tire at minimal tread depth. It's still a bit quieter.

3. It's definitely better in the wet. Today was filled with thunderstorms, and I got to drive through a few on the Coopers. They handled the water on the road fine, even the deeper water put down by some of the storms. Stopping/turning in the wet wasn't an issue. Even when trying to get them to spin from a dead stop, they had minimal wheelspin. The Goodyears would have needed traction control to intervene to get the car moving.

4. Dry grip is quite good. Taking a few sharp turns rather quickly revealed that the CS5 UT's were pretty responsive to turning in, and held on well throughout the turn. There's a nice banked turn on my commute that I'll take fast tomorrow to see more about dry grip.

5. The ride is on the firmer side, at least with very few miles on the tires. They do a good job smoothing out the larger bumps. The suspension is about 70k miles old, with most of that being on smoother roads, so it's in okay shape.

6. Handling seems to be responsive. They respond to input pretty quickly. I'm still getting used to how they feel through the Cruze's fairly numb EPS. The extra width is taking some getting used to.

Now for some pictures:

Tread design and sidewall:



Width of some of the grooves:



Shot across to show the depth of the inboard sipes:



Shot to show off the asymmetric tread pattern:



I'll update when I have more miles on them.
 
Not Michelin....it's garbage
cool.gif
smile.gif


You get dry rot at no additional charge on the Michelins.
 
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Originally Posted By: CKN
Not Michelin....it's garbage
cool.gif
smile.gif


You get dry rot at no additional charge on the Michelins.


You are full of B.S., my last two sets have not dry rotted.
 
Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
Originally Posted By: CKN
Not Michelin....it's garbage
cool.gif
smile.gif


You get dry rot at no additional charge on the Michelins.


You are full of B.S., my last two sets have not dry rotted.


You must be lucky !! my last two sets ! both at the two year mark developed dry rot on the sidewalls . I have a set of ten year old kuhmo's that looked much better than the two year old michelin tires do.
 
Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
Originally Posted By: CKN
Not Michelin....it's garbage
cool.gif
smile.gif


You get dry rot at no additional charge on the Michelins.


You are full of B.S., my last two sets have not dry rotted.
You live in Illinois...
 
Originally Posted By: dkryan
Definitely a different tread design!
Yeah they are a different tread design. I had a set put on my grandmother's Grand Caravan a couple months ago and wasn't too sure about them, they look really cheesy and Chinese looking, very little siping.

But they drove really nice, I might try them on my Camry for the next set of tires if Cooper doesn't discontinue them.
 
Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
Originally Posted By: CKN
Not Michelin....it's garbage
cool.gif
smile.gif


You get dry rot at no additional charge on the Michelins.


You are full of B.S., my last two sets have not dry rotted.


Has your last two sets been the newest generation of tires? There have been PLENTY of reports here on BITOG about dry rot and Michelin tires. I'm not doing the search here for you....but it's not B.S.
 
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4yrs,4mos old/32000 miles sits under carport. The Michelin Latitudes were dry rotted/cracked scary. NO warranty said Chevy dealer AND Michelin. Looked at the CS5's but put Yokohama Ascend's on. Even my tire guy advised "against" Michelins.
 
Originally Posted By: sciphi

3. It's definitely better in the wet. Today was filled with thunderstorms, and I got to drive through a few on the Coopers. They handled the water on the road fine, even the deeper water put down by some of the storms. Stopping/turning in the wet wasn't an issue. Even when trying to get them to spin from a dead stop, they had minimal wheelspin. The Goodyears would have needed traction control to intervene to get the car moving.

Yeah, their wet grip is awesome. Ive literally been at WOT and broke traction when my trans sludgehammered into 2nd and they hooked back up basically as soon as the shift was over.
 
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Originally Posted By: Nick1994
dkryan said:
...wasn't too sure about them, they look really cheesy and Chinese looking, very little siping.
.

Doesn't resemble any Chinese tire i can think of. I would say the outside half may have been meant to visually evoke the Toyo Versado LX, while the inner part resembles Yokohaama's AVID TRZ & Ascend with it's rain/snow bias.

Based on the look of the outer third, if the rubber is any good it should probably corner better than the above mentioned tires but I for anyone living in a place where it snows, there seems to be a little too much solid rubber and I'm not sure that inside portion is enough to make up for it.

I really want to get these for my mother's 06 Accord because it's by far the best bargian available in my area and the initial reviews from both experts 7 consumers have been so good, but I probably can;t convince her to use separate tires in the winter and I'm skeptical about the CS5 in heavy snow.
 
I'm getting the CS5 Ultra Tourings installed on my wife's Kia Sorento tomorrow.
We live in NH where we get a lot of snow so will be using these as a 3 season tire and getting snow snows put on late Fall.

Have the CS3A's on my comuuter Mazda 3 and have been happy with them so far after about 5k miles on them.
 
Nice review and pics. Thinking you bought these at DTD with recent promo, just curious where you took them to get them mounted and balanced?

After having never purchased a Cooper Tire in my life I've purchased two sets from DT in last couple years, Discover HTP's for a Tacoma and the CS5 Grand Touring for a Civic. With all the Cooper rebates and DT/DTD promos, tough to pass on them with those deals. And so far so good. Ultra Touring could be in consideration next, but shouldn't be needing tires for awhile.

Keep us updated on how they're working out.
 
You have to remember the Ultras are more performance oriented, so they have less siping as any of that increases tread squirm. Its not from cheeziness or anything. Look a a real high performance tire. Lots of large solid tread blocks.
If I was going for a all season and needed snow traction, I would probably put on the Grand Touring.
But I run dedicated snows so I like the higher performance of the Ultras.
 
Originally Posted By: Darris
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
dkryan said:
...wasn't too sure about them, they look really cheesy and Chinese looking, very little siping.
.

Doesn't resemble any Chinese tire i can think of. I would say the outside half may have been meant to visually evoke the Toyo Versado LX, while the inner part resembles Yokohaama's AVID TRZ & Ascend with it's rain/snow bias.

Based on the look of the outer third, if the rubber is any good it should probably corner better than the above mentioned tires but I for anyone living in a place where it snows, there seems to be a little too much solid rubber and I'm not sure that inside portion is enough to make up for it.

I really want to get these for my mother's 06 Accord because it's by far the best bargian available in my area and the initial reviews from both experts 7 consumers have been so good, but I probably can;t convince her to use separate tires in the winter and I'm skeptical about the CS5 in heavy snow.


Then go for the Grand touring its less performance oriented and targeted more towards inclement weather traction.

CS5GrandTouring_LgTread.png
 
Originally Posted By: Sayjac
Nice review and pics. Thinking you bought these at DTD with recent promo, just curious where you took them to get them mounted and balanced?

After having never purchased a Cooper Tire in my life I've purchased two sets from DT in last couple years, Discover HTP's for a Tacoma and the CS5 Grand Touring for a Civic. With all the Cooper rebates and DT/DTD promos, tough to pass on them with those deals. And so far so good. Ultra Touring could be in consideration next, but shouldn't be needing tires for awhile.

Keep us updated on how they're working out.


You got it. I took them to a local indy garage to get mounted and roadforce balanced.

These are definitely on the sportier end of the grand touring tire spectrum. I managed to take some turns pretty rapidly, about as fast as I'd care to. They just went around with no drama. Braking is similarly drama-free so far. I'll try some panic stops on some deserted country roads soon enough. The CS5 UT's feel pretty confident on this 3000 lb car. So far I'm not wishing for a wider tire, or a UHP all-season.

My fuel economy appeared to take a hit, as expected. About 10% so far, based on my ScanGauge II's trip readings for my commute. Then again, these are 11/32" deep tires that I'm comparing to the 3/32" deep tires taken off. That's a 1/2" increase in diameter based on treadwear alone, so the reported distance traveled has decreased some. Add in being wider, and there it is.
 
Not that it's much of an issue here, but I'll be interested in your experiences with them in the snow. As I mentioned I purchased the Grand Touring which seems a more conventional tread design as pictured here.

Not too surprised about the mpg differences, wonder how much due to going from an lrr tire to a standard one and the diameter difference. As you note, wider a factor too.

I asked about who installed and because I'm always curious how the shops (other than WM which I assume has no reaction) react to installing tires purchased elsewhere. I'd imagine buying from DTD may be less than the cost some indy's can get them directly or sell for that price.
 
I have those same tires on my Accord and I love them! I didn't realize just how bad my old Michelins were until I got these new tires mounted. I've had the Coopers since March.
 
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