So it's been 9 months and a little over 10,000 miles on the RS3-A tires, and here's my thoughts so far.
Keep in mind, 90% of my day to day driving is highway driving.
- Fuel economy appears to have dropped just a little, which is both a little surprising, and a little expected. The tires are 215/55R17 vs the previous 225/50R17 tires, so the contact patch is just a little thinner, but the tires are newer, and softer than the old BF Goodrich Advantage T/A tires that were on there, so there's that trade off. Also, the Advantage T/A's were at least a few years old at the time, so perhaps they were drier/harder and thus had less rolling resistance than these softer/newer RS3-A tires. There were also some other changes done to the car within a month or so of putting the tires on, so those changes could have affected the MPGs.
- Road noise continues to be low, even after 10,000 miles on the tires. I have found them to be remarkably quiet, even at 80+ Mph on Phoenix highways.
- Road grip continues to be excellent. They hold fast on turns and grip well during hard braking. My car isn't a sports car, so it's hard to say really how well they grip under "Hard acceleration" as I almost never really "Get on it" from a dead stop.
- Tread life continues to be excellent. Even after 10,000 miles, they still have around 9.5/32 - 10/32 tread on all 4 corners. The tread is wearing evenly and there's no chunking or pitting. At this rate, I feel confident I'll go well past the 40,000 mile warranty. IMHO, these are underrated in that category. With a UTQG of 500AAA, I would not be shocked if I make it to at least 50,000 miles on this set, especially since almost all of my driving is highway.
- Although we have not gotten MUCH rain here in Phoenix, there have been a few stretches of steady rain in the 9 months since I had them mounted, and I must say that I've found the wet weather handling to be right up there with normal dry weather handling.
All in all, an EXCELLENT all-season / summer tire. I would absolutely consider them again
