When you purchase a new car, the tire is usually not under the list of requirements you are looking for. People tend to look for interior, cost & exterior looks and hardly even know what tires are you getting 🙂 .Basically you are stuck with the OE tires which is chosen by your tire manufacturer. This article look into the life cycle of a 225/55 R19 Toyo Proxes R46 which is the OE supplier for Mazda CX-5 2.5 & 2.2. Hopefully this would help you decided whether your next replacement tire should be the same or you should look for something else. You can find out what is your OE tires via our easy to use table here.
Table of Contents
Toyo Proxes R46 specification:
The UTQG values for Proxes R46 are as below:
Treadwear: 300
Traction: A
Temperature: A
The tire shown has a DOT of 1218 which signifies it was produced in week 12 in 2018. The tire was labelled as made in Japan, however the plant code was specified as 1FY. This was extremely strange as from the current DOT plant code, 1FY points to Balkrishna Industries Limited (BKT). Their plant is currently located in Kutch Gujarath, India. Hmmm… 🙁
The design of the tire was also written down on the sidewall:
Tread: 2 Steel, 2 Polyester, 1 Nylon
Sidewall: 2 Polyester.
It also has an E4 certificate which signifies that this tire can be sold in the European market.
Wear
One of the biggest unknown when it comes to a tire performance is wear. As running a wear test is a very expensive test, there are really minimal data about tire mileage performances in the market. Below shows the tire picture of the tires after 32,000 KM.
Mileage: 32,000 KM
Front tread depth: 2mm (left) , 2mm (center), 2.1mm (right)
Rear tread depth: 3mm (left), 4mm (center), 3mm (right)
City/Highway ratio: 90%/10%
As the Mazda CX-5 is front wheel driven vehicle, the traction tire in the front faces more abrasion compare to the free rolling tire at the rear. With an initial tread depth of 8mm, the tire was wear down to roughly 2mm after 32,000 KM. Based on the tread depth profile measured, there was no significant irregular wear issues present.
To put the mileage obtain into perspective, the UTQG treadwear values for Michelin Primacy SUV is 440. Hence it is expected that the Primacy SUV would last longer than 32,000 KM if the driving conditions stayed the same.
Noise & comfort
While driving with Proxes R46, there were no significant noise & comfort issues which could be classified as annoyance. While it could be the good interior noise insulation of Mazda CX-5 but there is no instances of where comfort would be a complaint. Proxes R46 has an EU label for external noise of 70 dB which is pretty good for a summer tire.
Wet
From a wet handling point of view, the tires did a good job in the rainy days as the tire do response quickly to your steering input. Proxes R46 currently has an wet braking EU label of “C” which is similar to the Michelin Primacy SUV as well.
Price
Based on the current market prices, a Proxes R46 would cost RM 576. To gauge what is the level of pricing here, a Continental UC6 SUV cost about 15% more. Hence there is a clear difference in pricing level of the premium class manufacturer against Toyo. Feel free to check out our Malaysia tire price table for the latest prices for your own car tire size.
Tire size: 225/55 R19
Proxes R46: RM 576
Continental UC6 SUV: RM 658
Conclusion
Based on the gathered experience, Proxes R46 seems to be quite a good OE fitment which does not cause any major troubles. With its comparable wet label, pricing and mileage performance , it is definitely a good replacement choice for all Mazda CX-5 users.