[Mr Papis]

I test drove an i30 1.4L Comfort on Kumho tyres and there was a lot of road noise. I tried another one and with Hankook tyres and it was no better, possibly worse.
It's a shame, but it's a nice car spoiled by road noise. Odd that none of the magazine reviews picked up on it.
I believe it was developed in Germany. Are the road surfaces over there quieter than ours in Greece or these tyres are the problem?

[Lorian]

The tyres are generally noisy, picked up in several reviews and ny many members.

Upside is they are quite hard so are economical to use. Most of us will swap to a softer tyre given the choice I guess.

I think mine got a little quieter after a few '000 miles on them. The noise doesn't drive me nuts.

[Dazzler]

Just for the record kumho & Hankook tyres supposedly come out of different doors at the same factory virtually..

[Surferdude]

Yep. Kumho and Hankook are like Hyundai and Kia.

[snowcherry]

actually when researching what car to buy over a year ago i did find mentions of car/road noise re the i30. the reviews actually said it had less road noise than either of these comparable models of the time; the ford focus and the mazda 3 (though i believe the updated 3 has improved on that, not sure about the focus). they were the two i was comparing to at the time so i was happy with that assessment. i have been unhappy with the level of road noise ever since 

i haven't done so yet due to financial reasons and not to waste the tyres, but i will buy a better pair of tyres at some point that will hopefully improve matters.

in the meantime the stereo is fantastic

[Dazzler]

The current shape Lancer was really noisy when we tested that in late 07. The new Mazda 6 is supposed to be 17% quieter than the previous model but still not perfect by all accounts (don't know about the latest Mazda 3) 

[agentr31]

*turns stereo up with snowcherry*

its all gone now!!!

*starts singing and watches everyone put their hands over their ears*

HAHAHAHA

[snowcherry]

*presses eject button and watches agent disappear into the sunset*
lalala

[Surferdude]

*presses eject button and watches agent disappear into the sunset*
lalala

 

[babis_xo]

I test drove an i30 1.4L Comfort on Kumho tyres and there was a lot of road noise. I tried another one and with Hankook tyres and it was no better, possibly worse.
It's a shame, but it's a nice car spoiled by road noise. Odd that none of the magazine reviews picked up on it.
I believe it was developed in Germany. Are the road surfaces over there quieter than ours in Greece or these tyres are the problem?

Hi Papis (is this a "babis" upside down?)

Most road surfaces in Greece are much quiter because they... lack grip.
Don't know about Kumho, but the Hankooks fitted by factory are really unsuitable for Greece, causing the car to slip all the time when cornering and the ABS to work overtime even on a dry road (try to turn ESP off and see what happens). Plus, the road noise. A previous set of Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2 on my other car was almost as noisy as Hankooks but at least there was a couple of reasons for this: reduced aqua-planning & excellent grip under any condition.