Tire: Solus KL21
Category: Crossover/SUV Touring All-Season
UTQG (treadwear): 500 A A
The Solus KL21 from Kumho is an all year, four season SUV and light truck tire that was built originally to be a "green" tire and engineered as being low rolling ressitance (LRR). LRR tires are generally billed as ones that will increase fuel economy and hence reduce your CO2 admissions. Kumho also states that the KL21 is a low noise tire as well, which is not something you see often. This tire utilizes a High DIspersible Silica (HDS) tread compound, which is part of why this is a LRR tire. On the engineering side, it sports a pretty generic tread pattern that really doesn't separate this tire from the pack
After all that noise you just read, you might be wondering...is this a good tire? Well the answer isn't going to be one you like, especially if you work for Kumho because the answer is most certainly no. Dry traction is acceptable and most drivers I know felt like this tire could hold it's own on pavement so long as it wasn't wet. Snow traction is on another level of bad. I have even had people ask me if this was a summer tire after one winter season. It is not a summer tire, it just really does a bad job on snow. I won't make any excuses for it. On the plus side, you'll be able to get about 80,000 miles out of a set and in my opinion that is the only reason to buy these tires. Drivers in Arizona and Southern California take not. Everybody else please avoid.
