I ditched my Pirelli tires pretty much as soon as I got my K5. The ride was awful, the wheel spin constant, and the noise at highway speeds was unbearable. I bought my car used and it had 20k miles when purchased.

I replaced them with Goodyear Max life tires, that addressed all the issues. The traction that these tires offer is impressive. Wet intersections are no longer a problem, and they are very quiet too. After recent snowfalls I can report that traction on snow and ice is remarkably good also.
I have accrued about 21k miles since I bought them, with barely any wear thus far.

They do have a tendency to adopt a "set" after parking for a day or two, which results in vibration for a mile or two as the sidewalls flex. As the sidewalls are quite soft I have found that running 41psi pressure really helps, with no detriment to ride quality or wear.

There is also a 3-5 MPG degradation versus the "hockey puck" Kia OE spec Pirellis.

Hope this helps.

 

One thing: check your tire pressure and make sure that it's around 35-36 PSI when cold (75F ambient). There's a display option on the instrument cluster LCD screen that will show you the pressure of each tire after rolling for a bit. Tires do not perform as well in the wet when they are underinflated as the center channels of the tires starts to bow away from the road as the pressure lessens.

Also, yeah, the stock tires suck in general. lol I ran with mine for about 20k miles as well before the tread wear started hitting the limit and I swapped them for a new set. I went with another set of Pirelli P-Zeroes but non-OE ones. They have been fairing much better than the stock tires and the wear has been better as well.

Just to give you an idea on how well each tires perform, I recommend going to tire sites like Tirerack.com and checking their ratings for each tire. Unless you plan to take your car up north during snowy season, you can mostly disregard the snow traction for them.

 

Go to Tirerack.com, put in your car or tire size. Tirerack has detailed information on all aspects of tires and rating on individual tires such as dry traction, wet traction, wear life, etc. Different tires within the same brand can have a wide variance in quality and ratings. From my experience Michelin tires are tops, but pricy.

 

The pzeros that came on our '21 k5s weren't the greatest. Car manufacturers mostly put the cheapest tire on cars to sell them and make money. Just because it says a name on it doesn't mean it was made by that company. Someone else could make that brand name tire using inferior ingredients or methods. My pzeros were toast on my awd after 45k and my wife's were toast about 4k on her fwd. I bought the pzero + for mine, and we bought the pzero plus 3s for hers. I will be needing new ones in the spring, I'll get the plus 3s unless they come our with something newer before. I just use tirerack to look at reviews and then order from townfairtire where I live. Our k5s come with a UHP tire not a regular all season. So they don't last as long, because they are more performance and handling oriented. When it cones down to it it's one's own preference.

 

-- Hi timothy.pulsifer.2023: Thanks for your helpful feedback concerning the OEM Pirellis. Is this statement accurate or a typo: "my wife's were toast about 4k on her fwd" ? If not a typo, that's quite a disparity between 45K for your AWD and 4K for her FWD.
-- I am very familiar with TireRack and have used them a lot in the past. I have generally found TireRack to have better prices than local tire shops. I would have them ship my tires to a good installer in my area but the total tire price with installation was almost always less than the tire shops.
-- What state do you live in? I suspect you're from the Northeast US. I'm originally from CT and we had a number of Town Fair Tire shops there.

 

Di

-- Thanks for your helpful feedback concerning the OEM Pirellis. Is this statement accurate or a typo: "my wife's were toast about 4k on her fwd" ? If not a typo, that's quite a disparity between 45K for your AWD and 4K for her FWD.
-- I am very familiar with TireRack and have used them a lot in the past. I have generally found TireRack to have better prices than local tire shops. I would have them ship my tires to a good installer in my area but the total tire price with installation was almost always less than the tire shops.
-- What state do you live in? I suspect you're from the Northeast US. I'm originally from CT and we had a number of Town Fair Tire shops there.

Discount Tire let me try out a set of Michelin Defenders. I did not like them as they were really noisy on the freeway. They then suggested Goodyear Maxlife, fitted them, and let my try them out. As I liked them I paid for them. Great service.
I live in VA.[/QUOTE]

 

Yes a typo sorry ... 40k. Not 4k....

 

Damn. I was actually impressed 😆

 

My 23 K5 is still rocking the stock tires after 32k. I'm going to push them as far as I can but I absolutely hate them. Hated them when I bought the car new.

 

I own a 2024 K5 GT-Line with the stock Pirelli tires with a bit over 15K miles on them.

For those who have replaced their OEM Pirellis, at what mileage did you replace them?

Also what brand of tire did you buy when you did that replacemen

I have a 2024 K5 GT that I purchased new ... I replaced the stock Pirelli tires with a set of Nitto NT555 G2 tires (255/40-19) summer tires the very 2nd day that I purchased the car ... Sold the Pirelli tires as 'new car take-off tires').

 

Now that you’ve been driving on the Nitto NT555 G2’s during hot summer weather what is your assessment of them?

 

Thanks everyone for your feedback regarding the K5 OEM tires!

 

I just came across this thread as I was thinking about the same thing. The Kia factory Pirelli’s (I only drive on them in summer) have really lousy grip on my FWD GT-Line since day one. I hate that they spin so easily when taking off from a stop with even the mildest of attempts at very slightly peppy acceleration. Especially on blacktop. Now that it’s really hot out and the blacktop is very hot I’m really thinking about changing them out for better performers. I don’t drive aggressively, just occasionally you have to get on it a little bit to pull into traffic from a stop, and these tires are becoming frustrating (this set only has about 16K miles on them now). I use snow tires in the winter, so I don’t need a tire for good winter traction, just something that will grab the asphalt in warm weather and hopefully be quiet on the highway as well…

 

---- I replaced my 2 Pirelli front OEM tires in May 2025 at about 20K miles with Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady tires. This was a Tirerack closeout. Both tires with installation totalled about $350. These are not the latest version Assurance WeatherReady 2 but still excellent! ---- The Goodyear tires are far superior to the Pirelli's. The ride quality has greatly improved and the car feels much more stable and controlled! I'm very glad that I purchased them and I own a 2024 K5 GT-Line FWD.