Mazda Miata Tires

Mazda’s Miata roadster calls to mind nimble little British sports cars like the Fiat 124 Spyder MG Midget and Triumph TR series, only without the temperamental nature. The Miata was introduced way back in 1989 as the MX-5 and is now in its fourth generation. With a curb weight of well under 2500 lbs and up to 180 hp under the hood, it’s ridiculously fun to drive. It’s the biggest-selling two-seat convertible sports car in automotive history and has garnered a loyal following over the years. Miatas have a reputation for being reliable, economical to drive, and cheap to buy, making them a favorite of enthusiasts. The Miata has won numerous awards from the automotive press, including Edmunds.com, Car and Driver, Automobile, MotorWeek, and much more. The Miata is available in Base, LS, SE, and STO trim levels.

Our team here at SimpleTire has gone through the catalog and rounded up the best Mazda Miata tires, including all-season, all-season UHP, and summer/UHP tires. We then used our SimpleScore system to calculate numerical scores for the categories of traction, longevity, and handling for each tire. Ready? Let’s go in for a closer look:

1. Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus 3 - Best UHP All-Season tire

We’re going to kick off our list with the Pirelli P Zero AS Plus 3, an all-season tire that’s designed from the ground up for enthusiastic performance along with dependable year-round all-season traction. Pirelli designed the P Zero All Season Plus 3 with an upgraded, advanced polymer-enhanced tread formulation for durability and long wear, along with a twin steel belt package, a polyester casing, and polyamide reinforcement plies. Pirelli covers the P Zero All-Season Plus 3 with a 50,000 mile limited manufacturer tread life warranty. In light of that, we give the Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus 3 an excellent SimpleScore of 8.9 for longevity. Year-round grip is another real strong point with this tire, with an asymmetric tread pattern that’s designed with a minimal void area to put more rubber in contact with the road. You can count on excellent performance in wet or wintry conditions thanks to a variety of sipes, including full-depth 3D sipes in select tread blocks, racking up a best-in-class SimpleScore of 9.9 for traction. Enhanced steering response, braking, and cornering are all the result of larger pitch-sequenced tread blocks and reinforced shoulders, for a SimpleScore of 9.9 for handling.

2. Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 PLUS - Best UHP All-Season tire

Next up is a tire that offers the versatility of year-round traction paired with UHP levels of cornering, braking, and steering response – the Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 PLUS. The ExtremeContact DWS06 PLUS is designed to give drivers the confidence of all-season performance with consistent traction in wet, dry, or light wintry weather, but with the kind of road manners and overall handling that can meet the expectations of a UHP tire. That’s an even bigger plus when you bear in mind that UHP and summer tires have a softer tread compound that hardens in the cold and has to be dismounted and replaced with all-weather or all-season tires in colder weather. The ExtremeContact DWS06 PLUS builds on the successful track record of the popular, proven ExtremeContact DWS06 in just about every category. Its cornering ability, braking, and steering response all get a significant upgrade from the tire’s reinforced 2-ply sidewalls and macroblocks in the tread. After considering all the reviews and data points, the ExtremeContact DWS06 PLUS gets an unbeatable SimpleScore of 9.9 for handling. Long life and great wet-weather traction are also in the plus column for the ExtremeContact DWS06 PLUS, with its silica-infused tread compound, sweeping lateral grooves, circumferential grooves, and X-sipes for rainy roads or light snowy conditions. SimpleScore for traction: 9.8. Longevity is also unparalleled, with a 9.2 SimpleScore, and the Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus is covered by a 60,000 mile warranty.

3. Falken Ziex ZE960 A/S - Great UHP All-Season tire

Now we come to a tire we’ve always been pretty impressed with, the Falken Ziex ZE960 A/S. The Ziex ZE960 A/S isn’t technically a UHP tire, but it does deliver the kind of performance you’d expect with UHP tires – except in a premium all-season tire package. The Ziex ZE960 A/S includes Falken's combination of circumferential, angled, lateral and cross-hatch grooves with innovative Flask Siping for enhanced hydroplaning resistance, chalking up a very solid SimpleScore of 8.6 for traction. Cornering, braking, and steering response are all sharp and crisp, with a tread face that’s optimized for rigidity and robust internal construction. All told we gave this tire a SimpleScore of 8.6 for handling. The 60,000 mile warranty from Falken makes this tire a great value, with a very respectable SimpleScore of 9.1 in the handling category.

While these are the best Mazda Miata tires, we’re far from done. Here are a couple more premium tires for you to think about:

4. Toyo Extensa HP II - Great All-Season tire

Next up on our list, we’ve got the Toyo Extensa HP II, a great value in a performance-oriented all-season tire. We’ve been pretty impressed with everything from the Toyo line for some time now, and the Extensa HPII is right up there with the best of them. When it comes to traction, we give the Toyo Extensa HP II a very solid SimpleScore of 8.6. Its tread pattern is designed with circumferential grooves, V-shaped lateral grooves, and an innovative all-season tread design that incorporates 3D multi-wave sipes. Working as a system, these tread elements resist hydroplaning by channeling standing water through and behind the tire’s contact patch. Handling is predictable and responsive (SimpleScore of 8.7), with large shoulders and outer tread blocks with double and single-cut tapers, resisting the stresses and inertia of cornering with enhanced block stiffness and road contact. The Toyo Extensa HP II has great wear properties, with two steel belts, a polyester casing, and nylon reinforcement ply, with a 45,000 mile warranty, for a longevity score of 9.4.

5. General G-MAX AS-05 - Good UHP All-Season tire

We’re going to close out this roundup of premium tires for the Mazda Miata with the General G-Max AS-05. The G-MAX AS-05 is a UHP all-season tire that’s covered by a 45,000 mile warranty from General, with a long-wearing silica-enriched tread compound for durability as well as confident traction and responsive performance. SimpleScore for longevity: 8.4. General’s Smart Grip technology package gives you dependable grip year-round in wet or dry conditions, for a SimpleScore of 8.7 for traction. Cornering, driver feedback, road manners, and steering response are all at UHP levels, thanks to a solid center rib, the sticky tread compound, and aggressive shoulder blocks for a SimpleScore of 8.7 for handling. One feature with General tires that we’ve always liked is the Alignment Indicators that can alert a driver to uneven tire wear and alignment problems. General’s Smart Monitor tech incorporates the words REPLACE TIRE molded into the tread so that it’s only revealed when the tread depth reaches 2/32” (the minimum legal tread depth in every state).

Order Mazda Miata Tires Online

Buying tires online can be a stressful process, but it really doesn't need to be. SimpleTire offers a simple approach to finding the tires that are best for you and your Mazda Miata. Select your Mazda Miata below, then tell us a few more things such as year and trim level to determine your tire size. From there, we'll show you tires that fit your vehicle and are the best match based on performance characteristics, but you can also look for the best value tires, tires that are on sale or part of a promo, have the longest tread life, and much more