Cooper CS5 Ultra Touring is an all-season grand touring tire. It is designed to serve a multitude of vehicle categories like coupes, sedans and crossovers.
Primarily focusing on luxury and smooth drive, the CS5 Ultra Touring also attempts to be an all-season tire. But does it succeed at that? Let’s find out!
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Comfort and Drive
We’re going to talk about this area first because this is where most effort was put in by Cooper. To put it plainly, the CS5 Ultra Touring is one of the quietest tires made by Cooper.
The CS5 Ultra Touring has independent tread blocks which make it inherently quiet. Traditionally, independent tread block designs show a lot of flex but Cooper manages to avoid that by their Stabiledge technology which interlocks the tread blocks.
Thus, Cooper manages to use independent tread blocks to not only quieten the tire but also maintain high speed stability and cornering responsiveness.
Overall, the comfort and ride quality of the CS5 is phenomenal. There is nothing to complain about in this department.
Performance and Handling
The CS5 Ultra Touring is a great handling tire but far from the best. Cooper has gone to great lengths to make this tire perform well and the effort certainly shows off.
The handling response is really good but these tires show that they were, clearly, not designed to be performance oriented. For daily driving in the three seasons, the handling seems just fine. Here’s how Cooper managed to achieve that!
Firstly, the CS5 is an asymmetric tire which automatically means that it shows great high speed stability. This is further aided by the use of a special compound that Cooper calls a “coupled silica compound”.
Secondly, the outer shoulder blocks have been purposely made wide. This increases lateral grip. At the same time, the inner blocks and the centre rib have a lot of sipes to decrease contact and provide channels for water to escape; thus improving wet performance.
Thirdly, nylon, which has been wound up inside in a spiral manner, reinforces the whole architecture. This also improves cornering performance and high-speed durability.
Durability and Reliability
The durability of this tire is an issue that seems to plague almost all the tires that came out of the factory. In a nutshell, these are not very durable tires.
Although Cooper claims it to be a 70,000-mile tire, it rarely exceeds 50,000 miles, from our experience. That too, with regular rotations in accordance with the recommended duration. Bear in mind though, that even though the tread is not durable, that is not the case with the rest of the tire.
Cooper uses a single-ply polyester case beneath two high-strength steel belts for the internal construction and the core structure seems to do just fine.
Additionally, there have been very few reports of structural issues or blowouts so they can be considered to be a very reliable tire. If the tread life is not an issue for you, these can be a very good choice as a daily driver set of tires for you and your family.
All-Season Drivability and Usability
The CS5 manages to get an all-season rating as well through the generous use of sipes and grooves in the centre rib. This makes it a complete package, really, for general everyday use.
As mentioned earlier, the centre rib and the inner grooves are loaded with sipes to allow water to escape and prevent hydroplaning. This makes the tire ideal for use in rainy weather.
The lateral shoulder has full-depth grooves which serve as biting edges for the tire allowing it to claw its way out of light snow. For heavier snow, however, you are better off with some dedicated snow tires for which we do have some snow tire recommendations.
Looks and Aesthetics
The CS5 Ultra Touring is a fairly good looking tire but not a masterpiece to look at in awe. It is not too striking or too bold but rather plays it simple and safe.
The CS5 Ultra Touring is, by no means, a performance tire and neither does it appear to be one. It’s just a reliable, daily drivable Toyota of a tire that does its job pretty well.
Pricing and Value for Money
The CS5 Ultra Touring is extremely competitively priced and its price might be the biggest selling factor. These tires are selling like hot cakes, at the moment, at every online retail store.
The price is subject to change but you can check the latest price at Amazon.
For its nominal price, the CS5 offers about 50,000 miles of reliable, all-season, everyday driving. The comfort and the smooth drive can be considered luxuries at this price point. Thus, the overall package provides a phenomenal value for money.
Conclusion- Worth Buying?
The CS5 Ultra Touring offers a very smooth drive, acceptable levels of handling and performance, and an all-season drivability at a very low price point. The only caveat to it, really, is the compromised tread life.
If you are okay with this one major issue, then this tire offers one of the highest value for money of any tire there is.
I, personally, am okay with that so I would consider buying it for my own car. For those of you who are not, the GoodYear Assurance ComfortDrive is a great pick as it has a considerably longer tread life as well.
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