Car Springs

Initial Review, 1,200 Miles on Tires
May 05, 2012

I bought this tire for one reason, dry traction, and it has unbelievable stick. I have yet to break this tire loose from the pavement unless there was gravel/sand present on the roadway. I've been upgrading my tires over the last several purchases one pair at a time, replacing only the fronts with stickier rubber and moving the old set to the rear. My car is front wheel drive and doesn't have much horsepower but the suspension and chassis are built for the twisties. I have taken sharp right handers and broken the rear loose with BFG KDW's while the Kuhmo XS didn't even get fazed in the front. One of my favorite loops (banked merging ramp) I could exit no higher than 56 with the KDW's before the front would scrub and understeer. With the Kuhmos, I've attained 63 with no tire scrub and the speed is limited by my lack of horsepower, not traction.

I didn't rate the ride comfort or noise level of the tire because, frankly, if that matters, you probably shouldn't be looking to purchase this tire. I also have not had to drive on them in the rain yet but when I do I'll be taking it easy as it isn't rated for wet use. It is purpose built for dry traction and doesn't disappoint. Traction is great when they're cold and amazing once they're warmed up. Looking forward to testing them at the track.

Initial Review, 4,000 Miles on Tires
May 17, 2012

My 1990 Miata is set up with numerous chassis braces, aftermarket anti-sway bars, stock springs and ride height. These tires were very good in all catagories when new. After one year and about 4000 miles the tread became very hard making the car marginal at best in any wet/low traction situation, including roads coated with salt residue. I replaced them with a set of Dunlop Direzza Star Spec's for summer, and a set of Michelin X Ice2's on steel wheels for winter. Both are excellent tires and worth every penney spent.

Initial Review, 39,000 Miles on Tires
April 24, 2012

Both my cars have these on them now. I just put some on my wife's car and have had these on mine for 2 years. Outstanding quiet and comfort. We both feel secure that they handle the transition between fall/winter and winter/spring incredibly well and grip the transition snows and ices nearly as well as our snow/ice tires do.

Initial Review, 50,000 Miles on Tires
May 17, 2012

I put 4 years of daily use on these tires, driving in winter and summer. Then went to storing the car in a garage/back yard for the winters.
The tires took a lot of abuse - with the car sitting for 10 months of the year without moving. Sometimes they were under inflated, sometimes they sat in a puddle all winter. And in the summer they always sat out in the sun.
Amazingly - they have survived 9 years, feeling smooth and quiet on the road every summer. This spring I will replace them because one of them is finally showing some dry rot.

Initial Review, 2,000 Miles on Tires
April 26, 2012

I purchased a set of these tires to replace the worn out set of Sport Pilots that were on my car that had achieved 27K miles, complete with at least 4 track days (one of which was a rainy day) and still they were not quite down to the wear bars. Clearly though, the old set was work hardened and not performing well at the track or comfortably on the road.

What a HUGE difference these new Sport Pilot PS2 tires made to the track handling and overall driveability and comfort of the car! Wow! Over the years I have tried other tires, Conti Sports, Bridgestones Pole Position, Kumho Ecsta XS and frankly none of them can hold a candle to the Michelin Sport Pilot series of tires in terms of overall performance. I'm not saying that the other tires aren't good tires for the money but, if you want outstanding performance in a tire that you can drive on the street in comfort and flog to the limits and beyond on the track and still get some mileage from then the Sport Pilot is the best one out there and the PS2 is even better. My car sticks like glue around Willow Springs - utterly amazing. These tires are very predictable when driven to the limit and very forgiving when pushed beyond those limits. Very little scalloping of the outside and little to no roll up of rubber along the outer 1/3 of the tires - a common sight on all of the other tires that I have run at the track and see on other similar cars at the track. This is also a marked improvement over the earlier Sport Pilot version of the tire.

At the same time, the these tires are also excellent driving around town and very comfortable driving down the freeway, low noise and comfortable over the miles of expansion joints. They have excellent traction without requiring warm up, have excellent wet road traction and performance. In the wet, with DSC off it takes some extra effort to spin the rear wheels and they have predictable understeer when pushed around corners. You will be pleased with these tires!

Initial Review, 8,500 Miles on Tires
April 29, 2012

This was this o.e. tire on my tdi sportwagon, with only minimal mileage on tires the wet traction and light snow traction was not good,yes it is an all-season tire which means poor snow capabilities. The wet traction may be compromised by the torque of the tdi, but I think Bridgestone could do better in the rain, maybe more of a directional type tread pattern for better water evacuation. I replaced w/4 snowies and the car was a different vehicle! Hint to vw why not make an wad sportwagon tdi! Now that spring finally arrived I ordered new 17" wheels wrapped in summer tires!. 2 sets of wheels and tires is the only way to go living in the northern tier of pa, the tire rack continues to be incredible to deal with. Thanks

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
April 19, 2012

Installed on aftermarket wheels with H&R sport lowering springs and konis on a euro model. They do well in the rain and the dry performance is very good considering the long life compound used and the relatively low price up front. I think they are slightly louder than average due to the harder compound at highway speed, but I'm willing to put up with a little noise if they last a long time. With an aggressive alignment, you will have to rotate them more often, but then you would with any tire in that situation. They did not do well in deep snow as they became packed pretty quickly- but with a light snow they did just fine with my limited slip rear end.

I would read people whining about these (or any) tires failing after 15K on them (on some front wheel drive car or minivans in super hot or cold climates) with caution. Like all tires, when they are on cars with alot of weight and steering on a front wheel drive vehicle in temp extremes- they will require more maintenance, frequent rotations and general care. Tread separation, blown-out sidewalls and etc. indicate design or quality problems. 50,000 mile tires that "wear out" in 15K? Likely due to "user error."

Initial Review, 4,000 Miles on Tires
April 16, 2012

After selling my 2005 Prius with lowering springs, rear sway bar, under bracing and 17" wheels (Primacy MVM4 tires), I was a bit disappointed when I purchased a 2012 Prius that came equipped with Yokohama AVID S33D tires. The ride was nothing to write home about, the traction was a bit unpredictable and the car was more apt to tramline than anything else I had ever driven. I immediately swapped out the tires thanks to Yokohama's customer satisfaction guarantee and I installed the AVID Ascend in their place. The wet/dry gripe is pretty incredible for a tall 15" tire. Road noise is low most of the time with minimal pinging on expansion joints. Fuel economy is comparable to the OE AVID S33D but everything else about the Ascend is superior. Now if they last as long as Yokohama claims they will then they will have a winner on their hands. :) It should be noted that steering response and overall handling seems better than the Energy Saver A/S. if you want a better handling tire then get the Ascend. If you want max MPG then take a look at the Energy Saver A/S.

Initial Review, 24,000 Miles on Tires
March 17, 2012

Vehicle: Scion xD, lower springs (about 1.5 in), after market shocks and struts, heavy duty rear torsion bar, under drive pulley, cat back TRD exhaust, 17" aftermarket wheels with 225/45 shoes.

These tires started out great. The noise wasn't bad, but the grip both wet and dry was excellent. I felt really good about these tires for about the first 12,000 miles. But things have tapered off significantly. Dry traction is falling off significantly as the tires wear; wet traction is still OK, but now I have to think about how I drive when it is wet where as I didn't used to give it a second thought.

My major gripes with these tires are road noise and ride comfort. The road noise just continues to grow as the tires wear and it wasn't great to begin with. Living in CA, we have pretty bad roads (not because of weather but because the roads are never fixed) and you both hear and feel everything with these tires.

I can't comment on the snow performance of these tires. I keep all season tires on all my cars as I do on occasion drive in snow, but my travels and weather have not brought this car into the snow just yet.

I know I drive hard and ask a lot from my tires, but I was really hoping to get a little more out of these. I'm at two years and here I am back at Tire Rack looking for some new tires. For the price, if you need a short term tire you will enjoy, these are fine. If you're going to have the car for a while and you can afford it, I would recommend spending a bit more on a higher rated tire.

Initial Review, 8,000 Miles on Tires
March 07, 2012

Bought these mainly or winter spring and fall. So far they have been a great buy. Even in my modded SRT4 I never lost traction in the snow, only got stuck once on a steep hill but eventually made it up. For as many launches as I do the traction is holding up pretty well. They are definitely not summer tires if you have a higher HP car. Overall I was very pleased with the price and performance.

Initial Review, 30,000 Miles on Tires
March 10, 2012

I really liked the way the car handle with these tires. cornering and traction were excellent, I put different tires on in the winter, so can't comment on ho they would handle in snow. the big disappointment for me was tread life. I only got 2 years out of these about 8 months per year for a total miles of just over 30,000 miles. I will need new tire this spring, and am unsure if I'll be buying these again, or look for something else.

Initial Review, 2,000 Miles on Tires
January 28, 2008

This tire shouldn't be considered a "All Season Tire" It's unfortunate that the Audi dealer I purchased the car (Sept'07) from installed these 235/45/17. There horrible in any amount of snow! Thus in order too use the Audi I was forced too purchase a complete new set of winter tires (Dunlop Winter Sport 3D's) 215/55/16 also a new set of 16" wheels. The Dunlops are working out great. It's just ashame that I had too spent close too $900. additional in order too use the car during the winter. I plan on using the Kumho's just for Spring,Summer and Fall.

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
March 09, 2012

Had these tires installed in the Spring 2011 to replace the OEM Pirelli. I had to trash the Continentals when I installed my winter tires in Fall 2011 after 10,000 miles. Treadwear rate is extremely poor when one drives a high torque rear wheel drive car. I do not recommend these tires if you drive a high performance car.

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
March 01, 2012

Great winter tire, snow and ice were not a problem. These tires on my FWD 4cyl car made lots of 4WD trucks look silly. Typical winter tire not for aggressive driving on dry roads. Should get 2-3 winters out of these if rotate them off the car in early spring. I love them!