Yokohama Car Tires

Initial Review, 45,000 Miles on Tires
April 24, 2013

I've worn out two or three sets of the predecessor of this tire (Turanza Serenity) and after having gone through numerous other tire brands Michelins, Yokohamas, Goodyears, have to say that this tire is the best of those by a significant margin. These tires offer very good cornering grip... amazing actually. Great wet and dry traction and decent traction in snow and ice. Where they really shine is ride quality, comfort and noise level.

Bear in mind that I rate this tire as what it is... a Grand Touring Tire. It won't compete against special purpose tires but neither will they match this tire for this intended use. Unless you can use the last 10% to 15% of the performance that high performance tires offer you will be FAR, FAR happier with a tire such as this. The difference in comfort and combined performance will serve most drivers better the majority of the time. (As a footnote... I own and drive two Trans Ams, two Corvettes, a Grand Prix GXP, and other assorted cars). I have run high / ultra-high performance tires on those cars and unless I'm pushing the edge of the envelope, these tires perform more than adequately.... and they are FAR more comfortable over potholes, expansion joints and they don't drone you to death with tread noise.

One BIG side benefit not usually thought about is that these tires give me 45K miles +/- of wear and I replace them before they get down to the wear bars. So... while I'm wearing out HP and Ultra-HP tires at 20-25K miles I'm only at the halfway point of having to replace these. So... they save a lot of money up front and again over the far greater lifetime.

I love these tires and will be ordering my next set in the next week.

Good luck in your choices... but if I might make one suggestion it would be this. Look very carefully at what you NEED in a tire for the majority of your driving... and don't overestimate your need for that final 10% of performance. Most people never even get close to using that final 10%.

Initial Review, 51,000 Miles on Tires
March 30, 2013

Put these tires on the car at 18,000. Now have over 69k. Handling is amazing - 70mph on 35mph off-ramps. The only non-maintenance repair on my car is a new steering pump. The flat footprint puts almost 1/3 more rubber on the ground through turns. Extremely well built! These tires turned my RSX into a serious canyon carver! Highly recommend!

Initial Review, 3,500 Miles on Tires
April 10, 2013

My 2001 had Yokohamas on it when I bought it (Used). Tread date on tire was 2007. I bought the car in 2009 and they were dry rotting by 2012. They were also very loud, with a high pitch hum on the highway. These Defenders are so much quieter I can't beleive it. No hum. Great handling so far. We never got a great snowfall here in Chicago so I can't rate them in deep snow but they did save my butt when a car pulled out of an alley on an icy road and these babies gripped! I had Harmonys on my old CRV but I like these even better.

Initial Review, 32,500 Miles on Tires
March 16, 2013

We put these tires on the car at 700 miles. They were a nice improvement over the stock Integrities. The tires were quieter and much more stable at freeway speeds. In wet weather and snow the traction was good. The tires were rotated every 5-7000 miles with an alignment at 15K mile.

Our driving is about 80% country roadsm 10% city and 20% highway. In spite of driving the car mostly for gas economy (in other words gently) the tires need replacement at 32K! This is a serious disappointment. For this reason I can not recommend these tires. Our Honda Odyssey has Yokohama Avid H4s that have worn great so far in comparison.

Initial Review, 22,000 Miles on Tires
April 11, 2013

I like to drive! I only used these tires from April through November and they made driving a delightful experience. It's the best word I've got for tires that let me drive (appropriately) aggressively even on wet asphalt. I felt confident they would keep the car on the road and experienced controlled turns and no hydroplaning. I didn't have expectations for treadware but it wasn't great for me. I didn't communicate well, apparently, and these directional tires wound up on the same wheels for two seasons. So I have two good and two shot/cupped. With better care on my part I could have gotten another 10K miles from the set. They are a sport tire and I guess if you drive like you mean it 35K miles is OK. I would definitely buy them again. Oh - they do pick up a lot of little stones. I'll be buying another set when I don't live on a dirt road any more :)

Initial Review, 50,000 Miles on Tires
April 09, 2013

Best tires I've ever used for the specific purpose of putting rubber on a family vehicle. Approaching 5 years and more than 50,000 miles on this one set of tires. I'm just over 1/16" from the wear bars, so this will be their last year of service, and it's been great service. Hot summers heavily loaded family road trips, towing a boat on windy & hilly roads, rain, snow, ice, these Primacy's did it all.

Dry grip: It's a 2003 Honda Odyssey, so it is not a sports car by any means, but if a tire can make a 2.2-ton box on wheels handle commendably, that is just great, and the Primacy MXV4 does this very well.

Dry and wet braking: Great on all accounts. I have been forced into using maximum anti-skid braking a couple times, and the Michelins helped haul the vehicle down to safe speed with no drama every time.

Snow and ice: Not great in deep snow, but they work. Ice traction is on par with any other all-season tire.

Wet grip: Very good. Predictable at the limits, not that I push that in a minivan on wet roads, but when I have the tires only grudgingly give up grip in stages with no surprises.

Noise: The Odyssey is pretty noisy to begin with, but these were quieter than the stock Michelin Symmetry's, and as good as the highly regarded Yokohama YK520's we previously used on another van, and the Michelin's were better all-around tires.

Initial Review, 41,000 Miles on Tires
March 13, 2013

These were the factory tires on my wife's 2011 Hyundai Elantra GLS. Overall, not a bad tire. I was very surprised to get 40k miles, although they really could have been replaced 5,000 miles ago, but the weather has been very dry so we've put it off a bit longer. I would call this an average tires. Its got some good things and bad things about it. The worst thing I would say is the road noise as they wear down. Although they were never quiet, they were not an issue the first 20,000 miles or so. After that, they have gotten noticeably louder. If you have more of an economy car like the Elantra that doesn't have good sound deadening for the interior, these tires will get pretty noisy about half way into the tread life.
As far as how they drive, I would say they are great on dry roads, average on wet roads. We've only driven with ice or snow a couple of times since we are in Fort Worth, so we don't have enough feedback to give an honest opinion on ice and snow.
As far as value, I think there are a lot better options available at this price or spend a few bucks more per tire and get something great. We are ready to replace and are going to choose between Pirelli or Yokohama.

Initial Review, 100 Miles on Tires
March 05, 2013

This is an initial first impression review. Going from stock tires to these i have noticed a much quieter and softer ride which made my two trips to the office much better than my old loud tires.
Sidewalls i've found are MUCH softer than the OEM Yokohama's, which unfortunately makes cornering a little questionable. Even going down the highway, shake the wheel a little back and forth, you can feel the car floating around. Interesting how i didn't find any mention of the soft sidewalls here, but one i searched for that specific issue found a lot of forums with this complaint. Will post a followup review after i can test the performance in all conditions.

Initial Review, 8,000 Miles on Tires
March 14, 2013

8,000 miles and I have to replace them!!! these tires are a joke. I dont even drive my car hard. you would think i was running slicks on my car right now if you looked at the tires. I will never buy this brand again, its hard for me to even look at tirerack for my next tires.

Initial Review, 2,000 Miles on Tires
August 21, 2011

I was hesitant to write this review with only 2,000 miles logged on this tire over 2 months on this vehicle; however, since I just reviewed this same tire that's been on my other vehicle (2001 Sienna) for over 2 years now, I figured I'd go ahead with this review. I liked the tire enough on the Sienna for the past 2+ years to put a set on the Camry.



So far, so good on this car. Granted, it's summertime, so we haven't yet seen any snow or ice, but I've been quite pleased with the wet conditions handling thus far during our summer storms and showers. It's still far too early to venture a guess on potential tread wear though.

Initial Review, 200 Miles on Tires
March 28, 2013

Excellent tire .After having nothing but trouble with my Yokohama avid tires a changed them after 30 k . The primacy tires are quiet and smooth riding so far.My car feels like brand new one .No more choppy ride, noisy ,homing vibrating tires.Will fallow up after i get more miles on it. Thanks Tire Rack excellent service super fast delivery.

Initial Review, 15,000 Miles on Tires
March 16, 2013

Have used this tire on my Genesis 3.8 GT for tracking. They have at least 20 track sessions of 25 minutes . Very responsive and pleasant to drive. Best tires for this car without R compounds. When threads are used this is not a tire for tracking in the rain. Otherwise I will get the same tires for this car for sure. The tires have a nice thread pattern. Look nice and racy.

Initial Review, 6,000 Miles on Tires
February 26, 2013

This is exactly what I was looking for such a light car as Honda Civic. Today it heavily snowed and there was freezing rain as well, lots of slush - the car behaves excellent!!!!! Complete satisfaction and great handling compare to previously used stock Bridgestone Turanza and Yokohama Avid. EnVigor. Michelin is a real high end!!!!!!

Initial Review, 53,000 Miles on Tires
March 19, 2013

I bought these tires 6 or 7 years ago and they are --- tires. I put 53000 miles on them and they still have probably 8000 miles left in them. I kept them at 32 - 34 psi and rotated them religiously. They were a bit noisier than the oem F-stones and in these last 10k miles or so I had to have them rebalanced. One of them remains either unbalanced or out of round. Overall I am very pleased with these tires and have put Yokohamas on cars and been pleased with this brand in that application as well. I would definitely buy them again.

Initial Review, 17,000 Miles on Tires
March 09, 2013

Tires are on my wife car and she drive like an old lady. However when I drive it, I put it to the limit and it handles great. Noise level isn't too bad but could be better. My wheels are staggered so I can't rotate them. Plenty of tread left, hopefully it last to 40K miles. I would recommend these tires.

Initial Review, 7,000 Miles on Tires
February 28, 2013

This is the first time I have ever purchased a tire "twice" in a row from the same MFG. This S drive tires are the best tire I have found yet for a value added tire in the performance line of any MFG. tire on the market for the price. The first set of S drive tires went 33,000 miles and I am a sprited driver. This same car I have had 3 other MFG. performance tires on and was only able to get between 15,000 to 23,000 miles of service out of them. That is why i have put a second set of these on this same car again. My son have choosen to try two other brands of tires on the same car as mine and they still do not get the mileage ( around 20,000). If this car last thru these tires I will force myself to try a different brand. To date overall on five different vechiles I have used Yokohama tires of different ratings and feel that Yokohama tires are hard to beat for the value.

Initial Review, 3,000 Miles on Tires
January 29, 2013

I've had Continental ProContact, BF Goodrich, other, I don't remeber the brands through my long driving history and had never had Michelin tires before.
Purchased these tires to replace Yokohama AVID ENVigor that lasted about 35000-40000 mi until they became bold. A difference in ride became obvious and noticeable right away. The ride became more solid and soft: a softer feel when driving over bumps or rough joints on a freeway, the car became more stable at cornering when making a sharp turn or taking a ramp to exit/enter a freeway. Winter traction and hydroplaning are excellent. Civic is a light car, so of course, it will be sliding from side to side on the snow or side wind when driving on a freeway but with these tires, the car is stable on the snow surface and the same when driving over puddles that gather along dividing wall on freeways. No hydroplaning at all. Yokahama were good tires but the car felt lighter with them and with the Defenders, the car ride has improved significantly. However, fuel economy decreased maybe by 1-2 mpg which is not a big deal. Since this Michelin Defender is made from a different compound than Yokohama, it is probably softer which, in turn, results in a slightly lower fuel economy. I drive 60-70 miles a day. 30 miles to and from work + around the area where I live. I usually put from 1500 to 2000 mi a month. From now on, I will be only opting for Michelin tires. You cannot go wrong with a classic old brand and no more those Kumho, Yokahama and other crappy Chinese or Taiwanese brands. It is like comparing BMW and Honda in a ride quality. Also Michelin claims that they will last for 90k mi here:
which I doubt. I'd like to see it at least how they will be wearing out after 25-30k miles on them if I don't change the car before that. Recommended.