Yokohama Performance Tires

Initial Review, 31,192 Miles on Tires
December 30, 2012

This is a wrap-up review. My 330 Ci had the staggered tire sizes, so the size listed is for the fronts only. The Rears were 255 wide and 35-series. I was working construction while I had these and that's hard on tires. I had to replace six of them at one time or another. The mileage is for the one tire that lasted from the date I bought the car new until it needed replacement. I drove them mostly commuting, plus a few local business trips and an annual drive from the West Side of L. A. up Pacific Coast Highway to Monterey every August. The thing that impressed me most was how they wore considering the grip they provided. They were also pretty forgiving of my ham-handed driving style on the twisty bits. Rain performance was much better than the Yokohama S-Drives that came with my present 330Ci. I tried an E90 and couldn't wait to go back to an E46. The Tire Rack doesn't list these any more but I'll bet they can get me a set when the Yokohamas hit the wear bars this year. Or maybe I'll try a Max Performance All-season tire, like the new General G-Max AS-03. I have Generals on my wife's 325iT and they are great. A caveat: I buy tires partly on tread appearance, so I don't give those boring-looking Potenzas etc. a second glance.

Initial Review, 31,000 Miles on Tires
January 09, 2013

They do well as a performance tire for rain. light snow and durability but they got really loud after about 20,000 miles. It could be that this is what you get with performance tires and that being the case, I am going to try a more touring oriented tire with good reviews for low noise levels. I had these on another vehicle and liked them, I don't recall them being so loud though.

Initial Review, 8,500 Miles on Tires
January 21, 2013

Great tire. I have had Toyos, Yokohama, and Generals on this car. (Daily Driven)
I have moded this car with suspension change, springs, shocks, sway bar, and alignment. Oh yeah, the power is up another 60+ hp
Previous tires just did not work as well, These Michelin's are wonderful on this car. Grippy, predictable, reasonably quiet, they hold the road. I have tried them, more than once in the mountains of Georgia, Tenn, and the Carolinas. Jan 2013 Here in North Bama we had 7" of rain and 3" of snow. I put on ~250 miles and not a problem, went through some serious standing water and slushy roads. Wear is great, much better than previous tires. If I had to find a fault is the ride comfort is not like your 15 inch tires. But they are pretty darned good for a performance tire.

These are with out a doubt the best tire I have owned. Yes I have had several Cars prior to the MSM, Porsche, BMW, Mazda

Initial Review, 5,000 Miles on Tires
January 28, 2013

I believe that each tire performes differently on different vehicles. On our minivan this tire is absolute awesome. There is no comparison between these and the stock firestones it came with. We had zero snow traction with the old tires. With these tires the snow and ice traction is better than any tire I ever had. We just had a ice storm in lacrosse Wisconsin last night and the van outperformed my 4 wheel drive truck in 4 wheel drive. Highway driving is smooth and quiet. Wet traction is great no hydrplaning at all. No problems at all with braking even in wet conditions. I have tried many tires on differnt vehicles and know that each one performes differnt on differnt types of vehicles. I highly recommend this tire if you have a mini van. Absoluty the best tire I've owned period.

Initial Review, 1,500 Miles on Tires
January 26, 2013

Had five different sets of Yok Geolanders on three different Toyota RAV's, and I was generally satisfied with the overall performance/price of Yokohama tires. Decided to try a set of Prada Spec X's this time around. These tires are still relatively new, so haven't had a chance to run them in a variety of conditions, but so far I have a very favorable impression, based on ride comfort, low noise, and handling. Will update review when I have more miles.

Initial Review, 20,000 Miles on Tires
January 24, 2013

Considering that these tires are LRR (low rolling resistance,) the low treadwear and improve MPG they offer is nice and rated high. But due to the hard compound the dry traction suffers and doesn't seem deserving of their "high performance" title; and they're just about on par with other all season tires in the dry traction category. Wet traction is great and seems better than my last all season tires (Pirelli P6s.)

Snow traction... for a "High Performance" all season tire these do not fit their title. They seem to lack that certain "bite" to go through the snow. They've been put through heavy & slushy wet snow, light $ dry snow, and hard packed snow; and these do not excel and just barely get by in snowy conditions.

Overall not a bad tire for commuting, and in that respect they are very capable. But, for spirited driving they do not seem to be very "high perform", then again you can't expect to get the best of all worlds in a single tire... Overall I'd say these deserve 7 out of 10.

Initial Review, 14,000 Miles on Tires
January 21, 2013

This has been an excellant tire. It has more then exceeded my expectations and I will be buying another set when the time comes. I have seen rain, snow, and ice and have not had one single complaint. I have a set of winter tires on my wife's car and these perform equally as well and those conditions. Great tire!!

Initial Review, 12,000 Miles on Tires
December 29, 2012

The winter performance of these tires is embarassing. With 12k miles I am struggling to keep the car on the road, while other small front wheel drive cars with oem tires pass me. Traction/Stability control kicking on and off in light snow, straight line stability does not inspire confidence, can feel the rear end drifting.

Looks like I have to buy some Conti Dedicated Winters again, never had any luck with Yoko's.

Initial Review, 400 Miles on Tires
December 26, 2012

I currently own two vehicles and did some tire testing tonight with both vehicles so I could write a proper review. The car I bought the Winterforce tires for(Size: 195/65R15) is a 2000 Saab 9-5 wagon. It's front wheel drive with traction control and ABS. The other vehicle is a 1991 Nissan Pathfinder 4x4 with 31 inch Yokohama Geolander AT-S tires. We have about 6 inches of snow and it's still falling. The roads are very slick right now with a nice packed layer of snow on them. Plus there is a large unplowed parking lot across the street. The Pathfinder in 2 wheel drive didn't fair so well in the traction department. I was pushing both vehicles to their limits and the rear wheel drive had me sliding and spinning out fairly easily on both the road and especially in the parking lot. With the truck in 4wheel drive it did really well but I was still able to pitch the truck sideways at will and set it into a nice controlled slide. The Geolanders are great in the snow but mine have quite a few hard miles on them. As for the Saab, the Winterforce tires have about 400 miles on them. When I got into the car I didn't have high hopes due to the way my truck was handling. To my surprise the Saab easily out performed my truck even with it in 4wheel drive!!!! On the slick road and in the unplowed parking lot it really took quite a bit of effort to shake it loose. Granted the traction control is playing a major role in this. When I turn it off I can easily spin the tires but it still never really felt out of control. Plus it's a manual transmission car so popping the clutch in the snow will spin any tire on the market. Even under braking the tires did awesome. I can't complain at all. They do what they were made to do very well. As for dry handling. Some are saying they make their cars feel out of control. I don't know what they are talking about. They handle really well for a specialty snow tire being used on a dry road. Even at 70mph they feel fine. They do make noise though.

Initial Review, 9,000 Miles on Tires
January 13, 2013

This tire performs well in wet conditions, no concerns there. I've only managed to break traction on full acceleration in 1st or 2nd gear. I've never broke traction during corning or breaking. As far as cornering and pushing this tire from a street performance standpoint, I can only rate it as average as I don't drive my truck like a performance car. Off road is above average. Dry conditions is excellent and will get thru mild mud and go thru mild rocks without cutting sidewalls and no chunking of threads yet. Better than some of the firestone destination tires I've ran before. Does great in the snow thus far, however I expect the winter performance to degrade significantly as treadwear decreases due to the design of the tire. Rides well (considering I'm riding a ford p/u) and when new the tires were tolerable on noise. But within a few miles the noise has increased quite a bit, so much so that it is compariable with a mud tire. Threadwear has been good and I expect to get 50-60K based on experiences thus far. Overall, this is a good tire for those who need a balanced appilcation that can do highway and mild offroad, with good longivity, and for a fair price. I've had the best luck with BFG but they are very expensive now. The yoko's are a decent alternative if you're trying to save a few dollars.

Initial Review, 2,000 Miles on Tires
December 31, 2012

I purchased in the fall to replace old Pirellis, which were very good tires. Since I'm in north east Indiana I waited for some snow to fall before rating these Avids. I'm delighted with this tire so far. They ride very nicely, no road noise that I discern. They perform well in both snow and rain. I think this tire purchase was great bang for the buck!

Initial Review, 14,000 Miles on Tires
December 26, 2012

Well balanced all around tire which I was so glad to pick. As soon as the vehicle has worn this tire, the ride became softer and smoother, and best of all; the vehicle turned out very quiet regardless of any road surface. I must confess that I did not realize how much road noise was pronounced until I replaced old Yoko to this Michelin. Now, I neither raise my voice up to communicate with the person who sits next to me nor crank the volume up to listen to my favorite music. Both dry and wet traction are just adequate to put my foot down comfortably – even under the torrential downpour in TX, or 2-4 inches of fresh snow in OK, whereas the vehicle feels lighter for acceleration and gets easier to maintain its speed.

Sure, some people might feel scary due to the coasting nature of low road resistance tire; but, hey, this is definitely not one of the Ultra High Performance All-Season tires. So, let’s face it. We cannot have a great mileage and highest grip at the same time. There should be a tradeoff and we must understand the name of the game in the first place. Thus, if you are looking for a tire which allows you to do maximum attack on each and every corner, there are bunch of great tire out there. Instead, if you are looking for a moderate, well balanced tire with the great mileage as a bonus, please try one of these and I believe you will not be disappointed.

FYI, here are some additional numbers from our recent cross-country trip.
35.2mpg (from Albuquerque to Amarillo; 325.5miles/9.25gal)
35.5mpg (from Amarillo to Oklahoma City; 258.6miles/7.28gal)
The vehicle having 5MT carried two adults with full load of cargo. All we did was topped off Shell regular gasoline, set the cruise control at 60mph (in another word, the engine rev was kept at 2,500rpm), and enjoyed the view during the road trip. As I am not a Mileage expert, in a similar condition, my previous tire Yokohama Avid H4S gave me barely up to 31mpg. Not a bad choice to improve fuel efficiency about 13%!

Initial Review, 58,000 Miles on Tires
January 02, 2013

Very happy with wear, have rotated every 5,000 miles, checked balance every 10,000 and also maintained air pressure at 35 psi. Found performance in rain and snow alike very good, and provide a quiet ride overall. Tires are just at wear bars and I am shopping for another set.

Initial Review, 1,000 Miles on Tires
December 26, 2012

I just replaced the Yokohama tires that came with the vehicle. Though I got 55k miles out of them, I was never comfortable with the handling in the snow. We will see how these perform. I like the tread depth and pattern. Seems more aggressive in design. The noise of these tires versus what I before is not appreciable - except I have notices some louder whine on brand spanking new blacktop.

Initial Review, 80,000 Miles on Tires
December 08, 2012

Bought a set of these tires for my Neon 5 years agoand they have performed flawlessly. I drive 80 miles a day mostly highway and they cut through water without Hydroplaning at all up to that is when I got down to the wear-bars. Even so before I could switch over to my Snow tires we got hit with a freak snowstorm and I was able to drive home on the snow and slush covered road where others were slipping and sliding around I couldn't believe how good they were still performing even being worn out. The tires were also much quieter than the previous tires on it. Car has 185,000 on it and going strong I will get another set for the spring time and enjoy another 5 or 6 years with them.

Initial Review, 5,000 Miles on Tires
January 14, 2011

Purchased these tires to replace OEM Goodyear RSAs, which were badly flatspotted at 20k miles causing an annoying vibration at highway speeds. Repeated attempts at balancing and road force yielded no positive results. Plus I drive this vehicle year-round so I needed an all-season tire. My choice was between the Parada Spec-X and the Michelin Latitude Tour HP. I use Michelins on most of my vehicles and love them, but in this case (based on all of the positive feedback and the huge price difference) I opted to try the Yoko's. This was the first set of Yokohamas I've ever purchased and so far I could barely be more pleased.



Since I purchased these tires for my TBSS I've had them in just about every weather condition imaginable. Dry traction is very good - at least comparable to the Goodyear RSA's they replaced. Wet traction is excellent. We've had some of the worst rain and flooding here in the PNW that I've seen in years and these tires have handled it beautifully. An inch of standing water on the highway at 75mph is a non-issue. I've had them in light snow and earlier this week in about 4-5 inches of very wet, slushy snow. In both cases they've done well. Over the Thanksgiving holiday we got hit with 6-8 inches of snow and temps in the teens. These tires plus the AWD handled the deeper snow admirably. The resulting compact snow and ice was about the only area where these tires didn't excel. They did okay under these conditions, but didn't instill a high degree of confidence. I've since purchased a set of Blizzaks for future use in icy conditions.



Overall these are possibly the best all-around tires I've ever owned. I don't feel I've given up anything in performance to the RSAs that I replaced and these ride so much better and have all-season capability.



For those with a TBSS like me, I want to mention that going with the 275/45/20 on the stock wheels is not a problem. No bulging or other issues vs the stock 255/50/20's.

Initial Review, 13,500 Miles on Tires
January 02, 2012

I Can't believe what a difference these Yokohamas made over the stock Goodyears (Eagle F1 Gs-D3) that came with the vehicle. The Yokos are extremely quiet and smooth with no appreciable difference in performance. Tire wear is dramatically improved as well! Highly recommend these tires while they are still an amazing value!

Initial Review, 13,000 Miles on Tires
December 02, 2012

Initially I had Goodyear F1s on my Chally, which WAS NOT a all season tire, anytime it dropped 40 degrees, vry little traction. I've had Yokohama tires before so I thought I'd try them again. I couldnt be more pleased with the price and performance of this tire....I would recommend to anyone!

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
December 02, 2012

These were the original tires on my car.
They are not a performance tire and I didn't expect much as far as grip, responsiveness, or feedback, but I did hope for a quiet ride and good tire life - disappointed that they scrubbed off their shoulders and deep into the treadwear indicators before 10k miles.
Obviously not for my style of driving.
I only rotated them twice as I was rotating with the 3750 mi oil change - alignment was good when I got new tires.