[guy989]

How are the sidewalls on these? The roads here in California are horrible. The stock Yoko handles potholes pretty well and are really not bad except for the noise.

 

[ford1953jimma]

I looked at the reviews for the Douglas performance tire on the Walmart website. 15 one star due to tire failures, probably due to the fact there are only 3 plies in the tread, and 1 ply in the sidewall. The current tires on my 2014 Sport have 5 plies in the tread and 2 plies in the sidewall. I haven't had a tire failure in almost 50 years, and do a lot of cross country driving. With the poor shape of most of the roads everywhere, I would be afraid to use a tire with this few plies at speeds over 45mph. I would rather spend more money to feel safer on the road. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Get Inline]

How are the sidewalls on these? The roads here in California are horrible. The stock Yoko handles potholes pretty well and are really not bad except for the noise.

You think the roads in Cali are bad? You should really try paying a visit to Toronto or Montreal.

The stock 17" Yoko's are good tires in every regard except for noise levels. I liked the steering feel, they were very predictable at the limit and the grip was excellent in the rain.

 

[Cdn17Sport6MT]

I'm happy with my 17"rims + stock Yokohama's but undeniably the 19"rims / tires are a better look. The latter visually fill-out the wheel wells better, more aesthetically. Having said this I am pleased with a bit more ride compliance and rim protection that the 17's offer.

 

[Cdn17Sport6MT]

Oh, re noise, the tires are really horrible on some pavements... but i attribute that just as much to subframe isolation... oh well ?.

 

[tickerguy]

I looked at the reviews for the Douglas performance tire on the Walmart website. 15 one star due to tire failures, probably due to the fact there are only 3 plies in the tread, and 1 ply in the sidewall. The current tires on my 2014 Sport have 5 plies in the tread and 2 plies in the sidewall. I haven't had a tire failure in almost 50 years, and do a lot of cross country driving. With the poor shape of most of the roads everywhere, I would be afraid to use a tire with this few plies at speeds over 45mph. I would rather spend more money to feel safer on the road. Just my 2 cents.

Meh.

I've had TWO failures (belt breaks!) on my Jetta in its years of ownership -- one on Michelin MXVs (!) and the second on Uniroyal Tiger Paws. Both could have easily been catastrophic failures as they were on the front axle, both were on well-respected "name brand" tires, and both wound up costing me money as warranty or no warranty they happened while away from home on a trip where hauling the dead carcass home (where they were originally installed, and where I could file said claim) was impractical. Neither resulted in deflation at speed (just hideous vibration that made for an immediate "pull over now and change that thing!") but that's more a matter of luck than anything else.

I drive 70-75 on the highway and when out west where the limit is 80, I do 80-85. I've got about 30,000 miles on these tires now, they're showing very good tread life wear (I expect to get ~50-55k out of them before they're to 4/32, which is where I change tires) and their performance has remained perfectly acceptable. When these wear out I'm going to buy 4 more of them. I rotate them when I change the oil (myself) and they get a good inspection on both sides plus the tread area -- they're doing great.

Any tire can and will fail if physically abused either physically or through extreme underinflation leading to heat-related failure and MOST sidewall failures are in fact from exactly that. Of course nobody ADMITS it after the fact and if the failure is complete (separation sufficient to result in catastrophic air loss while in use) then the evidence is usually destroyed in the blowout. But as I've noted in the last ~15 years I've had two serious tire failures, neither was abuse-related, both were on my Jetta, both were on MUCH higher-priced "name brand" tires that everyone thinks are great and, well, the BFG Comp2/AS tires I replaced with the Douglas ones (that are on the car now) were showing signs of tread/belt separation failure when I replaced THEM (they were roughly at my 4/32 limit, but when they were next rotated I would have condemned them anyway after seeing them off the rims on the scrap pile -- two of them had visible indications of trouble right at the tread/inner casing molding line that a close inspection would have definitely caught.)

 

[guy989]

You think the roads in Cali are bad? You should really try paying a visit to Toronto or Montreal.

The stock 17" Yoko's are good tires in every regard except for noise levels. I liked the steering feel, they were very predictable at the limit and the grip was excellent in the rain.

I do agree that they do handle well on dry roads. On wet the TCS activated a couple times on hills which was not fun. Anyways decided to go with Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 Plus since there was a sale for under $500.

 

[Get Inline]

I do agree that they do handle well on dry roads. On wet the TCS activated a couple times on hills which was not fun. Anyways decided to go with Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 Plus since there was a sale for under $500.

In a straight line, I find that the tires spin easily on wet no matter how good they are. 225 section tires are just too thin for a FWD car with a torquey 2.5L. Around corners, those Yokohama's gripped like nobodies business. Dry or wet - didn't even make a difference.

A friend of mine actually used to own a Mazda 6 and put those same Michelin's onto his car. I didn't like them. The grip was fine, they were soft and comfortable, but steering feel and overall tire communication was seriously lacking compared to the Yokohama's I was used to. The tires felt bland and indifferent, especially on Mazda's chassis which likes a sticky silica compound such as Pirelli or Yokohama. In general, I recommend to steer clear from Michelin's lineup of A/S tires. I have Pilot Super Sport 3 tires on my BMW and those are far better than the all season versions. Actually they are one of my favorite tires. The treadwear was some of the worst I have ever seen (and the A/S version is not much better) but the ride was remarkably smooth for a summer tire.

But hey, $500 is a solid deal. Just drive the shit out of them until the fronts are useless and replace them with summer tires. You don't need all seasons in Cali.

 

[Beefalo]

I am in SoCal, I replaced the original Yoko Advans in my 2016 Sport MT at 25,000 miles! with BFG Comp2 summer tires. Love the steering response and handling, but they are noisy, They have have 24,000 miles on them and are wearing well. I think they were like $114 out of the door at Costco.

 

[tickerguy]

The Comp2/AS I had on my Sport *started* quiet but didn't stay that way -- they got progressively louder with age. At the point I condemned them they were about as bad as the OE Yokos; as noted above they were condemned on tread depth remaining (and attendant loss of performance, especially wet traction) but on dismounting them it was obvious they were at risk of a catastrophic tread/casing separation in the near future.

They weren't bad and were nicely priced but I didn't re-buy them again as their noise profile deterioration was IMO unacceptable. I've yet to run into any issue like that with the Douglas tires that are on the car now.

I'll only buy the same time again if I'm happy with them end-to-end in their service life; I see no reason to reward a particular tire brand and line with a second purchase if I'm even somewhat unhappy with the first time around.

BTW one issue to be aware of with tires -- watch the load range and actual load carried per-tire and remember that a front-drive vehicle carries 60-65% of its mass on the fronts...

 

[tickerguy]

BTW the Douglas Performance on my car are 4 plies on the tread: 1 Polyester, 2 steel and one Polyamide according to the imprint on the sidewall. The sidewall is 1 ply (polyester)