Yokohama AVID Ascend

[SE95]

I was looking to get my snow tires off and in a hurry. Really didn't need them this year and I was getting sick of the crappy ride quality. Well, I've been him-hawing back and fourth all winter about what all seasons I Wanted to go with. Ultimately I was between the Goodyear Assurance Comfort Tred Touring and the Michelin Primacy MXV4.

As some of you may know, I work for a tire dealer. I'm a salesman for one store of a family owned tire chain that owns 19 stores in Western PA and eastern OH. I also visited the North American International Auto Show and got all hyped up about the forthcoming Michelin Defender... so I was thinking about that as well.

Low and behold, at the end of February we receive materials for the showroom advertising a new tire... the Yokohama AVID Ascend (it is replacing the AVID TRZ). I checked the pricing... I was really sold on the Comfort Treds at this point. I didn't need snow traction anyway... I have snow tires. But even without my discount the Yokos were roughly $200 cheaper for the set than the Goodyears. And being a new tire, I decided to be the guinea pig.

So about 2 weeks ago, I purchased a set of them. 225/60R16 98H Yokohama AVID Ascend.

And simply put, thus far, I LOVE them. I don't mean to sound overly excited, but I swear its like these tires were MADE for this car. It is fantastically smooth, the car handles like it is on rails now, and I hear no noise from the tires at all. I mean honestly, the car drives SILENT. In two weeks I've already put a decent amount of mileage on them... took a 500 mile round trip road trip last weekend (to Toledo OH), and the car rode fantastic the whole way. Excellent rain traction as well. I did this same road trip in January and averaged 21 mpg on my snows. This time, on the Yokos, I averaged 26.

So far, I highly highly recommend these tires. I was probably one of the first people in Western PA to install a set on their car (these tires started being sold on March 1st), I know I was the first set to be sold through the retail store at my location. I will keep this thread updated as they wear, and if anything changes. But thus far...

[Novablue]

I'm curious what your snow tires are.

Glad your happy with what you got. It awesome having quite tires!

[SE95]

My snows are Vanderbilt (Cooper) Arctic Claws.

[SE95]

Tires are still doing great thus far. Excellent rain traction, there have been a few times I've deliberately tried to make them skid in the wet, no dice. These babies aren't losing traction. Very happy with my purchase so far.

[Bobaru]

These (Yokohoma AVID Ascends) caught my eye also - although I was a little leery of there being zero info (as of a few weeks ago) on the Tire Rack's web site. But they look really nice.

People may laugh at this, but I got a new pair of Conti's, instead. Not the OEM ContiProContacts, but the newer ProContact Eco Plus. They are considered by Tire Rack to be standard-touring, whereas the OEM Conti's were considered to be grand touring.

I got 57k miles from my OEM Conti's, and didn't have any issues with them. But the new Proc Contact Eco Plus's have a higher tread wear rating, and really good survey results at Tire Rack (substantially better than the OEM Conti's, albeit for a slightly lower-performance tire category). Plus, the ProContact Eco Plus's fared very well in comparison testing done by the Tire Rack, against Yoko AVID TRZs, Bridgestone Ecopias, and Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max. Basically, they narrowly beat out the TRZs, and fairly handily beat the others. The Yoko TRZs were slightly better in dry, but the Contis were slightly better in wet.

Given that the Ascends are probably better than the TRZs, I wouldn't be surprised to see them winning a "rematch"...

In another 4-tire test, the Conti ProContact Eco Plus's were tested against the same Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max's, plus a Kumho Solus model, and Michelin HydroEdge's. In this test, the Conti and Michelin basically tied, with the Michelin being slightly better in the dry, with the Conti being slightly better in the wet.

Given that the Conti's are a lot less expensive than the Michelin's, and also somewhat cheaper than the Yoko's, I went with the Contis. They feel a bit firmer than the OEM Conti's, and so far I am happy with the ride, lack of noise, and handling. But it's only been 2k miles, and no real wet use yet (other than light mist/rain).

If I was doing it all over today, though, I'd definitely be looking at the Yoko Ascends.

Hard to say if I am seeing much mileage improvement over the OEM Conti's. Driving from the SF bay Area down to LA I got 27.3 on my gauge, which is probably a real 26.3 or so (2010 Outback with 3.6R, driven at around 75 mph). And my average for the entire trip (SF to LA, to Carlsbad, to Palm Springs, and then back to SF Bay Area), including some amount of local driving, was 25.5 by the gauge. So pretty decent, but hard to say if it was really better than with the old tires.

[AWDFTW]

How many miles you have now? How are they holding up?

[SE95]

I just rolled 108,000 miles on the car the other day, I put these on at 105,433. Almost time for their first rotation. They have done excellent so far. I HAVE found their limit in the rain, but if you drive like a sane person you should have no trouble... I was trying to test their limits, took a very tight turn in pouring rain at 40 mph and I just felt it start to skid a little bit. If you drive normally you will never reach that limit.

[duckboy]

anyone else try these? looking for feedback. i got the avid envigors but i could switch to these using yokohama's 30 day warranty. i do like a comfortable tire but at the same time i don't like an overly squishy tire that allows the chassis to move all over the place.

[SE95]

Car rolled 110,000 miles on Monday. Tires are still at over 11/32nds. I'm still extremely happy with them. Drove through a flooded road last week, never lost traction.

I really do like the handling on them. You can push them really far on dry pavement without losing road feel, no squealing either unless you are REALLY pushing it.

[duckboy]

SE95,

how many miles are on your Ascend's?

how are the Ascend's on bumpy tarmac while in a turn? do they skip & slide or do they conform to bumps and stick?

what cold pressures (F/R) are you running?

thanks for your help!

Originally Posted by SE95

Car rolled 110,000 miles on Monday. Tires are still at over 11/32nds. I'm still extremely happy with them. Drove through a flooded road last week, never lost traction.

I really do like the handling on them. You can push them really far on dry pavement without losing road feel, no squealing either unless you are REALLY pushing it.