Winter tire review: Yokohama W.Drive

[VeeDubb]

Not that anybody is going to be buying winter tires right now, but this might be useful to someone for next winter.

Tire: Yokohama W.drive 215-55-16 V rated high performance winter.

Light to Medium snow: Very good. Even when it slips, it quickly bites again keeping the car mostly under control.

Ice: [censored], very [censored]. In fact, the Michelin Energy LX4 all season's on my wifes minivan seem to do better up our driveway with a layer of ice. The ABS kicks in hard if there is any ice on the ground. Sometimes I wonder if these are all seasons or winter tires.

Dry: Fantastic. Can't believe these are winter tires. They are more stable in high speed driving and cornering than the Continental Pro-contacts I had on before these. Took em up to 105mph once and the car was rock solid.

Wet: Very good. Can't get the tires to break loose even at full throttle. The Pro Contracts broke loose at half throttle.

Overall: Performs more like an all season tire with a winter bias than a true winter tire. If I had to do it again, I'd probably get something else for the winter. But for very light winters with 90% dry and wet days and only a few days of snow/ice, these probably can't be beat.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Thanks for the review.

I think the poor ice performance is typical of most (if not all) high performance winter tires. That's been my experience with Michelin Pilot Alpin as well. You would need to move up to something like Nokian RSi to do better on ice and deep snow, but then again, you would sacrifice some of the dry weather performance and handling. There's always a tradeoff.

But it's surpising that you found your all-season michelins to do better on ice than these winter Yokos. Were they both on the same car or are these two different cars? You only mention the wife's minivan. I assume the Yokos are on a different car?

 

[VeeDubb]

Good point Pete. The Yokos are on my 07 Passat. The two tires are virtually the same size (215-65-16 on the van) and (215-55-16 on the Passat). But the extra weight on the van probably helped a lot.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: VeeDubb
But the extra weight on the van probably helped a lot.

That's what I was going to point to.

 

[cosynthetics]

I have Dunlop WinterSport 3Ds on the 540. I'd HIGHLY recommend them to anyone. I am so happy with them. I thought I would be wearing through a set of rears every year but so far they look like they have very little if any wear.

 

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
You would need to move up to something like Nokian RSi to do better on ice and deep snow, but then again, you would sacrifice some of the dry weather performance and handling. There's always a tradeoff.


AGREED!!
That is why when I replace my Pilot Alpins with RSis, they will only go on the car (separate winter wheel setup) when, and ONLY when, there is ice/snow cover actually on the roads (or when the 'BIG ONE' is predicted!).
This is as much due to not wanting to burn up expensive 'specialty' tires as it is to them being not too great for dry performance/handling.