Yokohama AVID Ascend GT

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Here's a 1000-mile review:

I needed something to replace the terrible 18" Bridgestone Potenza RE97AS that were OEM on my Accord Sport. They were 'sporty' and handled well in the dry but they were too stiff and noisy for regular commuting and they were bad in the wet, and downright scary in light snow regardless of how Bridgestone classifies them as an all-season tire. The rubber compound on these has absolutely ZERO cold wet grip.

I was leaning towards something a little more 'all-weather' like the Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady just for bad weather confidence but the price (generally $225 or so) scared me off. I decided to give a standard all-season a try rather than a performance all-season to try to improve the ride, and these Yokohamas caught my eye. They are a recent design so legit reviews were few but generally pretty good. I found them on Amazon for $135 each when they are about $175 everywhere else so that sealed it. I had them mounted and the car aligned at MachV Motorsports, a fantastic local speed shop.

They are far less sporty than the Bridgestones obviously, but that was expected and desired. They are also far less noisy and ride a lot smoother so my car is now much more pleasant to commute in. The tread is surprisingly deep so there's a good amount of tread squish causing the more 'casual' cornering ability but the upside is that they evacuate standing water so much better. They have much better wet grip but I don't have a verdict on light snow performance since it's only snowed twice here this year and I was never out in it. We'll see how they do next year. I certainly recommend them otherwise. Plus they look pretty good, if that matters!
 
Thanks for the review. One of the tires on may radar when needing tires in the future. Along with the GY AWR and RT43. Could come down to who has best price after all rebates and promos. Good read a positive review for the Yokos. Curious what size tire on the Sport?
 
We have set on 05 Camry. Have approx. 10k miles on them.
Ride and wet is Very Good.
Dry is Good
Tad noisy on some roads.
Seem to be wearing well.
Will buy another set for Avalon soon.
 
I forgot to post a link: https://www.yokohamatire.com/tires/avid-ascend-gt

Originally Posted by Sayjac
Curious what size tire on the Sport?

235/45-18 so they are a fairly wide, low-profile tire which helps offset the 'standard touring all-season' nature of them a bit. I would imagine a 60 series of this tire would be rather soft, possibly disappointingly so.
 
You did good. Yokohama AVID Ascend GT are rated #4 out of 54 on Tire Rack for grand touring tires. Unusual for Yokohama they rate Excellent for tread life too, 9.3/10. For fifty bucks a set more than a middling crowd pleaser like the Altimax RT43, you are getting an excellent set of tires.
 
I just bought a pair for the front of my 06 Spec V. I was previously using the now discontinued US made Yokohama Avid Envigor, which is more of a performance tire with a 560 thread ware rating.

The Avid Ascend GT is made in the Philippines. At another forum, someone said this tire is hard to balance. Since these tires have been put on my car, there's a high speed vibration after several balanced attempts. Mavis (where I purchased them) suggested I get them road force balanced using the Hunter GSP9700 unit. I've an appointment for such this coming Monday. Mavis said they'd reimburse.

I hope this works. Below 55 MPH, they're performing well. Walmart offers a great deal for them in a 215 45 17, which Mavis price matched.
 
I wasn't told of any difficulty in balancing them correctly as I'm certain the guys at MachV know what they are doing. These ride perfectly smoothly.
 
I just had mine road force balanced with the aforementioned (at this thread by yours truly) Hunter unit. The vibration is gone.

You describe the MachV venue as a speed shop. Perhaps they did the same kind of balance. Here's a video on that Hunter unit with some interesting comments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQxVAssnbp8
 
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