Eiso

I'm looking into these tires for my 19" stock rims. I didnt want to spend much because I'm turning my lease in less than 10 months. My stock bridgestone are almost completely worn out after 14 months (I have a 24 months lease). I'm looking for some good tires to survive for the next 10 months. These few tires are in the ballpark in price. Tirerack gives the Yokohama S.drive the best ratings out of these 3 tires.

notalk

I expect TireRack's rating will change since it just participated in the Car and Driver tire test which included all three of your choices. The S.drive finished lower than the other two.

NJlakeshoreG

iTrader: (1)

you should get some falken 452's, tehy are a awesome tire and not expensive...if i were you id ride out on some fuzion tires for the remaining months...

Eiso

I did not see Yokohama S.drive in the test when I was reading the issue. I just placed the order today. If I want to change the order, can I still do it? Anyone know?

notalk

You're kidding, right? S.drive finished 7th out of 9.

Eiso

I ordered them few days ago. I called discounttire this morning but he manager insisted that the Yokohama is better. He said that the test uses all new tires, but he has seen the hankook goes bad once it starts to wear out.

Gamedog

iTrader: (9)

I have no complaints on my Sdrives. And I haven't heard one complaint from anyone on the forum yet. I know there are a handful of members running Sdrives.

Rapture37

iTrader: (1)

I like my S drives. Would buy again.

TIMMAY

iTrader: (1)

love mine.. =P

notalk

Considering the Hankook is a relatively new tire and Tire Rack only started selling this model a week or two ago, it sounds like the manager is just making excuses to keep you from changing your order. Tire Rack has a lot more S.drives in your sizes that they have to sell than Ventus V12s.

It's also interesting that Hankook does not let Tire Rack sell the entire line of Hankooks and Tire Rack had to beg Hankook to be allowed to sell the Ventus V12 while Discount Tire Direct has been selling the Ventus V12 since its release at the end of last year, and now that Tire Rack finally gets Hankook to supply Tire Rack with the Ventus V12 that a Tire Rack manager would bad mouth the Ventus V12.

Re-read the actual tire test. Please pay attention to the part where Hankook supplied three identical sets of Ventus V12s as the "control" tires to determine the effect of condition changes on the tests. If C&D experienced any wear effects on the Hankooks' performance, it wasn't mentioned in the article. And, with three different sets being run through all the tests, it seems logical that if there were any wear differences between the sets of Hankooks that C&D would have pointed that out in the article.

Oh, another thing, the article said all tires were broken in to Tire Rack's specifications prior to the beginning of the testing. So, no, these were not zero mile tires. If the Hankooks start to go bad with mileage, well, this wasn't noted in the tire test. In fact, the Hankook outperformed the S.drive, both with the same or similar mileage.

The S.drive is good tire, but it is about three years old and newer designs perform better. Just like cars, the newer design will usually perform better. But, you might still prefer a little older model for various reasons. And, when the older model gets replaced, its replacement will outperform today's hot ticket.

One of the difficulties in reading reviews by forum members is they don't have the luxury of testing multiple brands. They can only compare the replacement tire with the replaced tire. And, their memory of the replaced tire is at the end of its life. If you want to read about someone with experience with all three of your tire choices search for the post from one of the SoCal performance shops with experience with all three of these tires.

Mike

iTrader: (1)

Until we start running again.

Eiso

Not quite getting what you meant there?!

I just really want the best tires I could get out of all three. The manager at Discount Tire would still let me change my mind even I ordered them already. I just felt like with a little lower price, I can probably get a better tire than the S.drive. Sometimes there are too many factors to consider reading an article. As I felt, C&D partnered TireRack in the tire test, they might somehow biased on the Hankook...maybe not...i dont know...

But if I trust the review, I would want to get the Hankook than the Yokohama...

notalk

What I meant was that the Ventus V12 was introduced at SEMA 2007. The tires were available in many sizes late summer 2008 (at least in North America). And, Tire Rack as a part-line Hankook retailer, only got their first batch of Ventus V12s a couple of weeks ago. So, there aren't many Ventus V12s with a huge amount of miles to lead to the conclusion the performance falls away as the miles pile up. Tire Rack has no long term experience with the tires, only selling them in the last two weeks. If the Tire Rack manager told you the performance decreased as the tire wore, he would either have to have heard this from someone second hand or have very limited personal knowledge about. But, Tire Rack does not have sufficient experience with the tire to reach any long term conclusions. So, the manager is either passing along something he heard or may have learned from one or two people he knows running the Ventus V12. The tires have been available in Europe since spring 2008, and I couldn't find any reports of performance decreases with mileages on any of the English tire web forums. What I meant was that the bottom line, to me, is it sounds like the manager was trying to discourage from switching from the S.drives, which they have a lot of, to the Ventus V12s, which they only have a handful of.

You wanted to know which of the three tires was "better". I said check the C&D tire test which included all three. I don't know which characteristics are most important to you, so I can't suggest any tire for you. But, if you actually read the entire tire test you might be able to reach a conclusion as to which of the three might be best for you. (C&D does not care which tire you buy, but Tire Rack does care which tire you buy from them.)

Neal@tirerack

iTrader: (2)

Not all retailers have contracts/agreements to sell certain brands or models of tires. In Hankooks case we started by supplying the oe market with a small selection of their line. They did well and we have since moved into their more aftermarket performance tires. I don't know that we begged Hankook, but instead made a good business decision by testing the waters with the brand and moving forward from there.


As far as the tires in question.... The Yoko and Kumho are Ultra High Performance Summer tires, the Hankook is a Max Performance Summer tire. Two different classes/animals. Unfortunately to test the three together (with the exception of the Yoko and Kumho) won't yield accurate results. To stay consistent you need to test tires within their own class and not cross pollinate.

If you want the top in dry handling and response of the three that would be the Hankook. However, they will lack in wear, noise, and slightly in wet traction vs. the others due to the class of tire. The Yoko and Kumho pull a bit from the dry/response side to give more life and practical traits the majority of people are looking for.

I've not had a complaint on the S-Drive since it came out. Been a rock solid performer and great seller. Kumho's aren't bad but have had a handful of noise complaints from them. The S12's we've only had for a while but things have been good. All depends on where you want to put your focus on.

Neal@tirerack

iTrader: (2)

It's actually true with any tire. Longer it wears the less wet traction you'll have, the noisier the tire will get, and typically ride will decrease. Only positive is better steering response and dry traction due to shallower tread depth. I don't think he was making a generalization but instead an overall recommendation based off how tires act toward life end in general.

That's a pretty big generalization to be honest. If the initial needs of the customer warranted the S-Drive then that's what he would recommend. Same goes if the cst went in the direction of the Hankook's attributes. We do not receive any kickbacks or incentives for any brands to there's really no reason to go one way vs. another unless guided by the customers reply to qualifying questions.