As some of you know I had the factory Goodyear 205/50 R17 Eagle RS-A tires yanked off of my 2009 Mazda3 714 miles after driving the car off of the showroom floor. Prior to buying the car I'd read many-many negative reports about the OEM rubber, and not surprisingly they lived up to (down to?) all expectations. I found them unpredictable following simple maneuvers such as a lane change at 75 mph, and down-right scary near the limit. In addition, they were noisy and per the literally hundreds of reports I'd come across, their tread life was roughly that of a dedicated high-performance summer tire in spite of their "All-Season" rating.

The tires I had mounted back in November of 2008 were a set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S (which I bought literally weeks before the new "Plus" model refresh hit the streets) which sported a Treadwear rating of 400 (the new Plus model has a 500 rating). For a total of 48,080 miles the Michelin's delivered the goods in that they dramatically improved the handling and predictability of my car and while a bit noisy, they were no louder than the RS-As they replaced. I cannot say enough good things about them.

During the summer of 2011 I started the process of shopping for their replacements in earnest, and due to the rather significant increase in price between 2008 and now, the Michelin's were knocked down a notch on my list from Top Dog to second; the Continental ExtremeContactDWS seemed to have all of the attributes of the Michelins but with better tread life and a lower price tag. A friend has a Ford Focus with them on and after a quick drive I became a bit worried about their handling; they felt far more planted than the Eagle RS-A's but nowhere near as precise as the Michelins; I cast my tire shopping net a bit further afield.

Enter the Yokohama AVID ENVigor; these skins also had great ratings for handling, life expectancy and price, unfortunately as they're relatively new to the market I couldn't find a friend with them already mounted to his or her car, so I decided to play guinea pig. I had them swapped onto my car this last Saturday morning and have about 220 miles on them at this point. Initial impressions:

• If I had ear plugs in I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the Yokohamas and the Michelins in that these tires are very precise and handle very predictably when hot-footing it over our local two-lane roads which snake around over hill and dale. Said another way, they feel just like the Michelins (that’s a good thing).
• Given that I don’t in fact drive with ear plugs in my ears, the contrast in tire and road noise registered by my brain when driving my car is stunning; stunningly positive. I really cannot believe how quiet the AVID ENVigors are compared to the Pilot Sport A/Ss.
• So, awesome handling and no noise; what’s not to like?

Long story short, if there is even remotely any parity between Michelin’s and Yokohama’s Treadwear rating system, then the ENVigors should last an easy sixty to sixty-five thousand miles. That said, given how much less expensive the Yokohamas were ($119 per tire versus $178 for the Michelins [note: when I bought the Yokos the Michelins were more like $193 per tire]), I’ll consider them a bargain if they only go forty thousand miles.

 

GREAT!! A new tire to try when my Conti's go bald.
I had Yoko's on my Civic back in the '80p's when I was Auto-Xing... IIRC, they were the 507 series made unavailable quite a few yrs ago now.
They were OK, overall better than the BFG's that replaced them.

I think as tire manufacturer's catch on to a higher silicon content in the tread compound, that these "super-tires" will become more the norm than the exception.
Though they don't advertise it, I'm sure that's one reason I like my Conti's so much... and why you are liking the Yoko's too!!

 

Dale,
Your friend w/the Focus should pump them up for better response.
OE specs for the Bad Year's were 32/32, as I'm sure you're aware. But the recommendations from the manufacturer are based on using the OE tires exclusively.
With the Conti's I'm running 38F/35R and it does make a difference. But as I stated before, I'll take the inspired confidence of not sliding off the road before a slight increase in handling. And with the chassis/suspension set-up I have now, that is not too much of an issue anyway. The car rotates pretty well on its own.

 

My neighbor with the Focus runs 36 psi all the way around (as do I); following a drive in my Mazda3 (with the Yokos installed), he's inclined to opt for them the next time around. The difference in handling is quite noticable.

 

Welll.... depending how well they work out for you in the long term, I may be inclined to agree and buy a set myself.

BTW: I got a TireRack promo in my e-mail the other day for Michelin's, so out fo curiosity I took a look. In my size, 225/45-17, they were $206 ea. before the "discount." But I did find your review of them there.

 

Ouch! Two-hundred and six per? Yikes, that's getting scary expensive for a tire which can effectively be matched by a tire costing more than eighty dollars per tire less.

 

Yes, I thought so too. And with the discount being a $70 gift card plus shipping and installation to add to that, I was less than impressed.
But the tire does garner some very good reviews, I must say.