Surprising experience with Yokohama S-Drives. Had recently changed tires on my car(Elantra CRDi) to 205/55/15 Yokohama S-Drives(on stock alloys), and here goes some surprising observations. Surprising to me, because I have only heard good things about these tires, but unfortunately, my experience have not been all good!
Here goes my experiences, in chronological order...
* Looses traction under hard acceleration. This was among the first thing we noticed while driving back after changing the tires. And "we" is Vidyut and I. It was wet and slippery, but even then, the I had never ever seen the TCS warning constantly light up like this!
* Car had already done about 87000Kms, and I thought, maybe the suspension is on it's last legs. Left the car for a *complete* suspension replacement.
* Drove to Kerala the next day. Speeds were low, mostly < 140. Did not have any issues, and was pleasantly surprised at the lack of aqua-planing compared to the Michelins I have been using. Heavy rain, and speeds upto 120, the tire was behaving very well. Road noise in the dry was bearable, even on broken surfaces. Grips fine on ghat roads.
* Drive back was much faster, and there started my troubles. Braking performance deteriorates drastically after around 10 minutes of high speed driving. Had a couple of major scares trying to slow down from 180+, reduced speed, and then again I forget all about it, speeds rise only to have the next scare...
* Been out on a night drive/dinner to Mysore with Satya/Vijay yesterday, and I realized quickly that I can no longer keep up the with their cars, primarily from lack of grip from the tires. Ok, I could keep up until the tires overheated, and that happens in around 10 minutes. So, mostly stuck to ~120, while the other cars were doing unparliamentary speeds...
My Conclusions?
* These are not meant for high speed use. If you are like me, and drive faster than 140 on Expressways/GQ/4 lane highways, please think of safer alternatives. Once the tires heat up(overheat?), practically every jab at the brakes had the abs/ebd and the tires howling in protest. Probably like 50% worse at braking from high speeds, even compared to cheapo Michelins.
* If you are a slow driver, these are a good cheap option for our bad roads as these tires have strong side walls, and will not bubble up like the Michelins. Plus, hard compounds mean the tires will last you quite a while.
* These tires are very good on a wet road. Unfortunately for me, the tires work better when they are cold and wet!
* These have good lateral grip(compared to straight line), as in did not have any major issues on ghat roads, but again, at slower speeds. Have not tried a ghat section at higher speeds yet.
* Next time, listen to Ishan and pick up PP2s. And when they bubble up, pick up the next set of PP2s. :-) |