MORE INCREDIBLE YOKOHAMA STORIES
MINE FAILED
Soft cornering, poor traction, noisy, unstable on grooved roads, poorly made, poor warranty, loud. Multiple defects. You can get a better tire for not much more in price. Mine failed at less than 30 thousand miles.
In May of 2004, I bought an '03 Honda CR-V that came equipped with Yoko AVID Touring tires. The original owner replaced the OEM Bridgestone Duellers with the Yokos after 6,000 miles, so I'm assuming the original tires were pretty bad.
In my first winter on the Yokos, I had a slow-speed spin-out after hitting ice on a sharp corner. I was only going about 10 m.p.h. and didn't hit anything, but was alarmed by how easily my all-wheel-drive Honda spun out. The rest of the winter was mild and I kind of babied the car whenever it snowed. As a former snowplow driver, I have a LOT of winter driving experience, but I never was confident in the Yokos after that first spin out.
My CR-V now has about 34k miles and I feel like I have enough road experience to comment on these tires.
Treadwear: The tires had a lot of tread life in them, at least up until the time they fell apart.
Tracking: The tires are very squirrely on grooved roads. The sidewalls are also very soft.
Rain: I never hydroplaned, but it was easy to spin them with my mighty 4 cyl engine.
Snow: I'd rate them as poor to fair traction-wise. They compare poorly to other tires I've had from Goodyear, B.F. Goodrich, and General.
Durability: Mine failed during the second winter. I took my car to the dealer, who said the front two tires had "cord separation." They vibrated badly and made the steering wheel jerk in my hands.
Warranty: I took the tires back to Tires Plus in the Twin Cities. Two different "technicians" rubbed the tires with their hands and said they didn't feel anything wrong. They removed the tires, found the cord separation, and then told me the tires were not subject to recall.
They refused to honor the warranty, because I was not the original owner of the car. I've kept up with all scheduled maintenance, including tire rotations, balancing, and monitoring tire pressure, which made no difference to Tires Plus. I gave them a chance to at least replace the tires at a discount and earn a new customer in the process, so they offered installation for free on two Bridgestone tires ($13 bucks a tire) and quoted me $180 as an "out-the-door" price. When I finished laughing, I told them to put the defective tires back on, whereby I drove to Sam's Club and bought 4 brand new B.F. Goodrich T/A's for $275. The Honda feels like a totally different car (for the better) and the tires are excellent in the snow.
So consider this a "two-for-one" review of both Yoko tires and Tires Plus.
I'D RATHER TAKE A BUS
Vibration, leaks, hydroplaning, poor traction in snow, what more can I say?
It's been over 2 years and about 28,000. I purchased these tires replacing the original Goodyear Eagle GA's in 2001. This was a huge mistake. Why I replaced tires at 28,0000 is beyond me. About 8 years ago, I had very good luck with Yokohama tires. I had them on a Chevrolet Malibu. They handled and lasted very long. At first I went out to purchase Michelin's, but when I got to the tire store, the salesman convinced me to purchase the Yokohama's.
Second day I had them, I noticed a vibration in the front end of my 2000 Chrysler Concorde LXI. I took them back to the dealer and they rebalanced them. Third day they still had vibration at 65 MPH. Took them back again, and they told me that the person placed the wrong weights on the tires. After that, there was virtually no change in the vibration. I took the tires back to where I purchased the car to make sure there was no problems with the wheels and they "REBALANCED" them for me. Slight improvement but still the vibration did not go away. In addition to the vibration, these tires are very LOUD. Even at slow speeds when there was no vibration. The only place where they were some-what quiet was on newly finished roads.
August, 2003, I had to live with the front end vibration problem. I would love to get rid of these tires but I don't have the money. Wet traction is poor, several times the car hydroplaned doing about 45 mph in a heavy down pour. Snow is another problem. When I had the Goodyear's the Concorde with traction control did reasonable well for a car that size in the snow. But when I switched to the Avid's, the car had virtually no traction even with the traction control.
Another problem that cropped up was a constant leak in one of the tires. I had it repaired 2 times but it continues to loose tire pressure much faster than the other 3 tires. I realized there are many more positive reviews about these tires, but my experience with them is very Negative.
Eventually I will get rid of these soon and purchase either Goodyear or Michelin's.
FINAL UPDATE 1/25/04: After 3 attempts and 3 different tire places trying to fix a slow leak, I decided to get rid of the Avid Touring tires. I went back to the original Goodyear Eagle GA's that came with the car. What a difference! The Avid touring was about the worst tires I have ever encountered. Since day one, constant balancing problems, shimmying, vibration and noise. DO NOT PURCHASE THESE TIRES! I can't get over the difference now with the Goodyear tires.
Pedit
NO MORE JUNKOHAMAS
In December of 2007 I took my 2006 Tacoma for new tires. The dealer recommended Yokohamas with a 60,000 mile warranty. At the time the tires were installed I also had the vehicle aligned. The tires started vibrating badly. It felt like I was riding on a milled surface even on the smoothest of roads. I returned to the dealer and they stated that the rear tires were badly worn and cupping. They verified that the tire pressures were all within spec and rotated the tires.
Now I had a very bad vibration from the front. I returned to the dealer and had the tires re-balanced. That still did not fix the problem. At 35,000 miles I again returned to the dealer and they advised me that all 4 tires were totally worn with only 10,000 miles on them. They contacted Yokohama and Yokohama refused to honor the warranty. The dealer can verify that the truck has been kept aligned and that the pressures were always within the manufacturer's specs. I now have to buy 4 more new tires for my truck. I can assure you they will not be Junkohamas.
EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED
Excessive tread wear, separating belts. I can't recommend these tires due to the wear and belt separation issues mentioned in my review
I bought a set of Avid Touring tires a couple of years ago for my 2000 Toyota Sienna minivan. They were supposed to be 80,000 mile tires. However, with less than 30,000 miles, the tires are nearly worn down to the tread wear indicators. They have been rotated several times and have always been properly inflated.
For at least the last 5,000 miles, there has been a very noticeable vibration between 65 and 75 miles per hour. I thought it was because one of the tires had somehow been thrown out of balance. However, after my wife complained today about how much rougher the van was riding, even at low speeds, I inspected the tires and I noticed that both rear tires have a bulge under the tread. It would appear that I have a belt separation issue and I plan to visit the tire dealer in the morning to insist on replacement with another brand.
My wife was driving at freeway speed last week and the van's low tire pressure indicator came on. The tires were properly inflated so I'm certain that this has something to do with the belt separation issue, which had worsened on this trip. She had a car full of girls heading for camp, so I feel fortunate that she didn't have a catastrophic failure at speed.
PREMATURE DEATH - BOGUS WARRANTY
Premature/Strange wear - Poor warranty service from authorized service locations.
When these tires were first put on our car, we were impressed. The price was *very* reasonable for a tire with an 80,000 mile warranty, the ride was quiet, handling was good (at least as good as could be expected from a Ford Taurus Wagon).
Fast-forward a mere 36,000 miles...The tires exhibit a strange outer-wear pattern, similar to that of a tire that had experienced chronic underinflation (but the tires were always kept at Ford-recommended inflation of 30psi). Upon returning to the Authorized Yokohama dealer in our area for warranty service, we were given a litany of excuses about why the tires would not be covered under warranty. Rotation intervals, alignment, etc. - None of these held water and I've got another car on Bridgestones with a lower mileage warranty (60,000miles) that got the same service intervals - The Bridgestones are still pristine after the same mileage.
My advice - Either buy these tires, expecting to get 36,000 miles out of them or go with another brand to get a 80,000 mile warranty.
TIRES DO NOT LAST
Fast tread wear
After reading about these tires in several areas of the internet, I bought them for my Nissan Quest about 2 years ago. They ride well, and I don't feel the road noise is intrusive, however they are almost worn to the wear bars. This is after 20,000 miles! Keep in mind this is on an 80,000 mile warranted tire and the tires have been rotated twice.
Perhaps they get more wear from a lighter vehicle. And forget trying to get the tires warranted from the notable internet tire distributor (which will remain nameless). They basically want you to ship the tires back to them and then they will decide if the tires meet the pro-rated warranty.
RED FLAGS IN COLORADO
Vogues are crap from Korea that shouldn't even be on the market. I don't think they even make any big enough for an Imperial anyway. Like many Yokos, they're famous for blowouts on anything other than silken interstate asphalt (In Colorado we're famous for our non-maintenance of roads: I don't think there's fresh blacktop anywhere in the state).
They look like they have tread from hell, but it's just an illusion since they leave half of it on the road and is not well-supported underneath. Around here there have been so many complaints about them and Yokohama, that it prompted a story in the Post's auto section, a consumer alert on one of the TV stations, and some outlets not carrying them any longer, Discount being one.
BY FAR THE WORST TIRES I'VE EVER OWNED
Wear out ridiculously fast.
I bought these tires to replace the tires that came as original tires on my Subaru Legacy. After less than 25,000 miles of normal driving, and with the tires having been rotated twice and well cared for, the tires are down to about 3/16" of tread and are ready to be replaced.
I have never had a set of tires wear out anywhere near as fast as these have. And they were expensive tires at 85 dollars a piece. I will never buy tires from this company again.
RADIAL PULL PROBLEMS
I got Yokos for my Honda Accord and Nissan Quest, both suffer from severe radial pull no matter how they are rotated, even replaced a tire. Total junk. Will never buy again, ever.
Barry
MORE RADIAL PULL
Unfortunately, my experience with them have been disappointing so far. I've replaced 2 tires so far, and I STILL have a radial pull. I'm out of the warranty for construction problems, so I'm just going to use them until they need to be replaced.
Considering my other experience with Yokohama AVID Tourings, I don't think I'm going to go with Yokohama again.
Yokohamas are big peelers
Sounds like a Yokohama tire, those suckers are big peelers.
NOISE, SHIMMY, HYDROPLANING, BOUNCING & BS
These are the second set of AVS db tires installed on our 1990 750 il BMW. The first set were AVS db S1 tires and were replaced by Yokohama for tire noise, handling issues and shimmy and bouncing within the first 2000 miles. The replacement set is the current S2 series. AT 8000 miles the noise level can be over 140 db inside the vehicle on certain rough hiway surfaces surfaces. When cold the tires shimmy and bounce at any speed over 15 mph, this disappears as the tires warm up. Initial hydroplaning resistance is satisfactory but can disappear and reappear without warning. Upon contacting the manufacturer I was informed I have an application issue based on vehicle size and weight which is not covered by factory warranty. These tires have between 8/32 and 9/32 of tread left and are no longer suitable for hiway use because of dangerous noise levels. I will not purchase another set of these tires.
Harold
LOUSY WEAR, NOISE, VIBRATION & POOR PERFORMANCE
Yokohama ADVANs came stock on my 03 Civic HFP. Within 10,000 miles, the tires were scalloped the middle tread was bare. My dealer was so shocked by this that he replaced all my tires at no charge...unfortunately he replaced them with the same tires. After another 15,000 (and 3 rotations) the new set is toast too. These tires are noisy, and they roam and vibrate because of the scalloping. I can't really knock the snow performance because this is a summer tire, but the dry road performance is pretty lousy too. In the Northeast, youre MUCH better off with a Bridgestone Potenza G009 all season tire. Great performance, good wear, and good traction in the snow - best of all, no hassle swapping snow tires on and off.
Dean
MY SUCKIE YOKOHAA TIRES
I leased a new 2006 Suzuki Grand Vitara back in October of 2006. It had 4 brand new Yokohama tires on it. I have had the tires rotated and the air pressure checked. Imagine my surprise when I took the car in for my second PA state inspection and was told my 4 tires needed to be replaced! My car had just under 24000 miles on it. The service manager took me into the garage and showed me each of the tires. The wear was very uneven and they were bald in places. He told me that they have seen this type of problem before with Yokohama tires. They checked my alignment and it was only a "hair out". He said definitely not enough to charge me $50 to have it aligned. We checked my warranty and it said Yokohama would pro-rate the cost on a new set of their tires. No way am I ever buying Yokohama again. My story sounds so tame after reading all the stories here. Thank God we didn't experience any problems while driving. I have a 16 year old who will be driving within a few weeks. I plan to contact the dealer and tell them about my situation and mention that they might want to check out this website. Hopefully, they will quit using Yokohama tires if enough people complain. The service manager also told me that my SUV should never have high performance tires on it anyway. He said they are for sports cars. Due to the weird size of my tires, I ended up paying $600+ for four new Firestones. The Yokohama replacements would have cost more than that. My lease is up in about 6 months and I don't plan on keeping the vehicle. There goes about 54000 miles of treadwear down the drain for me. So much for a routine state inspection. Good Luck with your complaints to the company.
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
I have a problem with the Yokohama tire company. First I had what I thought was a puncture in the sidewall of my Yokohama Geolander ATS and had to purchase a new one. This was three months ago. I actually purchased two since they had about 35,000 miles on them. I just had one of the new tires do the same thing in the same spot. The sidewall blows out. I know for a fact I did not run over anything in order for this to happen. Is there a problem going on with this tire? I would appreciate any feed back as to any problems with this tire.
There was no physical damage except for me having to wait for three hours in the freezing cold for a tow truck to arrive.
Wilmer, Parkton, MD
THESE TIRES CAN KILL YOU
Coming back from a trip driving 65 MPH, the tire blue out and all the tread separated from the tire. The tread slapped the side of my car causing some damage as it came completely off. Luckily I retained control of the car and brought it to a stop. I felt my wife and I had our life in jeopardy due to this. There was very little shoulder on the highway and it was very dangerous to put the spare on the car. I will never buy Yokohama joke for a tire and am immediately buying a different brand for my spouse's car. Take note folks, these tires could kill you.
Bought another tire (not a Yokohama) and suffered quite a lot of stress from the ordeal on the highway. I hope Yokohama tires do not kill anyone.
Jim. Allen, TX
DANGEROUS ACCIDENT DUE TO FAULTY TOKOHAMA TIRES
I bought a Mitsubisi Montero in June/2001. When my car reached 25,000 miles the rear right tire started to show the wires and the thread started to split, and a bubble was formed on the outside of the tire that is how we discover the wires and thread problem. I called Yokohama and they referred me to Town Fair in Norwalk, CT. They inspected the tire and replace the tire not before I had to paid half of the price of the new tire because they said I used half of its life.
My car never had a flat tire, the tires were never over or under inflated, I lived Greenwich, CT which is the east coast. We have winter with a lot of snow so my car tires were always checked for the right air pressure.
On July 31/2005 we were coming back picking up my parents from the airport. We were traveling on I95 North at 55 miles per hour which the speed limit. That is when the accident occurred because the rear right tire (the same tire that was replace it only had 17,000 miles) blow out.
We lost control of the car, we were spinning then the car turned into the right side and then rolled over 3 times ending up at the right shoulder facing the wrong direction.
We were 5 people in the car. We were lucky that the injuries were not death threatening but now we have permanent injuries that unfortunately X-rays won't show the pain that we are going through.
My insurance paid for all the medical care we needed but they said we have got into a point were no treatment will help as a result I cant continue with physical therapy. My mother and sister also are suffering from back, neck, hips, neck problems. In addition, my sister sustained a lot of injuries on her left arm due to cuts when the driver window broke because the car was rolling over. Her arm needs plastic surgery and we are fighting with my insurance.
On the other hand we were lucky that no other cars were involved in the accident, even though it was traffic on I95 that Sunday night.
I submitted a complain against Yokohama, they required all the documentation related with the accident and all the medical bills we incurred up to that time. They also asked me to send the tire for them to inspect it. I sent them the paper work were it shows that the tire was replace when the car had 25,000 miles and that at the time of the accident my car had 42,000. After a few weeks they sent me a report where Yokohama stated that the tire was not defective, that the tire was running over or under inflated, that there were some punctures that were never fixed even though I never had a flat tire.
Laristza, Riverside CT
BUBBLE TROUBLE
One tire developed a bubble on the inside wall after 17,000 miles which was discovered only because a nail was removed from the tread. This could have resulted in a problem had a blow out happened on the freeway. The tires were never over or under inflated.
Sears gave a credit only because of their own protection plan and is no longer going to carry tires by the manufacturer.
Tom Eifler, Fair Oaks CA
CLASSIC YOKOHAMA CREEPINESS
We purchased a tire (P195/70R14) tire last year because we had a bulge on it. Now when my wife and I was traveling towards Austin Texas we heard a very loud bang and we were doing the speed limit of 70 miles a hour. We had to try and get out of the line of traffic and to the shoulder of the road. When we finally got off the road and got out of my vehicle I looked at the right passenger side tire and noticed that it had separated from the tire.
I changed the tire and placed the spare on the vehicle. I got home later on that day and placed the tire in my garage. Well I had to go to school in Baytown Texas and on my way back from school that Friday the vehicle started to shake so I stopped at a Sears and made an appointment to get all four tires replaced that Saturday morning.
When the tire tech replaced the front left tire he called me into the shop to show me that the tire had busted inside and the belts had separated so I brought the tire back home and placed it with the other tire.
My wife called Yokohama and complained about the tire and their response was to send the tire by Fedex and they would have someone look at it and get back with me. I have checked the internet and read other stories about the customer service and the response for the same situation I am in.
I as well as my wife could have been killed when the tire went out at the speed we were traveling. I haven't heard from this company yet and I have called the and no one there seems to know how to make a right call on my situation. I replaced all those Yokohama tires with another brand.
The new tires I had to buy cost me $400 + dollars. My wife was terrified because we could have be killed on that highway.
Marcellous, Bay City, TX
SHOT IN LESS THAN 5,000 MILES
A problem with your auto-parts business has prompted me to write this letter of complaint. This problem has to you with your durability, and the part number I'm referring to is ES100.
I purchased 4 Yokohama ES100 High Performance Tires from Tire Rack Online in late Spring of 2003. I had them installed on my Porsche Boxster to replace the original Michelins that came on the carand lasted for about 30,000 miles. I did some research online and at retailers, and this tire was recommended as being appropriate for the car and reasonably priced. I had the tires installed by the recommended installer and drove on them for a month. Then,at one month, one of the rear tires was punctured by a nail through the tread and had to be replaced. I ordered and received the replacement tire, also from Tire Rack.
In December, with approximately 5,000 miles on one of the rear tires, 4,000 on the other rear tire, and 5,000 on the fronts, the rear tires were almost completely bald. I contacted Tire Rack who informed me that there was no mileage warranty, which I knew, and that there was nothing they were willing or able to do in spite of admitting that this was considerably less than the mileage one could expect from these tires.
I contacted Yokohama and got a similar response. When I called Tire Rack back, they said that I could go to a Yokohama dealer in my area and have the tires inspected, and that if found to be defective, that I could request a credit toward replacement from Yokohama, but Tire Rack couldn't do anything even though they had sold me the tires.
I took the car to America's Tires, a local Yokohama store, where the manager carefully checked the tires and concluded that they simply were worn. There were no obvious defects, no signs of inappropriate use, misalignment, under or overinflation, or anything else that would indicate an explanation for the tires wearing out after less than 1/6 of the expected mileage.
The manager offered to call Yokohama to request a concession on their part. The result was an offer of a 25% discount on the same product with no explanation of why the original had failed (only on the rear) and no recognition of the abysmally low performance of these tires. Lacking any explanation of the failure, it would have been of dubious wisdom to replace the tires with the same product even if Yokohama had offered a reasonably credit, let alone with only a 25% discount.
With no other reasonable choice, having been refused help from Tire Rack and receiving no reasonable offer of compensation from Yokohama, I elected to buy new tires from Michelin to replace the useless rear tires.
After discussions with 4 local tire and alignment experts, I have concluded that either the tires had a fundamental defect that caused them to wear evenly but far too quickly, or else they were not proper tires for my car which has its engine (and consequently considerable weight) essentially right on top of the rear axle.
Since neither the manufacturer of the tire nor the retailer felt any need to address this obvious defect, my only choice was to spend my own money on replacements, and alert the unsuspecting public to the lack of concern on the part of both Tire Rack and Yokohama.
I plan to look elsewhere for auto parts in the future, and I'll urge others to find another source for parts.
Here's what I'd like to see happen: Provide me with a refund of approximately 75% to 85% of the cost of the two rear tires I originally purchased, and determine why they failed so this situation isn't repeated with every other set they sell to people with this kind of car.
Steven G.
TWO STORIES, SAME STORY. NEITHER BUYING IT OR YOKOHAMA AGAIN
A problem with your auto-parts business has prompted me to write this letter of complaint. This problem has to you with your safety.
I had a yokohama geolander 30" tire with less than 15.000. miles seperate on the freeway. I have paint and slight body damage to left fender.I also met a man who claims the same thing happened to him 31" Yokohamma. Whatare the odds of that? Are there any recalls I should know about? Can the Florida heat be a factor?I have tire if you want to inspect it. has anyone gotten killed or injured on these tires?
Since I very rarely purchase anything from your company, this problem has not enhanced your reputation in my eyes. I think I'll look elsewhere for auto parts in the future, and I'll probably urge others to look elsewhere for parts.
Ken H.
FORCED TO REPLACE FOUR TIRES
A Yokohama tire blew out while turning a corner at about 10 mph. The tire was original equipment and only had 12,500 miles on it. I had to replace all 4 tires as the 06 forrester is awd.
Martin
If you have a story PLEASE send it to me here
(Nothing will be posted without your permission.)
