Which of these tires should I buy?

Sep 19, 2003 2 Replies
R
[cross-posted to rec.autos.misc, rec.autos.driving & rec.autos.tech]

Hello! I need to purchase a new set of all-season tires for my 1998 Mercury Sable sedan.



I live in New Jersey. I occasionally drive through light to moderate snow, but the roads usually are merely dry or wet.



My main concern is control, but I also care about comfort and tread life. It seems that the former increases at the expense of the latter two. There is such a thing as overkill, however, and the Tire Rack site appears to test tires under extreme circumstances. (on a racetrack!) I seldom exceed the posted speed limits by any significant margin, so I'm only interested in normal driving performance.



I've narrowed my selection down to three Yokohama models, and I'm hoping that someone can advise me of which to choose:


  • AVID H4
  • AVID T4
  • AVID Touring

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The level of control decreases down the line, (as the levels of comfort and tread life increase) but is there a substantive difference under the conditions that I described?



Thanks in advance!


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D

You want the Avid H4. But beware that (when I owned them at least) they are a DIRECTIONAL tread design, meaning they must be mounted so that they spin a certain direction when the car is in drive. (the people who installed mine messed up, but I caught it right away) Oh, and that means they can only be rotated front to back not side to side or crisscross, unless you have the tires re-mounted every time you rotate them. (like that's gonna happen!)

The reason you want the H4 is simple. While you can have (comfort and treadlife) OR control, the relationship between the two variables is not linear. That is, for a little extra treadlife you lose a LOT of control. But for a lot of extra control, you don't lose as much treadlife. If you watch your tire pressure carefully, rotate the tires every 6K, and don't drive like a maniac, your H4s should last 40K miles easy.

Give me 40K of good traction versus ~60K of dangerously inadequate traction anyday. On a side note, I'm getting ready to go back to the H4 myself, as that's the only tire I've found that provides adequate traction for my Mitsu. Galant. GREAT tire! -Dave

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S

I'd go with the Avid Touring. I just put a set on my wife's Honda Accord wagon and they are easily as good as the Michelin MXV4's which I took off. They are responsive and have good grip during cornering. The first thing I did was throw the wagon around some tight bends, and there was no slipping or squealing. Both TireRack and Consumer Reports like them better than the Avid H4's. I don't know about snow because it doesn't snow here.

I also have a set of Yokohama Avid S/T's on my GMC Yukon and I love them. Whichever model you choose, I don't think you'll go wrong. If you read the user reviews you will find very few people who are dissatisfied by the Avid Tourings though.

Good luck, Spudston

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