I was on Discount Tire's site tonight and came across an advertisement for their DTC/DTD-exclusive Yokohama YK580. Discount Tire And America's Tire Yokohama YK580 Tire YK580 Performance Tires | Yokohama Tire Corp. The tread pattern is very different than the Avid ENVigor or the previous generation YK520. On Yokohama's website, you can compare various tires on traction, winter performance, NVH and longevity, based on Yokohama's internal testing. According to them, this is how the YK580 ranks against the Avid ENVigor and TRZ: YK580/Avid ENVigor/TRZ Dry Traction: 9/8/7 Wet Traction: 9/8/7 Winter Performance: 6/5/10 NVH: 8/8/9 Longevity: 8/7/10 The weight of the YK580 in the 195/65-15 size is only 19.8 pounds. This compares favorably to the 18 lbs of the Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 and is much less than the 23 lbs of the Michelin Primacy MXV4. Considering the advertised low rolling resistance and the promise of superior traction, I think this tire is worth considering for our cars. According to Yokohama, the YK580 is an improvement in dry and wet traction over the Avid ENVigor-- which was a tire that performed very well in Tire Rack's testing against other High Performance all-season tires. Therefore, the YK580 should be darn good if it as good as the specs promise. :roll eyes: Price is $93/tire on Discount Tire Direct, which is quite competitive.
Price is $100 mounted and best of all it is in stock at all SF Bay Area locations. LRR tires at hard to find in stock.
It appears it has higher rolling resistance than AVID ENVigor. AVID ENVigor quote is "ultra-low rolling resistance" YK580 quote is "low rolling resistance" note the missing "ultra-" http://yokohama-media.unitedfuture.com.s3.amazonaws.com/1315583893-YK580-Bulletin-0811FINALFINAL.pdf http://yokohama-media.unitedfuture.com.s3.amazonaws.com/1313088868-yokohamatire_avid_envigor.pdf Notice also the Avid ENVigor PDF lists rolling resistance numbers vs other tires and the YK580 does not.
Relying on words from marketing literature is probably not the most reliable method of comparison. However, the one advantage that the YK580 has is the superior wet/dry traction MB860 ?
I wanted to let everyone know about my experience with these tires. I bought a set about 8000K ago. I originally was going to get the michelin energy saver tires, but they don't make a size for my touring model Prius 08. These yk580's were a little more expensive but I thought I would try them. In the first week I drove from spokane to seattle up to Vancouver, through the mountains over to calgary. These tires handle incredible not just in rain but also in slush and snow. The other thing I noticed is how quiet they are. I also had a chance to drive the windy hills of the napa valley. The turns are hard and fast and these tires held on even when the pavement was wet. I have driven over 1 million K. I have a number of vehicals and have bought new michelins, brigdestone, bf goodrich, nokian and pirelli tires. I would say these could be the best tire I have ever owned. There is just something special about them. Very Satisfied. Jawmag
I talked to Yokhama and they stated that the YK580 is indeed considered LRR but for max mpg the dB Super E-Spec and the AVID Ascend are better choices. For more traction and performance the YK580 is a better choice.
got them installed, great tires! a whole lot quieter than the sumi's handle's just as good too. very happy with these
Thanks for the pics. It looks like the extra 1/2" didn't do much for the wheel well gap. At least the mpg should be better. Your car looks great. I'm jealous of the wheels.
Hi folks, I found this old thread while researching YK580s for my Prius, and it was helpful but I really wished the original posters had followed up on the mileage question so I'll try to fill that void for others who may be in the same situation. I've now put a couple thousand miles on these tires and as best as I can tell, the mileage difference is negligible. I might be getting 1 MPG less compared to the Avids that came with the car. Maybe. It's hard to say exactly of course because as we all know there are dozens of variables that can affect mileage (e.g. climate control use, tire pressure, etc) so maybe I'm off slightly. Maybe it's 2 mpg, or maybe there is no difference whatsoever. My point is that there is NOT a big fuel efficiency difference between the two, as far as I can tell, so if you're looking to replace your Avids you don't have to fear your mileage will fall off a cliff. There is, however, a very noticeable difference in traction as noted by others, with the YKs being superior. If you are a hypermiler who wants to push the fuel efficiency limits and you have zero tolerance for any compromises to mileage, I respect that and you might want to stick with the Avids or something similar. For everybody else, however, I do recommend these tires. For me, traction = safety. Given that the tradeoff on mileage is negligible, to me it's a no brainer.
Here's my 2 cents. I had these tires when I had my Accord. The traction was awesome in both wet and dry roads. They are extremely quiet at the beginning but at the last 15,000 miles or so, the noise became unbearable (had them for 60k miles). Now I understand it's a Honda and they're not good at insulating road noise, I don't think our Prii are really good at that either. Tread wear was nice and even throughout the life of the tires. I don't know much about MPG since I really didn't care about it since I was driving an Accord so I wasn't chasing MPG like I do now with my Pirus.
