I've had Yokohamas on my previous car and I was amazed at how great of a tire they were in terms of traction/handling characteristics.

I bought these tires pretty much based on my previous experience with the brand and I'm happy with my purchase. The tires were installed on July 10th and I put about 2500 miles on them. I don't push my car hard around corners so I can't comment on handling. I did notice right away that the steering felt lighter and was easier to maneuver in tight spots. Mileage wise nothing has changed that I've noticed which was a bit of a disappointment but that wasn't the reason I bought the tires. The man reason I bought the tires was because of the ride. While I'm used to the ride now...the tires made a big difference over the run flats with regards to the noise and then the ride.

I wish I bought these tires earlier as I commute a lot and my first couple months of ownership I had regrets because of how bad the ride was. Now I'm happier

 

The knock on the Conti DWS is that the sidewalls are soft and will diminish the handling characteristics of the MINI.

 

apparently, the Avid Envigors are not available in Canada yet. One of the tire dealers I went to said he has a waitlist for them and no ETA from Yokohama. Another dealer says he imports them from the US (and not from Yokohama Canada) but can't get any in.

 

Not true!




I had them since spring this year, got them at my local tire shop... Actually, it was the best priced tire of all I was offered in this specs.... I love them! Hot or wet road...




You are living in wrong Province

 

WOW That is one kick *** Clubman. Chocolate and the silver is such a good combo.
I love the color matched Flame spokes.

I too am interested in this tire. It's either this or the Continental DWS

Trying to decide which to get because I want to get new tires now. The Continentals all seasons do not look like they will last till 27k and I'm at 26.5K. TONS of road noise and a very noticeable vibration over 60mph.

How are these holding up to who ever has them?
Ride? Noise? Grip? (Dry/wet) life? (how are they showing)
and who has had them the longest?

 

FWIR those DWS's have a soft sidewall making the car feel very loose around tight turns.

check out some of the reviews on them before purchasing.

 

I just got a set of Yoko AVID ENVigors this past weekend. What a differnece from the run flats. I feel the car handles better now since I do not get the front end jumping from the run flats. The ride and noise levels are so much better. As long as the tires handle the snow I am happy. The tires communicate well with the the driver. They remind me of my Bridgestone RE11 tires on my Miata to a lesser extent.

I did go with the 215 instead of the 205 to get the W rating and a little stonger sidewall...plus the tire was a little less expensive. The tire dealer said the Yoko is outselling the Continental DWS by a wide margin due to what has been reported on here...a soft sidewall and sidewall rollover on hard cornering.

Hope this helps anyone that is looking!

BTW...Yokohama has a $50 mail in rebate through the end of the month.

 

Yup Decsions been made Yoko's it is.
I talked with Alex from Tire Rack today and was asking about the size, load rating, wear, and performance.

He said that they will easily out perform the stock Conti All season run flats, be a better ride, quieter and last longer.

Mentioned that the DWS have a lot of siping and that is what everyone is feeling on turn in. they will be better in the snow but for a performance aspect they aren't as good as the Yoko's in the dry.

The Yokos seem to be (for the money) the best all season right now.

Same here Johnny, I'm going with the 215 for the added width, sidewall height, and the W rating. Plus the extra $6 off over the 205's ain't bad.

 

Who is this by Johnny? I know Tire Rack is doing a "Tire Rack $40 rebate card"
is the $50 through someone else or Yokohama them' selves?

Link?

 

I know it's too late for you now but keep in mind that 205's will perform better in snow than 215's.

 

Well as promised, I'm reporting back on the Yoko's I bought a couple months back. Thus far, and it hasn't rained or gotten cold here in California yet, I am totally stoked with these tires. I have the 215's on my car and they ride and handle awesome, and above all else, are QUIET... Regardless, I'm happy with my decision.

As for those of you in Canada that cannot get them locally, have you tried Tire Rack and see what shipping for them would be? It's just a thought, as I saw them advertised through the end of September for 90-some bucks...

Anyway, for those of us running these tires, happy motoring. For those on the fence, buy 'em and be happy that you did... Also, as for the snow, the extra width and height of the 215 vs. the 205 is negligible.....

Let's Motor!

 

I agree...... I have had them on for about 2 months also and I am very happy with them.

 

http://www.tirediscounters.com/specials.php

Here is the link. It is a regional tire dealer. I will scan in the rebate card and post it this weekend. I am not sure if it is an exclusive deal with Tire Discounters.

 

Hey, Let me know how the yokos are. I just purchased the same tire & size. No rubbing? how do they feel?

 

Great tires as I said. They look good, handle good and ride even better. I'm sure you will enjoy them...

 

I've got about 1600 miles on mine (205/50/16) including some "spirited" stints at Saturday's Mickey and Mini (to the extent that a Justa is capable of spirited that is -- couldn't catch the turbos).

The tire hangs in very well and turn in is so much better than the RFs that its hard to compare.

I've started to notice a kinda worrisome trait. On the local interstates, I'm sensing some "hunting" for straight. I get pointed in one direction and make very minor corrections to compensate for road surface, and it kinda feels like the tire is hunting for direction for a second or two. Its almost like the front wheels are not both headed in the same direction. I thought it was an alignment issue, but the car shows no issues on the alignment machine.

It doesn't always do it, and its VERY subtle, but it is unavoidably there, and it didn't used to do that. I'm hoping it doesn't get worse.

Still, in all, I love these tires. They are smooth and quiet and they corner very well.

 

[quote=Herleman;3141404]I've started to notice a kinda worrisome trait. On the local interstates, I'm sensing some "hunting" for straight. I get pointed in one direction and make very minor corrections to compensate for road surface. quote]

Thanks for that input. It was very helpful. I had the same issue with the Nitto Neogen all season radials. It seemed as though I was constantly making mnor steering corrections at highway speeds.

I'm hope you had the tires balanced when you purchased them, and also got an alignment. I did, and I was told the "wandering" feeling was a result of going from a very stiff sidewall on the run flat to a softer sidewall on the all seasons. I had to ditch the Nittos after 10k miles since they were driving me crazy on the daily commute.

I ended up putting on the Yokohama Advan Sport UHP non-runflat summer tires. They are stiffer than the all seasons, but still a little more compliant than the runflats. With these tires the wandering feeling disappeared, but they lack the confidence that you get in the rain with an all season.

Everything is a trade off. There is no one perfect tire, that makes everyone happy. You just need to be able to live with the compromises for your tire and driving style.

I'm still a firm believer than any spirited diriver will end up ditching the run flats.

 

I had Yokohama Envigors installed on my car last Friday so I've had them exactly two weeks now. I think it's still too early for a proper review . I can give my early impressions in comparison to the Sumo Firenza's and the Pirelli Euphori@'s I had before. As well as the snowtires on 15" wheels.

Firstly, it was very noticeable that the tires are lighter than my previous summer tires. The car feels much lighter on it's feet. Almost as light as the snowtires on 15" wheels. Having said that though, I lose some of the raw steering feedback. I still get lots of good feedback, but I have to make an adjustment to my driving as it's easy to over turn my steering wheel. Steering is a lot lighter. I get the same sensation when driving with my snowtires. Once adjusted, it's fine. It could be also that the tires might be inflated at a higher pressure than the Firenzas were.

There is less rolling resistance. This is a slightly harder rubber tire and it does have a 560 UTQG mileage rating. I am getting noticeably better gas mileage. I usually go through 3/4 tank of gas in 8 days. I do a daily commute to and from work and a few trips into Vancouver or Richmond from N. Delta. It's been 7 days plus a side trip to Boundary Bay airport and a couple of trips through Annacis Island to bypass heavy traffic and I'm just at the 1/2 tank mark.

It's also the quietest tire I've had on the car. I can hear all the drivetrain noise now to the point that I suspect my driver side front wheel bearing might need replacing next time I'm up for brakes. It's nice to hear all the nuances of the supercharger whine again. My previous tire was drowning out the slight whistle and rattling plate noise I could hear at part throttle acceleration before.

Finally, today I had opportunity to take the car through some sharp S curves to check out the grip. I've driven into the same curve on my previous tires hot enough to know where the tires start to slip. It is much faster than normal cars should go, but in a controlled manner, you can feel where the limits of the tires are being reached. I can say that the Envigors have about the same grip limits as the Firenzas had. However the tires are not worn in yet so I suspect the limits will get higher after another 2 or 3 weeks of driving.

I was going to get the Continental DWS tires but was a bit concerned about all the talk in Tirerack's and other forums about how soft the sidewalls were and how they made the handling feel mushy. The Envigors do have a stiffer sidewall than the DWS and certainly, I don't feel the handling is mushy at all. But they are much lighter than my previous tire (which I feel were much better than the Pirelli runflats) and the steering is lighter. The downside was I did also detect some torque steer on hard acceleration from a stop.

So far I like this tire. Not sure what I'll think of them in the longterm yet, but for sure, they should last a long time, which if I like them, is a good thing. If not....

Yokohama Avid Envigors are very rare in Canada. Every tire dealer I went to had a wait list for them. Thanks to Works4me and Mike at National Tire Warehouse, they special ordered them for me and it took a couple of weeks for them to get here. Price is so negotiable. Mike sold me the set at about the same price as if I bought them from a tire place in the US and had them shipped here. Factoring exchange rate, it was a fair deal. We are close to the border and most of the good tire shops around here know they need to compete. So with all due respect to the sponsor of this forum (Alex at Tirerack) if you are buying a set of tires (I usually ask if they will move their price if I'm buying 4 tires) the local shops will do what they can to compete. Ultimately, you as the customer can still say that's still too high and walk away. The common thing I heard from all of them was the Tire companies in Canada had some really strange pricing policies and admit that there are some tires which they just can't compete on price with (I was looking the Yoko S.Drives at one time too).

One more thing I failed to mention. Mike at National Tire said this was probably the highest quality tire he has ever seen when balancing. When balancing the tires, NTW has some sort of scale and said the tolerance for most tires goes to 20. They can balance tires up to 20 (whatever the unit of measure is). He said only one of the 4 tires got close to 10. The other 3 didn't even need balancing. I could see that all the weights that were stuck to the inside of my wheels before were gone. Pretty amazing.

 

thanks for the feedback!

 

Soon I need to replace my tires. This is the second set of run flat Dunlop SP Sport 5000s (195-55-16) that I've had on my '05 S and I get less than 20k miles. I'm willing to give up a little stickiness for more miles from the tire.

I want to stick with the RFs for convenience. There must be a good all-season RF tire that works well on a Mini that doesn't crap out after 18,000 miles--and I don't drive like a maniac, either.

Thanks,

 

Douse the run-flats and opt for an emergency kit to carry instead, for the time (when and if) you ever need to fix a flat... It fits nicely in the side compartment in the rear of the coupe... Or, get a Tripple A card...

The ride you have on the Yokos far exceeds what the R/Fs will ever give you, IMO...

Anyhow, best of luck and Let's Motor!

 

Has anyone run these in the snow yet? I am thinking about putting them on my 16s for a year round tire. I need to be able to deal with new england snow. As a point of ref, I didn't have any issues in the snow with the stock all season runflats.

 

So I purchased a set of the AVID ENvigors and I extremely please so far! I installed 195/55-16s on my set of X-Lites (V-Spokes). I researched these tires very hard along with scores of others and so many MINI owners had good things to say on these tires. So I rolled the dice and I couldn't be more impressed. They seem to be quiet, grippy enough and very stable in the rain. Looking forward to see its performance in the snow. If it does well, then I've genuinely found THE perfect high performance all season tire for me and my MINI. I would reccommend these tires to anyone. I also have to high marks to the Tire Rack, and my local installer, White Tire and Alignment, for a smooth, professional and quality experience.

 

Woot! Finally ordered mine! for the first time ever I can't wait for Monday to be here! (fingers crossed that they show up this weekend!)
215/45/17 going to have them installed at Greasys Garage asap.
$437 shipped! hopefully Tire rack comes out with the Yoko $40 rebate soon and I can take advantage of it

 

Got them on Friday and I love them so far! I've only driven about 100 miles but I'll chime in again when I have more.