Yokohoma dB Super E-spec touts itself as superior tire for my hybrid vehicle. Truth or marketing?
How much do they cost? A third more? You KNOW they are not THAT good…What magic do they offer? Lowest possible rolling resistance? What is the treadwear rating?
At 154 bucks a pop for the size to fit my Lincoln I think I’ll pass based on cost alonge. My half that price Bridgestones work just fine.
There may be some hazy math on the alleged fuel savings.
They “estimate” that you “could” save 1-2% in fuel costs by using these tires. I’d want it a bit more definite because that sounds like one of those bogus weight loss programs in which you can lose UP to 20 pounds, with the word UP being the fly in the ointment.
Yea, why should they be any better for hybrids than other cars? I would guess they have a little lower rolling resistance and could help boost the mileage a little, but I wonder if it would be worth it and I wonder what else, like tread life of grip, you might loose.
As recommended I would check them out on TireRack.com and see what the reviews say.
There are several ways to rate tires, I rate them on: quality; handling; lifespan and traction. I’ve used tires (Uniroyal) that had great tread wear life but sucked for traction and handling. I’ve had tires (Michelin) that gave excellent traction and handling but suffered from excessive tread wear. Out of the thousands of tires I’ve put on fleet vehicles, everything from two-door sub-compact cars to heavy-hauler power units (semi’s) Yokohama, Toyo and Contiental are three of the best overall performers.
The only thing I see with the dB Super E is that it’s a “green” tire made with orange oil instead of petroleum - doesn’t give any special ratings for rolling resistance or otherwise.
I replaced the OEM size Goodyear’s with Yokohama Avid S on my caravan, larger than the OEM size which increased the contact patch area, greatly improved the ride getting rid of the “Caravan sway” (caused by the OEM tires being too small where the slightest breeze pushes the vehicle all over the road) and increased my fuel milage by 1.5 mpg.
As for the other tire brands, stopped using Firestone long before the sidewall problems because of bead breaking & tread delamination problems. Stopped using Cooper when their quality went from excellent to utter crap (got burned personally with pair of 11R22.5 steer axles that are so far out of round they can’t be shaved enough to fix them and a pair of 245-75/R16 that had tread blow-outs with less than 5k on them. Stopped using Bridgestone & Uniroyal because they lacked handling & traction. Goodyears went away because of excessive tread wear in the passenger/LT sizes and sidewall failures on the bigger sizes. On the economy side, Hankook and some of the other middle-class brands are “get you by” tires, cheap enough with fair quality but they’re not going to last a long time nor will they give the same quality traction and handling performance of the higher quality tires.
If you want Yokohama, look at the Avid line. In Toyo brand the Versado and Open Country. In Continental the Cross Contact LX or if you want a more agressive tread all-position/all-season the ContiTrac.
Another thing to consider is that you don’t necessarily need to use an OEM tire, many times you can go with a slightly wider tread or larger diameter tire to see a great improvement over the OEM spec’. Keep in mind that going with a narrower tread or smaller contact patch area does not necessarily decrease rolling resistance or improve fuel milage - likewise, the old myth of going with a tire that has a lower load rating will increase fuel milage is just that, a myth! The old addage of “pay now or pay more later” does in fact apply. Invest in a combination of good quality, performance and lifespan now rather than wasting money replacing cheaper tires more often.
They MAY be better…but at what cost.
I’ve been using Cooper tires for my truck now for over 10 years. Use to use Michelin…but for some reason Michelin’s prices have increased far faster then other tires. Best tires I ever had were the Michelin Cross-Terrain. However they now cost $185/tire for my truck. They handle great and give me about 60k miles…The Coopers handle just as good…but I only get about 50k…but they cost only $130/tire. For only a 10% increase in mileage usage the Michelin’s cost 50% more then the Coopers.
Just so everyone understands:
There is a technology triangle for tread compounds - which is mostly what causes rolling resistance. Traction (especially wet traction), treadwear, and rolling resistance are tradeoffs - you can’t improve one with making a sacrifice with at least one of the others.